Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

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Run this comparison for me. Imagine having to pay for electricity every month, all your life. Electricity to power your phone, laptop, tablet, watch, etc. Or imagine the flipside. Owning a solar panel and a battery, and not having to pay for electricity, but rather, capturing your own.

Flextech has truly spearheaded the solar-friendly-consumer movement. Their range of solar panels (which we’ve admired and spoken of at length) help you tap into our solar system’s largest energy source to power your lives. Their latest offering, the SunPack backpack, is the most useful in their series of products. Giving you storage for your devices as well as the means to charge them.

If you hate electricity bills or having to look for plug-points, and you love backpacks, the SunPack may just be the best backpack for you. With Flextech’s powerful, weatherproof solar panel integrated into it, just being outdoors is enough to generate electricity! Designed to seamlessly integrate (and show off) Flextech’s solar panels, the bag comes with all the features you’d want from a good backpack. Compartmentalized storage, waterproof design, anti-theft locking, RFID blocking pockets for your cards, and integrated USB and headphone jack for juicing your devices and listening to music on the go. What steals the show, however, remains Flextech’s solar panels. Designed to be hardy and flexible, the panels are waterproof, dustproof, and generally weatherproof. Designed with an undulating texture, the panels can capture solar power efficiently at any time of the day, no matter where they’re facing (i.e., they don’t need to directly face the sun).

The solar panel on the SunPack is detachable, and slides into its own compartment when not in use. If you do want to take it out, snap it to the magnetic patch on the front of the backpack to secure it and keep it in place. Both the patch and the panel come with reflectors too, allowing the backpack and its wearer to be visible in low-light conditions (on the road, etc). The panel connects to the USB outlet on the bag, allowing you to power any of your gadgets (from your phones to drones) or even store the power for later in an external power bank. Just being outdoors or even in ambient light is enough to generate energy… so why would you pay for electricity when you can just tap into the world’s largest free energy source?!

Designers: Iris Liu & Lillian Wang

Click here to Buy Now: $65.00

1. Captures more sunlight and increase the solar absorption rate by 5%.
2. Non-adhesive surface, stain-resistant and can be easily cleaned by rain or damp cloth.
3. Lightweight, UV resistant, durable and long lifespan.

Charge any USB devices.

Last but not least, with SunPack on your back, you will never again have to worry about driving a bike or ridding a cycle during night. Reflective panels make you an easy target to spot from a distance.

Click here to Buy Now: $65.00

Recently, household fires have increased and in these events, the risk of death for blind people is significantly high. Designed to assist a person who is visually impaired during the event of a fire, Ball uses a multitude of sensors to aim at the danger zone automatically.

Packaged inside the sleek exterior casing lies a tracking system which, together with the sensors located around the room, pinpoints the fire source. The ball which protrudes out of the top of the device automatically rotates to locate and track the fire. Touch points have been greatly considered, most noticeably with the pressure gauge that features a needle on both sides of the glass so that the dial can be felt.

A small speaker can be found within the base of the product, this sounds an alarm if a fire is detected as well as providing clear, concise instructions on what to do next!

Designer: Minwook Paeng

Heat detection camera.

Guide speaker.

Touchable gauge.

Sensors.

Streamlined, ergonomic, and with a silhouette that’s memorable, almost like a brand logo, the Achilles Knife is powerful, but unlike its namesake, shows no point of weakness. Made from a single piece of German stainless steel, the Achilles is blade and handle, all in one. Following a quite unique form factor whether viewed from the side or the top, the Achilles was designed to be an all-purpose chef knife that could be used to chop, slice, and dice any type of food, under any circumstances, and be handled equally effectively whether held with a wet or dry hand.

The German Design Award-winning Achilles knife has an unusual design that looks quite characteristic. Made from a single piece of steel, this unibody knife has a thin, sharp blade that gradually grows thicker near the handle. Look at the top view of the blade and you’ll see the transition that allows the blade to have mass and weight, allowing you to grip it firmly and control the blade with ease. It also sports finger grooves along the bottom for an ergonomic grip, and a hole at the hilt of the blade that reduces the overall weight of the knife, while also giving you much more control by allowing you to slip a finger into it to get a better grip when you’ve got a wet hand. It also gives the Achilles a sort of signature look, that would allow people to identify the blade and the brand by just looking at its silhouette. The blade of the Achilles comes with a nano-coating and liquid nitrogen treatment, for sharpness and durability that’s difficult to rival.

While the Achilles is an all-purpose knife, it also comes as a part of a collection of three. Aside from the Achilles all-purpose, you’ve got a smaller paring knife, rather ideal for cutting and peeling small fruits, etc. You’ve also got a serrated-edged bread knife that cleanly slices through loaves. Along with the set of knives, you’ve also got a wooden stand that lets you put them on display, because aside from being instruments of a rather artistic profession, the knives are works of art themselves too!

Designer: UBUTT Design for Sternsteiger

Click here to Buy Now: $125.00 $305.00 FLASH SALE, only for 24 hours!

The blade of Achilles is formed like a traditional western all-purpose Chef’s knife. It is ideal for all kinds of chopping, slicing, and dicing.

The Achilles handle is uniquely shaped and fits perfectly into your hand to provide the best possible grip even if your hands or the knife itself is wet.

The most noticeable feature of Achilles is the hole in its handle. It is a point that provides balance and grip to the knife. The hole sits at the knives point of balance and allows you to put a finger into it for optimal pressure distribution while cutting.

The full Achilles knife series.

Click here to Buy Now: $125.00 $305.00 FLASH SALE, only for 24 hours!

Range hoods tend to be giant, looming objects that hover in your kitchen and… well… the Orbital hood is no exception! However, it does lack the massive upper ventilation duct of your standard units. Instead, it’s suspended from a series of barely-there wires that give it the impression of floating. Despite having a hollow center, smoke and smells in the air are directed into the unit and filtered out with a powerful cyclone suction system. Its oversized LED strip and panoramic suction zone make it an ideal solution for large kitchen islands.

Designer: Diana Ushakova

How often do you scroll through your camera roll to relive your moments from the past? Rarely I bet. That’s the problem with digital storage. Stuff gets lost in the binary code… because with unlimited digital storage on the cloud, you now click a thousand pictures, edit just three, and probably post just one online. Then the moment disappears into oblivion, after two days of gathering likes and hearts and retweets.

The Kiipix helps turn those digital captures into tangible memories that you can place on your desk, or hang on your wall. The ingenious bit, however, is that you don’t need a polaroid, or a printer, or even an electronic device. Just your phone. Open the Kiipix up and place your phone, with the image you choose, on top (make sure your phone’s screen brightness is optimally set). Then place a piece of instant-developing polaroid paper in the paper slot of the Kiipix and press the shutter button. The Kiipix cleverly uses the phone’s screen brightness to burn the image you’ve selected on the polaroid paper. Easy, and just unbelievably smart, the Kiipix gives you prints of your photos (with a nice vintage touch) using the camera you use and love the most. Your smartphone camera!

Designer: TOMY International

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We have complex relationships with our phones. We talk to them, often choosing to interact with the screen over family, and tests show we can check our phone on an average of 85 times per day. Like any relationship, this one needs to be a balanced one too, so The School of Life presents the Phone Detox. A palm-friendly, phone-sized book that contains insights, ideas, and meditations that help you get over your heavy dependency on your phone, social media, and validation addictions. The book covers relevant topics like Addiction, Monasticism, Poetry, Nature, Dating, Utopia, and even Death. Its aim being to allow us to take a step back, breathe, and contemplate a little, rather than simply consuming content the internet keeps throwing at you.

The makers of the book say that the “Phone Detox knows we love our phones and would never want us to give them up, but it is also gently aware that these delightful gadgets bear a hidden cost. This flip book is a tool that aims to bring a little sanity to our closest, most intense and possibly most danger-laden technological relationship.”

That’s right. Put that screen down and enjoy life and its beautiful imperfections! You can even read an extract here.

Designer: The School of Life

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Click Here to Buy Now