Tag Archives: Modular

Modular office furniture brings the freedom and flexibility of LEGO to the workplace

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Gone are the days of uniform-looking office cubicles that feel designed to suck the soul out of employees. Although they have their own downsides, the so-called “open floor plans” bring a bit of customization to office spaces, letting people’s and companies’ characters shine. Of course, office space is never infinite, and workers have to make do with the sometimes cramped horizontal allowance they have. Maximizing every inch of that space requires not only being creative but also furniture that delivers the functionality that you need while being space-efficient as well. This office furniture collection offers exactly that with a modular system that you can mix and match to your needs, taking inspiration from one of the most popular modular designs in modern history: LEGO blocks.

Designer: Form Us With Love for String Furniture

OK, they might not connect to each other like LEGO bricks, which would be impractical and tedious to use anyway, but the way you can combine different “block” sizes in almost endless ways is reminiscent of the creative toy. There are six different sizes of components, ranging from cube storage to rectangular shelves, and you can arrange them in any way you see fit, as long as you have horizontal and vertical clearance. You can put them side by side like a long shelf, stack them on top of each other like a cabinet, in a straight line, or in an L-shaped corner configuration. Your creativity and space are the limits.

The pieces almost look like LEGO blocks, at least metal LEGO blocks. They are made from thin with a perforated grid pattern that is meant to give them an industrial aesthetic. Of course, these holes can serve functional purposes as well, allowing you to hang hooks, screw in handles, and maybe even decorate the surfaces with your personal photos and mementos. Presuming you or your company purchases different colored sets, you might even be able to mix up colors to add even more personality to your office space.

The concept of modular furniture is nothing new, but most of these designs tend to have a fixed appearance or mode of operation, allowing owners to only remove or add parts that are specifically designed for the system. With a minimalist design that adopts the simplest shapes of squares and rectangles, Center Center allows for maximum flexibility and, more importantly, encourages creativity and individuality that are easily lost in many work environments these days.

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Toko Meeting Pod is a modular, flexible, beautiful office space

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Most of my professional life has involved working in start-ups or small companies. And most of the time, our offices don’t have the regular cubicles and set-up you see in the corporate world. I’m thankful for that because just seeing those constricting environments already stifles my creativity. A lot of the smaller companies have learned to adapt more creative modular setups in their workspaces to give employees better working conditions.

Designer: Carl Gustav Magnusson

The Toko Meeting Pod is a modular system for offices that want to have a more unique and open space working environment. The way the basic structure is set up, it can become a regular working space for several people, a place where you can do meetings, a space where you can eat together, or maybe even all of the above at different times. It is also meant to be a freestanding design that you can relocate or reconfigure according to what you need at the moment.

The pod can be made from different combinations of materials like wood veneer, engineered wood, and wool felt panels. The wall structure also lets you have visual and acoustic separation while the textile-like properties lets light into the space and the acoustic panels also give you sound absorption for your meetings and conferences.

The Toko Meeting Pod also comes with integrated power and has build-in credenza storage and wall mounts so you can put monitors, whiteboards, shelving. The space can also accommodate tables and seating areas so it’s basically an affordable, sustainable, and flexible space that’s an alternative to the usual office design.

The post Toko Meeting Pod is a modular, flexible, beautiful office space first appeared on Yanko Design.

Toko Meeting Pod is a modular, flexible, beautiful office space

Posted on by

Most of my professional life has involved working in start-ups or small companies. And most of the time, our offices don’t have the regular cubicles and set-up you see in the corporate world. I’m thankful for that because just seeing those constricting environments already stifles my creativity. A lot of the smaller companies have learned to adapt more creative modular setups in their workspaces to give employees better working conditions.

Designer: Carl Gustav Magnusson

The Toko Meeting Pod is a modular system for offices that want to have a more unique and open space working environment. The way the basic structure is set up, it can become a regular working space for several people, a place where you can do meetings, a space where you can eat together, or maybe even all of the above at different times. It is also meant to be a freestanding design that you can relocate or reconfigure according to what you need at the moment.

The pod can be made from different combinations of materials like wood veneer, engineered wood, and wool felt panels. The wall structure also lets you have visual and acoustic separation while the textile-like properties lets light into the space and the acoustic panels also give you sound absorption for your meetings and conferences.

The Toko Meeting Pod also comes with integrated power and has build-in credenza storage and wall mounts so you can put monitors, whiteboards, shelving. The space can also accommodate tables and seating areas so it’s basically an affordable, sustainable, and flexible space that’s an alternative to the usual office design.

The post Toko Meeting Pod is a modular, flexible, beautiful office space first appeared on Yanko Design.

Cooler Master MasterHUB modular control system adjusts to creators’ workflows

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Content creation these days looks so simple the way influencers like to show off in behind-the-scenes videos, but the reality is that they can be overwhelmingly complex as the content they create, especially as they level up their craft. While it’s definitely possible to stick to the tried and true keyboard, mouse, or drawing tablet, the demands of today’s creators and their audiences call for better tools that help make their lives easier. That said, no two artists or designers are alike, and they work in different ways with different techniques, tools, and processes. Most gadgets and devices try to force users to a specific way of working, but this modular stream kit lets you decide not only the specific controls that you need but even the layout that you want.

Designer: Cooler Master

As the name implies, stream kits were originally designed for live streamers as they usually need to access some functions quickly without having to perform finger calisthenics over their keyboard. Over time, however, the flexibility of these programmable buttons with tiny LCD displays has become a favored tool by many content creators, from designers to artists to video editors to general enthusiasts. The MasterHUB comes from this lineage but has one special power that very few have: it can change its shape to adapt to your needs, workflow, or even your whim!

The MasterHUB’s foundation is a base where you can mix and match modules that each deliver a different kind of control. The most common of these is the App Control with 15 programmable keys, each with a customizable display, that can be used to trigger an action or launch an app. Another module is the Encoder which is a large dial with an integrated circular LCD display that can be used for something like scrubbing through audio and video timelines. A Knob Module has three knobs that can be mapped to changing brush sizes, undoing and redoing steps, and similar actions. Completing the set is a Fader Precision module with five sliders and a Roller Scroll Module with two rolling bars.

This modular system allows creators to define the layout out of their control center. They can even set it up vertically instead of the conventional horizontal layout, and you can pretty much change the combination on a whim, presuming you’re prepared to do the work of setting up the configuration again. Such a flexible control hub will also benefit even computer users who don’t create content, like gamers and power users that need more knobs and buttons than their keyboard can provide. Availability details for this powerful creativity tool, unfortunately, are still unavailable at the moment.

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This Modular Seating Solution Is Made From Recycled Cork Salvaged From Wine Stoppers

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Designed by Paul Crofts, this modular seating system is called Tejo. Crofts designed the Tejo seating collection for the furniture brand Isomi. It is intended to be a “reconfigurable, recyclable, and renewable” modular seating collection that serves as a bench, a single sofa, or even a double back-to-back sofa.

Designer: Paul Crofts for Isomi

The Tejo seat includes curving components that have been filled with natural latex instead of foam. The furniture design is upholstered with natural wool, hemp, or flax instead of synthetic fabrics. It is equipped with a base made from recycled cork which has been salvaged from the production process of wine stoppers. This unique base was created instead of a traditional plywood frame.

“Grown in responsibly managed forests in the Portuguese region of Alentejo – which gives the sofa its name – cork is ideal for use in seating as it is not only soft, tactile, and visually beautiful, but it also regenerates naturally,” said Isomi.

The cork utilized for the Tejo seating solution is sustainably grown, and also a sustainable material option in itself. It ventures into the utilization of cork as a material of choice, while creating a furniture design that has a complementing and soft aesthetic value to it. The Tejo modular furniture design is available in a wide range of colors, and it has been created to work well in different commercial spaces – ranging from retail settings to workplaces and even restaurants.

The Tejo seat can be integrated with different additional elements such as screen dividers, table units, planets, power outlets, and charging ports to create a personalized and customized furniture design. You can add the components that work well for you and your lifestyle, in turn creating a seating system that meets your multiple needs – whether they’re home-oriented or for work. The elegant and refined aesthetics of the seating design allow it to artfully merge with most spaces, giving it a much-appreciated versatility.

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AI-powered modular mouse has some nifty tricks to level up your presentations

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The nature and location of work today have changed considerably, especially after the introduction of work-from-home arrangements, but there is one thing that still remains the same. People still hold in-person meetings, which often involve making presentations, be it in front of colleagues or before clients. Despite how common this activity is, the tools used especially by presenters haven’t evolved that much except for teleconferencing equipment. Many of the devices needed for an effective presentation often come as separate products, so this concept tries to integrate not just two but four tools into a single design that, at first glance, looks like a normal mouse.

Designers: TianRun Chen, ZiLong Peng, Yanran Zhao, YueHao Liu

Many computer users use a mouse, even if they actually prefer using laptops. It’s almost an indispensable tool for on-the-go knowledge workers, including those who often find themselves speaking in front of other people in a room. Unfortunately, these people would also find themselves grabbing a presenter and a laser pointer during those presentations, making their work lives needlessly complex. There are some thin, portable mice that try to integrate a laser pointer, but these are still rare, not to mention not ergonomic in their designs.

The OctoAssist concept design has a rather intriguing solution that deconstructs the design of the computer mouse in order to provide more functionality. At its core, it sports a modular design where the main “module” is actually the front third of a conventional mouse, where the buttons would normally be located. This module is actually a touch-sensitive device that you can use on its own as a mini touchpad that supports gestures like pinching and three-finger taps. It can magnetically connect to a “base” that provides the ergonomic shape of a mouse, while potentially also offering additional battery power in its rather large body.

The core module also has a built-in laser pointer and, thanks to its touch-sensitive surface, can be used to easily control presentations with the same hand. It also has a voice recorder so you can have the entire presentation or meeting preserved for documentation purposes. But why stop there when you have today’s ubiquitous AI available to almost everyone? That AI, built into the device, can also summarize the meeting and generate notes in a flash, impressing everyone in the room with your technological wizardry and efficiency.

From a regular office mouse to a miniature touchpad to a presenter to an AI secretary, the OctoAssist offers plenty of features, though perhaps a bit too much as well. The AI-powered summary and notes are definitely convenient, but they could weigh the core module down not just with complexity but also with hardware and battery consumption. It does offload the AI processing to a connected smartphone, but that can sometimes cause lags and even data loss. Regardless, it’s definitely an interesting concept that might even be plausible, presuming a manufacturer sees profitable value in an all-in-one design instead of selling multiple devices that do those tasks separately.

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Odd modular game controller gives Xbox players with disabilities a helping hand

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It’s about time that gaming companies and studios realize that there are people who would love to play their games and use their consoles but are hindered because of one physical disability or another. Accessibility has only recently been an advertised feature of games and gaming hardware, and it might take a while before it actually becomes a standard in the industry. Thankfully, major companies are leading the accessibility charge, giving birth to accessibility devices that may look weird but give all gamers, even those perfectly capable ones, incredible powers to enjoy games the way they want them. Take for example this newly announced Xbox-certified accessibility controller that almost looks like a small alien swarm thanks to its modular design.

Designer: ByoWave

For gamers with physical disabilities that relate to their hands or fine motor control, the typical game controller or keyboard, despite their ergonomic designs, is sometimes impossible to use. Thankfully, there has been an increased interest in developing more accessible control devices, spearheaded by the Xbox Adaptive Controller in 2018 and followed by the Sony Access Controller, previously dubbed “Project Leonardo,” last year. Of course, there are more than just two ways to design for accessibility, and ByoWave’s Proteus Controller is just the latest to turn heads with its unconventional mechanism and innovative idea.

In a nutshell, the Proteus Controller is made up of small, rounded cubes with some faces that can be changed to be a button, a D-Pad, a joystick, and more. These cubes can then connect to each other to form different shapes that cater to the needs of the gamer. It can, for example, be a single, curving stack that you can hold like a joystick, a 2×2 grid that you can mash like arcade buttons on a table, or even a conventional gamepad layout with the right accessories and connectors. It can support over a hundred such configurations and LED lighting combinations, letting the user decide how they want to play depending on their circumstances.

Of course, the controller is primarily designed to address the needs of gamers with disabilities, but it’s not hard to see how this will be popular with almost any gamer, especially those on the Xbox platform. The sheer number of options and combinations is mind-blowing, and some might even just make new controller designs just for the fun of it. It’s a clear example of how accessible design actually benefits everyone, and gamers will probably be excited for the arrival of the Proteus accessibility controller in the fall, especially given its starting price of $299.

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Space-saving bookends double as a modular wireless speaker system

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We seem to always be running out of space on our desks. Any free area that we get often quickly becomes occupied by a new thing, a tool, or a book, that we can always justify as necessary. And then there are purely decorative items that, while not serving any practical function, serve to put us in a good mood. Sadly, those reasons don’t remove the fact that they still take up precious space that could have been used for other things. Cutting down on the amount of “stuff” on your desk is one possible solution to this conundrum, but another is to use multi-functional products that serve more than one purpose, like these rather aesthetic bookends that are actually speakers in disguise.

Designer: Liam de la Bedoyere

If there are two things that are standard on a modern desk, it would be books and speakers. The former is often essential for work, even if just for appearance’s sake, while the latter is necessary to keep our minds sane with our favorite music and podcasts. They might even be necessary for the video meetings that are becoming more common these days. Naturally, these things will need some space on your desk, so why not combine them in a way that still retains each product’s identity while also bringing a fresh twist to their designs?

The Beat Bookends concept does exactly that by transforming bookends into two parts of a speaker system. Specifically, the triangular shapes that sit on either end of a row of books act not only as stable structures to keep your reading materials upright but also serve as front-firing speakers. Although it probably would have been enough to just have two wireless speakers performing this function, the design concept actually includes one or two more speakers for an even better audio experience.

The bookend speakers are actually just the “satellite” speakers, and a rectangular block serves as the main unit you connect to. This piece can stand in the middle of your row of books to add a bit of variety to the composition, or it can even be placed anywhere else to set up a spatial audio arrangement of sorts. Another rectangular speaker block can even be added to the mix for an even louder and more distributed audio output.

What’s interesting about the Beat Bookends concept is that it isn’t limited to actually being used as bookends only. With a flexible building block concept, you can mix and match pieces and arrange the speakers in different ways, even if you don’t have books to stand on your desk or shelf. You can combine the speakers in more interesting arrangements to provide not only audio but also a bit of decoration on your desk, hitting two birds with a single stone.

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Modular media player concept brings iconic Winamp design to the physical world

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With almost everyone owning a smartphone these days, the need for dedicated media players has plummeted significantly. That’s not to say they’ve completely disappeared, especially those types that can be placed and displayed on desks or shelves. The retro design craze has breathed new life into old products like turntables, but these aren’t the only designs from bygone ages that deserve to be rediscovered. Some of these old-school designs come from the digital realm, where some software have achieved near immortality thanks to their distinctive user interfaces. Winamp is one of those iconic faces when it comes to music player applications, and this concept turns that into an actual device that, just like the digital original, can somewhat be configured to suit your needs and moods.

Designer: Eslam Mhd

By modern standards, the original design of the Winamp media player app is clearly outdated, but it remained a darling until recently because of its flexibility. It supported using different skins to personalize the software’s appearance, which naturally led to hundreds of designs, some of which might even make you want to gouge out your eyes. At the very least, Winamp followed a LEGO-like design where you can move parts of the app around or even remove them completely, depending on your needs.

This concept design for a device of the same name follows the latter aspect of Winamp’s design, particularly the ability to move its three main panels around or even leave one out. Like the original Winamp, the media player device has a component for the actual media controls with a single-line display for the current music, one for the equalizer, and another for displaying album art and the playlist. All three can be stacked together for a tall device that is propped up on a desk using the built-in kickstand of the equalizer. Or you can switch them around leaving only two components visible, as long as the equalizer is there to act as the base.

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You can, for example, only have the media controls and the equalizer if you don’t mind not seeing the list of tracks and the album art. Or if you already have a fixed equalizer setting, you can put either the media player or the album display above it and then snap the other component in front of the equalizer to hide it. You can even show only the media player itself, with the other two hiding behind it. These components connect using strong magnets, so no rewiring is needed to make instant changes to the combination. And at the end of the day or if you want to take the device with you, you can simply collapse all the components in a sandwich and carry it around.

What’s interesting about this particular design is that it uses physical controls like sliders and buttons instead of simply employing a touch screen to offer the same interface. It’s like reverse skeuomorphism, where the digital user interface mimics the appearance and behavior of physical controls. Of course, this more physical design means you don’t get to use skins anymore, but it’s a small price to pay for such an intriguing device.

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Sustainable and minimalist desk tray collection lets you mix and match to your needs

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Desk trays are an indispensable part of any organization system, and their designs vary wildly to meet different needs and aesthetic tastes. While wooden desk accessories are not uncommon, the most standard materials used for these products are often virgin plastics that, given the volume of their use, spell trouble for the planet. Fortunately, a few designs nowadays do try to utilize recycled or even upcycled materials to ease the burden on the environment, but good design doesn’t have to stop there. This concept, for example, seems to check all the right boxes by offering not only a sustainable solution with a beautiful minimalist design but also one that lets you combine pieces as you see fit or use them solo in different places as needed.

Designers: Hoyeon Shin, Seokhyoun Han, Joae Kim, Yeongha Kim, Zoae Kim for Haus Bari

Truth be told, this design is actually four separate products sharing a similar DNA. One design, however, can’t meet all the needs of all users, so rather than make a monolithic product that wastes space and materials, this series of trays simply offers four unique designs that can be used for a variety of purposes, including in places that don’t involve work tables and stationery.

All four pieces share the same thin square platform, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. One “block”, for example, has a fixed cylinder that can be used for holding writing instruments, tools, or maybe even flowers. Another has a circular indentation that invites you to place a mug or glass on it, though it can also fit small items such as an AirPods charging case. The tray with a wavy surface can be a bed for pens and pencils without having them jumbled up together. The fourth member has a simple flat surface, but flip it over and you will behold the Bari branding underneath. It can also function as another coaster thanks to that circular groove again.

The trays use diatomaceous earth, a sustainable material that is gaining popularity among product designers. It also gives the tray a textured appearance that resembles rough, unpolished stone, making the minimalist products look a little more visually interesting. It also makes it possible to place wet or damp objects on top of the tray, such as sponges or even soap, thanks to the material’s moisture resistance and self-drying properties.

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Although each of these trays functions as an independent unit, you can also combine them as a single organization system where you have free reign over how they are arranged. You can have them for a line, put them in a grid, or spread them out all over the desk. Of course, you’re not limited to just one of each piece, either, and can form an army of trays and containers ready to keep your mess at bay. It’s an admittedly simple solution to desk and life organization, but one that offers beauty and flexibility in a package that tries to reduce its negative impact on the environment.

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