Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

We’ve been very vocal about how much respect we have for designers who take up challenges in the medical domain. There’s always a lot at stake and with such a small margin for error, Design for Medicine or Design for Special Needs may just be one of the most challenging (and if done right, rewarding) design disciplines out there. Fast.Co lists Inclusive Design as a trend that will shape 2018, and our favorite posts from 2017 have only been a testament to the rise of that trend.

Whether it’s technological advancements to make better and more accessible medical products, or just redesigning medical and special-need products look more fashionable and inclusive, our top Medical Design posts for the year 2017 are pretty indicative of how big health care in 2018 is going to be!

This hospital bed can be folded and transformed into a wheelchair in a matter of minutes without disturbing the individual.

This wheelchair enhances mobility thanks to its scissor-inspired structure. It sports an innovative adjustable seat-height feature for better ergonomics. It also has two distinct riding positions: one that is ideal for cruising and maneuvering and the other for putting the user at eye level with standing individuals.

OH is at once a hearing aid and a fashion accessory. It allows the user to customize the product by changing the external ring’s range of textures and colors. It can also be used as an earring or attached hearing pin.

This smart thermometer is the embodiment of portability and compact design being just 5cm long and weighing a total of only 13g. The thermometer simply plugs into one’s smartphone audio jack.

Clevu is a wearable system that can not only work as traditional reading glasses but is capable of enhancing a variety of other sight situations. Enjoying the outdoors? There’s a setting for that. Watching TV? There’s a setting for that too.

This ergonomic smart cane comes as just a joystick handle with an automatic telescoping stick that shoots out when switched on. However, the walking stick doesn’t stop there. It connects to an app on the smartphone, actually guiding the user to destinations they set.

Simple and desirable, these black and white inhalers don’t just break the stigma of carrying an inhaler, they also look striking enough that you’d instantly spot it on the shelves (helping the brand reach customers).

This new EpiPen design, called Epipi, really makes things as simple as unscrew, press, and go! Just twist to arm it, hold against the skin, and press the button to release. A clear window into the medication reservoir will indicate that the contents have been emptied which enhances the confidence of the user that they performed the function correctly.

The Hue inhaler is completely 3D printed (note the transition from mottled color to transparent) and comes with a dazzling set of color combinations that are bound to break the monotony of medical product design. There’s even a woven paracord for easy access, or clipping/strapping to your bag/pants.

One Drop is a completely exhaustive diabetes fighting system that could easily be a part of any diabetic’s EDC kit.

The Kardia is a tiny ECG (or EKG) reader that works in conjunction with your iPhone to give you heart-rate readings. Simple in its design, with just two textured sensor-pads for your fingers, the device takes readings and its partner-app guides you through the process, showing you your current heart rate.

Meddsy isn’t as much a first aid kit as much as it’s an emergency aid kit. It contains dedicated units for everything from medical goods to any instruments one may need to treat themselves.

Don’t forget to check out YD’s best car designs from 2017.

The Tight Space Exercise Bike (i’m not particularly sold on the name) fits gym equipment into the dead space beneath your bed. Its slim profile allows it to slide into tight spaces in the wardrobe, or even under your bed (unless you need that space to hide from bad guys and movie villains). Slide it out and with just a couple of unfolds, it becomes a stationary bicycle that you can work out on! The cycle unfortunately doesn’t come with handles, but it comes with an EVA foam saddle that’s height adjustable, four foldable legs that give it stability and keep it upright, and even a knob for adjusting the tension on the foot-paddles (with 8 difficulty settings) depending on the intensity of your work-out.

With cities becoming denser, and homes becoming smaller, the Tight Space Exercise Bicycle (really don’t like that name!) is great for tiny studio apartments because it fits a great deal of usefulness into a footprint of two large pizza boxes. Or maybe that isn’t the best comparison.

Designer: Hammacher Schlemmer

The award-winning Tetra Shed has evolved into something entirely new and more substantial. Introducing, the Tetra Hotel! It expands on the live-in triangular pyramid, clustering dozens of independent yet connected accommodations into one larger, beautiful riverside system.

Each dwelling features an office space, living area, sleeping quarters, arranged in a vertically open, multi-tiered floor plan leading to natural overhead light. It’s highly artistic and, as such, incredibly fun! Little is known about any real plans for development, but here’s to hoping!

Designer: Studio X

Designing an AI butler for your home usually goes in one of two directions. You either make something that captures the essence of the AI aspect, or you go for something that is more fitting in with one’s home decor. While we’ve seen tonnes of concepts adopting the former approach, the Mui takes the latter direction and sits on your wall, looking divinely un-appliance-like but hiding under it a rather competitive IoT device.

The Mui comes looking like a flat bar of wood, but one single touch on its surface reveals a wide variety of controls and notifications that come alive from under the wood’s surface. Using wood’s near-translucent and capacitive-touch-friendly properties, the Mui becomes much more than a slab of wood once you interact with it. It allows you to control your thermostat, your lights, it lets you read back messages, and even shows you weather updates with a graphical UI! Behind the wooden panel sits a large pixel based display that somewhat contrasts the wood’s natural, organic grain shape, with its rigid, confined, squarish pixel design, but that contrast creates balance and beauty.

The Mui’s wooden build deviates, like I mentioned, from the plastic, metal, glass, and PCB construction of most IoT devices. It looks homely, it looks down-to-earth, and more importantly, it looks approachable… which makes a great case for the Mui because while most AI devices are modeled on humanoid/tech-robot designs and are perceived as superiorly intelligent devices capable of snooping on their users, the Mui’s simple wooden bar design (with the lack of a camera or a visible microphone) makes it look much more trustworthy and reliable, while it still remains a feature-packed, capable AI butler on the inside… which honestly, is a great design direction to go in!

Designer: Nissha

Like the name suggests, the Balloon lamp is reminiscent of “balloons” from a different era. Its interesting form is akin to that of Chinese fire lanterns or even hot air balloons. As sculptural as it is functional, it’s a beautiful example of what can be done with Gantri’s Table Lights Product System, which provides a standard set of components, resources and toolkit to help designers develop high-quality products easily. The body of the product is constructed at Gantri using 3D printing technologies and then carefully hand-finished by local craftsmen to achieve a smooth luxurious finish. Designer Chris Granneberg thinks it looks right at home amongst woody interiors… and we couldn’t agree more!

Designer: Chris Granneberg for Gantri

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Below: Rest of the Gantri collection.

Hands down, there is nothing more exhilarating than watching the likes of Lewis Hamilton or Esteban Ochoa flying down the F1 track at 245 km/h. With the year on year advances in Formula E, it’s only a matter of time before we’ll see Sam Bird and DS Virgin hitting the same speeds. What I will say is what makes the Formula E more interesting to watch is the gorgeously sculpted, aerodynamic body shapes of the vehicles versus the petrol based rockets used in Formula One.

One person who understands the nature of Formula E design language is Frédéric Le Sciellour, with his electric power manifestation “E-Lecktron.” At a glance, this speed demon just oozes out a sharp, air-cutting design language, so sharp you’d be afraid to touch it with your bare hands. The E-Lecktron is a powerful vehicle with a low center of gravity, sitting just as tall as the tires it rests on. The top face of the Formula E racer is wonderfully reflective, capturing the surrounding environment and making the vehicle seemingly smaller than it already is. Looking at this aggressive vehicle, I can’t imagine the E-Lecktron is limited to the road, I see this guy running along walls and who knows, maybe even upside down.

Designer: Frédéric Le Sciellour

Since no one company has been able to make a power-brick/adapter that’s perfect, Baseus took it upon itself to design what I’d best describe to be a gorgeous-looking, portable, functional, and powerful travel adapter. Designed by Keny Lin who has a knack for interweaving usability with possibly the most unique and pleasing design details and CMF choices, the Baseus Travel Adapter could be a worthy candidate at both CES and Maison et Objet. It comes with a swiveling pin design that allows you to plug it into wall-sockets as well as extension strips placed on the floor. The pivoting pins help position the USB ports at a direction that’s convenient for plugging your cables in. Built with 2 USB ports, you can use one travel adapter to charge two devices simultaneously, and with quick charging, you’ll be able to charge both your devices, twice as fast! Once you’re done, pull the adapter out of the socket and fold the plug-pins in and you can slip the travel adapter into your bag or pocket. Now isn’t that beautiful?

Designer: Keny Lin for Baseus

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The “Concealed” air conditioner is what you get when you design an air conditioner with no constraints or past visual memory. Imagine describing the use of an AC to someone who’s never seen one before and asking them to visualize it, and you’ll get something that is true to the AC’s description. The Concealed Visible Air Conditioner stays flush within a wall, almost integrating itself into the building’s architecture like a radiator. It comes with an air outlet running along the top and sides, with a brushed metal panel on the front, and a screen at the base that instead of flashing numbers and mnemonic symbols like fans and water droplets, builds context, by visualizing what the AC is doing. If it’s heading the room up, the screen shows a fireplace… and frost for when it’s cooling down. The same goes for when it’s running in humidifier and dehumidifier modes. Displaying exactly the amount of information that’s relevant to us, and looking more like a slick magical temperature-controlling device than a bulky plastic-y appliance, the Concealed Visible Air Conditioner challenges what ACs should look like… and it’s high time designers and manufacturers took note!

The “Concealed” Visible Air Conditioner is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2017.

Designers: Chen Guangyu, Liu Jiachi (Gree Electric Appliances Inc.)

The one singular detail on the upper surface of Hill is also the prettiest detail on the product. This induction based tea-stove comes made in wood, looking absolutely divine, but what’s more divine is the knob on the left that controls the appliance. Designed to look so aesthetic that one forgets its ergonomic requirements, the knob’s organic surface almost resembles a boiling liquid, tying back to the induction cooker’s purpose.

Designed to look less appliance-like and more like a beautiful vinyl player that you’d show off on your kitchen countertop. It comes with a rather soothing brown walnut-y finish, a black induction surface, a stylized exhaust grill on one side, and the gold rotary knob that sits on the Hill’s chest, almost like a medal!

Designer: Keny Lin