Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Simple and elegant, the Leaf transforms any plastic bottle you may have lying around into a doggy drinking apparatus. Perfect for those dog walks, the Leaf retrofits onto any regular PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) bottle with the standard 28mm diameter threaded neck. Made out of food grade silicone, the leaf wraps around the bottle, and when flipped over (dog-eared, if you will), becomes a bowl for your dog to drink water from. The cupped leaf along with the reinforcing silicone veins give the dog a vessel to drink out of. Once done, the leaf can be folded back to wrap around the bottle. The leaf can also aid in easy bottle filling by acting as a funnel!

Designers: Ekaterina Shchetina & Libero Rutilo (DesignLibero)

Inspired by the Greek mythological creature of a similar name, the Hippokamp chair is an abstract interpretation of a seahorse’ iconic shape. Intentionally intricate, this artistic take on lounge seating almost looks more instrument than furniture. Its many taut cords of the seat, back and footrest, which support the user, give it an interesting harp-like look that’s sure to garner second glances.

Construction consists of laminated birch veneer individually oiled and waxed, and approx 85 meters polyester line.

Dimensions: H. 125 cm. W. 100 cm. L. 105 cm

Designer: Peter Qvist Lorentsen

The latest addition to the Philips Flite family of minimalist, folding headphones, Ultrlite is the on-ear version that sets the tone for refined aesthetics and audio. The super slim design folds entirely flat. They’re ideal for tossing into your bag and taking anywhere. Worn directly over your ears, they deliver rich, crisp sound from powerful 32mm drivers for a sublime listening experience. Better yet, a Bluetooth option give you complete wireless freedom!

Designer: Axel Lorsold & Ken Lam

Instead of using firewood as fuel, the Sportes MITI-001 uses firewood as the barbecue itself. Holding quarter wedges of log together in a format used in Europe for centuries (known as the Swedish Log), the stainless steel log grill provides an efficient and fast way to cook food out in the open. Its size makes it easier to heat larger utensils of food and water more quickly, while the flat surface makes it easy to rest pots and pans on it directly.

Rather lightweight (especially compared to other grills its size), the MITI-001 is just a small plate, laser cut out of 304L Stainless Steel sheet and bent into its shape. It rests on top of cut logs, holding them together with pins on four sides, and can adapt to logs both small and large. Once done, the MITI-001 can slip right into your bag and carried around, making it probably the most portable BBQ grill for its size!

Designer: Cédric Sportes of Sportes Outdoor Tools

BUY NOW

BUY NOW

If you don’t regularly use a drill, the look alone can be enough to intimidate you! Designed with this in mind, Yu-Chung Chang’s Electrolux Drill concept is a more approachable twist on the tool.

The beginner-friendly design features enhanced ergonomics and tactile finish that gives the user greater grip and stability. A retracting guide at the nose of the drill helps users determine the depth of their drilling and provides an additional layer of stability for shaky hands. Additionally, the trigger lock section doubles as a dustpan for easy collection and cleanup of debris!

Designer: Yu-Chung Chang

You really gotta love 8Bitdo for clutching onto and reviving our golden, glorious gaming history. I would spend hours at the arcade, even sometimes stealing money from home only to cash it in for a chance to play everything from Pac-Man and Asteroid to Metal Slug and Tekken. Through all of that, there’s only one thing that remained a key binding agent between all those experiences… it was the arcade controllers. The Joystick, and the Arcade buttons were designed to do two things; be effective with low latency, and be effective under incredibly rough usage, because those high scores don’t come easy!

With 8Bitdo’s NES30 Arcade Stick, that very controller which pretty much initiated our generation into games gets its application in almost every game we can play today. Compatible with the Nintendo Switch, Windows, Android, MacOS, and even Steam, the NES30 Arcade Stick is a wireless controller that brings retro-controls to new-age games. Ultra compatable, and even mod-able/customizeable, one can set up the arcade stick with most devices and games. The controller comes with a classic joystick and Japanese Sanwa buttons, the most widely used arcade buttons of the 80s and 90s. It supports Bluetooth and has an impressive play-time of 18 hours, because once you get your hands on these guys, you’re not going to want to let go!

The NES30 Arcade Stick is available for pre-order and releases on the 20th of August, so hurry!

Designer: 8Bitdo

BUY NOW

BUY NOW

If you’re fine with the idea of looking somewhat like a bobble-head, the Helmfon can do pretty miraculous things for you! Made out of fiberglass and polyethelene foam, the helmet when worn cuts out all outside disturbance, giving you your quiet zen, even in a buzzing workplace (Wall Street, take note). The shape of the Helmfon helps reflect away noise from around you, and its lightweight design means it can be worn easily, or even be suspended or wall-mounted.

A portmanteau of the words Helmet and Phone, the Helmfon isn’t just a noise cancelling device, it’s also an elaborate pair of headphones. Equipped with a system board, microphone, speakers, accumulator, magnifier and space on the inside for a smartphone, the Helmfon enables wearers to watch videos, organize Skype conferences and even make calls from within the helmet. Like I said earlier… Wall Street, take note!

Designer: Hochu Rayu

The lack of product styling may be apparent, but it’s actually for a reason. This toaster was designed without planned obsolescence in mind. While most products are designed to have a birth and a death and then eventually be discarded for a newer model, the Repairable Flatpack Toaster isn’t… and it encourages users to build their own toaster and then maintain/fix it, effectively extending its lifespan infinitely.

Toasters, like most appliances, are designed to make sure that only expert technicians can take them apart (smartphones and laptops follow this trend too). However, the Repairable Flatpack Toaster is designed in a manner that it encourages its user to tinker around and be able to replace components easily. In fact, it comes flat-packed, and the user has to assemble the product from scratch.

When users build products from scratch, they form a bond with the product, not wanting to discard something they put effort into (IKEA relies on this emotional connect to translate into customer satisfaction). The Flatpack Toaster is designed with the same principle in mind. After all, if you can put a product together, you can pull it apart and fix it too, right? And you’ll want to… because you’re attached to something you built from scratch.

Designer: Kasey Hou