Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Our fascination with the cosmos is far from ending… We saw the Mars Chair just hours back and now we look at undeniably the most interesting looking table we’ve seen in years! The Apollo 11 table is a stunningly detailed replica of the moon, but more specifically, it’s the point on the moon that humans made first contact with! That’s right. Sculpted in fiberglass with details so precise, they will make your jaw drop, the Apollo 11 table showcases the crater on which the Apollo 11 landed in 1969, marking man’s first steps on the moon, and also America’s successful attempt at getting ahead of the Soviet powers in the Space Race!

The Apollo 11 table takes attention to detail to the max. Using actual digital files from NASA’s archives, Harow manages to sculpt them into fiberglass following multiple thick coats of transparent resin, that become the invisible slab above the moon’s surface. This also allows for some incredible light-play against the moon’s sculpted surface.

What pleases me is even the fact that the legs of the table extend the story and inspiration for the table. Designed to look like the legs of the LEM landing pod, the feet of the table come machined in a brass aluminum alloy and make for a great design detail to an already marvelous looking table!

Designer: Harow

If you’ve ever used a power strip or extension cord, you know that it can be a crazy game of Tetris with all those awkward shaped plugs! Inevitably, you’ll sacrifice space on the strip just to make room for oversized plugs that cover other outlets. Designed with this problem in mind, the O’ket power strip makes it possible to combine and switch up your plug arrangements. The sockets are perfectly spaced to accommodate varying sizes and shapes. Place your plugs horizontally or vertically to make room for more!

Designers: Sungick Jo, Hyeonjin See & SunKyung Bae

Hell bent on getting to Mars, there appears to be a race for who can create passenger/colonizing trips there first – with Space X seemingly launching a rocket every few days, it appears to be around the corner. One person making sure that we something to sit on when we get there is ECAL graduate, Thomas Missé in the form of the Mars Chair. Missé has a designed a lightweight, stackable chair ready for the journey to Mars. Made from carbon fiber and weighing in at only 500 grams, Missé developed the Mars Chair with maximum space saving in mind. When stacked, the chair takes up a minuscule one centimeter of space. This is staggering! What’s even more incredible is that Missé claims the chair can “support the weight of a sumō wrestler on Mars.” The Mars Chair is certainly an eye catcher, and whether it makes it to Mars or not, we can almost guarantee you’ll start seeing it around here very soon.

Designer: Thomas Missé

With the Frankfurt Motor Show just having passed and the Tokyo Motor Show just literally days away, there is undoubtedly a lot of hype this time of the year. With that being said, nothing has gotten me more excited than the release of the utterly gorgeous Polestar 1 by Volvo. The Scandinavian automaker unveiled the Polestar 1 on Tuesday at an event in Shanghai, announcing it will go on sale mid-2019 but are limited to 500 units per year. After pledging to introduce solely electric-infused cars from 2019, Polestar 1 looks set to be the face of this new move forward for the company. Polestar 1 boasts 600 horsepower with its hybrid engine – while in the rear, Polestar 1 adds a 218 horsepower dual-electrical motor.

The rear of this rather ambitiously designed Volvo vehicle is shorter than usual with a shorter boot and the rear seats taking a small cut, making them marginally smaller than usual – enhancing the Polestar 1’s requirements for its edgy sports car look. Adding to the overall flashy look of the Polestar 1 is the rear windshield which wraps itself over the roof and down across the front of the car giving the sporty Polestar 1 an even sleeker look and feel. Cherry on the cake? The adoption of the increasingly popular “phone-as-a-key” system which enables the user to enter/lock the car with the use of an app on their smartphone instead of a key.

Designer: Volvo

You’re pulling an all-nighter. You’ve got a deadline to meet and all the coffee by your side to keep you in focus. Then, just as Murphy and his laws would have it, your wireless keyboard dies on you. Or it could be your mouse. The most frustrating part? It’s 3am and where the hell are you going to get batteries now?

Here’s something that may just help. The Battery Organizer, as simple as it may sound, can be quite a life saver. Designed with precise optimization, it makes space for any and all batteries you may use or need, in quantities depending on their popularity/acceptance and need. The rack can hold up to 93 separate batteries and makes individual slots for everything from D size to C size to your ever-useful AA and AAA sizes. Beside that, you’ve even got slots for 9-volt batteries and even a little cradle for storing those tiny little tablet batteries. The organizer gives you a singular storage space for batteries (even encouraging you to stock up), so that you don’t have a drawer cluttered with batteries… And if you do have a drawer cluttered with batteries, the Battery Organizer comes with a battery tester (hallelujah!) that allows you to easily test and see which batteries are worth keeping or which have run out of charge and need discarding. Now you can thank me later… go grab those batteries and get back to your important work!

Designer: The Battery Organizer

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Turn that blank piece of wall into art. Not just visual, but also auditory! Room One’s Surface Bluetooth Speaker looks like a wonderful curved wooden ply mounted on a wall for artistic expression, but it can fill the room with beautifully balanced audio.

The secret lies in the technology and the choice of material. The technology employed isn’t particularly new (we’ve spoken about it before). Hidden behind the beautifully engineered wood piece is your audio setup, comprising vibration speakers that relay sound vibrations to the wooden ply. Given wood’s ability to reproduce audio with a great deal of fidelity, the panel on the front not only makes for a great piece of abstract art, its conical shape also helps disperse sound in a balanced manner.

The Surface comes in three balanced color variants that complement the balanced sound of its speakers. Indigo, Rust, and Natural, allow the Surface to blend into the decor when needed and stand out, when required. Each speaker panel is molded using engineered wood and then CNC milled to perfection. The wood grain on the speakers are unique to it, giving each unit a personal touch. Built with Bluetooth connectivity, the Surface can play music from your phone, allowing you to use services like Spotify, iTunes, Youtube, or Soundcloud in conjunction with it, and therefore converting a piece of wall-mounted visual art, into art you can listen to!

Designer: Room One

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I remember hearing this analogy once on a podcast and I’ve never been able to get it out of my head. VR Headsets look like toasters attached to your face. It’s true. HTC, Oculus, the Samsung Gear VR, and all the smaller players too. They’re all stuck in this cuboidal trap, which has made VR devices look unsightly and heavy on your heads.

If asked what I imagine the future of VR should be, I’d say something on the lines of Cyclops’ eyepiece from X-Men. It’s sleek and it actually looks desirable. Tobia Repossi’s 3rd Eye VR Headset actually tries to emulate that style. While it still remains a considerable bit bulkier than what Scott Summers wears, it looks much sleeker than say an Oculus Rift. Built with a rather detailed head-rest, and even speakers, the 3rd Eye has been designed with independent screens having a high refresh rate and low persistence. The front of the headset even includes double cameras, giving the VR device AR capabilities as well as 3D video/image recording. Yes, I’m pretty sure I like the entire package!

Designer: Tobia Repossi