Tag Archives: Concept Designs

FryMist concept combines air frying and steaming into one device

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I’ve been trying for years to eat healthier due to various health conditions that have come up. I’m not much of a cook and the only things I can do right now are fry things. But of course it’s not the healthiest way so having an air fryer would be ideal. Another way would be to steam things but there are times when frying, or at least air frying, is better.

Designer: Duygu Yildiz

A designer said, why not have both? FryMist is a concept for a cooking device that puts an air fryer and a steamer into just one device to save space in your kitchen. It’s not really combining the two processes but integrating them into just one device. This way you are able to get low-fat cooking and healthier dishes while also not giving you harmful chemicals from high heat.

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The steamer part has a water boiling container and a grill since you of course need water to be able to steam your veggies or fish or whatever else you can steam. The air fryer part has the container and the air fry grill. The air fryer and steamer also has separate screens so you won’t get confused as to the controls and the displays.

This would be an ideal cooking device for people who like me who don’t have much time to cook actual dishes. If this is made into an actual product, I would probably be first in line to get one.

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This ultra-thin portable music player redefines music listening experience

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Portable music players have for long been the staple of audiophiles who cannot compromise on the audio quality of the tracks they listen to. Astell&Kern, FiiO and Sony have dominated this space for a long with their consistency.

Now Steelworks Studio wants these big names to level up their game with the SW-1 music player, which a proposed concept for a DAP that embodies functionality with visually pleasing aesthetics for a unified listening experience.

Designer: Steelworks Studio

A bezeless responsive touchscreen that is encapsulated by the durable aluminum body frame without subduing the retro charm signifies this design leap. The minimalist aesthetic is complemented by the stunning OLED display that fits the vibe of modern audio listeners. This concept chooses the trending silver finish for the frame that has a beautiful volume knob in the bottom center to induce a tactical feel.

The user can listen to their music on the 360-degree surround sound speakers as well as the gadget can be placed in the horizontal orientation. Yes, it’s got an equally robust kickstand for placing the device on a flat surface in landscape mode. So, you’re not just limited to music, but can also enjoy immersive binge-watching on the player.

The SW-1 music player has a very sleek and ergonomic footprint so that it can be carried easily in your daily commute to work. While the form factor is slightly taller than your usual Hi-res music player, the gadget is far thinner than other DAPs out there. Honestly, the height could have been a little less considering the display only occupies around 1/4th of the screen real estate. Anyways, the skim form fits like a charm in hand and that volume knob adds spice to your music listening experience.

 

 

 

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Quirky chair concepts are made for both humans and their feline masters

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Anyone who has owned a cat will know the truth about who is really the master and who is the pet. Although they can definitely be cuddly and sentimental, furry felines are also known to be temperamental and territorial. And by that, it usually means that any place in the house can be their territory. All kidding aside, cats tend to love squeezing into tight spaces, even when you’ve already provided a lush, comfy, and unfortunately very open bed. Embracing the behavior of cats and how they can be central to owners’ lives, these concept designs envision furniture for humans that cats will appreciate, or rather, cat furniture that just happens to be usable by humans.

Designer: Jing-Cyuan Tang

For reasons unfathomable to all except their regal kind, cats love to squeeze into cramped spaces. Of course, they’ll still enjoy plush beds, but give them a box or a tube and their natural instincts kick in. So why not just design sleeping furniture that appeals to this behavior directly instead? Bonus points if it can also be used by their human owners, potentially letting them bond even better when resting in the same place.

That may be the thinking behind this rather unusual set of cat-friendly furniture design concepts. Or perhaps they’re human-friendly cat furniture designs. Either way, these chairs will be enjoyable to both parties, though their maintenance will probably be less so for humans. The common theme these chairs have are the armrests that act like dark tunnels, enticing cats to go inside to nap. There’s ample space for a cat or even two, so it’s not exactly a cramped and uncomfortable space at all.

Two variants of these armchair designs exist. Perhaps the more interesting one of the two has an armrest that goes around the back of the chair, creating a single tunnel that cats can walk through from end to end. There is also a more modest version where the armrests swap out tunnels for shelves, allowing owners to put other things on the side that won’t be used by the cat, presuming the cat doesn’t claim that space and pushes the vase off the shelf.

There is even a stool design where the very low backrest curves inward, creating that same tunnel shape where the cat can lie inside behind you. Truth be told, the seats don’t look too comfortable, especially with the backrests so low. They might have been unintentionally designed with feline comfort as the priority, showing who the real master of the house is. That said, they are indeed interesting designs and, to some extent, quite feasible, though the question of how to clean up after the cat inside those armrests still remains.

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Yamaha conceptualizes toys for your feline friends

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There used to be a time when most pet-oriented brands would design products mostly for puppies and dogs. But now that there are a lot of feline fur parents out there too, we’re seeing more brands get into the game of creating products that will appeal to this market. Even brands that usually don’t have anything to do with pets are also conceptualizing toys for cats.

Designers: Kazuya Washio (Yamaha Design Lab)

Yamaha is known more for their musical instruments and vehicles but now they’re exploring design studies for cat-related products while still keeping the design values of the company. What they came up with are three design concepts for things that felines might enjoy if they ever get made into actual products although there are no plans to commercialize it for now.

Neko-Yama is a cat playground but built in the “Yamaha style”. It lets the felines have a platform where they can explore all the tight spaces, crevices, and holes that they usually want to play around in. You will also be able to enjoy looking at them challenge themselves by playing around in the various places they can stick themselves in since it has a transparent design. The Strumming Box meanwhile is a scratching post where different colors will appear in the underside as they create their own patterns. Eventually it will look like a worn-out guitar but with the cat’s claws and scratches creating the unique surface.

Lastly, the Cat Music Box lets your feline friends create their own music by walking around in a wheel. Think of it as a hamster wheel but for cats and it is able to create notes through the rotation of the double wheels as it walks or runs around on the inner ring. The tempo also depends on how fast or slow they move. They can also walk backwards which might create a different kind of music.

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Underwater camera drone concept can autonomously capture high quality footage

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I love looking at underwater sea footage with all the plants, corals, and swimming creatures that the divers and swimmers show off. But I know I probably will never go down there myself so I have to live vicariously through these videos. Holding a camera or using a body cam are not always that comfortable though so there should be a better solution for underwater videography.

Designer: JiHoon Park

This concept for an underwater camera drone tries to solve those issues. The DSP mini will function as your companion as you dive and swim underwater and you don”t need to hold it or wear it which can sometimes be restricting. It should be able to sort of swim beside you and capture video footage of everything that you see underwater.

The idea is that this underwater drone should be able to autonomously track your movements as you swim underwater and capture video footage from all angles and in high quality format. It doesn’t need any manual operation so even if you’re a beginner in diving and in video capture, it should be easy.

The design of the DSP mini looks like a mini robot that will be your underwater diving companion. Of course this is still a concept but it would be interesting to have a tool like this that will not interfere with your actual diving activity but also can bring high quality footage so people like me who don’t dive can see what’s actually down there.

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From Nature to Design: The Journey of a Plant Pod-Inspired Pendant Ligh

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When it comes to design inspiration for all sorts of things, nature is one of the most popular sources. From architecture to technology to lifestyle products to product concepts, we see all sorts of designs that take its cue from nature all around us. Lighting fixtures are no exceptions and this project in particular is based on plants and transposed to a pendant light.

Design: Sujeet Kakad

From the name of the project itself, Nature Inspired Pendant Light, you already know where the designer got its inspiration from. It’s a Chinese Lantern like lighting fixture but with a combination of organic curves and the visuals of a plant fruit pod inside a husk. This is an aesthetically pleasing design and the challenge was to produce an actual product that can keep the original idea.

Since this is a pendant light concept, there is an adjustable fitting to hold it in place and it represents the stem of the plant although it’s located at the top. The top cover is made from aluminum sheet base with. Then you have the glass globe with the LED light inside and then steel rods surrounding it. At the bottom of the fixture is a leather cord with tassels to give it another natural looking element.

The final output of this project looks like a combination of a plant pod and a jellyfish which still gives off natural vibes. This is still just a project and a prototype so commercial production doesn’t seem to be in the cards. But it’s an interesting take on the pendant light which is sometimes more industrial or elegant looking than natural.

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Acer Project DualPlay Laptop Concept puts a unique twist to gaming on the go

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PC gaming has experienced a huge boost thanks to the advent of handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG Ally, and the Lenovo Legion Go. But while these offer a more mobile gaming experience, they still pale in comparison to dedicated gaming laptops when it comes to performance, battery life, and heat management. Gaming laptops have been around for years, of course, but they, too, are experiencing a renaissance, whether they’re becoming slimmer and sleeker or, in this case, taking on a completely different design. Rather than completely overhauling the laptop or even doing away with it, the Acer Project DualPlay concept instead transforms this familiar design into something that adapts to the latest gaming trends, including playing the same game with a friend who’s right beside you.

Designer: Acer

The days when PC and console gaming camps were divided across keyboard or controller lines are long gone. Those on PS5 and Xbox now feel the need to grab a keyboard to communicate with friends, while some PC gamers now swear by gamepads, especially those playing on handheld PCs. The trends may have changed, but the design of gaming laptops has not caught up to this shift, which is why the Acer Project DualPlay concept changes the formula a wee bit by embracing both playing styles in the same device.

When you press a certain “release” button on top of the keyboard with two fingers, the laptop’s extra-large touchpad pops out and becomes a wireless controller, not unlike those you’d usually connect and bring with you in a separate case or pouch. This dual system lets gamers quickly switch between keyboard and controller without missing a beat and without having to worry about forgetting to bring the controller or having no space for it in the bag.

“DualPlay,” however, has dual meanings here. That detachable controller can actually be separated into two joysticks, not unlike the concept of the Nintendo Switch Joy-con, allowing two people to compete or cooperate in the same game without having to fight over the controls. It brings back the social feeling of playing with someone beside you that home consoles offered, except you’re no longer limited to doing that at home.

The Acer Project DualPlay gaming laptop concept has other surprising features that really take gaming to the next level. Releasing the controller also pops out two high-fidelity 5W speakers from the sides, delivering audio that’s not impeded by desks or other obstacles. There’s also an overabundance of dynamic RGB lighting not only around the keyboard but also around the screen, flanking the detachable controllers, the infinity mirror lighting bar on the back, and even the controller’s joysticks. It definitely looks like a gaming laptop from the future, though it remains to be seen if it is far too ahead of its time as well.

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Smartphone touchpad concept tries to solve one of the biggest problems with big phones

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Almost everyone wants smartphones with big screens because of how much content they can see, but those same people probably don’t like using big phones because they require both hands to use comfortably and securely. Some manufacturers have introduced “one-handed mode” features that shrink the screen to a smaller size temporarily, but not only is that actually more cumbersome, it is also less accurate because of the small area you have to hit with your large finger. We don’t have problems using computers with gigantic monitors because we have computer mice that offer precise and accurate control, even if we’re not touching the screen itself. That’s the kind of control that this concept design is trying to bring to smartphones, practically putting a miniature Apple Magic Mouse on the back of large phones.

Designer: Geontak Oh

The computer mouse is actually a very weird and unintuitive tool that has become second nature to most people by now. You are indirectly controlling the screen, moving a detached piece of hardware whose only connection to the computer is an arbitrary one. Before touch screens were a thing, it was really the only way to interact with a graphical user interface, so it’s a bit ironic that we might need something similar to do the same on touch-enabled devices like smartphones.

Poinf is a design concept that tries to solve the problem of using a large smartphone with one hand. With the way we hold our phones, the thumb is the only finger we can use to tap on the screen, which is next to impossible if the screen is too big for our stumpiest finger to reach. But what if you could use a different finger to do that? And what if that finger is always on the back of your phone anyway?

The idea is to put what is practically a small, squarish touchpad on the back of the phone, held there using MagSafe or other magnetic technology. The actual interactive part is a small quadrant of the slim device, an area that can be easily reached by your index or even middle finger. You slide your finger across the surface, pushing around the equivalent of a cursor, and use tapping gestures to “click” on user interface elements. You can easily detach Poinf when you don’t need it, so it doesn’t get in the way of “normal” smartphone use.

Poinf is definitely an intriguing solution to a very old problem, but it also brings a few issues of its own, particularly with usability. Moving a cursor by moving a finger on the back of the screen could require some mental gymnastics, severely affecting your speed and efficiency in the process. Of course, your brain can eventually adjust, like how it has come to accept the computer mouse, but it will take time and effort before that becomes second nature. Additionally, however, you also lose access to important touch gestures like pinching to zoom or quick scrolling, so you’ll have to do double work to teach yourself a new action vocabulary for this rather niche control mechanism. In the end, you might give up and just use the phone with both hands anyway.

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Modular mini projector can also be a speaker and wireless charger

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It’s probably not something that we really think about but electronic waste is a growing problem since we see a lot of new gadgets released every month. There will probably be even more products conceptualized and created over the next few decades so what we have to think about is how to lessen or at least repurpose e-waste. One idea is to think about modular product designs so that one gadget can have multiple purposes.

Designers: Tae Hyeong Kim and Yu Jeong Choi

One conceptual product is bini, a modular beam projector that can also be used as a mini speaker. It can be used as a single unit with the projector on top of the speaker but it can also be separated into two devices if you need to use either of them individually. There’s even a third purpose for it as you can use the top of the device as a magsafe wireless charger.

Overall, bini looks like any ordinary smart speaker. When used as just one device, the top part of the projector becomes like a mini robot as you can adjust the head with its hinge. There’s also a focus wheel so you can adjust the focus when projecting on a wall or any surface. The buttons intuitively look like actual buttons so it can be easy to touch and use them. The device also has several ports like USB-C, HDMI, and even a headphone jack.

bini is a mini device so you can just hold it in one hand and is also pretty easy to combine and separate the modular parts. It would be interesting if they can make an actual, working prototype as its value depends of course on the quality of the projector and speaker features.

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Office furniture tries to find balance between rest and productivity

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A lot of offices and workplaces now have realized that the furniture and the design in their spaces can contribute to the productivity and the stress release of their employees. We’re seeing some add subtle and not-so-subtle touches to their offices to help people destress or at least have some sense of rest and relaxation while at the same time contribute to the eventual productivity of these employees.

Designers: PD Group X design studio

Cortina is a concept for a series of office furniture that gives users in the office their personal time and space and at the same time, increase work concentration. It is made up of three different pieces that are also multi-functional. Of course we’re fans of designs that can serve more than just one purpose to its users. The three items in this concept series are: the Pause Lounge Stand, the Peep Desk Wall, and the Tab Document Rack, which their names show off what their main functions are. They are meant to have multiple functions so as to save space and your office’s budget as well.

The Pause Lounge Stand lets users take a pause at work while also not overstaying in the rest area. Before you settle in your lounge chair or rest area, pull the handle that will set the time and as the minutes tick by, the shade parts of the tower-like stand goes down and the subtle lighting slowly disappears. Once the shades are all down, it’s a sign to go back to work. It also doubles as a phone charging station so you can let your device rest. The Peep Desk Wall is a divider placed on your table which is able to control the field of view between you and the other occupants of the table and the degree of light diffusion as well. You can also attach magnets and sticky notes on the metal plates so you can reach them easily.

Lastly, the Tab Organizer sorts papers of different sizes when you close the “blinds” after placing the different pieces into the tabs. The product renders don’t really show how the sorting happens but at the very least, it lets you store different documents into a standing piece of furniture and lessen clutter on your table. These carefully designed piece of office furniture would be an interesting addition to your workspace if these are functionalities that you need to implement, working on both rest and productivity.

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