Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

A’ Design Award Spotlight: The designs of Hakan Gürsu

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 06:07 PM PDT

Dr. Hakan Gürsu of Designnobis (Ankara, Turkey) stands at the top of the World Designer Rankings with 281 points from the 75 Awards and 8 Runner-up Awards he’s secured at the A’ Design Awards and Competition over the past 7 years. His awarded works have even been responsible to a great extent for putting his country Turkey at the 5th position in the World Design Rankings.

Over the years we’ve talked about the kind of exposure the A’ Design Awards can get your work, and there’s no better example than Dr. Gürsu. We’ve seen and covered a portion of Dr. Gürsu’s work and we continue to do so every year. He secured 5 Awards last year, 8 in the year before that, and a staggering 16 A’ Design Awards in 2014. The A’ Design Award and Competition has been a significant contributor to his successful career and has helped get his designs and innovations noticed all around the world!

Hakan’s awarded works span various categories, from stationery, to social design. From home appliances to makeshift homes… and this really goes to show the diversity and range of the A’ Design Award and Competition. Ranging from concept to actual product, the A’ Design Award and Competition welcome all kinds of entries across their vast span of categories. Below is a small round-up of our favorites from Dr. Gürsu’s award winning body of work. We hope this inspires you to create award-winning work for yourself and your country too!

Click here to Register Now and get your design evaluated for the 2017-18 A’ Design Award and Competition by submitting your entries!

01. Satellite Grater

Inspired by the satellites we send into the cosmos, the Satellite Grater’s design integrates various blades into its four legged design that when opened, stands on a work-surface, or can easily rest on a bowl or plate. When closed, the entire grater fits into a chic looking box and additional blades get stored in the hollow space between the four legs. Individual blade plates are detachable and can be washed separately, making the entire storage and maintenance process a dream!

02.Fume Marker Pen Stand and Package

I can’t honestly grasp how I don’t have this in my workspace already. Just a simple tinted transparent acrylic cube, the Fume acts as a rather beautiful pen-stand for your alcohol markers (something designers swear by). Its design doesn’t just have them laid out in an interesting format, it even allows you to segregate them by hue into three zones… One for color, one for warm grays, and one for cool grays. Love!

03. Tentative Post Disaster Tent

Inspired after earthquakes in Turky, by the need to have a shelter that can be rapidly deployed and set up, Hakan developed the Tentative Post Disaster Tent. Designed to comfortably house two adults, or even a small family of 3-4, the tent comes in a collapsible flat-pack design that makes for easy transportation. In fact, a single semi can carry north of 24 of these units. The tent comes with collapsible furniture all stored inside it and can be assembled (by means of a metal exo-structure) in a matter of minutes.

04. Shelter Pack Post Disaster Shelter

The Shelter pack builds on the previous concept. It’s slightly thicker, but this allows it to be assembled without the need of a metal outer structure. Plus, the Shelter Pack even comes with a tiny bathroom of its own! You can read our original article on the Shelter Pack here.

05. Lollypop Pencil Sharpener

The Lollypop Sharpener certainly does look fun and unique. Designed to, well, look like a lollypop when you put the pencil inside it, the sharpener comes with a sheet metal ring comprising several different designs for people who want to sharpen their pencils in different contours. Boy, I’d love to try this!

06. Panfold Camping Pan

Made to be a dually-useful portable cooking solution, the Panfold is an innovative, portable cookware system that makes preparing hot meals easy from anywhere. The design consists of an aluminum alloy cast body, foldable legs, locking ring and foldable wooden handle while using aluminum foil box as a food carrier. You can either use it as a pan for a larger aluminum box, or even as a miniature stove-top for small boxes. Pretty neat, right?

07. Steam Tea Maker

Rather than brewing tea the regular way, the Steam tea maker uses two vertically stacked kettles to brew tea. How does it do that? It uses a lower kettle (filled with water) to heat the upper kettle, while steam from the lower kettle travels upwards into the transparent upper brewing kettle. The condensate from the steam then brews the tea leaves for a full-flavored brew. Once you reach your desired strength/color, just press a switch on the top to prevent more steam from seeping in. The transparent upper container makes it easy to monitor your brew while together with the lower kettle, it adds an element of flair to the kitchen!

08. Restpoint Airport Seating

I’d look forward to long airport waits if the Restpoint were around. Designed not as seating but specifically as seating for an airport, the Restpoint makes it easier and more convenient to wait for your flight. A seat with a backrest allows you to rest your weary body while a slide-in compartment lets you stow away your cabin luggage safely right beside you. What sweetens the deal is the mini workspace complete with plug-points to your left, so you can quickly shoot out those important mails and presentations before getting on your flight!

09. Mini ST Toolset

Quite the handy little tool-set is the Mini ST. Armed with just the correct heads, the tool set comes as small as a measuring tape and can fit right into your pocket. The good thing is its shape, that makes a great handle when you attach a head to a corner. Why’s that? Because its flat design is much easier to rotate than your conventional cylindrical handles.

10. Taxi Station

There’s a little bit of humor behind the design of the Taxi Station. Its starkly obvious design stems from various failed attempts at getting taxis to stop. I for one have tried everything from screaming TAXI at the top of my lungs, to flailing my arms around like a complete lunatic. The tragedy is that sometimes all of that goes unnoticed (which is what made Uber such a favorite for me). However, the Taxi stand’s glaringly obvious lighting that spells out TAXI is bound to catch any taxi driver’s eye. Now maybe I can avoid getting tennis elbow in my enthusiastic attempts at catching cabs.

You can view all of Hakan’s winning work on his A’ Design Profile here. Click here to view all winning designs from A’ Design Award and Competition!