This adjustable desk with four different forms was constructed for designers to draw easily!

Artists spend a lot of time at their desks. It’s where all the magic happens. When they fail to provide what we need them for, it can get…frustrating. Sometimes it has to do with the height of the desk– the legs might be too short, resulting in using your spine to bend over the desktop just to get the final touches of a project done. Or, it could have to do with the angle of the desk– if it were just angled slightly lower, maybe the final draft would have already been completed. Recognizing the multiple issues that arise with artists, specifically designers, and their desks, Long Chan constructed Lift, a desk that can adjust to meet your needs.

From the right angle, Lift almost appears like a heavy-duty, oversized wooden TV tray table, but looking at it head-on, it’s rectified as the designer’s workstation. While my days spent eating chicken noodle soup on a TV tray table while watching Cartoon Network are over, Lift utilizes a sliding mechanism that echoes the same one as the iconic living room staple from yesteryear. In order to assume different shapes, Lift depends on two sliding wooden pegs on both sides. The sliding wooden pegs on Lift’s front legs lower the desk’s working space to assume the shape of a traditional writing desk, with additional storage space is made available in the process, similar to that of a traditional secretary desk. Then, the other sliding wooden peg, placed along the side of the desktop, adjusts the desktop to form a drawing workstation, which sets the working space of the desk at an angle.

Being a designer himself, Long Chan felt inspired to create Lift for those fussy scenarios where a traditional writing desk just doesn’t cater to all the needs of a designer. Speaking to this, Chan says, “When the designer needs [to work in] digital…mode, he can move the height to 85cm by rotating the axis on both sides. When the designer needs to take a rest or stand, he can adjust to 110cm height. Of course, users can adjust the angle of the table while sitting, so they can draw easily and not be bothered by the problem of incorrect perspective.”

Designer: Long Chan

With deep cabinets like that of a secretary desk, Lift provides ample space for both working and storage.

Lift’s prototype shows the four different positions it can assume.

Lift’s form as a writing desk.

When the leg’s sliding wooden peg is activated, Lift takes the shape of a traditional secretary’s desk.

Or, adjust the angle slightly to read or draw without having to compromise your line of sight.

Lift’s versatility depends on the four wooden pegs that frame it.

Lordstown Motors’ electric race truck is (mostly) ready for off-roading

Lordstown Motors wants to prove its Endurance electric truck is ready for the wilderness through a familiar strategy: it's entering a prominent race. Autoblog reports that Lordstown has unveiled a race-ready version of its Endurance Beta truck th...

This umbrella-shaped folding chair is the most brilliantly creative furniture design I’ve seen this year!

An umbrella-shaped chair. The idea itself sounds absolutely outrageous until you realize how incredibly clever it is. Think about it… would you rather be carrying an umbrella with you wherever you go, or have those godawful wearable chair-legs strapped to your torso like Gabe from Silicon Valley? The answer is obviously the umbrella, given how ubiquitous it is. It’s compact, and more importantly, is socially acceptable. So when designer Yanagisawa Sera was looking for a way to reinvent the folding chair, hiding it inside an umbrella sounded like a perfect idea!

What’s brilliant about the Hide And Seek chair is its sheer absurdity… along with the fact that it actually works! Sera went straight from the drawing board to the metal workshop to test his idea out and from the looks of it, the umbrella-shaped chair works – at least on a prototype level! The frame of the umbrella was fabricated from stainless steel rods, and is designed to fold right into the umbrella shape when closed. A stretched fabric mounted on the frame helps distribute the weight when you sit, allowing the chair to actually take the weight of an adult human. It does look a tad fragile if I’m being candid, but that’s something that can easily be fixed by using materials like titanium or even carbon fiber. The best part about the entire product is that it folds right back into the shape of a standard umbrella, which means you can place it in backpacks, handbags, or even carry it to the grocery store or a concert… blending right into the crowd right before you open the Hide And Seek and take a seat on the world’s only umbrella-shaped chair! That should definitely grab a few eyeballs!

In fact, under certain circumstances, you could use the Hide And Seek as an umbrella too! Although considering its framework (which is designed to easily take somewhere around 160 lbs of weight) is much more robust than the kind found on most umbrellas, the Hide And Seek would be much heavier than your average umbrella, making it difficult to carry for longer periods of time. Nevertheless, the level of creativity and ingenuity the Hide And Seek demonstrates is truly marvelous… especially given the fact that the outrageously brilliant idea is even backed by a working prototype! Yanagisawa Sera, I hope you’ve filed your patents on this, because it may easily be the most brilliantly creative product design I’ve seen this year!

Designer: Yanagisawa Sera

Social media bots may have fuelled the GameStop stock frenzy

The GameStop stock frenzy appears to largely have been the product of Reddit users and trading apps like Robinhood, but some of its contributors might not have been human. According to Reuters, cybersecurity firm PiiQ Media has determined that people...

AutoBuff cordless car polisher $89

If your searching for a quick and easy way to polish your car you may be interested in the new Kickstarter campaign for the AutoBuff cordless car polisher by Pumpit. Capable of both polishing and removing small scratches the car polisher can be used for compounding, polishing and finishing. The cordless design allows you to […]

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The Top 10 sustainable product designs that help you maintain an eco-friendly and green lifestyle!

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a whole lot of changes to our world, our lifestyle, and us. People are now consciously veering towards an environment-friendly way of living, adopting sustainability, and proactively engaging in practices that nurture our Mother Earth. In an attempt to support such initiatives, designers are coming up with innovative sustainable designs. So, we’ve curated ten of these designs that we think are the best of the lot! These designs range from a modular habitat system for bees to a device that helps you grown your own meat! These Top Ten product designs have been specially handpicked by us, as each one of them tackles a unique problem, providing inventive solutions, and encouraging us to lead a greener and cleaner life. They make sustainability easily accessible and achievable for us all!

This modular habitat system was designed to save the bees – it is their Good Place neighborhood! Bees contribute to complex, interconnected ecosystems that allow a diverse number of different species to co-exist. However, the majority of the 20,000 species of bees in the world face the threat of extinction. Amelia Henderson-Pitman designed Pollen which a modular system that provides a range of nesting materials to support the native bee populations and mitigate the problem. It can be installed in any location and has also been optimized for small spaces – the modular system can be integrated anywhere from inner-city gardens to exterior building structures. Each nest module contains materials like recycled hardwood, sustainable bamboo, or handmade mud brick. They have a series of holes that vary in diameter to provide nesting spots. The shell of the modules is an injection tube crafted from recycled HDPE and has been designed to be easily assembled as well as mounted without fixtures. The internal modules (molded from recycled PET) are transparent because it offers us a closer look at how the bees are adapting.

A tool used for firing clay in a kiln transforms into a minimalist bird feeder! This ceramic bird feeder doesn’t present a new solution for bird feeders but does present an approach for sustainable product manufacturing that solves a problem faced by many designers: the scrap material used during construction, like rings in clay kilns, that is discarded once the product is finished. Ceramika Design and Studio Kononenko wanted to make use of ceramic rings used when firing clay in kilns. The main element of the bird feeder is formed from ceramic – the frame and body of the bird feeder. Covering just about a quarter of the round frame is a plastic plate that functions to store plenty of food for the wild birds. Extending from the middle of the plastic plate is a wooden peg that works as a perch for birds to enjoy their seeds. “Considering that the reserves of this clay are limited, we thought about extending the life of these elements. We wanted to create a useful thing out of this. This is how a feeder for wild birds appeared,” says the team. The bird feeder is minimalistic its purpose rests not in aesthetic intricacy, but usability and sustainability. Each component of the bird feeder is replaceable on the off-chance that one is damaged so it can provide longevity.

Burfeind designed Sneature which is a sustainable sneaker alternative for the eco-conscious sneakerheads. The shoe is crafted from many waste materials. The yarn made of dog hair (Chiengora) is a biological waste being upcycled – this is innovation. Sneature is biodegradable as well! The design does take into account the functional requirements of a trainer and individual customization by the user. The process uses a 3D knitting technology that allows for customization and on-demand production while using the lowest possible energy consumption method. The membrane is a protein-based 3D knit made from dog hair. It transports the functional properties of flexibility, stiffness, and air circulation with a very second-skin feel, similar to the sock sneaker style we’ve been seeing. These materials have natural properties that provide water absorption and release and anti-static properties.

This device is designed to grow your own meat to reduce greenhouse gas emissions! FAO has proven that over 25% of the world’s land use is used for animal grazing/growing feed. In fact, 60% of global biodiversity loss and 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions are a result of meat farming and consumption. While the more sustainable option will be to switch to a plant-based diet, many are unable to make that change while still wanting to reduce emissions. To solve the inner conflict humans face as well as help the environment in the process, Turner designed Carnerie – a conceptual device that will let you grow your own meat in the future! Cultured meat is the process of growing meat from cells extracted from animals. Many experts believe that cultured meat offers us the opportunity to produce meat with significantly reduced environmental impacts and without slaughtering animals. The technology is being rapidly developed across the world and is beginning to be introduced to some high-end restaurants but there has been discussion about whether one day we may be able to grow our own meat from animal cells in our own kitchens. Carnerie is a ‘grow your own meat’ device for around twenty years in the future. It is controlled by an app, whereby the user is able to order cell capsules from local farms in order to grow a variety of different types of meat.

KAGURA was created by Chaozhi Lin so that environmentally conscious people can curate their very own self-sustaining indoor gardens no matter where they live. KAGURA’s system is comprised of three main working parts: a container for food waste, an elevated light structure, and three soil pots. The food waste container is located on one side of the indoor planter and turns your leftover food scraps into compost for fertilizer. Composting is a method used to decompose organic solid waste and fertilize the soil for gardening. The slim, attractive light fixture is situated directly above KAGURA’s garden pots and provides the mini garden with nourishing light-energy. The indoor, gardening system is completely self-sustaining and conveniently sized in order to fit into any kitchen or living space. The system itself works after food waste is dumped into the container on the left-hand side, fertilizing the soil contained in the trio of modestly sized pots, each of which provides energy for plants to then grow and thrive.

This mushroom helmet will grow on you as it grows. Yes, read this slowly and carefully: this mushroom helmet will grow on you as it grows. “What do you mean?!” you say and I assure you that statement is not wrong, there is an explanation for it. The Grow It Yourself Helmet is a sustainable product made from mycelium which is the vegetative part of a fungus. Mycelium is the thready hyphae that are tightly woven into mass branch-like networks making it a strong sustainable material. The network of filaments are natural binders and they also are self-adhesive to the surface they grow on. The entire process is based on biological elements that help in upcycling waste. The process of making this helmet also gets the kids involved in a meaningful activity that teaches them about sustainability and safety.”We have developed a helmet that can be made out of hay and Mycelium. It is 100% compostable, breathable, and impact resistant. The helmet reduces the use of plastics in a product that will be disposed of in a short time due to the child’s growth rate,” says the team at NOS Design. To further develop this design, NOS partnered with a company called Polybion which developed Fungicel (a patent that uses mycelium). This fungus grows like foam and therefore can provide cushioning at the time of impact.

When you think of furniture, you think of pieces made using the most traditional materials. We are conditioned to associate furniture primarily with wood, plastic, and metal so when we see products made from anything else it leaves us in awe. Vadim Kibardin decided to give an innovative, sustainable twist to it and designed furniture from paper. Why is his furniture a piece of art? Well, he has spent 5,110 hours making it by hand! Every piece of furniture that Kibardin makes is one of a kind, there is no mold and he shapes them all himself. We are now moving towards a sustainable lifestyle but Kibardin has been doing this for over 25 years – he has successfully recycled 2000 pounds of cardboard which is equivalent to saving 17 trees. To put it into perspective, 17 trees absorb 250 pounds of carbon dioxide each year and we need to ramp up the materials we use in design so that they serve a functional purpose while also contributing to slowing down the climate crisis. Using sustainable construction materials like paper and turning it into furniture that is stylish, modern, and eco-conscious is the future of long-lasting interior design.

An academic project gave birth to Coolpaste – the eco-friendly alter ego of our trusty old toothpaste. The aim was to develop a sustainable packaging design for toothpaste in a way that didn’t affect their durability while being transported or stacked on shelves. For the purpose of the project, Colgate toothpaste was used as the object of study. Coolpaste not only got a physical makeover that was better for the environment, but the graphic elements of the product were also refreshed to reflect the goal of the project. The paper box was eliminated after an in-depth point-of-sale study without affecting the integrity of the toothpaste. This made the product lighter, reduced waste, and simplified branding also eliminated the chemical inks making Coolpaste a success in terms of sustainable packaging and ecodesign.

Sometimes we think we are leading sustainably by just using metal straws or paper bags, but if you carefully look at your daily life, you’ll notice there are so many products that use plastic. The best we can do is find alternatives for them and support designers, brands, businesses who are working on making the future a better place to be. One such product is the iron and Indian designer, Saksham Mahajan, who has come up with a sustainable version of it made from bamboo! The designer started the project as a challenge to explore bamboo as a material, “Its sustainability can be exploited to make so many different things”, says Saksham – and we agree! Bamboo is structured, sturdy, easy to grow, and eco-friendly, in fact, it is used to make houses in Asia so why not use it to make household items too? The bamboo iron box was selected as one of the best entries in the Green Concept Award 2019 which furthers the conversation of using this versatile material in more products.

The world, as a whole, has started to care for turtles and has quickly moved on to use eco-friendly straws. The options are metal straws and paper straws. Metal straws are good for homes and for people to carry them to their office but it is an inconvenient option for eateries. So cafes and restaurants have adopted paper straws as they are easily recyclable and don’t require the effort of cleaning. However, the only problem with paper straws is that they get soggy and your drink will taste like wet paper and you might accidentally eat a bit of it – both things don’t leave a good “taste” in your mouth and can deter people from using sustainable straws. Straw Wars – sustainable products vs drinks that taste like paper, who will win? To solve this behavioral and environmental issue a Warsaw-based company has designed a better alternative straw made with dried stems! It solves the biggest problem we face with paper straws, it does not soak the liquid and it does not add any flavor to the drink – it is true. Stem straws work for both hot and cold drinks so we can make a collective effort to reduce the impact of plastic straws on the environment. The USA alone uses 500 million straws daily so you can imagine what the total global usage would be. According to the One Less Straw fund, every year, as a result of swallowing pieces of plastic debris, 100,000 marine animals and about a million seabirds are die. This is why we need to make the switch to sustainable straws, so if you keep losing your metal straw then get a pack of STRAWS which has 50 stem straws and comes in 100% recycled cardboard packaging.

FinalPress coffee and tea maker hits Kickstarter

Coffee and tea drinkers may be interested in a new brewing system aptly named the FinalPress, offering a plunger style design to brew coffee or tea anywhere. Launched via Kickstarter the campaigners already blasted past its required pledge goal thanks to over 850 backers with still 31 days remaining.  Specially priced early bird pledges […]

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EVO Gym all-in-one portable home gym

If you are searching for a way to keep fit at home to work out either indoors or outdoors. You might be interested in a new portable gym system call EVO Gym, originally  launched via a successful crowdfunding campaign and is now available via the Indiegogo InDemand service and a discount price. The portable EVO […]

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