Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

I remember reading an article sometime back that had the headline “The MP3 is dead”, and I instantly thought to myself, “What in fresh hell”. I express this frustration because in just 26 years of my life, I’ve seen the Vinyl, the Cassette, the CD, the MP3 (or the digital download), and the online streaming service come and replace its predecessor. What I’m eventually left with is a collection of mediums and a library of songs scattered across several mediums. If I want to hear my grandfather’s old jazz collection, I need to go to Vinyl, whereas if I want to hear something contemporary, I either need to have a digitally downloaded file, or an internet connection to access the music online (with a paid subscription).

However, the two most accepted mediums today still remain the digital file (both online and offline) and the Vinyl. While the digital file is convenient in countless ways, it seldom matches up to a Vinyl’s reproduction of audio. Analog audio still remains ‘warmer’ and has a natural quality to it that sounds pleasing to one’s ears.

The+Record Player recognized the two superior formats and combines them into an all-in-one product. It’s a stellar record player, built with the highest quality materials (a Pro-Jet turntable featuring a carbon fiber tonearm and an Ortofon 2M Red MM Phono Cartridge), capable of 33/45 rpm vinyl playback. However, the record player also features wireless connectivity, allowing you to pair it with a Google Chromecast or an Amazon Echo, and giving you the power to stream online music through your vinyl player!

The+Record Player comes with its own high-fidelity speaker setup. Built with two 1-inch soft-dome tweeters and two compact long-throw aluminum-cone woofers, the speakers generate rich bass and silky smooth high-ends. Each speaker driver even has its own dedicated amplifier channel, with discrete sonic contouring, so your music sounds incredible, whether it’s coming from the vinyl or from your online music subscription service. While doing this, the player features state-of-the-art turntable isolation that prevents audio feedback and vibrations from the speakers affecting the turntable. This isolation allows the turntable and speaker to be placed close to each other ensuring the product remains compact, while even going on to deliver full-range audio that’s crystal clear and doesn’t compromise on the low-end bass-notes. The+Record Player even features a stereo-widening Wide Mode that makes you feel like you’re listening to music on two separate hi-end speakers rather than from the record player’s speakers itself. Plus, with Bluetooth capabilities and an Aux input, you can even choose to plug in or connect your own speakers to the+record player. To up the ante, the player even comes with a 2-way USB port that allows you to rip audio from your vinyls onto a laptop or computer! That’s just in case you’re one of those wireless audio evangelists.

The+Record Player like its capabilities boasts of a past meets present aesthetic. Using wooden veneers with a clean design language and a rather advanced control panel (and even a wireless remote), The+Record Player combines together vintage and minimally modern in a Scandinavian-esque package that looks great and sounds great no matter where it’s kept. Plus, you won’t have to worry about owning two separate machines to listen to Vinyl and to stream music online… plus with The+Record Player’s audio set up, you probably won’t be able to tell the difference between the two!

Designer: Alexander Åhnebrink

BUY NOW: $700.00 $1200.00

In Maple Veneer

In Walnut Veneer

Pro-Ject Carbon Fiber Tonearm with Anti-Skate

Award-Winning Ortofon 2M Red MM Phono Cartridge

BUY NOW: $700.00 $1200.00

Yes. I know. We ALL know. You know who released the latest you know what. But not everyone is so amped about the X! Those who find it a tad… redundant… might be more inclined to like the SAY2 smartphone.

What we know about the guts is this: 5.5” AMOLED display, 128GB memory, 8MP front camera, 12.3MP rear camera. Now let’s just get to the looks. It’s almost easier to talk about what it’s NOT. It’s not rounded. It’s not square. It doesn’t have a home button (BTW – that’s nothing new). It doesn’t have any irritating breaks in the frame or face. It doesn’t have any awkward bevel raise. What it is, however, is likable. Except for maybe that too-casual turquoise color. But, other than that, totally likable!

Designer: blueMap design

Planes, trains, and automobiles. Just a few of the places you can take your Burke 20 bike! It’s the latest titanium folding bike by Seattle Cycles and it folds down so flat you can stick it in a suitcase. Better yet, without any tools.

It’s designed with world travelers in mind. It’s lightweight enough to throw over a shoulder, compact enough to fit in a bag, and so easy to operate that you can go from one form of travel to pedaling in 10 seconds. Literally. It only takes 10 whole seconds to undo its 4-fold system. Oh… and it’s also features an electric, hub-mounted motor. So whether it’s for the last mile or one of many, the Burke 20 is ideal for local commuting, international travel and everything in-between!

Designer: Mike Yap of Seattle Cycles

Paper shredders are annoying. Period. If you don’t line up the paper just right, you’re bound for a paper jam. Ain’t nobody got time for all that finickiness! That’s where the PWshredder comes in. It’s designed around our habit of crumbling up paper into wads before tossing it into the bin, meaning you can still practice your shooting aim!

In fact, you should do exactly that! Just crumble, toss, and PWshredder will get to work. Its one-of-a-kind, three-headed shredding mechanism is designed to shred more effectively than horizontal versions. Equipped with a silicon cover and weight-sensing safety feature, it’s also much safer. Better yet, it requires less emptying thanks to a built in compactor!

Designer: SeungHyeop Lee

No product has captured the heart of an industrial designer quite like the iPhone. Arguably one of the most talked about products of our lifetimes, the phone completed 10 years today and the anniversary edition (named the iPhone X) may not just set a standard for the future of technology, but pretty much determines the future of industrial design too.

The iPhone X’s physical design is more and more adopting Dieter Rams’ good design principle of Less is More, giving larger emphasis to virtual than physical. The evolution of the phone increasingly shows a stagnation or rather a standardization of its physical design as the Industrial Design team led by Jonathan Ive get left with little to nothing to do on the phone’s design front, while most of the laudable features of the phone, like the Face ID, the Augmented Reality capabilities, Animated Emoji, or the camera’s Portrait Mode involve R&D, software, and hardware engineering teams, rather than classical industrial designers. It becomes challenging to create something that looks groundbreakingly new when the new technological requirements end up influencing most of the design decisions. What we get left with is a phone that waved goodbye to the 3.5mm headphone jack last year and the Home Button this year… and said hello to a glass back (for wireless charging) and a new color variant to stop people from confusing it with the iPhone 6 and 7 (and even 8).

The iPhone X marks a shift in the vision of an Industrial Designer as products in the consumer electronics department (the smartphone department in particular) move towards creating a larger playground for not design details but features and strategies (it also doesn’t help that phones grow increasingly thinner each subsequent year). A phone designer’s skill set and required tool set goes beyond the traditional sketching and alcohol marker renders. It now involves recognizing the needs of a consumer, which now have become so diverse that Industrial Design cannot solve it alone, and that the screen now stands at the heart of (and occupies 90% of the front of) a phone. The screen shifts between apps and interfaces, allowing the phone to be a shopping portal, a social network, a photo and video recording and viewing tool (a marvelous one), etc… pretty much going to show that industrial design needs to intermingle with hardware design, interaction design, and human-centered design, and industrial designers need to do the same. The video above shows Jonathan Ive talking less about the actual design of the phone and more about its features… in a way mirroring the future of Industrial Design, that now requires embracing different disciplines and skill sets.

It’s therefore a senseless endeavor to look at the iPhone X from a purely industrial design point of view. That view is too narrow and limiting. To truly appreciate the iPhone X (and understand the future of industrial design), one needs to widen one’s approach, and appreciate it not as a marvel of design, but of hardware and software technology, R&D, strategy, and a whole bunch of approaches and decisions that marry themselves with design that’s as little design as possible…

So yes, the iPhone looks pretty much the same as last year’s phone, which in turn looks a lot like the phone from 2 years back; and yes, buttons and ports, details that we industrial designers pretty much live for, will continue disappearing, because the future of Industrial Design is much more than just Industrial Design.

Designer: Apple

I’ve seen flexible wallets made from leather, canvas, denim, plastic, tyvek, and even the odd paper wallet. Today we add wood to that list of materials. Wood isn’t known to be as flexible as leather or regular fabrics, but John Webber’s fascination for the material didn’t stop him from making a bi-fold made out of wood. In order to make it flexible, he fragmented it by laser cutting it into tiny individual pieces that were then fused to a flexible tyvek base. The result is a wallet that is made out of wood, but bends just like any fabric you’ve seen.

Available in a choice of Ebony (Pine), Walnut, Cherry, and Maple, the Arbor Wallets look absolutely unique, giving the impression of being a fabric wallet with a wood-grain print, but actually being made of real wood. To make sure the wood lasts long, it’s hand-coated with a specially formulated oil that gives it water-resistant properties, making sure that accidental spills don’t damage the thin layer of wood while even bestowing upon it a fragrance with distinct wooden notes, making your wallet both look and smell great out of the box!

Designer: John Webber (Carved)

Having trouble reading? The answer may just be in your keychain, because ThinOPTICS literally managed to squeeze a pair of reading glasses into a keychain that can slide into any pocket!

The keychain features a case for the specs that’s no more larger than the size of both your thumbs put together. The case comes with a slider that when pushed, pops out two lenses interconnected by a bridge made of a titanium alloy called Nitinol, known for its spring-like properties aside from being extremely durable. The moment the specs are pushed out of their case, they open up into their spectacle form and can be placed on the bridge of your nose, where they balance without difficulty. Once done, they can be folded back into the case, stashed away in your pocket till they’re needed next. Convenient, isn’t it? Plus, since they’re paired with your keys, there’s a much lower chance of you forgetting to carry or losing them!

Designer: Teddy Shalon of ThinOPTICS

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