Yanko Design - Latest Posts |  |
- The Spicy Hug Of Yin And Yang
- 9 Spots For Your Eye
- Entertain Yourself: Sony BRAVIA NX800 3D HDTV
- Ambient Lights Get Powered By Nothing
- Hawking on Table
- Drink More Ink
- The Headphones that Captured All
| Posted: 25 Feb 2010 03:26 AM PST There is nothing more comforting than a warm hug from your mother. It's the most natural form of reassurance, and metaphorically speaking, an embrace can help us conquer our fears and achieve aspirations. My point is that a hug says a lot about human emotions, be it a bear hug or side-shoulder embrace. Depicting this raw gesture is the Hug Salt & Pepper Shakers delightful with a zing. Because when viewed from above, they also resembles Yin & Yang! Designer: Alberto Mantilla [ Buy it Here, Hug Salt & Pepper Shakers is available for $24 @ YD Store ] Hug Salt & Pepper Shakers is available for $24 @ YD Store        |
| Posted: 25 Feb 2010 02:26 AM PST The Motion Global Eye by China Telecom aims to create a humanistic platform for the vision impaired, one that will enable them to interact with today’s modern technologies in a much more natural and intuitive way. The devices has 9 points and a central guide. This setup mimics today’s most commonly used key input – the alphanumeric keypad. The unusual feature is the video recording capability. I’m curious as to what a blind person might record. Designers: Shanghai Research Institute of China Telecom Corporation Limited     |
| Entertain Yourself: Sony BRAVIA NX800 3D HDTV Posted: 25 Feb 2010 02:07 AM PST In this first of a three-part series called “Entertain Yourself”, I’m going to put together a quick and dirty home entertainment center out of three products I’ve reviewed earlier this year. Mind you, this won’t please the hardcore video or audiophile. I wanted products that seamlessly balance industrial design with home entertainment and as designers, we all know that’s how the general consumer perceives products. I call it utilitarian sex and first up is the stunning BRAVIA NX800 HDTV from Sony. Designer: Sony (Buy it here) My first introduction to the BRAVIA NX800 was thru a little video Sony produced about the auspicious design and the designers themselves. A brief glimpse into Sony’s Japanese headquarters and short interviews with the surprisingly young group of designers served its purpose by changing my mind about a company whom I once thought was extremely long in the tooth. These young people spoke of revision and change, admittingly taking responsibility for Sony’s lackluster design in the past decade. They saw 2010 as an opportunity to change everything. This time, they would define their own agenda. Instead of playing catch-up to other first rate brands, Sony would forge ahead with what they once dominated the ID landscape with; slick Japanese electronic design. The NX800 is the first of many products to embrace this new design aesthetic Sony calls Monolithic. Think tall, sleek, angular, and statuesque. There’s nothing organic about it. It’s meant to stand in opposition to everything else around it. Love it or hate it, it draws you in. This is the first time in a long time where I’ve felt Sony has a win. This isn’t like anything else on the market. It doesn’t look like LG, Samsung, Vizio, Toshiba or Apple. This is uniquely Sony. This is a good thing. Sony has always had great technology but they could never find a way to package it in a compelling way. Designed to create a remarkable sense of space, the 52″ NX800 has an innovative six-degree tilt, so you can position the TV at lower levels. Mounting on walls is so passe now. The entire screen is Edge LED backlight providing instant on/off. The latest BRAVIA Engine lives up to its reputation by delivering incredibly saturated imagery rich in detail and color. The 240Hz screen means action oriented imagery never “ghosts” or blurs as the refresh rate attempts to compensate. It’s all crystal clear, like glass. Having a razor sharp screen isn’t enough these days. All the major manufactures now share their panel tech and just slap on buzz words to make it all sound alluring. To be successful you’ve got to embrace where digital entertainment is moving towards – the internet. It’s got built in Wi-Fi and with your in-home broadband connection, you can access online content from Netflix, Slacker Radio, and YouTube. Although widgets are old news for computers – they’re new for TV’s. The NX800 lets you watch programs with multiple widgets open and arrange them however you want. Spec wise it’s loaded. To name a few, full 1080p, 5.1 channel audio out, 16:9 aspect ratio, XMB interface, and of course the Sony logo illuminates. The one really interesting feature is “3D enabled”. Trade shows were abuzz this year with talks of 3D televisions. We’re getting close to the stage where imagery is beginning to move away from flat two dimensional representation. Of course it’s all an illusion and with the NX800, you’ll need Sony 3D glasses to get the effect. It may seem like a gimmicky feature but it shows Sony is serious about the future and this time, they will not be left behind. You can read the full specs here. I’ve looked at upcoming panels from LG, Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp, and JVC. None of them resonate with me like the NX800 does. The TV stand by itself has more engineering in it than meets the eye. Most TV stands are a plasticky afterthought. This one holds up the display like a gigantic picture frame yet it’s delicate enough to adjust with a gentle touch, and touch is the name of the game here. There are no tactile buttons. All controls are embedded into the screen bezel which seamlessly blends into the frame. As you graze the glass-like surface, the controls illuminate as if they’re breathing life. It shows extreme attention to detail. Kudos Sony. So now I’ve got my awesome TV. What’s next? Speakers! Watch out for part two of the “Entertain Yourself” series. Cheers!     |
| Ambient Lights Get Powered By Nothing Posted: 25 Feb 2010 01:00 AM PST Well almost nothing. Here's how the deal works: you have a multiple socket strip and probably using up all the sockets to power your gadgets. Its switched on and you keep forgetting to unplug or switch off the unused gadget from the strip and waste energy. With the Saving Energy Multitap, the so called wasted energy is no longer wasted….it gets sucked up to power this set of cool looking touch-sensitive ambient lights on the wall. The job of these ambient lights is to subtly remind you that you need to power off buddy! The video of the working prototype convinces me that this is a neat idea! Designers: Dong Hoon Han, Hwa Yong Shin & Dong Jin Shin     |
| Posted: 25 Feb 2010 12:10 AM PST I dare you to decipher that clever two-level title. I dare you. The project I’m about to talk about is called the “Continuum Table,” and it’s really great. It’s made out of chromed steel and folds in space-time. Actually that’s what it’s informed by. Yes, the Continuum Table is inspired by models of space-time in which “spaghetti-like structures form an invisible network of fold of space and time in our universe.” What do you say to something like that? You look at it heavily and give it a thumbs up. Look at that monster. It’s just spectacular. It’s got all these statistics too: So what do you think about that? I think it’s pretty. I don’t know how I’d clean the dust off of it though. Maybe it would be really fun! Also I imagine that if I owned a lot of birds, they would enjoy it. Designer: Jason Phillips     |
| Posted: 25 Feb 2010 12:04 AM PST No don’t do that! Only the plant should! No not that plant! This one! This is a plant that’s inside a pen, and it isn’t even alive. Except in your imagination. This is a concept design from Igor Lobanov would have you believe that not only do plants live inside pens just fine, even in the dark, but that also they can live on ink. That’s crazy talk! What are you even saying! Just let it sit there in the inkwell for a little bit and experience the magic. Yes siree, this plant basically inflates with ink. The containment plant inside the bulk of the pen acts the same basic way a vacuum cleaner does, inflating as it takes in more ink. The ink is inserted through the tip as it sits resting in the inkwell, and as the blue ink fills up the yellow plant, it becomes a more natural green. How spiffy! Designer: Igor Lobanov     |
| The Headphones that Captured All Posted: 25 Feb 2010 12:03 AM PST Hey so I know you want to capture everything that you experience. Wait you don’t? Then don’t read this. You’ll get all mad probably. This is a concept design about a set of wireless headphones that also have a 10.1 megapixel digi-cam on one side and a digital image projector on the side. You can capture your world all the time and put that stuff on the internet right away. Instantly. Here’s basically the manifesto of this project: Support the act of exploration by giving people better tools. Deepen image’s meaning by supoprting as much information as possible. Bring people together by enabling individuals to express themselves. There’s all kinds of wireless going on with this project. It’s got P2P, automatic backup into your computer, and instant wireless uploading to the internets. And! And! With the projector, you can project as you record. How useless is that? Not at all. I need people to know what they look like. *Don’t forget to look at that really, just, good looking, guy at the bottom of this post. **Lookin good, guy. Designer: William Gerwin     |
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