Author Archives: Sarang Sheth

PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate

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Tech accessories have hit a curious inflection point. The last year trained us to worship thinness and glass, but somewhere between the tenth identical ‘Air’ or ‘Edge’ smartphone and the fifteenth glossy case, a countermovement quietly took root. Texture matters again. Grip, weave, and tactile identity are no longer afterthoughts, they’re the differentiators that keep objects from sliding into the sea of sameness. PITAKA, a brand built on aerospace-grade aramid fiber and what it calls “fusion weaving,” has spent years proving that phones don’t have to feel like jewelry-store display pieces. Now, with the launch of “Weave the Next, Weave Our World,” the company is turning that philosophy outward, inviting designers worldwide to imagine the surfaces and visual languages that will define the next generation of tech we carry, hold, and interact with every day.

Launching April 24th, 2026, the competition is framed explicitly around the intersection of technology and art, which is less marketing speak and more PITAKA’s operational DNA. The brand’s cases have always leaned hard into material science, using woven aramid fibers (the same stuff in bulletproof vests and aircraft components) that are five times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight. But strength alone doesn’t sell. What makes PITAKA cases notable is the texture vocabulary they’ve developed over years of refining weave patterns, experimenting with 600D and 1500D aramid densities, and pushing techniques like “fusion weaving,” where multiple patterns coexist on a single loom to create intricate, layered surface designs. “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” extends that exploration beyond the company’s internal design studio and into the hands of students, professionals, and independent creators who might see texture, pattern, and tactility from entirely different cultural or aesthetic starting points.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The Brief

Nordic Knit Dream

Drifting Shadows

PITAKA’s “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” global design competition invites designers to create texture and visual language systems for the brand’s future product series, positioned explicitly at the intersection of technology and art. Participants choose from four thematic directions: “These Moments,” which captures the raw beauty and shifting rhythms of the natural world; “Timeless Threads,” weaving stories of culture, memory, and human journeys; “Beyond Tomorrow,” exploring visionary futures where innovation reshapes daily life; or “Roots of Rhythms,” celebrating the textures, symbols, and spirit born from each land’s heritage. The competition aims to explore emerging global trends in tactile and visual design, strengthen PITAKA’s art-tech identity, and potentially commercialize winning designs through royalties, co-branding, and official recognition.

How To Participate

  1. Visit the official competition website or Dribbble page to submit your entry
  2. Provide participant information and upload your texture designs
  3. Include a written design explanation with your submission
  4. Entries will be evaluated through a combination of professional jury review and public voting
  5. Winners will be announced and showcased in an online exhibition

Competition Dates

  • Competition Launch: April 24, 2026
  • Submission Period: April 24 – May 25, 2026
  • Judging Period: May 26 – May 31, 2026
  • Winners Announcement: June 9, 2026

Jury Panel

  • Qiongzhi Xie (Artist; Founder of Daxing Jizi Studio)
  • Matteo Menotto (Head of Design, Prints & Textile Accessories at Bulgari)
  • Sarang Sheth (Editor-in-Chief, Yanko Design)
  • James (Founder / CEO, PITAKA)

Important Information

The most compelling entries are likely to do three things at once:

  1. Treat texture as a system, not a single image
    PITAKA’s products live across multiple form factors, so a strong entry will propose a visual/tactile system that can scale and adapt, not just a one-off pattern.
  2. Anchor the concept in one of the four themes without being literal
    “These Moments” does not need a photo-real print of a wave; “Roots of Rhythms” does not need a direct copy of a folk motif. Abstraction, distillation, and translation into a tech-accessory context will matter.
  3. Consider manufacturability and user experience
    Even in a speculative competition, the jury includes industrial design and brand leadership. Textures that look stunning in render but collapse in real material or feel uncomfortable in hand will likely be deprioritized.

If you already experiment with materials, parametric patterns, or culturally rooted visual systems, “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” is essentially an invitation to push that work into a space where it might actually ship.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The post PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate first appeared on Yanko Design.

PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate

Posted on by

Tech accessories have hit a curious inflection point. The last year trained us to worship thinness and glass, but somewhere between the tenth identical ‘Air’ or ‘Edge’ smartphone and the fifteenth glossy case, a countermovement quietly took root. Texture matters again. Grip, weave, and tactile identity are no longer afterthoughts, they’re the differentiators that keep objects from sliding into the sea of sameness. PITAKA, a brand built on aerospace-grade aramid fiber and what it calls “fusion weaving,” has spent years proving that phones don’t have to feel like jewelry-store display pieces. Now, with the launch of “Weave the Next, Weave Our World,” the company is turning that philosophy outward, inviting designers worldwide to imagine the surfaces and visual languages that will define the next generation of tech we carry, hold, and interact with every day.

Launching April 24th, 2026, the competition is framed explicitly around the intersection of technology and art, which is less marketing speak and more PITAKA’s operational DNA. The brand’s cases have always leaned hard into material science, using woven aramid fibers (the same stuff in bulletproof vests and aircraft components) that are five times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight. But strength alone doesn’t sell. What makes PITAKA cases notable is the texture vocabulary they’ve developed over years of refining weave patterns, experimenting with 600D and 1500D aramid densities, and pushing techniques like “fusion weaving,” where multiple patterns coexist on a single loom to create intricate, layered surface designs. “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” extends that exploration beyond the company’s internal design studio and into the hands of students, professionals, and independent creators who might see texture, pattern, and tactility from entirely different cultural or aesthetic starting points.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The Brief

Nordic Knit Dream

Drifting Shadows

PITAKA’s “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” global design competition invites designers to create texture and visual language systems for the brand’s future product series, positioned explicitly at the intersection of technology and art. Participants choose from four thematic directions: “These Moments,” which captures the raw beauty and shifting rhythms of the natural world; “Timeless Threads,” weaving stories of culture, memory, and human journeys; “Beyond Tomorrow,” exploring visionary futures where innovation reshapes daily life; or “Roots of Rhythms,” celebrating the textures, symbols, and spirit born from each land’s heritage. The competition aims to explore emerging global trends in tactile and visual design, strengthen PITAKA’s art-tech identity, and potentially commercialize winning designs through royalties, co-branding, and official recognition.

How To Participate

  1. Visit the official competition website or Dribbble page to submit your entry
  2. Provide participant information and upload your texture designs
  3. Include a written design explanation with your submission
  4. Entries will be evaluated through a combination of professional jury review and public voting
  5. Winners will be announced and showcased in an online exhibition

Competition Dates

  • Competition Launch: April 24, 2026
  • Submission Period: April 24 – May 25, 2026
  • Judging Period: May 26 – May 31, 2026
  • Winners Announcement: June 9, 2026

Jury Panel

  • Qiongzhi Xie (Artist; Founder of Daxing Jizi Studio)
  • Matteo Menotto (Head of Design, Prints & Textile Accessories at Bulgari)
  • Sarang Sheth (Editor-in-Chief, Yanko Design)
  • James (Founder / CEO, PITAKA)

Important Information

The most compelling entries are likely to do three things at once:

  1. Treat texture as a system, not a single image
    PITAKA’s products live across multiple form factors, so a strong entry will propose a visual/tactile system that can scale and adapt, not just a one-off pattern.
  2. Anchor the concept in one of the four themes without being literal
    “These Moments” does not need a photo-real print of a wave; “Roots of Rhythms” does not need a direct copy of a folk motif. Abstraction, distillation, and translation into a tech-accessory context will matter.
  3. Consider manufacturability and user experience
    Even in a speculative competition, the jury includes industrial design and brand leadership. Textures that look stunning in render but collapse in real material or feel uncomfortable in hand will likely be deprioritized.

If you already experiment with materials, parametric patterns, or culturally rooted visual systems, “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” is essentially an invitation to push that work into a space where it might actually ship.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The post PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate first appeared on Yanko Design.

PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate

Posted on by

Tech accessories have hit a curious inflection point. The last year trained us to worship thinness and glass, but somewhere between the tenth identical ‘Air’ or ‘Edge’ smartphone and the fifteenth glossy case, a countermovement quietly took root. Texture matters again. Grip, weave, and tactile identity are no longer afterthoughts, they’re the differentiators that keep objects from sliding into the sea of sameness. PITAKA, a brand built on aerospace-grade aramid fiber and what it calls “fusion weaving,” has spent years proving that phones don’t have to feel like jewelry-store display pieces. Now, with the launch of “Weave the Next, Weave Our World,” the company is turning that philosophy outward, inviting designers worldwide to imagine the surfaces and visual languages that will define the next generation of tech we carry, hold, and interact with every day.

Launching April 24th, 2026, the competition is framed explicitly around the intersection of technology and art, which is less marketing speak and more PITAKA’s operational DNA. The brand’s cases have always leaned hard into material science, using woven aramid fibers (the same stuff in bulletproof vests and aircraft components) that are five times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight. But strength alone doesn’t sell. What makes PITAKA cases notable is the texture vocabulary they’ve developed over years of refining weave patterns, experimenting with 600D and 1500D aramid densities, and pushing techniques like “fusion weaving,” where multiple patterns coexist on a single loom to create intricate, layered surface designs. “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” extends that exploration beyond the company’s internal design studio and into the hands of students, professionals, and independent creators who might see texture, pattern, and tactility from entirely different cultural or aesthetic starting points.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The Brief

Nordic Knit Dream

Drifting Shadows

PITAKA’s “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” global design competition invites designers to create texture and visual language systems for the brand’s future product series, positioned explicitly at the intersection of technology and art. Participants choose from four thematic directions: “These Moments,” which captures the raw beauty and shifting rhythms of the natural world; “Timeless Threads,” weaving stories of culture, memory, and human journeys; “Beyond Tomorrow,” exploring visionary futures where innovation reshapes daily life; or “Roots of Rhythms,” celebrating the textures, symbols, and spirit born from each land’s heritage. The competition aims to explore emerging global trends in tactile and visual design, strengthen PITAKA’s art-tech identity, and potentially commercialize winning designs through royalties, co-branding, and official recognition.

How To Participate

  1. Visit the official competition website or Dribbble page to submit your entry
  2. Provide participant information and upload your texture designs
  3. Include a written design explanation with your submission
  4. Entries will be evaluated through a combination of professional jury review and public voting
  5. Winners will be announced and showcased in an online exhibition

Competition Dates

  • Competition Launch: April 24, 2026
  • Submission Period: April 24 – May 25, 2026
  • Judging Period: May 26 – May 31, 2026
  • Winners Announcement: June 9, 2026

Jury Panel

  • Qiongzhi Xie (Artist; Founder of Daxing Jizi Studio)
  • Matteo Menotto (Head of Design, Prints & Textile Accessories at Bulgari)
  • Sarang Sheth (Editor-in-Chief, Yanko Design)
  • James (Founder / CEO, PITAKA)

Important Information

The most compelling entries are likely to do three things at once:

  1. Treat texture as a system, not a single image
    PITAKA’s products live across multiple form factors, so a strong entry will propose a visual/tactile system that can scale and adapt, not just a one-off pattern.
  2. Anchor the concept in one of the four themes without being literal
    “These Moments” does not need a photo-real print of a wave; “Roots of Rhythms” does not need a direct copy of a folk motif. Abstraction, distillation, and translation into a tech-accessory context will matter.
  3. Consider manufacturability and user experience
    Even in a speculative competition, the jury includes industrial design and brand leadership. Textures that look stunning in render but collapse in real material or feel uncomfortable in hand will likely be deprioritized.

If you already experiment with materials, parametric patterns, or culturally rooted visual systems, “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” is essentially an invitation to push that work into a space where it might actually ship.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The post PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate first appeared on Yanko Design.

PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate

Posted on by

Tech accessories have hit a curious inflection point. The last year trained us to worship thinness and glass, but somewhere between the tenth identical ‘Air’ or ‘Edge’ smartphone and the fifteenth glossy case, a countermovement quietly took root. Texture matters again. Grip, weave, and tactile identity are no longer afterthoughts, they’re the differentiators that keep objects from sliding into the sea of sameness. PITAKA, a brand built on aerospace-grade aramid fiber and what it calls “fusion weaving,” has spent years proving that phones don’t have to feel like jewelry-store display pieces. Now, with the launch of “Weave the Next, Weave Our World,” the company is turning that philosophy outward, inviting designers worldwide to imagine the surfaces and visual languages that will define the next generation of tech we carry, hold, and interact with every day.

Launching April 24th, 2026, the competition is framed explicitly around the intersection of technology and art, which is less marketing speak and more PITAKA’s operational DNA. The brand’s cases have always leaned hard into material science, using woven aramid fibers (the same stuff in bulletproof vests and aircraft components) that are five times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight. But strength alone doesn’t sell. What makes PITAKA cases notable is the texture vocabulary they’ve developed over years of refining weave patterns, experimenting with 600D and 1500D aramid densities, and pushing techniques like “fusion weaving,” where multiple patterns coexist on a single loom to create intricate, layered surface designs. “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” extends that exploration beyond the company’s internal design studio and into the hands of students, professionals, and independent creators who might see texture, pattern, and tactility from entirely different cultural or aesthetic starting points.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The Brief

Nordic Knit Dream

Drifting Shadows

PITAKA’s “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” global design competition invites designers to create texture and visual language systems for the brand’s future product series, positioned explicitly at the intersection of technology and art. Participants choose from four thematic directions: “These Moments,” which captures the raw beauty and shifting rhythms of the natural world; “Timeless Threads,” weaving stories of culture, memory, and human journeys; “Beyond Tomorrow,” exploring visionary futures where innovation reshapes daily life; or “Roots of Rhythms,” celebrating the textures, symbols, and spirit born from each land’s heritage. The competition aims to explore emerging global trends in tactile and visual design, strengthen PITAKA’s art-tech identity, and potentially commercialize winning designs through royalties, co-branding, and official recognition.

How To Participate

  1. Visit the official competition website or Dribbble page to submit your entry
  2. Provide participant information and upload your texture designs
  3. Include a written design explanation with your submission
  4. Entries will be evaluated through a combination of professional jury review and public voting
  5. Winners will be announced and showcased in an online exhibition

Competition Dates

  • Competition Launch: April 24, 2026
  • Submission Period: April 24 – May 25, 2026
  • Judging Period: May 26 – May 31, 2026
  • Winners Announcement: June 9, 2026

Jury Panel

  • Qiongzhi Xie (Artist; Founder of Daxing Jizi Studio)
  • Matteo Menotto (Head of Design, Prints & Textile Accessories at Bulgari)
  • Sarang Sheth (Editor-in-Chief, Yanko Design)
  • James (Founder / CEO, PITAKA)

Important Information

The most compelling entries are likely to do three things at once:

  1. Treat texture as a system, not a single image
    PITAKA’s products live across multiple form factors, so a strong entry will propose a visual/tactile system that can scale and adapt, not just a one-off pattern.
  2. Anchor the concept in one of the four themes without being literal
    “These Moments” does not need a photo-real print of a wave; “Roots of Rhythms” does not need a direct copy of a folk motif. Abstraction, distillation, and translation into a tech-accessory context will matter.
  3. Consider manufacturability and user experience
    Even in a speculative competition, the jury includes industrial design and brand leadership. Textures that look stunning in render but collapse in real material or feel uncomfortable in hand will likely be deprioritized.

If you already experiment with materials, parametric patterns, or culturally rooted visual systems, “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” is essentially an invitation to push that work into a space where it might actually ship.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The post PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate first appeared on Yanko Design.

PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate

Posted on by

Tech accessories have hit a curious inflection point. The last year trained us to worship thinness and glass, but somewhere between the tenth identical ‘Air’ or ‘Edge’ smartphone and the fifteenth glossy case, a countermovement quietly took root. Texture matters again. Grip, weave, and tactile identity are no longer afterthoughts, they’re the differentiators that keep objects from sliding into the sea of sameness. PITAKA, a brand built on aerospace-grade aramid fiber and what it calls “fusion weaving,” has spent years proving that phones don’t have to feel like jewelry-store display pieces. Now, with the launch of “Weave the Next, Weave Our World,” the company is turning that philosophy outward, inviting designers worldwide to imagine the surfaces and visual languages that will define the next generation of tech we carry, hold, and interact with every day.

Launching April 24th, 2026, the competition is framed explicitly around the intersection of technology and art, which is less marketing speak and more PITAKA’s operational DNA. The brand’s cases have always leaned hard into material science, using woven aramid fibers (the same stuff in bulletproof vests and aircraft components) that are five times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight. But strength alone doesn’t sell. What makes PITAKA cases notable is the texture vocabulary they’ve developed over years of refining weave patterns, experimenting with 600D and 1500D aramid densities, and pushing techniques like “fusion weaving,” where multiple patterns coexist on a single loom to create intricate, layered surface designs. “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” extends that exploration beyond the company’s internal design studio and into the hands of students, professionals, and independent creators who might see texture, pattern, and tactility from entirely different cultural or aesthetic starting points.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The Brief

Nordic Knit Dream

Drifting Shadows

PITAKA’s “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” global design competition invites designers to create texture and visual language systems for the brand’s future product series, positioned explicitly at the intersection of technology and art. Participants choose from four thematic directions: “These Moments,” which captures the raw beauty and shifting rhythms of the natural world; “Timeless Threads,” weaving stories of culture, memory, and human journeys; “Beyond Tomorrow,” exploring visionary futures where innovation reshapes daily life; or “Roots of Rhythms,” celebrating the textures, symbols, and spirit born from each land’s heritage. The competition aims to explore emerging global trends in tactile and visual design, strengthen PITAKA’s art-tech identity, and potentially commercialize winning designs through royalties, co-branding, and official recognition.

How To Participate

  1. Visit the official competition website or Dribbble page to submit your entry
  2. Provide participant information and upload your texture designs
  3. Include a written design explanation with your submission
  4. Entries will be evaluated through a combination of professional jury review and public voting
  5. Winners will be announced and showcased in an online exhibition

Competition Dates

  • Competition Launch: April 24, 2026
  • Submission Period: April 24 – May 25, 2026
  • Judging Period: May 26 – May 31, 2026
  • Winners Announcement: June 9, 2026

Jury Panel

  • Qiongzhi Xie (Artist; Founder of Daxing Jizi Studio)
  • Matteo Menotto (Head of Design, Prints & Textile Accessories at Bulgari)
  • Sarang Sheth (Editor-in-Chief, Yanko Design)
  • James (Founder / CEO, PITAKA)

Important Information

The most compelling entries are likely to do three things at once:

  1. Treat texture as a system, not a single image
    PITAKA’s products live across multiple form factors, so a strong entry will propose a visual/tactile system that can scale and adapt, not just a one-off pattern.
  2. Anchor the concept in one of the four themes without being literal
    “These Moments” does not need a photo-real print of a wave; “Roots of Rhythms” does not need a direct copy of a folk motif. Abstraction, distillation, and translation into a tech-accessory context will matter.
  3. Consider manufacturability and user experience
    Even in a speculative competition, the jury includes industrial design and brand leadership. Textures that look stunning in render but collapse in real material or feel uncomfortable in hand will likely be deprioritized.

If you already experiment with materials, parametric patterns, or culturally rooted visual systems, “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” is essentially an invitation to push that work into a space where it might actually ship.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The post PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate first appeared on Yanko Design.

PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate

Posted on by

Tech accessories have hit a curious inflection point. The last year trained us to worship thinness and glass, but somewhere between the tenth identical ‘Air’ or ‘Edge’ smartphone and the fifteenth glossy case, a countermovement quietly took root. Texture matters again. Grip, weave, and tactile identity are no longer afterthoughts, they’re the differentiators that keep objects from sliding into the sea of sameness. PITAKA, a brand built on aerospace-grade aramid fiber and what it calls “fusion weaving,” has spent years proving that phones don’t have to feel like jewelry-store display pieces. Now, with the launch of “Weave the Next, Weave Our World,” the company is turning that philosophy outward, inviting designers worldwide to imagine the surfaces and visual languages that will define the next generation of tech we carry, hold, and interact with every day.

Launching April 24th, 2026, the competition is framed explicitly around the intersection of technology and art, which is less marketing speak and more PITAKA’s operational DNA. The brand’s cases have always leaned hard into material science, using woven aramid fibers (the same stuff in bulletproof vests and aircraft components) that are five times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight. But strength alone doesn’t sell. What makes PITAKA cases notable is the texture vocabulary they’ve developed over years of refining weave patterns, experimenting with 600D and 1500D aramid densities, and pushing techniques like “fusion weaving,” where multiple patterns coexist on a single loom to create intricate, layered surface designs. “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” extends that exploration beyond the company’s internal design studio and into the hands of students, professionals, and independent creators who might see texture, pattern, and tactility from entirely different cultural or aesthetic starting points.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The Brief

Nordic Knit Dream

Drifting Shadows

PITAKA’s “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” global design competition invites designers to create texture and visual language systems for the brand’s future product series, positioned explicitly at the intersection of technology and art. Participants choose from four thematic directions: “These Moments,” which captures the raw beauty and shifting rhythms of the natural world; “Timeless Threads,” weaving stories of culture, memory, and human journeys; “Beyond Tomorrow,” exploring visionary futures where innovation reshapes daily life; or “Roots of Rhythms,” celebrating the textures, symbols, and spirit born from each land’s heritage. The competition aims to explore emerging global trends in tactile and visual design, strengthen PITAKA’s art-tech identity, and potentially commercialize winning designs through royalties, co-branding, and official recognition.

How To Participate

  1. Visit the official competition website or Dribbble page to submit your entry
  2. Provide participant information and upload your texture designs
  3. Include a written design explanation with your submission
  4. Entries will be evaluated through a combination of professional jury review and public voting
  5. Winners will be announced and showcased in an online exhibition

Competition Dates

  • Competition Launch: April 24, 2026
  • Submission Period: April 24 – May 25, 2026
  • Judging Period: May 26 – May 31, 2026
  • Winners Announcement: June 9, 2026

Jury Panel

  • Qiongzhi Xie (Artist; Founder of Daxing Jizi Studio)
  • Matteo Menotto (Head of Design, Prints & Textile Accessories at Bulgari)
  • Sarang Sheth (Editor-in-Chief, Yanko Design)
  • James (Founder / CEO, PITAKA)

Important Information

The most compelling entries are likely to do three things at once:

  1. Treat texture as a system, not a single image
    PITAKA’s products live across multiple form factors, so a strong entry will propose a visual/tactile system that can scale and adapt, not just a one-off pattern.
  2. Anchor the concept in one of the four themes without being literal
    “These Moments” does not need a photo-real print of a wave; “Roots of Rhythms” does not need a direct copy of a folk motif. Abstraction, distillation, and translation into a tech-accessory context will matter.
  3. Consider manufacturability and user experience
    Even in a speculative competition, the jury includes industrial design and brand leadership. Textures that look stunning in render but collapse in real material or feel uncomfortable in hand will likely be deprioritized.

If you already experiment with materials, parametric patterns, or culturally rooted visual systems, “Weave the Next, Weave Our World” is essentially an invitation to push that work into a space where it might actually ship.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

Click Here to Submit Now. Hurry, Competition Ends: May 25, 2026.

The post PITAKA Is Letting the World Design Its Next Phone Cases, Royalties Included. Here’s How To Participate first appeared on Yanko Design.

If Fidget Spinners Were Furniture: This Marble Table Has a Brass Sphere You Push Around Endlessly

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Furniture should probably stay still. That’s the basic contract between you and the table: it holds your dinner plates, you don’t worry about physics. Alessio Scalabrini decided that contract was negotiable. The Animo table, produced by Italian marble workshop Serafini, features a brass sphere that rotates around a central lamp fixture, tracing concentric ripples carved into the marble surface like a tiny planet orbiting its sun. The table functions perfectly well as a static dining surface, but it also invites you to set something in motion every time you walk past it, turning what could’ve been another high-end marble slab into an interactive kinetic object that happens to hold glassware.

Named after the Italian word for Soul, the Animo table adds some animated joy with a dash of luxury to your space. The table, made entirely from Italian Rosso Levanto marble, is hand-finished with ripples that break the illusion of stillness, making it look fluid. Nestled in one of those ripples is a brass sphere, adding a dash of gold to the table’s ultra-dark burgundy and white-vein design. The result is furniture you can fidget with. It’s art and play combined brilliantly, with the kind of craftsmanship you can only expect from an Italian brand showcasing at Salone del Mobile!

Designer: Alessios Calabrini for Serafini

The table first attracts you with how it looks, then how it feels. The marble finish is impeccable, with the ripples crafted to absolute perfection. The perfection plays an important part here, because a brass sphere needs to seamlessly roll around the table, with the smoothness of a fidget spinner. The sphere has solid heft to it, giving it a fair amount of momentum when you nudge it around the table. It moves with little to no effort, completing tens of rotations before coming to a very gradual halt. Any other material would falter. Wood might end up deforming after years, metal would make the table feel unpleasant, rough stone wouldn’t cause the sphere to move as freely.

The central lamp adds another layer of functionality, illuminating the table from within while serving as the gravitational anchor for the sphere’s orbital path. The whole composition balances three distinct roles: functional dining surface, sculptural marble centerpiece, and interactive kinetic object. Most designers would’ve picked one and committed. Scalabrini made all three work simultaneously.

Scalabrini runs a Paris-based design studio with 18 years of experience merging traditional craftsmanship with contemporary fabrication technology, and that dual approach is visible throughout the Animo. The table uses Serafini’s established production methods, combining precision CNC machining with hand-finishing by Italian artisans who’ve been working marble their entire careers.

If you want to see the Animo table in person and experience the satisfying physics of that brass sphere yourself, Serafini is showing it at Salone Raritas during Salone del Mobile. The difference between seeing photos and actually pushing that orb around the channels is substantial. Photos capture the visual design, but they can’t communicate the tactile satisfaction of setting something that heavy into smooth, controlled motion.

The post If Fidget Spinners Were Furniture: This Marble Table Has a Brass Sphere You Push Around Endlessly first appeared on Yanko Design.

Skoda’s Inflatable Car Installation at Milan Design Week Looks Like a Bouncy Castle Grew Wheels

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Cars belong to the world of hard surfaces, precision tolerances, and engineering constraints measured in fractions of millimeters. Ulises Studio works in the opposite direction. The Barcelona-based spatial design practice has spent years creating immersive environments that transform architecture into something tactile and experiential, turning rigid spaces into soft, inviting landscapes. Their installations have activated cultural venues and public spaces across Europe, and their approach is immediately recognizable: inflatable forms, vibrant color palettes, and a commitment to making people rethink how they interact with the built environment. When Skoda asked them to collaborate on an installation for Milan Design Week 2025, they brought that same philosophy to something designers rarely get to touch: an actual production car.

The Epiq, Skoda’s new electric SUV, became the canvas. Ulises Studio covered it entirely in inflatable fabric panels, each one a horizontal tube running across the body in a sequence of cheerful colors. Mint green, burnt orange, soft pink, butter yellow, pale turquoise. The effect is disarming. What should feel like a parked vehicle instead reads as a sculpture, a comment on automotive design language filtered through the lens of spatial intervention. Skoda staged it at Palazzo Senato with multiple Epiq vehicles, each wrapped in different inflatable treatments, creating a dialog between the engineered reality and Ulises Studio’s playful reinterpretation.

Designers: Ulises Studio & Skoda Design

The genius of the installation lies in how completely it transforms the car’s character without altering its underlying form. Every crease, every character line, every panel gap gets translated into soft, pillowy geometry. The horizontal tubes follow the Epiq’s actual contours, which means the inflatable version retains the proportions and stance of the real thing. You can still read it as a compact SUV, but now it feels approachable in a way sheet metal never could. The tactile quality is impossible to ignore. Your brain knows you’re looking at air-filled fabric wrapped around a vehicle, but your hands want to reach out and squeeze it anyway.

Ulises Studio didn’t stop at wrapping cars. They transformed the entire courtyard at Palazzo Senato into what they’re calling a “clay landscape,” an inflatable environment that extends the material language across the entire space. Oversized typography spelling out “Ooooh, that’s EpiQ” dominates one wall, each letter constructed from the same air-filled tubes. Smaller inflatable elements populate the courtyard like sculptural furniture, creating zones where visitors can pause and take in the installation from different angles. The floor itself gets treated to a matching mint-green surface that ties the whole environment together. This is spatial design at its most comprehensive, where every element reinforces the central idea.

What makes the collaboration work is that Ulises Studio treats the Epiq as part of a larger environmental narrative rather than the hero object that everything else orbits around. The cars are embedded in the landscape, surrounded by inflatable forms that share their material language and color palette. This creates a sense of cohesion that most automotive installations never achieve, where the vehicle feels like it genuinely belongs in the space rather than being awkwardly dropped into it. The studio’s background in creating immersive experiences shows in how they choreograph movement through the courtyard, using the placement of vehicles and sculptural elements to guide visitors through different zones of the installation. You don’t just look at the inflatable Epiq, you move around it, through the landscape it inhabits, encountering different perspectives and color relationships as you navigate the space.

Ulises Studio has always understood that spatial design is a form of storytelling. Their inflatable installations communicate ideas about accessibility, transformation, and how we experience objects in space. The Epiq installation applies that same thinking to automotive design. By swapping metal and glass for inflatable fabric, they strip away the aggression and seriousness that define most car launches and replace it with something genuinely delightful. The oversized inflatable typography spelling out “Ooooh, that’s EpiQ” reinforces the tone in a fairly Gen-Z coded way, allowing the brand to resonate with younger generations. This is design as spatial play, a reminder that objects can be functional and joyful simultaneously.

You’re an expert editor/blogger with a profound understanding of human psyche as well as Google SEO. Now generate 10 catchy, attention-grabbing, mildly provocative titles that are SEO-friendly too. Make your titles have natural language but craft them so they rank high on google News and Discover as of March 2026. Do your SEO research. Make them natural language, simple, yet captivating

The post Skoda’s Inflatable Car Installation at Milan Design Week Looks Like a Bouncy Castle Grew Wheels first appeared on Yanko Design.

Electrolux and Veneta Cucine Use Biophilic Color Science to Rethink Kitchen Design at Milan 2026

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Scandinavian winters keep people indoors for roughly six months a year, which gives Swedish designers a lot of time to think about what a kitchen surface shoul…Scandinavian winters keep people indoors for roughly six months a year, which gives Swedish designers a lot of time to think about what a kitchen surface should feel like when it becomes the primary thing you look at during months when going outside requires genuine commitment. Electrolux leaned into that constraint at Milan Design Week 2026, partnering with Italian kitchen specialist Veneta Cucine to present a color palette pulled directly from nature. Warm sand, dusty teal, soft sage, speckled stone. Colors designed to reduce visual noise and make a kitchen feel less like a collection of separate purchases and more like a unified spatial environment.

The four color concepts (Ultra Blu, Verde Salvia, Nude, Alabastro) get applied to both appliances and cabinetry, creating kitchen installations where ovens genuinely disappear into walls. The collaboration is grounded in research showing that people across European markets identify nature as their primary source of emotional restoration, so Electrolux decided to bring that restoration indoors. The result is a palette that feels geologic rather than trendy, with appliances that function as architectural elements instead of shiny metal boxes standing awkwardly in the corner.

Designers: Electrolux & Veneta Cucine

The approach hinges on something Amelia Chong, Electrolux’s Principal Color, Material & Finish Designer, calls thinking architecturally from an interior perspective. Color becomes a series of spatial blocks connecting products with their surrounding environment. Each palette is experienced through a curated interplay of materials, finishes, and furniture elements, both visual and tactile. Ultra Blu spans two graduated tones, a deeper navy fading into dusty teal. Verde Salvia delivers sage in its most restrained register. Nude reads as warm sand with subtle blush undertones. Alabastro arrives as speckled stone-effect gray, the kind of finish that looks different depending on light quality throughout the day.

Electrolux backs the palette with neuroaesthetic research claiming that biophilic color schemes can reduce perceived stress levels by as much as 35%. That statistic repositions what a kitchen appliance actually does in a home. Your refrigerator is cooling groceries, sure, but it’s also contributing to the sensory atmosphere of the room, shaping how calm or agitated you feel when you walk in to make coffee at 6am. The palette’s muted tones (warm neutrals, soft earth-rooted hues) create what the research describes as a perceptually grounded environment that reduces mental fatigue. In practical terms, this means your kitchen quits visually shouting at you.

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s Nude Colorway

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s UltraBlu Colorway

The partnership brings together two distinct design traditions in a way that actually makes sense. Electrolux contributes Scandinavian simplicity and human-centered clarity, the kind of restrained functionality that emerges from cultures where you spend half the year looking at the same interior walls. Veneta Cucine brings Italian craftsmanship and material expression, the tactile richness and attention to finish quality Italian furniture makers have been perfecting for generations. Daniela Archiutti, Veneta Cucine’s Art Director, positions the collaboration as merging color science, material innovation, and sensory design to create spaces that feel personal, restorative, and future ready. That’s a lot of adjectives for kitchen cabinetry, but the installations at Milan back up the claim.

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s Verde Salvia Colorway

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s Alabastro Colorway

The Milan showcase itself was staged as physical proof of concept. Concrete plinths topped with living moss carried CMF swatches in the four palette tones. A pine and wood scent developed by studio Koyia moved through the space. Appliances were displayed against photographic prints of Scandinavian woodland. The sequence was deliberate and consistent, building an argument that the kitchen functions as an emotional environment where design’s most sophisticated move is bringing the outdoors inside. The ovens, hobs, and refrigerators on display integrated so seamlessly into cabinetry that distinguishing appliance from architecture required genuine attention.

You’re an expert editor/blogger with a profound understanding of human psyche as well as Google SEO. Now generate 10 catchy, attention-grabbing, mildly provocative titles that are SEO-friendly too. Make your titles have natural language but craft them so they rank high on google News and Discover as of March 2026. Do your SEO research. Make them natural language, simple, yet captivating

The post Electrolux and Veneta Cucine Use Biophilic Color Science to Rethink Kitchen Design at Milan 2026 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Electrolux and Veneta Cucine Use Biophilic Color Science to Rethink Kitchen Design at Milan 2026

Posted on by

Scandinavian winters keep people indoors for roughly six months a year, which gives Swedish designers a lot of time to think about what a kitchen surface shoul…Scandinavian winters keep people indoors for roughly six months a year, which gives Swedish designers a lot of time to think about what a kitchen surface should feel like when it becomes the primary thing you look at during months when going outside requires genuine commitment. Electrolux leaned into that constraint at Milan Design Week 2026, partnering with Italian kitchen specialist Veneta Cucine to present a color palette pulled directly from nature. Warm sand, dusty teal, soft sage, speckled stone. Colors designed to reduce visual noise and make a kitchen feel less like a collection of separate purchases and more like a unified spatial environment.

The four color concepts (Ultra Blu, Verde Salvia, Nude, Alabastro) get applied to both appliances and cabinetry, creating kitchen installations where ovens genuinely disappear into walls. The collaboration is grounded in research showing that people across European markets identify nature as their primary source of emotional restoration, so Electrolux decided to bring that restoration indoors. The result is a palette that feels geologic rather than trendy, with appliances that function as architectural elements instead of shiny metal boxes standing awkwardly in the corner.

Designers: Electrolux & Veneta Cucine

The approach hinges on something Amelia Chong, Electrolux’s Principal Color, Material & Finish Designer, calls thinking architecturally from an interior perspective. Color becomes a series of spatial blocks connecting products with their surrounding environment. Each palette is experienced through a curated interplay of materials, finishes, and furniture elements, both visual and tactile. Ultra Blu spans two graduated tones, a deeper navy fading into dusty teal. Verde Salvia delivers sage in its most restrained register. Nude reads as warm sand with subtle blush undertones. Alabastro arrives as speckled stone-effect gray, the kind of finish that looks different depending on light quality throughout the day.

Electrolux backs the palette with neuroaesthetic research claiming that biophilic color schemes can reduce perceived stress levels by as much as 35%. That statistic repositions what a kitchen appliance actually does in a home. Your refrigerator is cooling groceries, sure, but it’s also contributing to the sensory atmosphere of the room, shaping how calm or agitated you feel when you walk in to make coffee at 6am. The palette’s muted tones (warm neutrals, soft earth-rooted hues) create what the research describes as a perceptually grounded environment that reduces mental fatigue. In practical terms, this means your kitchen quits visually shouting at you.

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s Nude Colorway

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s UltraBlu Colorway

The partnership brings together two distinct design traditions in a way that actually makes sense. Electrolux contributes Scandinavian simplicity and human-centered clarity, the kind of restrained functionality that emerges from cultures where you spend half the year looking at the same interior walls. Veneta Cucine brings Italian craftsmanship and material expression, the tactile richness and attention to finish quality Italian furniture makers have been perfecting for generations. Daniela Archiutti, Veneta Cucine’s Art Director, positions the collaboration as merging color science, material innovation, and sensory design to create spaces that feel personal, restorative, and future ready. That’s a lot of adjectives for kitchen cabinetry, but the installations at Milan back up the claim.

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s Verde Salvia Colorway

Electrolux X Veneta Cucine’s Alabastro Colorway

The Milan showcase itself was staged as physical proof of concept. Concrete plinths topped with living moss carried CMF swatches in the four palette tones. A pine and wood scent developed by studio Koyia moved through the space. Appliances were displayed against photographic prints of Scandinavian woodland. The sequence was deliberate and consistent, building an argument that the kitchen functions as an emotional environment where design’s most sophisticated move is bringing the outdoors inside. The ovens, hobs, and refrigerators on display integrated so seamlessly into cabinetry that distinguishing appliance from architecture required genuine attention.

You’re an expert editor/blogger with a profound understanding of human psyche as well as Google SEO. Now generate 10 catchy, attention-grabbing, mildly provocative titles that are SEO-friendly too. Make your titles have natural language but craft them so they rank high on google News and Discover as of March 2026. Do your SEO research. Make them natural language, simple, yet captivating

The post Electrolux and Veneta Cucine Use Biophilic Color Science to Rethink Kitchen Design at Milan 2026 first appeared on Yanko Design.