Author Archives: JC Torres

This Pocket Printer Turns Out Temporary Tattoos, Stickers, and Photos

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Personalization has quietly moved from craft rooms and design studios into everyday life. Whether it’s decorating a travel case or adding something unique to a tote bag, people want their things to feel distinctly theirs, and they want to do it on the spot. The tools to make that happen, though, have largely stayed the same: bulky, single-purpose machines that aren’t built for spontaneity.

That’s the gap INKWON Tag 4-in-1 Pocket Printer is designed to fill. It’s a pocket-sized color inkjet printer that handles four creative tasks in one go: sticker printing, photo printing, temporary tattoo sticker printing, and fabric heat transfer. Rather than juggling separate devices for each, this single compact unit does all of that, and it fits right in the palm of your hand.

Designer: INKWON Printing

Click Here to Buy Now: $169 $299 (43% off). Hurry, only 169/200 left! Raised over $138,000.

The device itself doesn’t feel like a printer in the conventional sense. It’s roughly the size of a small tin, weighs just 0.52 lbs, and its self-suction paper feed pulls media in automatically to keep things aligned. The ink cartridge snaps in magnetically, so there’s no fumbling with loading trays or making a mess every time you need to swap one out.

Of the four modes, sticker printing is probably the easiest to get excited about. You can print custom graphics on adhesive photo paper and stick them on practically anything: laptops, travel cases, journals, and planners. The output reaches 600 dpi, so detailed artwork holds up well even at a small format. It’s the kind of thing that takes about a minute from idea to finished sticker.

The temporary tattoo sticker mode spices things up even further. INKWON Tag prints onto tattoo sticker paper that you apply to skin just like a classic transfer tattoo, full color and all. It’s a surprisingly handy way to test a design before committing to real ink, or to add intricate graphics to a costume without needing a makeup artist anywhere near you. Plus, the ink is 100% skin-safe, even for the little ones, as proven by EN71-3 and REACH certification.

Heat transfer brings a surprising practical application you wouldn’t expect from a portable printer. INKWON Tag prints onto light-colored heat transfer paper that you then iron onto fabric, and the small form factor means you can work on precision spots that bigger machines simply can’t, like collar tips, pocket corners, or even socks. It’s genuinely handy for personalizing gifts or refreshing something plain.

Last but definitely not least, photo printing rounds out the four modes, and it’s probably the one most people reach for first. INKWON Tag turns phone snapshots into actual prints you can hold, making them easy to tuck into travel journals, scrapbooks, or stick onto memory pages. They don’t end up buried in a camera roll. They’re physical now, and that alone makes them feel worth keeping.

INKWON Tag connects to your phone via Bluetooth 5.4, and the companion app takes care of everything from image uploads to editing and sending the print. It works on both Android and iOS and supports 18 languages, so you’re covered regardless of where you are or what phone you carry. A full charge handles up to 60 prints, which happens to match exactly one ink cartridge.

Portable creative tools have been getting smarter for years, but most still stick to one trick and leave you hunting for everything else separately. INKWON Tag bundles stickers, temporary tattoo stickers, heat transfers, and photo prints into one device that easily fits in a jacket pocket, and it doesn’t need a desk, a software driver, or a dedicated power outlet to make any of that happen.

Click Here to Buy Now: $169 $299 (43% off). Hurry, only 169/200 left! Raised over $138,000.

The post This Pocket Printer Turns Out Temporary Tattoos, Stickers, and Photos first appeared on Yanko Design.

Designed Like a Lamborghini, This Laptop Stand Replaces 3 Accessories

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Laptop stands have come a long way from the simple plastic risers that used to pass for ergonomic solutions. More students and young professionals are rethinking their workspaces, and the demand for accessories that do more with less is steadily growing. Add a lamp, a phone charger, and a stand for the screen, and before long, the desk meant for focus starts looking more like a cable management problem.

The Exolevate concept tackles that problem from an unexpected angle, wrapping the solution in a finish inspired by Lamborghini. It’s a laptop stand that aims to replace three separate accessories with one and, in doing so, cut the clutter while improving posture. The boldness of its design language makes it clear this wasn’t built for someone who just wants something functional and forgettable.

Designer: Arnav Ashwin

The concept’s starting point is a familiar complaint. Young adults who spend 35 to 40 percent of their time at a workstation gradually accumulate neck pain, back strain, and a screen position that was never quite right. Raising the laptop to eye level with adjustable height and angle addresses the most direct version of that problem, bringing the screen where it actually belongs.

That’s a good start, but Exolevate doesn’t stop there. The stand integrates an adjustable table lamp that swings out to light a writing area beside the laptop, which is useful for anyone splitting attention between a screen and physical notes. The lamp is built into the stand’s structure rather than added alongside it, which means one fewer cord to trace across the desk during a late-night study session.

The base takes the consolidation further. A wireless charging pad is embedded directly into the platform, so a phone can sit there and charge without an extra cable sneaking into the picture. It’s a thoughtful addition for anyone who already has too many things plugged in, and it frees up the desk surface for the notepad, the keyboard, and everything else that actually needs to be there.

None of that would look quite as interesting without the design language tying it together. Exolevate draws from Lamborghini’s aerodynamic forms, borrowing sharp angles and aggressive lines and translating them into the stand’s aluminum profile. The “electric kumquat” finish, a vivid orange sourced from trend forecaster WGSN, gives the concept the kind of confident, eye-catching presence that most workspace accessories aren’t bold enough to attempt.

The hinges use a two-way friction mechanism to hold the stand at any chosen angle without slipping, while the aluminum frame keeps the structure light. For a student who already has too much on the desk and not enough on the budget for a complete workspace overhaul, the Exolevate proposes a more consolidated answer. It’s a stand that also illuminates and charges, finished in a color that refuses to be ignored.

The post Designed Like a Lamborghini, This Laptop Stand Replaces 3 Accessories first appeared on Yanko Design.

Keychron’s Q0 Mini 8K has just one key, and that’s exactly the point

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There was a time when keyboards kept growing, trading compactness for more keys, more modes, and more customization. Then came a different kind of thinking. Stream Decks, macro pads, and dedicated shortcut controllers have earned real estate on desks alongside full-sized keyboards, proving that one well-placed action sometimes matters more than access to everything at once. The appetite for specialized, single-purpose input hardware hasn’t let up.

It’s into that space that the Keychron Q0 Mini 8K Action Key quietly lands. Rather than adding keys to a board, Keychron stripped the whole idea down to a single key and built around it seriously. For $64.99, what you’re getting isn’t a gimmick or a belated April Fools joke. It’s a full-metal, programmable, mechanical-switch device that happens to have a single, enormous key, and it commits to that idea entirely.

Designer: Keychron

The switch’s engineering story is quite interesting. Keychron scaled it to four times the length, four times the width, and four times the height of a standard mechanical switch, adding up to nearly 64 times the total volume. The result is a key wide enough to take a full palm, and the click it produces feels appropriately satisfying for something this absurdly well-engineered.

Think about the moments in a workday when a single shortcut would have changed everything. Muting yourself in a meeting with one decisive smack, triggering a scene change during a live stream, launching a frequently needed app, or finally getting to slam something that won’t close. Having a dedicated, impossible-to-miss button for any of those moments removes the friction that a hunt across a full keyboard creates.

The performance side takes things just as seriously, almost to the point of ridiculousness. The Q0 Mini 8K supports a polling rate of up to 8,000 Hz, putting it in the same tier as high-end gaming peripherals built to minimize input latency. For something mapped to a time-sensitive action in a game or a live broadcast setup, that level of responsiveness is what separates a purpose-built tool from a desk novelty.

The construction is no joking matter, though. The chassis is CNC-machined from 6063 aluminum, finished with a polished and sandblasted surface that gives it a refined, premium look. The keycap pairs a double-shot PBT outer shell with a translucent polycarbonate insert that lets the RGB lighting through cleanly. With the keycap attached, it weighs approximately 386 grams and sits with real authority on a desk.

Remapping is handled through QMK firmware and the Keychron Launcher, a browser-based tool that requires no software installation. Changing what the key does takes only a few clicks, and compatibility with macOS, Windows, and Linux means it fits just about any setup. The adjustable RGB lighting is tunable in hue, saturation, and brightness, so it can match whatever aesthetic is already living on the desk.

For $64.99, the Q0 Mini 8K isn’t going to make sense to everyone, and that’s fine. It’s a deeply specific product for people who already know which action they’d want at their fingertips. The materials are real, the engineering is considered, and the performance specs are no afterthought. Keychron built a button that genuinely takes itself seriously, and somehow that’s the most fun thing about it.

The post Keychron’s Q0 Mini 8K has just one key, and that’s exactly the point first appeared on Yanko Design.

This 28mm Turntable Is Fully Automatic and Glows Softly Like Mood Lighting

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Vinyl is having a moment that shows no signs of ending. Record sales have been climbing for over a decade, and turntables have found their way into living rooms, bedrooms, and home offices worldwide. The problem is that many still look like they did 30 years ago, big, chunky, and designed to occupy their own dedicated corner. For anyone keeping their space tidy and intentional, that’s a real trade-off.

The CoolGeek TS-01 tries to address that without asking you to compromise on either front. Its ultra-slim body measures just 28mm thick, sitting low and clean on virtually any surface you’d want to put it on. It doesn’t look like it’s trying hard to be noticed, which is exactly the point. It’s a turntable designed to feel like a natural extension of the room rather than an intrusion.

Designer: CoolGeek

Click Here to Buy Now: $219 $299 (26% off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $152,000.

Part of what makes the TS-01 so comfortable to live with is how little it actually demands of you. It’s fully automatic, so the tonearm drops, plays, and returns on its own from start to finish. For anyone who’s been put off vinyl by manual cueing or the constant worry of a needle dragging across a quiet groove, that’s a genuinely significant shift in how the whole ritual feels.

There’s also a remote in the box, which might sound like a minor detail but changes things more than you’d expect from a turntable. You can play, pause, fast-forward, or rewind without leaving wherever you happen to be. It’s a small but thoughtful addition, especially when you’re settled in with a book, have guests over, or simply don’t want to get up every time a side ends.

Of course, the audio side isn’t an afterthought. The TS-01 runs on a belt-drive system with an aluminum die-cast platter, and sports a tonearm that’s lighter and yet stronger than the standard arms you’d find on most players in this range. It also ships with an Audio-Technica MM cartridge already fitted, so there’s no fiddly cartridge alignment to deal with out of the box.

On top of that, the TS-01 has six selectable lighting modes and a glow vinyl mat, which together do something unexpected for a turntable: they turn it into an ambient object. That might sound more like a lifestyle feature than an audio one, and honestly, it is, but there’s something genuinely pleasant about having your record player cast a soft glow across a room while a side plays out.

Connectivity covers both ends of the spectrum, whichever you prefer. Bluetooth 5.3 lets you pair it with a wireless speaker or headphones without running cables across the room, while the RCA output stays available for anyone already working with an active speaker or a home hi-fi setup. It’s the kind of flexibility that makes the TS-01 easy to fit into a surprisingly wide range of living situations and listening habits.

The TS-01 comes in Black and Light Gray, both neutral enough to blend quietly into most interior palettes. At 2.65kg and 398mm x 350mm x 94 mm, it’s genuinely compact for a full-size turntable. CoolGeek clearly had a certain kind of space in mind, the kind where a record player can sit on a shelf or credenza and look like it was always supposed to be there.

Click Here to Buy Now: $219 $299 (26% off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $152,000.

The post This 28mm Turntable Is Fully Automatic and Glows Softly Like Mood Lighting first appeared on Yanko Design.

You Can Play Pokémon Gold on Your Wrist, Thanks to a 2-Year Build

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Retro gaming handhelds have had a genuine second life in recent years. Original Nintendo hardware has been cloned, shrunken, and reimagined into increasingly unhinged form factors by modders who see the Game Boy lineup as the most suitable canvas for this kind of project. The builds have become their own subculture, where the unofficial requirement is always constructing something that makes everyone else feel like they aren’t trying hard enough.

YouTube creator Chris Hackmann, known online as LeggoMyFroggo, took things further than most. He spent more than two years building the Time Frog Color, a Game Boy Color shrunk down to wrist-watch dimensions. From the start, he gave himself three non-negotiable rules: it had to use the original GBC CPU, it had to accept physical cartridges, and it had to keep time when turned off. No emulation, no shortcuts.

Designer: Chris Hackmann (LeggoMyFroggo)

Those three constraints drove everything that followed. Standard GBC screens are too large, so the display was scaled down to a 1.12-inch LCD. That screen can’t read the GBC’s parallel RGB output natively, so an RP2040 microcontroller was added purely as a signal translator. This created the foundation for a stacked PCB arrangement, with an LCD driver board on the bottom and the CPU board sitting just above it.

The cartridge requirement was its own puzzle. Standard Game Boy cartridge slots aren’t watch-sized, so Hackmann swapped the slot for an M.2 connector, the type normally found in NVMe computer drives. The custom cartridges that plug into it aren’t simple ROM cards; they’re full MBC3 flash builds with their own RAM, mapper chip, and a coin cell battery that keeps save files intact between sessions.

All of that stacking pushed the watch body to 15mm thick, noticeably chunkier than an Apple Watch at roughly 10 mm. There was no room for a battery inside, so it went into the silicone strap instead. A flexible PCB runs through nearly the entire band via overmolding, carrying power back into the main body. It’s a bizarre solution that also happens to be the only sensible one.

The watch body is CNC’d from 6061 aluminum and anodized purple, which reads as a direct nod to Nintendo’s color sensibilities. Controls are fitted into the sides of the housing, with four face buttons on one edge and a custom-machined rocker D-pad on the other, both backed by silicone membranes. The unit shown in the video doesn’t include a speaker, as the component missed the deadline.

Hackmann is upfront about the trade-offs. The Time Frog Color offers a “less than optimal playing experience” by his own admission, with battery life that won’t compare favorably against most wearables. It’s a thick, quirky device with controls tucked into the edges and a cartridge protruding from the back. But you can load up Pokémon Gold and play it on your wrist, which isn’t something most projects can claim.

The post You Can Play Pokémon Gold on Your Wrist, Thanks to a 2-Year Build first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Modular Teak and Aluminum Box Has a Lid That Folds Into a Table

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The line between outdoor gear and everyday carry has never been blurrier. More people are treating their camping setups with the same discernment they’d bring to a wardrobe or a home office, hunting for things that work hard but also look intentional. The market has responded, and the range of portable gear sitting somewhere between rugged utility and refined object design has never been broader.

Unito, a Thailand-based brand, has positioned its Container 26L squarely in that territory. The box holds 26 liters of storage and comes loaded with teak wood accents, a foldable table lid, flip-out extension legs, a divider, and a soft pad, all in a full set that retails for $290. It’s built to adapt across environments rather than anchor itself to just one.

Designer: Unito

The choice of anodized aluminum for the body does a lot of the heavy lifting. The finish is more corrosion-resistant than bare metal and tougher than paint, which makes it well-suited for the kind of regular outdoor exposure that would start to wear down lesser materials. The silver anodized variant, in particular, has a clean industrial look that doesn’t try too hard and ages without embarrassing itself.

Teak handles sit on either side of the box, giving you a comfortable grip that reads differently against the metallic finish. The flip-out teak extension legs raise the container off the ground into a standing station. Unito supposedly sources the wood from managed plantation forests in Thailand, where the brand is made, addressing concerns about the choice of material.

The Snow 25L is the lid that ships with the box, but calling it just a lid undersells what it does. It’s a foldable aluminum table weighing 950 grams, and it’s also compatible with Snow Peak’s 25L crate, which broadens the system’s appeal considerably. Stack two containers, and each lid still opens independently, so access isn’t sacrificed in the name of keeping the stack looking neat.

On a campsite, the legs deploy, and the box becomes a prep station for gear, food, or brew equipment. The perforated aluminum body lets air circulate, which matters when you’re storing anything prone to trapping heat or moisture. The included divider helps section off the interior, and a built-in carry handle means you’re not scrambling for a grip when it’s time to pack up.

Back in the studio or at home, the same container holds art supplies, camera gear, or electronics with enough structure to keep things sorted rather than thrown together. The modular system lets you pair containers, add accessories, or use just the box and lid without the legs. It’s the kind of setup that rewards people who’ve thought carefully about their gear.

The post This Modular Teak and Aluminum Box Has a Lid That Folds Into a Table first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Modular Teak and Aluminum Box Has a Lid That Folds Into a Table

Posted on by

The line between outdoor gear and everyday carry has never been blurrier. More people are treating their camping setups with the same discernment they’d bring to a wardrobe or a home office, hunting for things that work hard but also look intentional. The market has responded, and the range of portable gear sitting somewhere between rugged utility and refined object design has never been broader.

Unito, a Thailand-based brand, has positioned its Container 26L squarely in that territory. The box holds 26 liters of storage and comes loaded with teak wood accents, a foldable table lid, flip-out extension legs, a divider, and a soft pad, all in a full set that retails for $290. It’s built to adapt across environments rather than anchor itself to just one.

Designer: Unito

The choice of anodized aluminum for the body does a lot of the heavy lifting. The finish is more corrosion-resistant than bare metal and tougher than paint, which makes it well-suited for the kind of regular outdoor exposure that would start to wear down lesser materials. The silver anodized variant, in particular, has a clean industrial look that doesn’t try too hard and ages without embarrassing itself.

Teak handles sit on either side of the box, giving you a comfortable grip that reads differently against the metallic finish. The flip-out teak extension legs raise the container off the ground into a standing station. Unito supposedly sources the wood from managed plantation forests in Thailand, where the brand is made, addressing concerns about the choice of material.

The Snow 25L is the lid that ships with the box, but calling it just a lid undersells what it does. It’s a foldable aluminum table weighing 950 grams, and it’s also compatible with Snow Peak’s 25L crate, which broadens the system’s appeal considerably. Stack two containers, and each lid still opens independently, so access isn’t sacrificed in the name of keeping the stack looking neat.

On a campsite, the legs deploy, and the box becomes a prep station for gear, food, or brew equipment. The perforated aluminum body lets air circulate, which matters when you’re storing anything prone to trapping heat or moisture. The included divider helps section off the interior, and a built-in carry handle means you’re not scrambling for a grip when it’s time to pack up.

Back in the studio or at home, the same container holds art supplies, camera gear, or electronics with enough structure to keep things sorted rather than thrown together. The modular system lets you pair containers, add accessories, or use just the box and lid without the legs. It’s the kind of setup that rewards people who’ve thought carefully about their gear.

The post This Modular Teak and Aluminum Box Has a Lid That Folds Into a Table first appeared on Yanko Design.

What If Your Drink Could Fly Itself Across the Room to You

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Smart home technology has reshaped how we think about convenience, but most of it still assumes you’re the one who has to reach for things. Appliances respond to voice commands, lights adjust to your mood, and thermostats learn your schedule. Yet the objects we grab dozens of times a day, from a glass of water to the TV remote, still sit wherever you last left them.

Designer Ivana Nedeljkovska’s ORBIA concept takes a different angle on this problem. Rather than adding another smart feature to a home setup, it asks a more fundamental question about object design itself: why do objects have to stay still? ORBIA is envisioned as an autonomous flying serving tray that moves through space, navigates around obstacles, and delivers objects directly to wherever the user happens to be.

Designer: Ivana Nedeljkovska

It’s a concept that doesn’t fit neatly into any existing product category. The design is built around an intelligent navigation system that enables ORBIA to understand its surroundings, read the space it moves through, and adjust its path in real time. That capability is what separates it from the static, fixed-in-place gadgets that populate most homes today, no matter how sophisticated those gadgets might be.

Think about a quiet evening at home. You’re in the middle of something, and your drink is across the room. With ORBIA, you wouldn’t need to interrupt what you’re doing. The concept is designed to respond to a call without requiring any physical contact, operating quietly and precisely, functioning as a kind of unobtrusive assistant that simply appears when needed and retreats when it’s done.

The same thinking applies in a hospitality setting, where service efficiency has always been a balancing act. In a restaurant or lounge, ORBIA could handle the routine deliveries that currently require constant back-and-forth from staff, moving between spaces with the same quiet precision it brings to a living room. The system reads its surroundings continuously, adjusting course around obstacles and adapting to different spatial conditions in real time.

Where the concept gets particularly compelling is accessibility. For someone with limited mobility, having to rely on others to bring everyday objects can quietly erode a sense of independence. ORBIA is designed with that in mind, offering support that lets people access things around them on their own terms, without having to wait or ask someone else for help each time.

Visually, ORBIA doesn’t try to announce itself. The form is clean and minimal, built around a large oval tray surface with a brushed matte finish, carried by a quad-rotor body whose contours flow outward in smooth, organic curves. Blue LED lighting runs along the underside and rotor housings, giving the whole thing a quiet, purposeful glow that integrates naturally into a contemporary interior.

There’s still a long way between this concept and something you could buy, and the engineering involved is genuinely complex. But ORBIA isn’t trying to be a product announcement. It’s a design argument, one that makes the case for a future where objects go beyond being smarter to becoming fundamentally more active, bringing things to you rather than waiting to be carried.

The post What If Your Drink Could Fly Itself Across the Room to You first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Wine Cooler Scans the Label and Sets Its Own Temperature for You

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Wine culture has never been more accessible, with good bottles showing up at rooftop dinners, backyard gatherings, and weekend trips just as often as they do at restaurant tables. What hasn’t quite kept up, though, is how we actually serve them once we’re there. Temperature is the detail that most people overlook, and it’s arguably one of the most important variables in how a wine actually tastes.

That’s the gap that Porta is designed to fill. It’s a smart, portable wine cooler that keeps a bottle at the right serving temperature without ice, without a power outlet, and without any of the fuss that usually comes with trying to manage these things outside of a dedicated wine space. It’s compact, rechargeable, and built for the kind of drinking occasions that happen well beyond the kitchen.

Designer: Metaproi

Click Here to Buy Now: $249 $599 (58% off). Hurry, only 363/500 off. Raised over $57,000.

A bottle can come from a great producer, be stored perfectly, and still taste flat if it’s poured too warm or too cold. Serve a red too warm, and the alcohol starts to overwhelm everything else. Too cold, and the aromas shut down. There’s a narrow window where the flavors actually show up the way they were intended, and that window closes faster than most people realize.

Cellars and wine fridges solve the storage part just fine. But once the bottle comes out and ends up on the dinner table, or worse, goes into an ice bucket, the situation changes pretty quickly. An ice bucket drops the temperature too far and strips the wine of the very character you chose it for. Porta addresses that moment specifically, which is where it actually matters.

The companion app is where Porta’s smarter side comes in. Pair it with your phone, point the camera at the label, and the app identifies the grape variety and sets the chiller to an appropriate temperature automatically. You can also adjust manually, log wines, add tasting notes, and build a personal wine list, making it quite useful for something that just sits quietly on your table.

There’s also a decanting timer built into the workflow, a small detail that makes a real difference. Once you open the bottle and let it breathe, Porta tracks the time and lets you know when it’s ready to pour. It removes the guesswork from a process that casual drinkers tend to skip entirely, adding a bit of structure to the ritual without making it feel like homework.

What makes Porta genuinely interesting as a design object, though, is how cordless it actually is. It runs on an internal 10,000 mAh battery good for up to eight hours of sustained cooling, and charges via USB in about three and a half hours. That makes it as useful on a terrace or a picnic blanket as it is at a formal dinner table.

The cooling itself is handled by a thermoelectric system that operates without any mechanical movement, which keeps things quiet and vibration-free. The interior circulates chilled air around the bottle while a cork-filled insulating frame holds the temperature steady, even when the ambient conditions outside change. It can bring wine down to 46°F and sustain those conditions throughout a meal without needing you to fuss over it.

Two angular wine coolers on a table, one holding a green bottle, with a glass of red wine and a blurred person in the background.

The design itself is worth noting separately. Porta comes in Champagne Gold and Matte Black, with a faceted, geometric silhouette that tends to draw attention at the table. That’s intentional. The front window keeps the label visible while the bottle chills, turning it into part of the setting rather than something to be tucked away. It’s the kind of object that actually belongs where the drinking happens.

Click Here to Buy Now: $249 $599 (58% off). Hurry, only 363/500 off. Raised over $57,000.

The post This Wine Cooler Scans the Label and Sets Its Own Temperature for You first appeared on Yanko Design.

Recycled Plastic Is 10x More Toxic, and This Chair Contains None

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The furniture industry has been slow to reckon with its reliance on plastic. From injection-molded shells to synthetic fabrics, plastic finds its way into even the most design-forward pieces. Recycling has long been positioned as the answer, but the numbers don’t hold up. Only 19% of plastic produced globally actually gets recycled, and incineration, a practice that releases pollutants into the air, has surged 34% recently.

Matthew Whatley came to this problem not as a materials scientist, but as a furniture designer who’d spent a decade with his hands in the work. After years of carpentry and concrete formwork, he studied product design in Vancouver and Melbourne, and a trip through Southeast Asia, where plastic waste is impossible to ignore, pushed him toward a specific question: what if furniture didn’t need plastic?

Designer: Matthew Whatley

The Novum Chair is his answer, built from a combination of natural woven fiber and bio-based resin. The two materials form a composite: the fiber provides structure and texture, while the resin binds and hardens it into a rigid, load-bearing shell. It’s a relatively simple idea on paper, but getting it to actually hold a person’s weight required significant hands-on material testing.

The result is a chair that doesn’t look like it’s making a statement about sustainability; it just looks good. Its form is a single, continuous shell that sweeps from the backrest down through the seat and curls beneath to cradle the sitter. The woven surface is visible through the resin coating, giving it a warm, textile-like quality that reads more like craft than manufacturing.

There’s something refreshing about a chair you could put in a design studio, a cafe, or a considered living space without it demanding attention. The Novum Chair has the kind of understated confidence that lets the material do the talking. The texture and warm amber of the resin-soaked fiber give it a character that shifts with the light, something molded plastic never manages.

Part of what makes this approach worth taking seriously is that it sidesteps one of the more uncomfortable truths about recycled plastics. Re-rendered recycled plastic isn’t the clean solution it’s often portrayed as; it can be roughly 10 times more toxic than the original material. Natural fibers and bio-based resins don’t carry that baggage, which makes this composite a genuinely different starting point.

Whatley is candid about the fact that bio-based resins aren’t perfect yet. They’re relatively expensive, not high enough in bio content, and not yet as accessible as conventional materials. But the Novum Chair isn’t presented as a finished product so much as a proof of concept that structurally sound, beautiful furniture can be built around materials that don’t depend on plastic.

What Whatley has done is take a material problem that feels overwhelming in scale and distill it into something you can sit in. That’s no small thing. The conversation around plastic alternatives tends to stay abstract, caught up in policy and data. A chair that you can actually inhabit, one that looks beautiful, pulls the conversation out of the theoretical and into the everyday.

The post Recycled Plastic Is 10x More Toxic, and This Chair Contains None first appeared on Yanko Design.