Tag Archives: balance

This two-piece side table is a balancing act expressed in contrasting elements

Posted on by

We all try to achieve a certain degree of balance, whether it’s in our lives or at least in the items we possess. There’s almost something natural about being in a state of equilibrium, and our eyes and minds find well-balanced objects to be pleasing and almost calming. Of course, neither life nor nature is as simple as that, and we often find ourselves beset by conflicting and opposing factors. Finding a stable middle ground between two sides is a major part of life’s journey, and this curious side table makes that struggle visible and real in a design that is both mind-boggling and practical as well.

Designer: Deniz Aktay

At first glance, the Shaolin side table almost looks unstable and unreliable. The tabletop is a simple flat rectangular piece that rests on top of a curve that forms the head of a ribbon-like shape. Of course, the imbalance is only an illusion, but it’s enough to make one pause in the uncertainty of whether the tabletop will topple over on one side or the other. It’s like the balancing act that martial artists like the table’s namesake perform.

In reality, the two parts of the table are not its top and its legs but rather the two halves that make up its left and right sides. These boomerang-shaped sheets of metal interlock perfectly to the point that they support each other to make the table stand and carry the weight of whatever is put on top. It’s almost like it’s the tension of the forces between the two pieces that makes it possible for the table to be so well-balanced.

In addition to its form, the colors of the side table also create a contrast that balance each other in the end. The red and black motif is often used as complementary hues in visual design. Computer scientists might even recognize the association with a certain “red-black tree” that is considered to be a self-balancing data structure.

It’s also almost metaphorical that the overlapping and opposing forms create a small space in the middle where you can safely place some of your important stuff. Of course, given the inclined sides, it won’t be a good place to put things that will easily break when that balance is perturbed. It’s still a convenient location for books, a phone, and other transient objects that make their way to your hands as you try to juggle and balance the sometimes opposing demands of life.

The post This two-piece side table is a balancing act expressed in contrasting elements first appeared on Yanko Design.

This at-home plant cultivator keeps a minimalist design and grows any plant indoor, in your kitchen!

Posted on by

Balance is an at-home plant cultivator that keeps a small enough size and minimalist design to fit into any modern kitchen.

The pandemic proved that having access to your source of produce should be as commonplace as having access to clean drinking water. Still, the majority of us rely on grocery stores and delivery apps to get our produce and fresh greenery. While keeping our eyes peeled for buzz words like organic and local harvest is a personal choice, there’s no way of knowing exactly under what conditions and where our produce is harvested.

Balance, a plant cultivator designed by Designer Dot, is designed for those of us who’d like access to a personal supply of fresh produce at home without the hassle of tending to a garden day-in, day-out.

Designer Dot is known for its extensive catalog of household appliances. Designer Dot is all about merging minimalist aesthetics with convenient design from wireless portable chargers to self-contained coffee brewers.

When creating Balance, the team at Designer Dot sought to conceptualize an at-home plant cultivator that’s compact enough to fit into any modern kitchen and inconspicuous in its minimalist design to adapt to any interior design scheme.

Stocked similarly to most plant cultivators, Balance comes with pull-out drawers that contain pods and sprout cavities for produce and crops to germinate from and grow. The drawers themselves can be removed to allow ceiling height for taller plants to grow, which users can swap in and out for different plants accordingly.

Once the seeds are planted, Balance takes care of the rest. Inside Balance, LEDs pour nonstop grow light over the seedlings to ensure healthy crops come time to harvest. To prevent the LEDs from busying the kitchen too much, Designer Dot built-in scroll blinds to shield the cultivator’s light from view.

Keeping a rather minimal exterior, Balance originally comes in a blush pink shade, which users can customize to fit their tastes.

Metallic ribbing with integrated haptic sensor technology runs down the length of Balance’s front facade, functioning as the appliance’s control panel. There, users will find the on/off button, temperature dials, as well as other control switches that work to optimize growing conditions for the plants inside. Additionally, like most modern home appliances, Balance comes with an accompanying app that suggests the best care for each user’s specific plants.

Designer: Designer Dot

Balance’s integrated smartphone app alerts users when plants require special care. 

Intuitive app reminders signal to users the overall conditions of their plants. 

When placed in the kitchen, Balance’s scroll blinds provide a stylish way of covering the appliance’s bright LEDs. 

Along Balance’s front facade, metallic ribbing encases haptic control panels.

The post This at-home plant cultivator keeps a minimalist design and grows any plant indoor, in your kitchen! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This desk was designed to maximize productivity while minimizing your screen time!

Posted on by

Working from home has made us all realize the importance of having a desk and one that actually makes being productive easy! Balance is a desk that was designed for helping you ‘balance’ your everyday life with work. Balance means to keep or bring equilibrium and this design does exactly that by encouraging time away from your screens and creating a more physical connection with your surroundings.

The team wanted to inspire young people to work hard and play hard – a desk that encouraged finding a balance between digital and analog environments. “The idea behind Balance product is to use digital interfaces as inspiration to create a new hybrid experience for the user. The form and modular qualities of the design evoke the digital touchscreen interfaces we use every day but with a tridimensional layer that creates a tactile and tangible experience. This new approach brings builds a bridge between the connectivity and structure of the digital environment and the visual and physical experience of products,” explains the designer duo.

Balance is a multi-functional desk that an creates organized, personalized, and productive work experience. It features a canvas and six types of modules (Surface, White Board, Cork, Kanban, Time, and Shelf) that are magnetically attatched to the canvas. You can pick and choose the modules that work best for your needs, work style, and aesthetics preference while also combining them to be integrated with productivity techniques like Kanban and Pomodoro. Assemble the canvas to the arm by adjusting four screws through the standard VESA monitor connection. A C-shaped clamp connects the arm to the desk. Each module has strong neodymium magnets that connect them to the canvas. Furthermore, the whiteboard comes with an adjustable stand so you can use it on the desk surface for a more natural and ergonomic position to draw/write. Even the light angle can be adjusted by simply moving the module up and down.

Th desk’s canvas is made from high-impact polystyrene and powder-coated steel for a rigid, magnetic, and durable surface to hold the modules. The modules are made from injection-molded HDPE giving them adequate rigidity for the structure, softness to the touch, and satin finish. Balance also lets you customize the finishes/accents with a choice of walnut, oak, and cork. Some finishes use special magnetic paint for a marker-friendly writing surface.

There was a lot of research that went into Balance’s design – the personality, work environments, and workflows of various people in their respective jobs as well as a variety of productivity and work management techniques were studied. The team also analyzed different physical and digital interfaces to understand what products were more effective, easy to use, and popular among people. This final outcome resulted in a product that is flexible, organized, modular, easy to use, and personalized!

Balance Desk and Work Manager by Hernan Gregorio and Julia Stabio is Winner in Office Furniture Design Category, 2020 – 2021.

Designers: Hernan Gregorio and Julia Stabio

Researchers trained a quadruped robot to cross a balance beam

Posted on by
While four-legged robots can achieve impressive feats, like pulling an airplane or climbing a fence, they still have a few limitations. In most cases, they need a fairly large surface to walk on. A team of Italian robotics researchers is looking to c...

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

Posted on by

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

Visually split into two distinct parts, the Balance watch says all it needs to with its name, and the watch face design. Taking inspiration from the Yin-Yang, the Balance watch is all about showcasing a duality. A duality between colors, themes, and even technology, because aside from being half black and half white, the Balance Watch is also half-analog, half digital.

Looking like a normal mechanical watch, the Balance’s watch face is actually half-parts a dynamic e-ink display. The black surface serves as a display unit, through which the hands appear, and on top of which lies the white half-dial piece, adding contrast and drama to the watch face.

The hands come with their own interpretation of duality, with black and white hands (and dot indicators at the end of them) and tell the time against the watch’s dual-colored surface. The white part of the watch surface comes with a subdial, and to complement it, the e-ink display has a ‘subdial’ too that displays the date and time. The e-ink display even works in tandem with your phone when connected, giving you notifications when you’re getting a call or a message, and if you really want to spice the two-tone layout, you can even get the display to show off black and white patterns, giving you the duality of visual drama vs plain-ness!

Designer: Design Magnet

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

The Balance Watch bases itself off the duality of Yin and Yang

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ comes to Netflix on Christmas Day

Posted on by
Ever since the premiere of Avengers: Infinity War, there's been a looming question: when is it coming to Netflix? Right in time for some holiday viewing, it seems. Netflix has revealed that the star-studded superhero flick will be available to stre...