Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Reminiscent of Baymax, the adorable fluffy robot companion from the movie Big Hero 6, Bero is a friendly smart-lamp that lights up, bringing an affectionate warmth to your home. The Bero is a perfect addition to a child’s room, providing them with a lovely friend who they can trust or confide in, while also being a beacon of light, hope, and happiness for them.

What’s unique about the Bero lamp is that it combines beautiful character design along with product design to make a lamp that has a strong emotional connect. The designers behind Bero also crafted a rather enchanting backstory, giving the Bero history, and meaning. The Bero comes from a secret, enchanted world under the forest, called Jinnia. A light spirit, it shines across the forest, providing light and nourishment for trees to grow. Curious by nature, the Bero loves helping humans too. It watches over children as they sleep, giving them sweet dreams; and returns to the forest once the sun comes up!

Take that story and couple it with the Internet of Things, and the Bero becomes a truly interactive toy/lamp for children as well as adults who love being young at heart. The Bero comes as a pair, with a big Bero that acts as a standalone lamp, while the little Bero can be carried around and used as a mini-torch. The big Bero sits at roughly a foot in height and contains within it an RGB LED module. Controlled by a native app, the module can replicate close to 16 million colors by playing around with the RGB ratios. The app even allows the lights to pulsate gently, or even act as an alarm notification. What’s interesting is that still, outwardly, the Bero doesn’t resemble an electronic gadget. It doesn’t come with an off/on switch, but rather relies on it being gently tapped on the head or body to be switched on or switched off. It’s attention to details like these that make Bero less of a lamp and more of a wonderful living, interacting buddy… both in the darkness as well as in the light!

Designer: Nyllili Studio

BUY IT HERE: $69.00 $115.00

Design magician Simon Morris sure knows how to captivate our hearts with their incredibly beautiful levitating products. Only less than a month ago we were introduced to the unforgettable Story clock that went on to become the Editor’s choice on YD… Now, the Flyte lamp promises to delight even more.

While the Story clock contained an innocuous chrome orb that floated mysteriously above the face of the clock, moving like its hands would, the Flyte lamp does something even more mysterious. Not only does it host an incandescent bulb that flats over its wooden base, the bulb also magically lights up with invisible wireless electrical energy that travels through air from the base till the bulb! A completely surreal experience, the Flyte lamp feels like the lovechild of a Salvador Dali and Nikola Tesla romance. Interestingly enough, it happens to use Tesla’s wireless power system to supply enough electricity to the bulb via air to actually have it illuminate.

Flyte’s magic extends beyond just the lamp too, for when you replace the bulb with your phone by placing it on the base, the base becomes a wireless smartphone charger! (Although it would be nothing short of wizardry if the phone could levitate while charging too!)
It’s no surprise that this magical lamp was voted as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of the year!

Designer: Flyte (Simon Morris)

BUY IT HERE: $292.99 $349.00

Most look at the 1964 Porsche 911 and go “Wow, what a classic”… Designer Minseop Woo looked at the 911 and got inspired to design furniture! The Stool 911 captures the most iconic hood detail of the vintage Porsche, with the way the stool’s front legs arch upwards, mimicking the headlamps of the 911 coupe. When compared in side-view, the details look virtually identical, however one is a classic automobile, and the other is a seating device!

The Stool 911 doesn’t fail to impress as a chair either. It features an easy to carry design that’s also stackable, making it a winner chair, as well as an ode to a legendary car!

Designer: Minseop Woo

Call me audio-obsessed, but I can’t stop admiring this pair of earphones (should I call them that? They don’t really rely on your ears) that go by the name Batband. Using a technology we’ve been a fan of for long, i.e., bone conduction, the earphones rest above the ear on the skull, relaying vibrations into your head directly through the bone. Sound travels faster, sounds clearer, and you can still hear your surroundings, because you don’t have a pair of earphones in your ears!

What’s interesting is the aesthetic take on the earphones. It looks sleek and futuristic, yet familiar. Unlike the Google Glass that looked futuristic, but didn’t catch on for looking too ahead of its time, the Batband has a much more contemporary vibe to it. In fact, the band design could very well extend all the way to the front and become a VR or AR headset, don’t you think?!

Designer: Owi Sixseven

Ampathy (a portmanteau of “AMPlifier” and “empATHY”) aims to enhance your entertainment experiences with good vibes! This soft, huggable speaker substitutes sound into solid vibration, amplifying the listener’s emotions with it.

Designed with people having auditory disorders in mind, Ampathy produces both sound and vibration together, so deaf people can communicate culturally by enjoying music or movie together with all their friends and family.

Its simplistic top-mounted interface is intuitive for anyone (even kids) to use. It’s also quick and easy to recharge with a dedicated cradle. Simply grab, go and get down with the vibrations!

Designer: Hyungjun Koo

The 618 is a two-wheeled twist on the Porsche brand that takes direct inspiration from the 911 turbo. The result is an electric retro-modern power cruiser with a sporty silhouette that essentially looks like half a Porsche sportscar!

Inspired by the flat-six architecture of the 911, the idea was to represent the flat and low center of gravity concept into the suspension and exterior design. The center hub steering concept was key in achieving the right balance between design surfaces and mechanical features. For instance, the heavy visual parts such as the directional components, front and rear arms, and even the spring configurations fall below the middle of the motorcycle.

Additional features include a cool monocoque body with a Le Mans style door (where the tank would be) that opens to reveal a luggage compartment perfectly sized for storing a helmet and gloves, a sleek digital display, fan cooling, and folding footrests.

Designer: Miguel Angel Bahri

The Incenso Pot is a contemporary interpretation of brass pots used in the South Indian Sambraani method of drying hair. Traditionally, women use sambraani dhoop, the incense smoke that is generated by burning sambraani powder on the charcoal fire, to dry their hair. The process is known to be therapeutic, antibacterial, and ailment curing. According to Ayurveda, it also induces serenity, calms the nervous system, revokes negative thoughts, and fosters a quiet mental state.

Here, the pot has been redesign to suit the modern user. The handle, however, is made of brass as a nod to the traditional metal. The container and the cover both are made of smooth ceramic which makes it easier to clean. A translucent strip in the container makes it possible to see the charcoal ashes being collected.

It’s used much in the same way as traditional brass pots making it intuitive for those familiar with the process. Simply place charcoal on the mesh and light. Once lit up, pour sambraani powder on the burning charcoal and the Incenso Pot is ready to use!

Designer: Surbhi Chauhan

Music can be heard… and it can be felt. But seldom can it be seen. The Glow headphones bring the sensory element of sight to the music listening experience. Much like the way an equalizer helps people “see” music, the Glow earphones contain special cables that light up and pulsate with your audio.

Bringing innovation to the portable audio industry the way JBL did with the Pulse Bluetooth speaker back in 2013, Glow makes use of an innovative material called Fibrance. Developed by Corning (the people behind GorillaGlass), Fibrance is a fiber optic cable that instead of conducting light through it, dissipates it evenly across the length of the cable, allowing it to illuminate brightly and evenly by scattering a laser light. The Fibrance material doesn’t give off heat either, making it the perfect choice for the Glow.

Controlled by an app, the light can be made to remain static, or pulsate in sync with the music. The app also controls the intensity of the laser light (which shines well even in broad daylight). The laser cables in their sense become the branding for the Glow earphones. While most companies struggle with putting their logos on the tiny earpieces, the Glow earphones are a complete winner because not only are they a great sounding pair of phones (they are), the entire product in itself is a work of branding and iconic industrial design!

Designers: Jake (Jongha) Lee, Rich Park, Soohun Jung & BEBOP Designers.

BUY IT HERE: $169 $199

What’s the difference between a carpet/mat or (a large piece of cloth) and a sheet of paper or a napkin? Just the size, say the Wayon team, a creative bunch of students at EINA University of Design, Barcelona. Unlike most rugs/carpets/mats that just become static pieces of furniture, proving functional sometimes and becoming a home-decor element in the background at other times, the Imagiro carpet possesses a shape-shifting quality.

If napkins at restaurants can be bent into decorative flowers, or towels into elegant swans at hotels, why not the carpet? The Imagiro carpet lends itself to that creative spirit. It comes with a creased pattern that makes it easy to fold and maneuver, given its size. The Imagiro destroys the misconception that floor-textile need be flat. With the Imagiro, the carpet isn’t just a carpet anymore, but instead is an imagination-fueled origami art-installation that decorates your home (or even a hotel/retail space) in all three dimensions!

The Imagiro is a part of the Wayon showcase at the Salone Satellite during the Milan Design Week 2017.

Designer: Wayon (EINA University)