Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Below you’ll find the most popular designs we’ve tracked over the last 30 days – an overview of designs you shouldn’t have missed in April 2017.

Fresh off its high at the Shanghai Motor Show this year, the Renault RS 2027 aims at setting a design direction for the future of F1 racing. Made mainly out of recycled material, the new closed cockpit will be 3D printed given its complex design, and will be completely transparent.

The L-Rod sits comfortably beside your work-screen, giving you an additional wireless display that sleekly sits in place, with little to no parallax, thanks to its wedge screen edge.

For all its aggressiveness, the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante concept by Alex Imnadze also has a delicate femininity to it. Makes perfect sense considering its flowing form was inspired by the natural curves of a woman’s body!

Designer Will Jordan saw opportunities to improve the artificial hive which has gone largely unchanged for many years. The result is a hive that’s not only more functional but aesthetically friendly!

The perfect wheel isn’t circular, but rather a scientifically calibrated blend of the circle, square, and the sine-wave.

Designed with designers in mind, this MacBook Pro 2018 concept explores the integration of a full-size touchpad in place of the traditional keyboard.

This concept car designed by Arthur B. Nustas revives the classic vintage Type 57T coupe by the German automotive giant, combining Jean Bugatti’s original work with the modern Bugatti aesthetic everyone so instantly recognizes and loves!

The APOLLO 1 smartphone is the latest in the nature-meets-tech trend that elegantly merges raw wood with ultramodern electronics.

The LightCube redefines the lightbulb in a way that makes it easier to use, easier to switch, and energy efficient enough to be the future of lighting.

The idea of transferring someone’s persona to a digital form that lives on isn’t anything new… but never has it looked so chic!

Most keychains feature either a ring to hold your keys, or a carabiner that you slip your keys into. The Key Wrangler features both!

While most fidget toys are designed to keep you engaged, the Mokuru is designed to keep you entertained!

The Mellow table also happens to be a 360° speaker, giving you hi-def rich sound while also doubling up as a wonderfully charming piece of furniture!

The Pluma is a Track Bike, focusing on being immensely resistant to stress, force, and pressure while minimizing drag… allowing it to cut through the track like a knife across butter in the summer!

The showerhead actually combines itself with the hand-shower, becoming a hybrid in itself.

It’s one thing to feel the warmth of a fire from a distance and something entirely different to touch it.

It seems unusual that the world’s most renowned vodka brand Absolut would create a product to help hang art on your wall. However, Absolut has always been heavily invested in the arts. Multiple times every year, it invites artists to collaborate and design bottle artwork for new flavors all around the world. An initiative by the brand, Absolut Art went on to become the world’s leading online platform allowing clients to discover and purchase limited-edition pieces from artists around the world. It comes as no surprise that Absolut would move onto bigger things, like solving each and every art lover’s biggest problem. Displaying the art beautifully.

You could either hammer nails and hooks into the wall, or use Blu tack, but no solution is as elegant, fast, and accommodating as the Absolut Art HangSmart. It just sticks to the wall using an adhesive that’s powerful yet doesn’t damage your wall. The HangSmart allows you to level your artwork, and adjust its placement by moving it upwards/downwards or left/right AFTER you’ve hung your painting. Easily describable as art behind the art, the HangSmart is a clever work of product design, allowing people to simply decorate their homes with lightning speed and ease. Art frames can simply be plugged onto the HangSmart with a click and pushed and pulled to fit perfectly into the desired composition. Plus, gone are the days when you would require destroying your wall, only to cover it up with art. No screws, no measuring tapes, no hammers, no leveling gauges, and no power tools. The HangSmart is the most elegant way to showcase your art!

Designers: Nahema Metha & Marcus Lado

BUY IT HERE: $24.00 $49.00 First 500 backers get a limited edition artwork!

The very thing that delivers electricity to this lamp, is what makes this lamp! The unusual use of electrical wiring as a design element is what makes the Coil Lamp such an unusual beauty.

Simply using two intersecting pieces of laser cut acrylic as its framework, the 100ft extension wire coils around this framework, becoming the lamp itself! “This simple transformation elevates the status of the humble extension cord to the realm of domestic design” says designer Craighton Berman.

The Coil Lamp is a permanent exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago and can be purchased below. However, if you’re looking to buy the DIY version to build on your own, you can get one for a cheaper price right here! It comes without the 100ft extension, allowing you to choose your own colored wire!

Designer: Craighton Berman Studio

BUY IT HERE: $199 (Fully Assembled)

The latest from designer Paul Chen, this smart Bluetooth speaker concept is made to withstand the wildest of users! Dustproof, shockproof, and even waterproof, it challenges you to dish out all the abuse you can give it, whether it’s dropping it in the sand, throwing it against a wall, or drowning it in your pool (which you can’t because it floats!). In fact, all of that’s encouraged! In three distinct, sporty styles, there’s a shape and aesthetic for everyone.

Designer: Paul Chen