Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

The GoPro is widely used for under-water applications but I’ll have you know that it wasn’t built for it. On the software (or even the hardware) front, the GoPro is just a good land-camera taken underwater. It isn’t a good underwater camera.

Niche as it may sound, the Paralenz was designed to be the the action camera you use under the water. Built specifically from the inside out for water-borne applications, the Paralenz (initially named the Octospot) is compact, tubular, and goes underwater with you without any housing or casing. The great thing about the Paralenz, and what prompted its creators to make it, is the fact that the more you go under-water, the more your images/footage starts looking dull and bluish green because the water tends to get cloudier and cloudier. The Paralenz however has a pressure gauge built in, that calibrates the white-balance based on how deep you are, so your videos look distinctly better than any other camera used underwater. In fact, here’s a video of a GoPro Hero 4 versus the Paralenz when used under water. Even in design, the Paralenz was created specifically for underwater use. The controls are bog and robust and can be operated even with a glove on. A trigger allows you to either work the camera in video mode, or take 15 second snaps (for those Insta Stories) and images. The Paralenz app (all these gadgets have standalone apps to further the user experience) allows you to view all the footage and even logs like dive depth, etc. Aside from the app, the Paralenz camera comes with a myriad of attachments for your scuba mask, and you can one-up your scuba diving trip with the 3rd Person Viewer, a one of its kind Underwater Selfie Stick that straps to your waist, allowing you to capture your entire dive in third person, like those video games! And once you’re done, immediately post to your social media via the app, or broadcast live! Yeah! That’s possible too!

Designer: Paralenz

The chances of Lamborghini making a pickup truck are about as good as us colonizing Mars! Just for kicks, the Lambo Mars X1 explores both! Designed for future martian dwellers, this ultramodern pickup truck features all the fixings needed to rover the red planet.

Whether it’s for collecting soil samples or storing medical supplies, this vehicle is all about storage. Aside from its main bed, which can be used for hauling larger items, it has all sorts of nooks and crannies for maximizing unused space. This even includes the wheels which feature built in storage in the center.

The large mecanum wheels are not only capable of covering rough terrain forwards and backwards, but also allow the vehicle to move or turn in any direction on the spot. Each operates independently. For enhanced maneuverability, the body is also flexible and capable of stretching or becoming more compact when necessary.

Designer: Xundi Li

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Your iPhone is as good as a DSLR, and in time it may just overtake it, so why don’t you just use your iPhone as a serious videographing tool? The IOgrapher is probably the best piece of gear to begin with. Designed to work as a stability rig packed with tonnes of features, the IOgrapher allows you to slide your phone in and operate it as you would operate a gimbal, with two handles on the side. This arrangement causes significantly less shaking and you can even have it mounted on any tripod.

What’s more is that the IOgrapher is designed to completely elevate your filming game. Aside from the tripod mounting, it even allows you to mount everything from an external flash, to a 37mm lens for a wide shot (or any other lens for that matter), to spirit levels, to a GoPro, or an external microphone, the options are truly limitless. Why spend thousands on expensive videography and vlogging gear when you can just get the best of all worlds with your iPhone and a $60 rig, right?

Designer: IOgrapher

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One button. One screen. That’s all you need for limitless control over your smart TV with this equally smart remote control concept! Inspired by the Samsung design language, this clever clicker makes it easier than ever to do everything from fine tune picture quality to adjusting the volume using an unitive touchscreen interface. Users can even browse the guide without interrupting their current program by scrolling through it directly on the screen. With a simple tap they can preview channels on the touchscreen or even watch multiple media at once!

Designer: Jae kyoung Oh

Whether you meal prep for fitness or convenience, the time and energy you save by cooking less is crucial to making the sacrifice worthwhile. The Philips Health Cooker aims to make meal prep even easier by offering an intuitive way to cook and combine ingredients.

The design consists of a vertical triple tier cooking system that can be set independently to cook various types of food. First, you add the protein, veggie or carb of your choosing to each pot. Once you’ve added the ingredients, simply turn each pot to the designated, familiar icon to begin cooking with the preset settings. When you’re finished, combine the cooked ingredients together or use them as individual accents to flavor and complete other dishes.

Designer: Christian Schmöller

Zippers… a designer’s mortal enemy. They’re hideous, painful, and not particularly secure. Yet we can’t live without them. They’re on our jeans, jackets, and bags. Now while jeans and jackets aren’t much of a threat, zips on bags are rather vulnerable to being picked. Hell, sometimes I forget to even zip my bag, or the zip breaks, which is sort of asking for trouble.

The immediate thing one notices about the Bobby Anti-Theft Backpack is its rather beautiful design that features not one single zip. The bag is fabric through and through, so while it looks great, it also throws the thief off guard because they’ll be struggling to find the opening!

The Bobby was designed just like a regular backpack, but with one crucial rearrangement. The zip still exists, but it stays concealed, and can only be accessed from the back of the bag rather than the front. It stays concealed behind a sleeve and completely hidden from sight, but only you know that secret. The backpack’s overall design aim was to be robust and reliable. Aside from the hidden zips, it comes with a PP inlay in the fabric that gives it structure while also making it slash-proof. The front face is made of a water-repellent, stain-proof fabric that gives the bag a color contrast, and a rather iconic line on the bottom in the center also serves as a reflective strip for people who commute on bicycles.

Other features of this undeniably iconic looking bag are brilliant compartmentalization. The way the bag opens up feels almost like a briefcase thanks to its sturdy structure, allowing for a rather well-planned inside, with spaces and pockets for all your carry-ables. It even has three hidden instant-access pockets in the straps for things like business cards, or access cards. If all that weren’t already the makes of a superior bag, the Bobby even features a USB port that connects the power bank inside your bag to the phone outside your bag, so you don’t have to fumble through the backpack for a charger in public, effectively giving away the secret way to open your uber-cool theft-deterrent backpack! Go ahead… don’t be a part of the 400,000 people who get their bags or pockets picked per day!

Designer: XD Design

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The IMI (or Intuitive MIDI Interface) makes even the best air-guitarists actual musicians! This tiny device is designed to showcase MIDI technology’s capabilities outside the Keyboard setup and in the format of an electronic violin, something new and refreshing.

The IMI strips the violin of everything deemed unnecessary, including its iconic acoustic chamber and even the bow, and brings it down to just the fretboard, where most of the action happens. Ditching the strings too, for a touch-sensitive surface, the notes are triggered when contact is made, eliminating the need for the bow. You can even pull off vibratos naturally by slightly oscillating your fingertips against the touch-active fret surface, which is rather unique, because while most MIDI instruments (keyboards and pads particularly) capture 3 parameters i.e., note on, note off, and velocity or how hard you hit the note, the IMI works on a principle very similar to ROLI’s Seaboards, that allow for sliding between notes (not possible on keyboards) in a manner that makes violinists feel comfortable from the get-go.

The small instrument is designed to occupy almost a third of the space of a traditional violin. It doesn’t rest between your chin and your collar either, the way conventional violins do, but rather can be played almost like a ukulele, against your hip, being worked pretty much only with your left or right hand (depending on your orientation)… leaving the other hand free to probably work another instrument, or electronic music equipment. It comes armed with power and volume controls, as well as a 3.5mm jack that works as an audio output. Since the IMI is completely MIDI based, you can not just play, but even capture MIDI transcripts using a MicroUSB outlet on the back and edit them. You can even go as far as choosing which style/sound of violin you want the IMI to replicate by just selecting from your sound-bank. Plus, since this little dream of a device is completely electronic, no more having to tune! Amateurs and experts rejoice!

The IMI is currently a student project, but the designer plans on expanding the IMI range to cover instruments like the Guitar, Ukulele, and even the Flute. Stay tuned for more details!

Designer: Viraj Joshi

Nice looking chair, right? Reminds me of the Solid Gray Hardshell Backpack, if I’m being honest. However the incredible thing about the chair isn’t its edgy, low-poly design… but rather it’s what the low-poly design can help the chair do. Scroll down to image 4 and look at the way the chair allows you to recline just by virtue of the flexibility the design offers. Made in plywood and felt, but designed to feel almost like a lycra-esque stretchable fabric, the chair casually stretches backwards and inwards from the sides when you lean back, going from a conventional seat to a more reclined chair.

It’s rather clever how the seemingly rigid chair turns out in fact to be flexible, with a clever detail in how when you lean back, you get these makeshift arm-rests that form under your hands! It’s probably for that very reason the Flex Chair won the Core77 Design Award this year.

Designer: Honglin Liu