Author Archives: Shawn McNulty-Kowal

This mountain-shaped household appliance is designed to visualize the journey of a seven-day workweek

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Mt. Week is a household clock appliance that takes the shape of a mountain to visualize the journey of a seven-day workweek.

There are few things more universally exciting than reaching the weekend after a long, arduous work week. It’s like reaching a mountain’s summit after spending the morning and afternoon traversing its trails and footpaths. There’s nothing like that first gulp of water, overlooking the valleys and tree canopies below, or that first cup of coffee on a slow Sunday morning. Taking the mountain motif to its ultimate end, a team of designers conceptualized Mt. Week, a cone-shaped clock appliance that denotes the motions of a week’s journey.

Designers: Minsu Kim, Yoonjeong Lee, Seunghyun Ko, Gyeongah Hwang, Hyunmin Kim

Inspired by the shape of a mountain, Mt. Week takes the form of an upside-down triangle for its time-controlled magnetic sphere to wind toward the appliance’s apex.

Separated into seven even parts, the cone represents the seven-day week and the magnetic sphere represents our timed journey through the week. Comprised of three main components, Mt. Week keeps an integrated digital clock to its side to indicate the time of day, while a magnetic sphere traverses the course of seven equal portions.

Describing the device’s time-controlled modules, the designers describe, “Mt. Week is divided into seven areas, representing a week’s journey. The sphere climbs the mountain diligently [on] weekdays and descends with ease during the weekend.

Users will find themselves excited while watching the sphere moving towards the weekend.” A built-in magnetic rail traces the cone’s surface for the magnetic sphere to latch onto and follow. As the cone rotates, the magnetic sphere signals to the user which day of the week it is while the clock displays the time of day.

The integrated magnetic rail mimics the curving nature of trailheads.

When users place the magnetic sphere at the top of Mt. Week, the magnetic rail positions it to its correct positioning. 

Operated via a wire connection, all users would need is an outlet.

Even when not in use, Mt. Week offers a touch of minimalist elegance to any office or bedroom.

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This drying chamber for cats acts like a feline-friendly sauna and doubles as a cat tower

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Dmuse is a sauna-like drying chamber for cats to have a comfortable place to dry themselves after a bath.

We do a lot for our cats. They’re temperamental little creatures, so making sure they’re comfortable is our responsibility as cat owners. Along with the many duties that come with being a cat owner, bathing cats that might need some assistance in that arena is a big one. Whether due to arthritis or old age, some cats can’t bathe themselves the way nature intended them to, which means it’s our job as their caretaker.

Designer: Designer Dot

While getting cats into the bathtub for cleaning can feel like pulling your own teeth, it’s only half the battle. Then comes the water and we all know how cats deal with that. Take that in addition to drying your cat in a towel and you’ll end up with scratches and tooth marks up and down your arms. Introducing Dmuse, Designer Dot created a drying chamber that doubles as a cat tower as a solution for cats to have a more comfortable way of drying themselves.

The drying chamber itself appears like a traditional drying machine, complete with a convex glass covering and internal heat funnels. Users can operate the drying chamber from a digital control panel located along the rear of Dmuse’s drying chamber. Similar to a drying machine, users will find a collection of control options that manage the device’s temperature, strength, timer, and heat fan.

Unlike a drying machine, Dmuse’s drying chamber is not entirely enclosed as its equipped with a ramp entrance for cats to come and go as they please. Within the same vein, Dmuse doubly operates as a cat tower for cats to rest and play even when they’re dry.

Shaped like a triangle, Dmuse is broken down into three different sections: play, dry, and stay. The play area is defined by the entrance ramp that comes with felt covering for cats to tread upwards with the help of friction and to have a scratching pad within paw’s reach at all times.

Then, the drying chamber remains at the top of Dmuse and is characterized by its globular shape and convex glass covering, making the chamber as large as possible for cats to feel comfortable. Just beneath the drying chamber, cats can find a resting perch on the ground level where they can take a nap following their bath and sauna.

Once the drying chamber is plugged into an outlet, the sauna is ready for use. 

Ideated in an array of different colors, Dmuse can fit into any modern living space. 

An integrated lift is built into the ramp to ensure cats have the assistance they might need to access the drying chamber. 

Overall, Dmuse maintains a triangular shape, but the drying chamber finds space through a globular build. 

The control panel is conveniently located at the entryway, near the top of the ramp. 

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Japanese zen gardens inspired the sinuous design of this shapeshifting timber table

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Outside In is a multifunctional, shapeshifting table that incorporates hand-carved grooves into its timber frame to resemble the raked ruts of Japanese zen gardens.

Japanese zen gardens have supplied ceaseless inspiration for designers. While the sheer meditative quality of zen gardens is enough to insight some new ideas, the artful design of zen gardens rakes its own creative vision for designers. Melbourne-based furniture, lighting, and object design company Sabu Studio found its own creative vision by way of Japanese zen gardens when designing the minimalist Outside In table.

Designer: Sabu Studio x Samuel Burns

Designed for his collection of personal and bespoke projects, Sabu Studio founder Samuel Burns designed Outside In to be a multifunctional, shapeshifting table defined by its sinuous timber surface that resembles the hand-raked grooves of a zen garden.

While the tabletop’s timber grooves resemble zen gardens’ raked ruts, they also double as rails for hand-carved granite and marble elements to slide between and provide functional flat surfaces. Two halves of a rectangular marble element can separate to create two small flat surfaces. Or, when users need a larger tabletop surface, the two halves come together to form a larger rectangle.

Burns turned to the flow of water and Japanese zen gardens to introduce elements of nature to interior city spaces. Fully functional as a table, Outside In is a crafty piece of furniture that would look right at home in hospitality common spaces or even event halls.

Explaining the piece’s origins, Burns notes, “The primary aim of Outside In was to introduce a sense of the natural world into interior spaces through form and symbolism. The design investigates materials dialogues and the notion of synergy, each object can shift and slide across the surface in a circular motion.”

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This portable lantern hosts a customizable OLED screen that transforms into a projection screen

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Rén is a customizable lantern with an integrated OLED screen for users to project whatever moving images or videos they’d like.

Over the past few years, we’ve learned to prioritize what is most important to us. From going to the virtual family reunion to getting creative in the arts, we’re keeping the stuff that matters most to us extra close. Since the pandemic has transformed many of those experiences into digital ones, designers shave been getting creative in making them as large as real life, and sometimes even larger.

Designer: Merve Nur Sökme

Rén, designed by Merve Nur Sökme, was created to immortalize life experiences and make them portable. Designed for LG and Dezeen’s Go Competition for OLED designs, Rén is conceptualized as a multifunctional handheld lantern that can also transform into a large OLED screen that operates just like a projector.

Describing the inspiration behind the product’s name, Nur Sökme explains, “Ren (Chinese: 仁, meaning “co-humanity” or “humaneness”) is the Confucian virtue denoting the good quality of a virtuous human when being altruistic. Ren relies on the understanding of human nature and being.”

In its initial state, Rén is a portable lantern that emits soft, ambient lighting. Ideal for a bedside table or den coffee table, Rén gives off a warm light that seeps through moving images on the product’s OLED screen.

When rolled out, Rén transforms into a projecting screen where users can watch their favorite movies or host virtual Zoom parties. In both of its modes, Rén is what the user makes of it. With its customizable OLED screen, users can decide what they’d like to project to make the lantern feel more like a personal keepsake that they can carry around.

Speaking to Rén’s many functions, Nur Sökme notes, “Besides watching a movie when OLED screen is wide open, when it is rolled it can also be used as a bedside lamp at night, an aquarium, a lava lamp, a screen for recipe tracking in the kitchen. It can be flexible in use as much as the user needs. Its simple design approach gives the user to express her/himself through the Rén.”

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The components of this table lamp were CNC-milled for precise and interchangeable assembly

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The BN! is a modular, customizable table lamp that’s constructed from CNC-milling techniques to ensure precise and interchangeable assembly.

Timber toys, like Jenga and burr puzzles, depend on precise fittings and even edges to fulfill their purpose. Much like those timber toys, wooden product designs that are CNC-milled maintain a symmetrical and unified structure to ensure seamless assembly and operation. CNC-milling also allows designers to keep the number of building materials to a minimum.

Designer: Baliza Norte

From wooden figurines to timber homes, CNC-milling is trusted as the means to format components and cut them down to their most precise angle. The BN! Lamp designed by Baliza Norte, an architecture and interior design project, is constructed using CNC-milling techniques for an assembly process that doesn’t require any hardware or tools.

BN!, a lamp named after the company that designed it, is a tabletop lamp constructed from sheets of plywood that were pre-fitted to fit into each other without the need for extra hardware or tools. Delivered in a flatpack design, when disassembled, BN! Lamp perfectly fits in a 28 x 28 cm square and can easily be packed for shipping or transporting.

Using modern CNC technologies, each component of BN! Lamp “is intended to be a playful object which can be easily assembled or disassembled, it subtlety evokes a timber toy.” Since each module of the BN! Lamp is fitted for precision, each one can be replaced when necessary. The modular and interchangeable configuration of BN! Lamp also allows users to choose the brown color scheme, giving the lamp an air of bespoke appeal.

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This prefabricated home combines Scandinavian simplicity with a breezy Californian twist

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Adobu and Koto Design collaborated to design a prefabricated backyard home with off-grid capabilities, marrying Scandinavian design with sustainability.

Based in the English seaside village of Westward Ho!, the architecture studio Koto Design captures the mellow vibe of a day spent at the seashore and translates it to the home space. Inspired by Scandinavian simplicity and Japanese minimalism, the result comes through breezy, open floor layouts and organic building materials.

Designer: Koto Design x Adobu

The architecture studio is known for its extensive catalog of sustainable, prefabricated tiny homes that can be transported to locations across the globe. In a recent collaboration with the USA-based, backyard home-building company Adobu, the two studios worked together to construct a tiny, prefabricated home that marries Scandinavian design with a Californian twist.

From the outside, the backyard cabin appears like one of Koto Design’s signature tiny homes, topped off with a slightly torqued roof. While its original look maintains an elemental, wooden look without any paint, buyers can choose from an array of different finishes. The organic facades merge with large, floor-to-ceiling windows that are meant to embrace a semi-outdoor lifestyle, a common touch in Californian architecture.

Inside, the large windows work to keep the interior living spaces airy and bright, like a day spent seaside. Integrated storage compartments line the perimeter of the interior rooms to maintain the flexibility that an open-floor layout provides. Additionally, built-in furniture, like a window bench in the dining area, creates space for guests and residents to relax without introducing more furniture pieces to crowd the floor.

Koto Design is committed to delivering sustainable, prefabricated homes that don’t compromise on comfort. Each tiny home built with Adobu takes around four months to finish offsite construction, while the onsite assembly is completed in some weeks. In collaboration with Adobu, the two studios can now offer carbon-neutral homes in the USA that have a 60+ year lifespan, on and off-grid capabilities, and are built to full housing standards.

Once the tiny home finishes offsite construction, Adobu can assemble the tiny home onsite in a matter of weeks. 

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This minimalist table lamp design was inspired by water droplets and kitchen faucets

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Faucet Light is a minimalist light fixture design that mimics the look of water droplets forming beneath a faucet’s spout.

We’ve each suffered through the monotonous drip of a leaky faucet at some point. It’s like clockwork and we can’t do anything about it but stare and wait for the plumber. Industrial designer Jaewan Park must have found some inspiration during the waiting game as his new lamp design resembles a kitchen sink faucet and the bulbous water drop that forms beneath its spout. Aptly dubbed the Faucet Light, Park’s new light design finds practicality and an artful design through subtle details and joyful aesthetics.

Designer: Jaewan Park

Finished in ceramic steel, Faucet Light features a glossy base to emulate the look of ripples on a still pool of water. An exposed, transparent glass reflector hosts the light fixture’s main light bulb and provides both area and focal lighting.

As Park explains, the light dimming mechanism resembles the look of a water spout to be intuitive by design, “By rotating the end tip of the tube 180-degrees, the glass reflector can be moved into the tube to switch the mode from area lighting to focal lighting in order to meet various possibilities.”

Rising to around 16 inches in height, Faucet Light maintains a slim body to fit atop most tabletops, even crowded work desks. The light fixture keeps the same shape as a kitchen sink faucet, giving the lamp an edge of intuitive usability for every user to feel confident when using it. Describing the design in his own words, Park describes, “Faucet Light is a tabletop light design concept that visually inspired from an image that water drop hanging on the faucet to achieve both functionality and joyful aesthetics at the same time.”

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Conceptualized for designers, this multifunctional desk adapts to meet your work tasks

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The Raak Mai desk is a multifunctional, versatile desk conceptualized for designers.

Finding the right desk to meet our working and creative needs is essential to stay productive. When it comes to our work, our desks must rise to the occasion, sometimes literally. Standing desks tend to help our posture when working from our computers all day.

Angled desks find the ideal tilt for sketching and drawing up plans. Then, different desks carry unique storage options, keeping all of our tools within arm’s reach at all times. The Raak Mai desk from industrial designer Laura Rodríguez combines all of the above to provide a multifunctional, versatile desk for all working needs.

Designer: Laura Rodríguez

Preliminary inspired by the needs of designers, Rodríguez hoped to incorporate analog mechanisms that work to take care of digital tasks. While many of the elements of the Raak Mai desk can be adjusted manually, the overall structure of the desk was fitted to ensure the digital needs of modern technology could be met.

The Raak Mai desk hosts an array of different modes, allowing users to adjust the desk’s height, tilt, and storage capabilities according to their working needs. When designing or sketching, users can angle the desk to their desired tilt for accurate drawing sessions. An integrated winch allows users to manually adjust the desk to a standing height.

Several USB ports let users charge their electrical appliances throughout the workday. Storage drawers can be found throughout the desk’s build, allowing users to organize their stationery as needed. Then, a footrest provides space for users to prop their feet while working.

Propped up on two steel legs, the desk’s table is defined by its wooden build. Relying on modern construction methods like 3D printing and laser cutting, Rodríguez employed precision-based technologies to ensure seamless joinery and connections.

The drawers, chest, and main tabletop would be built using laser cutting technology into individual modules that would connect to the rest of the Raak Mai desk. Then, 3D printing would be used for constructing the desk’s overall frame. Finally, Rodríguez envisions the Raak Mai desk finished with a glossy layer of primer.

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3D technologies transformed plastic waste into city benches to beautify concrete barriers

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USE is an experimental furniture piece built from plastic waste for the small town of Lucca to operate as a second skin for New Jersey concrete barriers as well as a city bench.

R3direct uses innovative 3D technologies to produce a collection of different items, like furniture and public infrastructure, from waste. Currently, 55% of the plastic coming from urban waste is destined for thermo-valorization or dumped in landfills. R3direct gathers plastic waste from that portion of the main supply to use for their 3D-printed products.

Designer: R3direct & Giulia del Grande

Using large-format 3D printers, R3direct is dedicated to high commercial value applications like sculptures, functional prototypes, and public or private furniture objects. Their latest experimental furniture piece is dubbed USE, which stands for ‘Urban Safety Every day.’ USE primarily functions as a ‘second skin’ for New Jersey barriers and takes the shape of a city bench for residents and tourists to enjoy.

Made from post-consumer plastics, R3direct remains committed to printing durable and bespoke objects for private and public purposes. Using innovative 3D and parametric technologies, “The recycled plastic necessary for the realization of USE,” the R3direct team explains, “comes entirely from the recycling of polylaminate beverage cartons carried out by the company Lucart, [a] world leader in the production of paper and tissue.”

Dotting the streets of the small city of Lucca, while Lucart carried out the recycling and processing of the plastic, R3direct collected the plastic waste from the re-use of about 3,300 TetraPak® cartons. The final compositional makeup of USE is 75% of FiberPack®, a material obtained from recycled cellulose fibers used in beverage cartons, and the remaining 25% is made of polyethylene and aluminum, two components used as raw, secondary materials to produce the module.

Working closely with Giulia del Grande, the USE project originates from the designer’s thesis, which explores, “the issue linked to the design of spaces to prevent the sense of fear in people who live in cities.” Calming the chaos and busy nature of cities, public furniture like benches and water fountains are incorporated into the fabric of the city to function as aesthetically pleasing home bases for urban residents and tourists.

Speaking to this, the team at R3direct notes, “Urban furniture intends to transform the concrete barriers commonly used during events or in a fixed manner to protect strategic places in the city, making them aesthetically pleasing and equipping them with various functions useful to the citizen.”

The post 3D technologies transformed plastic waste into city benches to beautify concrete barriers first appeared on Yanko Design.

Traditional Czechoslovakian glassmakers handcraft these multifaceted glass crystal light fixtures

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Bomma implements the Czechoslovakian craft of glassmaking to produce whimsical, yet elegant displays of glass crystal light fixtures.

Bomma is a glassmaking company that specializes in the traditional Czechoslovakian craft of glassmaking to produce customized household fixtures and decorative interior elements. The tradition dates back centuries in the East Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. Bringing it into the contemporary world, modern technologies and bespoke machinery join arms with master craftsmen to deliver fixtures rooted in history built for today’s world.

Designer: Bomma, Dechem Studio, studio deFORM, rückl, Ota Svoboda

Hailing from Dechem Studio, studio deFORM, and rückl, the designers, including Ota Svoboda, behind Bomma’s recent line have been inspired by irregular shapes of the natural world. The craftsmen work with six tons of refined, extra-clear crystal each and every day to add to the company’s eighteen collections of light fixtures. Five different glass crystal compositions comprise Bomma’s Constellations project, which takes one of the five crystal compositions and configures them into bespoke lighting fixtures.

The Pyrite collection, inspired by the mineral of its namesake, is defined by and recognized for its cubic structure. “By blowing a molten organic substance into a precise cold form, the skilled hands of our glassmakers create a unique light fixture of [an] elemental, yet perfect shape,” the glassmakers at Bomma go on to describe, “The gleaming surface of this hand-blown crystal cube is enclosed from three sides by a polished metal component in either silver or gold tones.”

The Dark & Bright Star collection takes fun house lighting and gives it a touch of coordinated elegance to resemble the look of a starry night sky. “The light source is placed within each mouth-blown piece,” the craftsmen describe the textured glass covering as, “the shining center of a precisely cut crystal star.”

Keeping with the same whimsical personality, Bomma’s Soap Mini collection consists of an asymmetrical collection of raindrop-shaped glass light bulbs. When configured in a cluster together, the light bulbs are meant to take on the look of irregular, cartoon clouds of soap bubbles as the designers note, “Each piece is hand-blown without a mold, producing an original in both shape and color.”

Bomma describes the Lens collection as “hypnotic,” for its bulbous glass coverings and shaded color tones. Characterized by two convex lens coverings that encase the bulb’s light source, “two lenses harmoniously encapsulate their interior light source, playing a symphony of reflections.

In close collaboration with Bomma’s sister brand, Rückl, the Metamorphosis collection “combines the talents of these sister glassmaking brands – the breathtaking art of hand-cut crystal from Rückl, with exceptional technical solutions and the principle of light constellations typical for Bomma.”

The fixtures stand out for their snakeskin-like textures that form into the shapes of Chinese lanterns. Coated in muted tones of black, amber, and white, the Metamorphosis collection is all about the mood lighting.

Suspended from the ceiling, the collections of light fixtures create dazzling chandelier displays. 

The craftsmen work with heavy glass fixtures using only their hands and bespoke machinery. 

Requiring a team of builders, the light fixtures are handblown and molded into shape.

Each step of the process is delicate and requires the finest touch. 

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