Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Printing images from your phone have just had their game stepped up with the latest release of the Fujifilm instax Share SP-3 SQ Printer. Select your best shots from your smartphone and get instax prints by just transferring the shots from the app to the SP-3 via a Wi-Fi connection. The instax Share boasts an impressively quick printing time of 13 seconds. Split one image into two, set up collages of up to 9 images-in-one or set up the Real Time Template which enables the user to take a photo with the date, place, weather, temperature, and humidity then being indicated in the frame. The design of the SP-3 SQ is a gorgeous upgrade from the SP-2. The aesthetic of the new model is admirable and shows that Fujifilm is serious when it comes to hardware design. I’d like to see a new camera released by Fujifilm to match the same edgy look of the SP-3 SQ.

Designer: Fujifilm

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Pop 360 is one rockin’ popcorn maker… literally! Designer Ketaki Kshirsagar discovered that adding a swivel feature eliminated the need for a fan to mix popped kernels. This allowed the resulting Pop 360 design to be near-seamless, more compact, easier to clean, quieter, and gave it a longer lifespan.

It consists of 3 main components that can nest after being disassembled to save space. The container rotates to keep shuffling the corn kernels for even popping and even seasoning, eliminating the hot air fan system. This makes it very easy to clean as there is no oil accumulation in the machine parts. The other 2 parts are the heater and the glass bowl.The vessel which heats the corn can be easily detached for washing. Once the popcorn is ready, simply turn the container upside down to transfer the popcorn to the glass bowl. Then, just twist the glass bowl to detach and enjoy the popcorn!

Designer: Ketaki Kshirsagar

Designed to simply get you from point A to B by allowing you to choose your own route, the Beeline is a rather elegant little GPS/Compass/Speedometer that puts most smart-bike apps and dashboards to shame. In a lot of ways, the Beeline does for the bicycle what the Nest did for the thermostat. It adopts a beautifully minimal circular interface, offering just the correct amount of functionality. It doesn’t distract, and it doesn’t overload itself with features. It does its job marvelously and is actually designed so that you pay less attention to it and more attention to your route.

At the heart of the Beeline is its e-Paper display (with a backlight for nighttime riding) that creates high contrasts that are easily visible in most lighting conditions. The e-Paper display doesn’t distract, and consumes a negligible amount of battery, giving the Beeline months of battery life. The UI is rather simple too. It connects to your phone and simply asks you where you want to go. Then using its inbuilt compass, accelerometer, and gyroscope, it points in the general direction of your destination, allowing you to choose your own path, rather than fixing a determined path for you. This gives you the freedom to cycle through walkways as well as roads, truly being able to experience the city/town on your own.

Available in a robust, damage-proof and waterproof silicone casing, the Beeline can be strapped to any bike handlebar, and can even be used as a keychain when you’re done with your ride… because you’re sure to get very possessive about this little beauty!

Designers: Mark Jenner & Tom Putnam.

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What makes the Tokyo Motor Show great? The fact it’s a motor show and not a car show. Without the excitable additions of two-wheelers, it just wouldn’t be the same. And nothing is more exciting than the Yamaha Niken Three-Wheeler. Describing the Niken Three-Wheeler as utterly unique doesn’t come close to describing the form we’re dealing with here. The front of this beast looks angry, almost demonic, while the saddle reaches back over the rear wheel like some sort of tail. Edgy, futuristic, and all forms of cool, the Niken Three-Wheeler will be one of the highlights from this year’s Tokyo Motor Show.

The body design makes full use of the novel front-end suspension mechanisms pairing 15- inch front wheels with dual-tube upside-down forks. The dual front-end suspension is indeed something new to see when mid-action, coming around a bend. With TMS just around the corner, we’re going to have to wait a little bit longer to see this guy in full on November the 6th.

Designer: Yamaha

Yeah sure, your Swiss-Army multi-tool has a knife, and a bottle opener, and a corkscrew. But does it have a spoon? Probably. A peeler? Seems less likely. What about a cheese grater? Garlic crusher? Zester? Carving Fork? Probably not.

Well, the Kitchen Multi Tool sure does. Built so that you can take your culinary talents with you outdoors, the Kitchen Multi Tool will allow you to make perfect, sophisticated meals no matter where you are. The size of any regular multi-tool, the Kitchen Multi Tool comes jam-packed with 12 very specific, very handy day-to-day kitchen tools that will bring a certain flair and flavor to all your camping food. Your surroundings may be rustic, but your meals don’t have to be… Right?

Designer: Gentlemen’s Hardware

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“Sheer simplicity, sheer beauty” would be the words I’d use to describe Anicorn’s Hidden Time watch. Designed in collaboration with designer Jiwoong Jung, the Hidden Time watch captured Jung’s visual interpretation on how one should focus on the time at hand… literally. Using focus as the visual key, the design plays with gradients that help bring numbers to focus when they’re relevant. A gradiented disc rotates, creating contrasts against the white numerals on a transparent level above the disc, allowing you to see numbers at the darkest points i.e., where the contrast is the highest.

Hidden Time is a part of Anicorn’s TTT Project (Trio of Time). They plan on collaborating with three designers from around the world with different interpretations of time, to create three, beautifully designed watches. Hidden Time was the first, and it’s no surprise that the watch sold out almost instantly. I remain to see who Anicorn collaborates with next! I’ll be sure to report my findings to you!

Designer: Jiwoong Jung for Anicorn Watch Co.

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It’s 2017. Desktops are pretty much dead. Laptop sales are slowing down incredibly, and tablet sales have seen quite a slump too. What has gained traction however is the idea of a smart home and all the products around it. Designer Michio Papers created a bridge between the two faces of the tech industry to revive the laptop and the tablet while giving them the makeover they needed. The Google Link is everything you, your workspace, and your home needs. Made of multiple separate gadgets that come together, the Google Link serves all purposes. When assembled together, it’s your dedicated smart-home device capable of connecting via the internet to all other IoT gadgets in your house. Separate it and things get really interesting. You have a speaker dock that makes the Google Link your very own AI Assistant while being a wireless speaker too. What you also have is a very capable 2-in-1 laptop/tablet that you can carry around to work. A lower keyboard component allows you to slide an upper tablet component in to get the full Chromebook experience. The tablet on top can be used independently too, and comes with an inbuilt trackpad and stylus that you can slide out and use at work. Come back and you can snap all the components back together and you’ve got the Link giving you the best Google-aided smart-home experience you could ask for!

Designer: Michio Papers