Tag Archives: Concept Designs

Smart gardening pot concept makes growing plants indoors less stressful

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There has been a new kind of hobby that gripped the world in the past few years, especially when people were forced to stay home for a few months. “Home gardening” was no longer limited to having a small plot of soil outdoors, especially if you can just grow them in pots indoors. That said, it’s a process that still requires a bit of work and effort, especially if you want to keep your plants alive long enough to enjoy the fruits (or leaves) of your labors. Unsurprisingly, a rather niche market of indoor planter appliances has popped up, some including pretty smart functions to boot. This concept tries to offer the same conveniences in a more aesthetic presentation, providing a painless experience of growing plants in an automated environment that looks great as a piece of home decoration as well.

Designer: Saiyami Jhaveri

Just like with plants grown outdoors, indoor plants need regular maintenance from watering, sunlight, and even protection from pests. You can do all of those manually, of course, and some people do enjoy the satisfying feeling of getting down and dirty with such tasks. Others, however, find the process too time-consuming and burdensome, especially if all they want is regular access to fresh herbs or beautiful green plants to liven up a space.

Ecobloom is a concept device that tries to take the drudgery out of this painstaking and laborious process. Almost all parts of that process are automated; all you really need to do is plant the greens and make sure the water tank at the top is filled. You don’t have to do guesswork on when it’s the right time to water the plants thanks to soil moisture sensors that determine the perfect moment for you. Drippers also make sure the plants don’t suddenly get drowned by dispensing the right amount of water as needed. And, of course, there are artificial “grow lights” that save you the trouble of having to put the pot out under the sun.

The smart gardening pot has an interesting function that you won’t always see in actual appliances. It is noted to have a built-in insect repellent to keep those pests away and protect your plants. The concept doesn’t exactly detail how this function works, but one can presume it will be using safe and scientifically tested methods that won’t harm humans and pets in the process.

What makes Ecobloom really interesting is the form it comes in. It uses three concentric circles at different heights, with the topmost acting as the water tank. This gives the appliance a more pleasing appearance compared to just boxes or compartments. Ecobloom can thus be also used to decorate a space, giving as much enjoyment to the planting process as simply watching the plants grow.

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Minimalist wooden furniture uses curved shapes to add storage spaces

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Furniture takes up space, there’s really no getting around that. Of course, you need that space to actually use the furniture, but the furniture themselves aren’t always in use. You might not sit on those chairs or couches all day, and tables might be empty at certain points in time. During those moments, they might just be wasting space, so it sometimes pays to have them perform some other purpose, even if it means just looking pretty. That’s not to say you have to stop at looks, especially if such aesthetic furniture can also function as storage spaces, like what this collection of design concepts tries to achieve using nothing but simple curved layers of plywood.

Designer: Julian Topor

Partly thanks to the popularity of flat-packed products from the likes of IKEA, minimalist wooden furniture has become a popular choice in households. Their simple designs save space not only in packaging but sometimes also on the floor. Furniture, however, can also become a space to place some of your things, from books to accessories to even shoes. The KURVE furniture collection accomplishes this without having to resort to complicated construction or mechanisms, using only curves that wrap around an empty space to create a hollow nook for your stuff.

The throne-like KURVE chair, for example, has no legs but instead has a curved backless box for its bottom half. What makes its design particularly interesting is that the seat, backrest, and arms are all made from the same single sheet of layered plywood, just bent on the back and sides to create those support structures.

The KURVE Couch stretches out this concept, quite literally, to provide sitting for two. A central console splits the couch in half and provides a small area to place cups and phones, as well as a compartment below for things like the TV remote. The bottom of the couch is an even wider space for more things, whether or not they have business being there.

The table is admittedly the simplest of them all, nothing more than a wooden trapezoid to hold things above and below it. Its lengthy shape makes it more suited to be placed against walls rather than being a center table, perhaps somewhere near the front door so your shoes and keys can easily find a home for easy access next time you step out.

Last but not least, the KURVE Night Stand is also a trapezoid, just taller and narrower. Like other nightstands, it has a drawer, but this compartment is oddly located a little below the top. This creates yet another space for your things, maybe for a phone that you don’t want to tempt you while you’re resting.

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Compal Dual-Screen Laptop Concept can be unfolded in either direction

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It’s still a very niche design, but it seems that dual-screen laptops are being adopted by major PC makers. Unlike a foldable laptop that mimics a foldable phone, a dual-screen laptop simply offers two separate displays joined by a hinge, sort of like offering a second monitor that’s permanently attached to the laptop. Given this design, however, the only available design was a book-type foldable like the aborted Microsoft Surface Duo, the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo, and the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i. That, however, only covers about half of the use cases you might have for a dual-screen configuration and lacks the flexibility you’d enjoy with a detached second screen. That’s the kind of design problem that Compal’s concept is trying to solve and it does so in a very intriguing way.

Designer: Compal

The way dual-screen laptops are designed today is pretty much a product of familiarity rather than innovation. It’s the closest that resembles a regular laptop and is the easiest to implement. Ironically, it’s actually not the way people with two monitors arrange their screens in normal circumstances. Most have two horizontal monitors side by side or one stacked on top of the other. While current dual-screen laptops do support the latter use case, putting the monitors side by side requires having them standing vertically, opened like a book.

The Compal DualFlip concept flips that design on its head, pardon the pun, by giving the user the freedom to choose the configuration they need or want. They can have it stacked or side-by-side or even in the conventional book style. Or they can have only one screen active with the wireless keyboard sitting on top of the other, turning it into a regular laptop. The key point is that they dictate how they want to use the product rather than the other way around.

This opens the device to even more applications and users who have different needs and working conditions. Those monitoring data will probably appreciate having the monitor on top while those coding and writing might put the screen to the side. The latter is also the configuration that most will use for making digital art. Interestingly, having the screens stacked on top of each other also solves one of the biggest problems with dual-screen laptops and manages to “hide” the hinge and the gap that it creates between the two displays.

The key to this flexible design is the hinge that can fold or flip the screen as needed, hence the name. Of course, it’s still a concept and it’s uncertain if Compal already has working prototypes for this, but it definitely looks doable. If Compal manages to pull it off, it will definitely raise the brand’s profile and put it back on the map. That is unless its bigger rivals figure out another design that also solves that problem and actually puts it into production first.

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Smart home camera and router concepts look like ghosts to be less conspicuous

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Our homes are starting to get filled with smart gadgets, and not just the usual culprits like smartphones and tablets. From smart lamps to smart refrigerators, a lot of devices in our houses are now connecting to the Internet. While some of these try to blend in with the rest of your decor as much as they can, others just stand out like a sore thumb. Devices like home security cameras and routers still carry the aesthetics of their predecessors, which is impersonal, technical, and at times even disconcerting. While these products might be important in modern smart homes, they don’t need to be seen in order to function, which is why this concept design tries to make them almost literally fade into the background as if they were ghosts.

Designers: Seokhyun Ahn, Yejee Park, Cho Yumi, Yumin Shin, Myeongryun Kim, Dohyun Park, Lee Dahye, Kim Geonhee, Yang Yurim

We easily take for granted how things that look out of place can affect our minds and moods. Whether it’s a messy desk, a less-than-appealing piece of decoration, or clashing designs, the visual discomfort and confusion can actually bleed into your physical and mental state. They say that the best interfaces and designs are the ones that you barely notice, and what is the least noticeable thing if not a ghost?

Geist, which literally means “spirit” or “ghost,” is a concept design that tries to make those smart home devices less noticeable. Rather than having a black sphere or rectangle that feels like it’s spying on you, the John Doe ghost camera has a translucent body that almost looks like a piece of cloth flying in the wind, just like your stereotypical ghost from cartoons. It is even slanted at an angle to give the impression that it’s levitating and floating as it moves forward. It does have an “eye” for the camera, but it can turn it down to protect your privacy, indicating that it isn’t recording at the moment.

The Wi-Fi router Jane Doe takes on the shape of a gentle wisp of smoke or cloud. With an asymmetrical shape that is mounted vertically on a wall, it almost looks like a ghost passing through a solid surface. It’s impossible to completely hide some of the cables, particularly the power cable, but it at least forces these wires to go in a straight vertical line rather than ending up in a tangled mess.

Although the Geist concept design is actually meant to be less conspicuous and reduce visual discomfort, they can actually also have the opposite effect, depending on the person. Some might not be keen on seeing any representation of the paranormal, so anything that might remind them of ghosts might be even more uncomfortable. That said, the designs are aesthetically pleasing on their own, if you leave out the ghost association, so they still present a more pleasing aesthetic compared to the typical designs of these devices.

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Saturn-inspired Bluetooth speaker brings a unique look to your music

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There are a lot of Bluetooth speakers in the market, from simple and minimalist ones to the more luxurious and expensive-looking ones. When it comes to design though, there aren’t that many that go out of the box so to speak so we see either circular, box-shaped, dome-shaped, spherical, and other common shapes. So when we see uniquely-designed ones, even if they’re still just in the concept stage, then it catches our attention.

Designer: Hyunjae Noh

The concept for the Saturn Bluetooth speaker is inspired by, you guessed it, the planet Saturn. It’s one of the more “unique” planets in a sense that it has countless rings surrounding it made from ice and rock particles. It also has a yellow-brown golden hue when viewed from earth because of gases like helium and hydrogen. The designer was able to adapt these qualities into a design for a speaker that would most likely stand out. It would look like a sculpture of the planet but once you start playing music from it, then it would be a conversation starter as well.

But it just doesn’t emulate the look of Saturn. There’s a functional purpose for the parts as well. There is an upper body, a lower body, and a singular ring. The last one is what you will use to adjust the volume of the music or podcast streaming from the speaker. Because there is an upper and lower part, the support between the two is there to minimize the vibration interference from the woofer, midrange, and tweeter as well as minimizing interaction between them. This means there should be better sound quality and accuracy of sound reproduction.

The 360 degree speaker placement means your sound can be distributed around the room. The multi-way system is also able to accurately separate low, mid, and high-frequency ranges. You get 10 hours of playback on a full wireless charge, so it means you can also bring it around with you if you don’t mind carrying around a planet.

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Laptop cooling system concept extends its back to let air flow even better

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Laptops today have become quite powerful beasts, capable of handling AAA games and even multimedia creation that their predecessors would choke at. But with great power comes great heat generation, the bane of CPU performance and battery life. Keeping a laptop cool has been a very big puzzle for laptop designers, mostly because of the problem of squeezing an efficient cooling system inside an extremely thin chassis. There are many existing solutions available today, ranging from extra large fans to vapor cooling chambers, but this particular concept offers an additional level of thermal management where a portion of the laptop’s rear extends to facilitate better airflow to and from the internals.

Designer: Wistron

Laptop cooling systems might come with different names and gimmicks, but they all function with the same principle. You draw heat away from the processors and battery and blow out the hot air while simultaneously drawing in cooler air. Whether it’s passive cooling with vapor chambers or active cooling with fans, proper airflow is still a critical element in the system. Unfortunately, due to design requirements, laptop air vents are actually small and too few.

This design concept tries to fix that problem by almost literally opening up a part of the laptop in order to create more and bigger openings for air to pass. Dubbed “dynamic airflow,” the design has one part of the laptop extend and move, exposing more vents for better airflow. In this case, it’s the back of the laptop that moves further back once you open up the lid. Conversely, that rear panel retracts again as you close the lid.

This moving part can house the laptop’s “heat module,” which can be, for example, small fans that move the air around. Normally, thermal cooling systems are placed on top of the laptop’s motherboard, which ironically leaves little room for the air to flow. Separating this thermal component not only frees up more space for airflow, it also makes it theoretically possible to make the laptop even thinner with this arrangement.

Of course, it’s easier said than done, as the design will also have come with its own consequences. For one, it makes the laptop design more complicated with more moving parts and mechanisms to extend and retract that component, which, in turn, could introduce structural compromises and new points of failure. Given the company behind the design, we might actually see this dynamic airflow concept tested in the wild by some major laptop manufacturers, which will then give us a better handle on how effective the solution really is.

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Concept for a hotel in space reimagines outer space living

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When you think about living in space, the Jetsons’ house is probably the first thing that comes to mind (well, that is if you’re of the generation that regularly watched the animated series). We’re basically imagining how we live on earth but transported to space so there may be some advanced technology things floating around. But the reality is that housing in outer space will probably be very different from how we live on our planet.

Designer: Acromnia Studio

The Acromnia Orbital Hotel is a speculative concept design for how we may actually live in space and it is vastly different from what we’re probably imagining. Instead of just transporting a futuristic looking regular hotel room to space, this is actually a “room” that doesn’t have any furniture or any of the other trappings that we expect from it. Inside the shell (we can barely call it a room), you have a sort of shape-shifting, responsive material that will adapt to what the occupant needs at a certain time.

For example, when it’s sleeping time, the walls will envelop you, which is not so good news if you’re not a fan of closed spaces. In fact, the entire space has a bit of a claustrophobic look to it so it’s not something I’m looking forward to. There are also various buttons and navigation devices that you can use to control what elements and furniture will come out when you need them. The shell also has micropores that will let things like sound, light, scent, and air flow freely through your space.

The hotel room can exist independently as a hexahedron-shaped structure or it can also be put together to form a network of capsules. Living in space outside of space shuttles is still such a conceptual idea that things like this seem light years away for now. But for design companies and for those that are looking into space travel, it’s never too early to plan how we’re going to live and survive outside of Earth.

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Minimalist desk concept has a special place for your cat to sleep in

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Our parents told us how keeping pets is a huge responsibility, and many of us probably took that advice for granted. Even as adults, we might sometimes have love-hate relationships with the furry members of our family, especially when they get in the way of work. That seems to be especially true for cats, who have a bewildering knack for sleeping on our desks when we need to get things done, even going as far as sleeping on top of keyboards while we’re still typing. Every feline owner knows there’s really no stopping these masters of flexibility when they put their minds to something, but it also helps to give them something more comfortable to lie on than your hands. That’s what this desk concept aims to offer, giving your cat some space to still be near you when you work but also some privacy to keep to itself, like what most cats often to do.

Designer: Liam de la Bedoyere

This wooden desk is minimalist almost in the extreme sense. It’s pretty much just a bent plank of wood standing U-shaped bent metal for legs. There are no compartments, hidden or otherwise; just a flat and open surface to put your things on. It forces you to be extra neat, or at least creative in how you decorate and place accessories to hold your work tools. Or perhaps it’s best to actually leave it bare without anything that your cat might topple over.

Of course, the signature feature of this concept is the small space or “cubby” designed especially for a cat. One side of the table bends inward to create a hook shape that’s probably just big enough for your average cat. That cubby has a pillow for their comfort, though the material for that cushion might be questionable. After all, cats are known to scratch so that pillow might not last that long.

The Cat Cubby Desk tries to offer a comfy place for your cat to lie on without getting in the way of your work. Or at least that’s the goal. Whether or not your furry feline friend prefers to take that spot or, more likely, still lie on your keyboard will be totally up to your training and its mood. Given cats’ inclination to cram themselves in tight spaces, this does look like a very tempting location for them. And if your pet ends up ignoring it, you can always repurpose the cubby for other things, like as a space for books and folders. Hopefully, your cat won’t suddenly decide to jump in and knock all those off.

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DeLonghi portable heater is eco-friendly for your micro-climate needs

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While it’s of course always a comfort to be working in a place with air conditioning, there are still times when it might be too cold for you. Or you may sometimes be working outdoors when the weather is a bit too cool / cold for comfort. Not all places have a heater for your convenience so a portable heater may just be the solution. But again, not all portable heaters are actually portable or convenient. This new one from DeLonghi may be the ideal one, and it’s also mindful of the environment.

Designer: Noi Creative for DeLonghi

The DeLonghi Capsule Desk Loop is a personal fan ceramic heater that you can place on your desk or wherever you are working so you can “work or relax in peace.” It has a special air grid design that brings you a convenient airflow speed and distribution when you need that soft warmth for your sedentary activities. The designers call the air grid the Flame pattern which actually creates an illusion of heat and flames from your heating source.

It looks like your typical heater but it’s small enough that you can carry it around with you and it’s also more stylishly designed. It is also more environmentally-friendly than most personal heaters as it uses 50% recycled plastic, a first for a DeLonghi product. It also uses 5.5 times lower energy consumption at just 360W, making it eco-friendly not just in the design but also in its function. It also is not as noisy as normal heaters as it just gives you a quiet 39dB operation so you can really work in peace without an annoying hum in the background.

Having a device that can create your very own micro-climate while working may not be a priority but it is pretty convenient to have especially if you work in places where you can get easily cold. That can solve some of the office arguments that can happen when there’s a mix of people who are either too cold or too warm.

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Baby roach mechanical experiment may be your next cute pet (or nightmare)

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Some of the most popular (not necessarily best) memes are of people who seem to be brave on the outside but are reduced to screaming messes when faced with a cockroach. We’re talking both men and women here and seeing them freak out over these insects is apparently funny to some people. So this concept for a robotic cockroach may be the stuff of nightmares for some or a fascinating experiment for those who are curious.

Designer: Luis Lopez

Baby X-Roach is a concept or experiment into creating a robotic creature that is usually a source of disgust or fright. In his description of this creature he created, he says that she has a huge and kind heart with her curiosity keeping her alive even if most people don’t see it. It is designed to have a high tech aesthetic even though it is a low poly creation (small number of polygons in 3D computer graphics).

Based on the animations the designer included, the structure of the Baby X-Roach seems to be based on the actual cockroach’s look but with a high tech aesthetic. It may actually look right at home in a Tesla facility as per the creator. It can also be part of the Into the Spiderverse animated universe as it looks like it may be insect cousins with the spider that bit Miles Morales, with its red and black colors and mechanical movements.

This insect doesn’t seem to have any other function except to be a cute, mechanical pet. Well, that is, if you’re not afraid of roaches. If you are, you just might squish it if you see it scurrying across to you, which would be a shame for this baby roach.

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