Tag Archives: Concept Designs

LEGO-like modular dollhouse lets you build the miniature home of your dreams

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It’s pretty amazing how many things you can make if you’re given the right tools and materials. LEGO blocks have inspired creativity and shaped minds for generations in the physical world, while sandbox games like Minecraft have pulled the same feat in the digital world. These two creative platforms, in turn, have inspired many other toys and experiences that try to bring this freedom of creation to other designs. This particular design concept, for example, has a similar vibe to LEGO but caters to the young and young at heart who want to build their ideal doll houses.

Designers: Gavin Portillo, Mario Ledo

LEGO blocks started out as literal block-shaped pieces that you could combine in different ways to create structures, animals, vehicles, and anything your mind can imagine. More specialized pieces came later on that somewhat deviated from squares and rectangles, including wheels and gears, but the overall aesthetic remained the same. The same is true with the game Minecraft, where you can build almost anything imaginable, such as a primitive computer, but still look blocky overall.

BLUID-IT is a design concept that tries to expand those shapes to allow for more expressive combinations. The goal, however, isn’t just to build anything but to build dollhouses specifically. There are already plenty of dollhouses, most of them designed for kids, that allow a bit of customization, but you can only use what comes with the package, or maybe buy some additional accessories. And almost all of them revolve around a specific theme or style.

But what if you had hundreds of small objects to choose from, ranging from pillars to spiral staircases to magnetic walls? You can, in theory, build almost any house interior possible, one that can even span more than just a single level. No two houses would be identical, unless you intentionally copied, of course, allowing greater freedom in designing the perfect living space for miniature people.

It’s not completely free-form, though. The aluminum platforms and walls have perforations where you can insert tiny walls, furniture, and other pieces. This makes the design easier to use for younger audiences, giving them some guidelines to follow. It may even be useful as a tool for interior designers or architects, giving them a quick and easy way to create models for their desired arrangements as well.

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Designers reimagine iPod Touch in iPhone 16 design language

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What if iPod Touch survived till today? Perhaps, it would have had evolved into a niche entertainment device–it was a niche product when it existed. Anyway, the music player is in the grave without a chance for resurrection, but that’s a little impediment for creators. No wonder, two designers believe the iPod Touch can be redesigned in the iPhone 16 design language, and this is what it would be. Read on!

Easily saying, if the iPod Touch continued to date, it would have been an iPhone-styled entertainment device with a focus on high-quality entertainment. It would have played games, streamed media in all forms, and would have been thriving on the integrated Apple ecosystem syncing seamlessly across smart home devices, Apple Watch and yeah, the AirPods.

Designer: ID JUAN and sy wong

This is far from how JUAN and wong have envisioned the iPod Touch (7th generation), which has been off the shelves and discontinued for the better part of three years now. The idea of their iPod Touch is pretty much the same device with slight hints of the latest iPhones, the iPhone 16 lineup. So, the overall dimensions of the 7th generation iPhone Touch remain unchanged.

The reworked iPod Touch retains the 4-unch Redina display on the front. But in the back, the iPhone look is pretty evident with the single Apple logo in the center. No iPod branding or any additional text information toward the bottom. The designers note that “the pop-out loop hanger button” has been revived to make that evident distinction of the iPod Touch from iPhones and iPads.

Taking a slight dig at Apple’s complacency or rigidness, if you may, to shift to the universal USB-C type charging slot, the designers have stuck with a Lightning connector for charging. Assuming if it were made, the iPod Touch would feature a Lightning connector because Apple “probably has plenty of stock still available.”

Despite AirPods being the most obvious choice to be used with the iPod Touch, JUAN and wong have not parted with the good old 3.5 headphone jack. Continuing on the back, the plastic antenna cap is visible. iPhones and iPod now have it in their frame, but the iPod is happy with it in the back. This would, the designers suggest, add to the iPod Touch’s identity and also be cost-effective to pull off!

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This AI-equipped smart radio cooks up engaging conversations on trending topics, comes with TWS earbuds for listening freedom

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AI is gradually creeping up in our daily lives, giving us all better ways to be productive without exercising our neural network. If we weren’t already slaves to our phones and PCs, AI will ensure we stay hooked on to our gadgets more than ever. Many applications of AI are more than useful if used smartly.

Most AI models are slowly inching towards a machine learning level that’s useful for more complex day-to-day applications. A direct byproduct of that metamorphosis is this concept radio that is entertaining for good. Meet Symphony AI language module radio that won’t leave you bored sitting on your couch scrolling endlessly in your Instagram feed.

Designer: Junha Kahm

The device comes with an in-built AI language module that creates engaging debates and conversations on a variety of topics. They can range from online news, podcasts, or trends that can be on any platform via YouTube, audio files or PDFs. The gadget is more than just summarizing information that doesn’t require debate. It captures the gist of the reasoning process and discusses information to further provide an opportunity for objective thinking that’s free from any biases. This is done based on all the latest world’s information.

These two functions of the Symphony radio are kept separate via two modes. One of them is the Summary Mode which is more of a knowledge-condensing function for extracting the summary of elaborate topics that can get boring at times. The other is the Debate Mode which is more engaging and dynamic since it gathers and presents contentious information available online in a narrative format. In the second mode, the AI-driven approach presents individual perspectives and understands the issues more openly. This expands the user’s thoughts in a very entertaining way.

Symphony is like a small radio playing local channels in the afternoon, letting you engage with the latest news and information while sipping coffee. The gadget also comes with a monochrome screen to prompt all the spoken content in a textual format. Carrying a very future-forward design language, the Symphony radio has two wireless earbuds attached magnetically to the sides, hidden from plain sight. They let you enjoy all the AI-generated conversations without disturbing others in the room. Other than that, the radio has all those normal buttons to change channels, toggle volume levels and play/pause the broadcast.

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Metal aroma diffuser concept stands tall as a modern design object

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Air purifiers, humidifiers, and aroma diffusers are becoming increasingly common sights in our homes, but they have yet to become an integral part of them. Unlike appliances that have been around for decades, these younger devices still stand out like a sore thumb with uninspiring designs. Fortunately, there are efforts to truly make these products blend in with the rest of your home, hiding in plain sight without affecting their function. This aroma diffuser concept, for example, eschews the stereotypical plastic cans and embraces not only a more premium material but also a more artistic form that gives it a majestic presence in your living space.

Designer: Pavel Pitaev

Blending modern design and practical functionality, this metal aroma diffuser delivers a touch of elegant minimalism to your home. It has a sleek conical shape that tapers gently at the top, giving it a more striking silhouette that’s simple yet also immediately more sophisticated compared to the typical cylinders and tubs of most aroma diffusers. The choice of metal adds to the character of elegance and luxury as the finish reflects ambient light and colors to create a unique appearance that is clean and uncluttered, perfect for minimalist decors.

Of course, the concept design isn’t just a decorative piece but also a functional device designed to reduce stress and create an atmosphere of calm in any space. The aroma-infused mist rises from the top of the slender cone, ensuring the optimal dispersion of the fragrance to let the scent gracefully permeate the entire room. It also creates a rather stunning visual, like smoke rising from a candle or from the top of a tall and mighty volcano. The bottom of the cone which meets the disc-shaped stand has a rather unusual turbine design that partially exposes the mechanism inside while also adding a touch of intrigue to the unique visual. Thus, the design concept is a nod to both artistic design and technological elegance.

The choice of metal instead of plastic also makes an appeal to eco-conscious consumers. This opens the doors to using more sustainable materials, like recycled metal, while still preserving the premium and stylish traits of the design. This aroma diffuser concept stands literally and figuratively in opposition to mass-produced appliances that seemingly trade the planet’s health for human comfort. It also illustrates how simple shapes and common materials, when chosen wisely, can elevate the ambiance of a room better than elaborate designs.

More than just a mere household appliance, this concept raises the aroma diffuser to the level of a design object or sculptural art piece. It easily becomes a conversation starter, sparking the curiosity and admiration of whoever gazes upon it. The form of the aroma diffuser alone already creates a calming atmosphere that becomes even more effective once the aromas start spreading across the room. The design also speaks to a broader trend in interior design, where functionality and aesthetics finally go hand in hand, where consumers are drawn to products not just for their purpose but also to the value they add to living spaces through their memorable designs.

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This chair with floating backrest, ergonomic flexibility, and modular cushioning is designed for space travel

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Space Perspective offers life-changing trips to the edge of space in the world’s first carbon-neutral spaceflight. This spaceship dubbed Neptune features a breathtaking design. It’s a capsule with special UV reflective coated largest glass windows ever flown to space providing occupants an unparalleled view from the space lounge inside containing eight state-of-the-art chairs designed both for comfort and aerospace experience.

The innovative seating solution for Neptune’s passengers is visibly inspired by the lounge chairs. It seamlessly merges the luxury and comfort of the lounge chair with the safety requirements of space travel to ensure the guests have not only a comfortable seat but a safe one at that.

Designer: Of My Imagination

Dubbed Aerospace Seat SPN-01, these eight dark-blue chairs in the space lounge are lightweight, functional, and safe. While meeting travel safety standards, these chairs also provide umpteen luxury courtesy of the floating backrest, ergonomic flexibility, and modular cushioning.

These aerospace seats blend a modular pad system with adjustable cushions for ergonomic comfort. Owing to their contoured shape and arced headrest, the chairs nicely cradle their passengers during the critical phases of launch and landing. Due to their positioning (each facing outwards) in the roomy space lounge, each seat has a panoramic 360-degree view through the large capsule windows.

Whilst being designed to comfort anxious passengers in their cocooning environment, the Aerospace Seat SPN-01 is easy to repair and has adjustable features to balance comfort with functionality. Designed by @ofmyimagination the chairs are twined in pairs inside of the space capsule designed to promote conversation and foster shared experiences. The chairs are placed adjacent to each other to encourage passengers to speak with each other. Each set of chairs features a mini wooden table in between that doubles as a desk. Every chair has a storage section underneath where passengers can stow their personal belongings.

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Flashlight design concept reframes an ordinary tool as a familiar smartphone

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There’s no rule that says everyday tools need to be mundane and boring. With the trend in everyday carries and kits, people are discovering how ordinary objects can become more interesting or even more functional by changing their designs. Sometimes that means giving the object a fresh new look, one far removed from the original design and yet even more familiar to people. A flashlight, for example, doesn’t have to just be a cylindrical or rectangular stick you point with, and this concept design runs with that freedom to envision alternative forms, giving it the shape and interface of one of the most familiar products of this age: our smartphones.

Designer: Sihyun Choi

There is, of course, a good reason why conventional flashlights are shaped as long fat cylinders. They’re easy to grab and wrap your hands around, and their length allows you to possibly insert it in narrow spaces. There might also be some traces of their original inspiration, the equally cylindrical candlesticks. It might be an ergonomic design, but ergonomics can change over time as well.

Today, for example, many people are just as adept at grasping their smartphones in their hands, which is the inspiration behind the WHITT concept. In a nutshell, it takes the basic form of a smartphone but puts the internals of a flashlight instead. It’s not a completely faithful recreation of a smartphone, of course, considering it tapers to one side a bit. It actually looks more like a lopsided flask or even a handheld laser projector in this case.

WHITT is also operated like a smartphone, at least when it comes to turning it on and off. The button is at the side, like where you would find a phone’s own power button, which is something we probably unconsciously push dozens or even hundreds of times a day. The similarities end there, however, as the flashlight isn’t even powered by rechargeable batteries. It uses two AA batteries that can be easily swapped out, unlike the fixed batteries inside smartphones.

As interesting as the design might be, it still leaves the question of ergonomics hanging. Opposite the tapered side is a curved edge with a ribbed surface that should improve the flashlight’s grip. Even then, a cylindrical flashlight is probably still easier to grip firmly, which is an important aspect of the tool’s utility.

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Glue gun concept gives the crafting tool a modern and ergonomic makeover

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Anyone who has done any kind of craft would have at one point or another used a glue gun. This tool simply melts solid glue and dispenses it through a nozzle, and its design hasn’t changed one bit over the decades. It’s a very simple tool that’s shaped like a toy gun, and while it does get the job done, it is inefficient, uncomfortable, and even unsafe. Perhaps it’s because it has fallen out of use that the glue gun hasn’t seen any action in the design department, something that this concept design tries to make up for by taking inspiration from an iconic houseware brand commonly associated with kitchen tools.

Designer: Sahitya Kashyap

Kitchen tools like whisks and tongs are probably the last things you’d expect to be given the beauty treatment, but that’s exactly what Joseph Joseph brought to the kitchen countertop. The brand’s products are famed not just for their utility but also for their simple charm, turning their use from a chore to a joy. Given the expectations of a glue gun, this tool definitely deserves such a treatment as well, but one that also redefines the basic shape that is at the heart of the glue gun’s woes.

There’s really no reason why it needs to be shaped like a gun anymore, at least not one that faithfully sticks to that form. Any L-shaped form with a trigger mechanism can easily be considered a gun, and our brains will fill in the rest. This concept goes through various iterations to achieve that design, until one that is distinctive and more interactive makes it to the top. It comes in the form of a tube that has been flattened on its long sides and is actually made of two parts connected at an angle. Thanks to that cut, twisting one end creates that angle that associates the form with a gun.

The design also resolves the problem of precision with a significantly smaller and thinner rod-shaped nozzle. Unlike the conical nozzle of today’s glue guns, this allows the tip to get closer to narrow spaces without the hot metal touching the surface. The design also adds an LED light to signal when the gun is ready to use, a feature that 3D printing pens had for years now. And when you’re done, simply twisting the gun back to its original straight form is enough to turn it off, and you don’t have to worry about how to put the still-hot gun down.

More than just the form, the aesthetics of the glue gun also changes significantly. Gone is the plain, unattractive, and cheap plastic, replaced by a smooth and glossy finish befitting of a Joseph Joseph product. The design does still leave a few problems to be solved, like how the glue stick is supposed to bend as well, but it’s an interesting thought experiment for a product that has barely been given the long-overdue attention it deserves.

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iPhone 17 concept dreams of an interesting direction Apple will never take

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Apple is both famed and notorious for its meticulous attention to detail and it has been hailed as a champion of product design in the tech industry. It rarely makes big changes to its design language, but when it does, it holds on to that aesthetic for years. It held onto the notch for six years before giving way to the island on the iPhone 15, and it still uses the square camera design it first introduced on the iPhone 11 back in 2019. That’s not to say that the iPhone 17 next year couldn’t be different from this year’s iPhone, and this concept tries to explore designs that could make sense but will probably never happen under Apple’s watch.

Designer: Mohamed Mahdy

Apple has championed minimalism for its most recent products, barely adding any vibrant colors or textured finishes to its iPhones and MacBooks, save a small number of special editions. It has left the doors wide open for case makers to offer those flavors to people who do want them, but it has reserved for itself classier aesthetics. Of course, it’s not like Apple has never embraced more eye-popping hues before, as proven by the candy iMac G3, the colorful iPhone 5c, and the current generation of vibrant flat-screen iMacs.

This Apple iPhone 17 conceptual design dares to venture into unknown territory with a design that, almost doesn’t look like Apple if not for the telltale logo. It does have the flat design of the current iPhones, but rather than a smooth and featureless chassis, it adds a bit of texture that looks almost like fabric. This can perhaps be an opportunity for Apple to use more sustainable recycled materials rather than just plain metal.

The biggest deviation, however, is the camera design, a pill shape that runs across the width of the phone. It has four cameras, something that has yet to happen on any iPhone, arranged in a row with the LED flash and 3D time-of-flight sensor in the middle. This design is one possible solution to the design puzzle that Apple will have to face when it does add another camera sensor to next year’s iPhone. It also fixes the wobbling problem that most smartphones have because they push the thick camera bump off to the corner.

Interesting as it may seem, it does feel unlikely that Apple would go this far if it ever does finally change the iPhone 17’s design. The changes are far too great and the benefits are far too few. It’s still an interesting thought experiment, of course, one that does try to at least stick to the general design of current iPhones. Chances are, however, that the company won’t be ready to make such a drastic leap, even with sustainability and ergonomics at stake.

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Artistic router concept opens like a folding fan based on the Wi-Fi strength

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Being stuck at home for months on end has been an eye-opening experience for many people. For some, it revealed how little space we have at home, while others realized how they are ill-equipped to work at home. At the same time, many people have also become more aware of how the tools they use, especially consumer electronics, have aesthetic value that could either uplift their mood or burden their subconscious minds because of their designs. Wi-Fi routers, in particular, come in uninspiring or sometimes menacing designs that we often hide in corners or behind other objects that can actually negatively affect their performance. This router concept design tries to address that and other pain points with a design that turns a boring box into something like an art object that unfurls its beauty like a peacock when the Wi-Fi signal is strong.

Designer: Sunjin Na

Common home routers are simple boxes with one or two antenna rods sticking out from them. More powerful and sophisticated equipment, however, would have multiple antennas that transform the router into something like a robotic sci-fi creature. Unless you actually go for that kind of aesthetic, chances are you’ll be hiding the router from view. But if you’re not careful, that could actually affect the signal that it transmits. Additionally, you wouldn’t have any way of knowing whether the router itself is receiving a good Internet signal without looking at your phone’s Wi-Fi bar or some other app.

Blooming Out is a design concept that fixes those problems by making sure you wouldn’t want to hide the router in the first place. It gives the router a makeover that isn’t just aesthetically pleasing but also functional. It uses the concept of a folding fan that “blooms out” when the Wi-Fi signal is strong but retracts and folds in when it is weak. It’s not a binary state, though as the 29 fans can indicate the signal strength in between.

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The router also has visible antennas, but not in the design you’d normally expect. The three antennas stand together a bit off-center and can be rotated to maximize the spread of the signal. Because of this design, Blooming Out looks more like a peacock fanning out its tail in pride when it’s working in full force.

With this design, the Blooming out router concept becomes more than just a tool. It becomes an aesthetic object that adds visual value to any space, disguising its actual function without compromising its functionality. Of course, there could still be some technical drawbacks with this unconventional design, but it could be something that’s easily resolved with today’s technologies.

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Beacon Bottle is a drinking and lighting solution for your long hikes

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If you’re hiking up a mountain or going on long walks and trekking, you probably need to carry as little as possible. However, you also need to have a lot of necessities with you especially if it’s an overnight hike. Three things you definitely need are a water bottle, a lamp or light source, and a compass. Usually, these are three different things that you carry. But a designer has come up with a way to have all three in just one item.

Designer: Anantvijay

The Beacon Bottle for Hikers is a product concept for something that hikers can carry that has different functionalities. The way that it’s designed is that it looks like a lamp that serves as your light source but it also looks like a water bottle for your hydration needs. And yes, it is both. Plus, there’s even a compass on the cover so that you get another bonus with this item and it lessens the items that you need to bring with you.

The body of the bottle even has a textured surface so that it’s easy to grip while you’re drinking. The light-emitting component is at the bottom of the bottle and can be attached and detached easily with a threaded mechanism. If you detach it from the bottle, you can still use it as an independent light source. The charging part has a type-c port and you can still use it even when it’s charging.

The compass is integrated into the polypropylene bottle cap while the handle is designed for easy carrying or can also be attached to the backpack or hung on a tree branch. The body of the bottle is made from polyethylene terephthalate so it shouldn’t be that heavy. If all you need is to hydrate and have something to light your way (and give you direction), then this is a handy tool to have during your long hikes.

The post Beacon Bottle is a drinking and lighting solution for your long hikes first appeared on Yanko Design.