Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

These clocks are a little uncomfortable to look at, although they are backed by a rather interesting concept. Named Patience, this series of clocks uses the human face as a time-keeping device. The left and right eyes act as hands, looking in the direction the hand would face. The mouth acts as a seconds counter, periodically smacking to help you count the seconds while also making the sound of a clock’s ticks.

The clock is literally a screen that displays a human face. Japan based creative studio We+ made this quirky clock by video-recording real human faces in three different parts (each eye and the mouth) and merged them seamlessly together in a 24 hour looped video. I wonder what it would be like if it had an alarm feature!

Designer: We+

Last year, JS Shoes introduced the world’s first ever 3D knitted driving shoe for men and now they’ve released a version just for the girls that features a clear sole to highlight the colorful knit! They’re made using an award winning 3-dimensional method to produce the exact amount of materials for each shoe. This significantly reduces their carbon footprint, labor costs, and results in almost no material loss. Perfect for anyone with an active lifestyle, they’re featherweight, formfitting, marrying comfort and style you’ll appreciate in the car or exploring outside. They’re also super bendy so you can easily throw them in a suitcase or bag and save space!

Designer: JS Shoes

Water in the ear is a literal and figurative headache. However, wearing earplugs in the pool has its pros and cons. You keep the water out, but it also means you hear pretty much nothing because earplugs keep EVERYTHING out.

While I imagine it must be calming to hear absolutely nothing while you swim, most professionals say that being able to hear the whistle, or your opponents while swimming may just help mold your strategy and win you the game. The Swimears were designed to allow sound to pass through, keeping everything else out. The Swimears help keep water, chlorine, etc at bay, preventing ear blockages or infections, but at the same time, also keep you aware, letting listen to your coach’s feedback and even know if your swimming technique isn’t up to the mark (by listening for splashing sounds) eventually going on to help swimmers in races (by being able to listen to how close or far their opponents are, etc).

The Swimears are like traditional earplugs, except for a proprietary mesh that lets sound pass through, but blocks water entry. They fit snugly into your ear with a secure fit only to be reinforced by the stabilization wing that locks into the indents on your ear, making sure the earplugs don’t come undone while dashing in and out of the water. Developed by professional surfboarders, the Swimears are ideal for all water-based sports, from swimming, to scuba diving, to even kayaking or surfing… because when someone yells “Shaaark”, it would help to have your ears open, right?

Designer: Finis Inc.

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Clankity clank. That’s one sound we avid tea drinkers wouldn’t mind never hearing again! But it’s not because of the spoon sound, it’s because of how it moves! The stirring spoon we use can be such a nuisance once your finished using it. It drips if you take it out right away, and it tumbles around if you leave it in. Mug+ eliminates the problem with a cleverly integrated magnet that keeps the spoon in place when you’re not using it to stir! Better yet, it comes with a specially shaped metal tea strainer that fits snugly against the interior wall of the cup where the magnet is so you barely notice it’s there!

Designer: Wei Taiming

Curved, flexible, and packed with all the tech gamers dream of, the Alienware Atlanta 01 forever changes the shape of the smartphone for an enhanced entertainment experience. Its curved body is more ergonomic, features better grip and feels similar to a controller. The curved display also makes for a more realistic, immersive VR experience! Thoughtfully placed side buttons can be assigned varying functionalities to accommodate different games. It even has integrated LED strips to work with Alienware’s cool AlienFX special gaming light system!

Designer: Abhishek Yenji

The Porthole Infuser does exactly what you think it does. Moreover, it looks great while doing it. Made for the most delicious and Instagram-worthy infusions, the Porthole can make everything from infused cocktails, to syrups, to oils, dressings, or even cold-brewed artisan teas and coffees. Inspired by a submarine or ship’s porthole style window, the Porthole Infuser is circular with transparent panels on both sides, literally offering a window into the liquid infusion process happening on the inside.

The design is rather unique and immediately striking, making the Porthole a rather interesting centerpiece for your dinner table. The circular form comes with a spout on top, and a dead-weight at the bottom corner, that keeps it stable and upright, while also breaking the circle’s form, making for an interesting aesthetic. The transparent panels are removable and can lock in place using a threaded screw in the center. A gasket around the rim prevents the oil/water/alcohol from leaking outwards. Fill the center space with fruits, vegetables, spices, or anything else that you want to extract the flavor from. Then once you fill the ingredients in and lock the panel in place, stand the Porthole upright and pour the liquid down the spout. An arced filter keeps the solids in its place, permitting only the liquid to flow. Let the Porthole sit for a few hours, allowing the liquid to extract every ounce of flavor from the ingredients, while also making for a beautiful display of the infusion process. Agitate the Porthole once or twice in between to make sure the flavors mix well. Then when you’re done infusing, pour the liquid out and enjoy an absolute orgy of flavors and fragrances. Wow!

P.S. I’ve left you a recipe for a life-affirming, heart-warming cocktail at the bottom of this article. Enjoy!

Designer: Martin Kastner (Crucial Detail)

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This drone is secretly a gymnast. Unlike any other drone, its propellers can bend and flex, pointing in virtually any direction, making the drone itself in turn, fly around in any orientation and do cartwheels in the sky.

The Voliro, developed by students of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) and Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK), is a Hexacopter (with six propellers) that’s capable of doing pirouettes in the air, thanks to its independently rotating propellers. This may make the drone more versatile, but it complicates things greatly, because the angle of the propellers pretty much determines how the drone would fly. The drone can take off vertically and then proceed to do everything from barrel rolls, to even vertically climbing up a wall. The students are also working on a center sphere, so the drone can roll around like a hamster in a glass ball.

Obviously, controlling the Voliro isn’t a piece of cake. You’d need to be very careful of where those propellers would be facing, and any error could quickly send the drone crashing into the ground or a wall head first. With nine months of work behind them, the students are putting finishing touches on the drone and its remote control, although there’s no word of whether this will be made commercially available. It’s still highly entertaining to watch though!

Designer: Voliro

Go ahead and feel captivated by this automobile/hair-appliance blend… only to realize later on that Yu Seo-joung’s Mercedes AMG inspired hair dryer is completely devoid of color. Only through black and white renderings, this hair-dryer manages to capture one’s attention, showing that design detail can still be just as captivating, even in grayscale.

Another brilliant example of product semantics (or the picking up of one brand’s visual language/architecture and superimposing it somewhere else), the AMG hair dryer cleverly picks up AMG’s sporty race-car DNA with a body inspired by the car’s styling. On the back, the air outlet is shaped beautifully like a car’s wheel, with rim-like details as well as the Mercedes logo right at the center. I’m half expecting the hair dryer to go vroom once it switches on!

Designer: Yu Seo-joung