Let’s just say I’m a “fan” of these sketch pens!

Created as a cross between a Pantone shade card and a stationery set, the Pen Fan fits 8 different flat-head sketch pens in a small, easy-to-carry set. The flat pens are connected to each other, forming a neat Japanese-fan style layout that displays all the 8 colors for you to pick and choose from. Each individual sketch pen is detachable too, allowing you to snap off and on pens to create a palette of your choice! Stationery-hoarders, you’ve been warned!

The Pen Fan is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Arman Emami of EMAMIDESIGN

Every dongle you’d possibly need, around your keychain

In a world full of technology that is fragmented between USB, Micro-USB, Type-C, and Lightning connectors, something as small and unsuspecting as the High Five cable helps in uniting all technology. It’s amazing that something as small as this, barely 7 centimeters in length, packs every single port combination you’d need for your smartphones, tablets, power banks, and laptops. Packed with a USB, Type-C and a one-of-a-kind Micro-USB/Lightning hybrid port. This arrangement practically works for any product/OS combination you have. Windows laptop and iPhone? You’re sorted. MacBook and Android phone? Taken care of. iPhone and Type-C based power bank? The High-Five has a solution for that too.

The High-Five is housed inside a pretty neat, compact metal case with three perceivable parts. It has a Type-C port, and a MicroUSB/Lightning hybrid port, connected to each other by a thick, silicone, tangle-free cable. These two ports stick to each other magnetically, and fit/dock inside a USB port, giving you every single port combination you’d need for charging or for data transfer.

The cleverness of the High-Five also lies in its weirdly clever hybridization of the MicroUSB and Lightning ports. Designed as a single port, the designers at Vonmählen and Emami Design combined the two least universal port designs into one, because there’s practically zero likelihood of you needing a lightning-to-microUSB cable in today’s day and age. This combination, as well as the overall product’s layout, allows the High-Five to be, as its name suggests, a 5-in-1 cable that you can use with practically any sort of gadget across any operating system and standard.

The High-Five even secured an iF Design Award this year for its innovative and compact dongle-to-rule-all-dongles. Available in a classy metal or colored ABS plastic body, the High-Five is small enough to securely sit on your keychain, or even be looped around an organizer ring in your backpack. It surely beats having to carry 5 different (or even 2 different) lengthy cables along with you that end up getting entangled, frayed, or lost. Literally the last charging and data-transfer dongle you’d need, the High-Five was made to be truly universal, and with its layout and prioritization of ports, should work with all products from 5 years ago or even with products 5 years into the future!

Designers: Vonmählen and Emami Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $16 $23 (30% Off and Free Shipping) Hurry, less than 72 hours left!

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Click Here to Buy Now: $16 $23 (30% Off and Free Shipping) Hurry! Only 4 days left.

Christmas Reading: 360° Industrial Design – Fundamentals of Analytic Product Design

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The Holiday Season is one good time when we slow down and take a break! It’s the time for some R&R along with catching up on some good reading. Everything is moving at a fast pace and complexities have become a part of our lives. Global competition and rapidly shrinking resources are forcing us to rethink the way we consume and design products. Join award-winning designer Arman Emami, in his quest to educate and enlighten us on relevant matters concerning to industrial design that address these very issues. To be fair, the book is precise and entertaining and a good read for anyone.

Significance of form, function, feel and appearance in relation to innovation and pricing and mass production, get a glimpse of it all via illustrated examples of good practices. Design students, young designers, creative lateral thinkers, product and marketing managers can all benefit from this book on intelligent design. As Arman puts it, “Complex processes are displayed in an entertaining and easily understandable way.”

Hardcover: 168 pages
Publisher: Niggli;

Book By: Arman Emami [ Buy it Here ]

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Friday Giveaway: 360° Industrial Design by Arman Emami – 5 Books to be WON

We began Monday morning with a few lessons on Industrial Design and how to survive the whole competition scene and emerge as a winner. We wrap up the week with an incredible interview with the man himself – Arman Emami; and a chance to WIN the book ‘360° Industrial Design.’ Five lucky winners will win the book! Hit the jump for details.

Contest Closes: May 10, 2015 – midnight PST

Contest Question:

  • Why do honeybees do not build quadratic honeycombs?

Leave your answer in the comments below.

HINT:

  • Because bees like hexagon more than square.
  • Because bees see the world ultraviolet, they are not able to recognize square shapes.
  • Because bees would need ca. 10 % more wax for quadratic shaped honeycombs.
  • Because the bee queen commanded it.

WIN:

YD – How will you introduce yourself to a new person?

Arman - A lateral thinker and curious designer with a continually eventful and turned life from Berlin.

YD - Who is a better person … Arman the design studio head or Arman the student?

Arman – Both are good. ;-)
Actually there are no large differences. For sure I became calmer in the course of the years, but I belong to people who are still a little childish even when they are pensioners. The children are more authentic and dare to experiment. I try to maintain it.

YD - What excites you the most … a new innovation or retro-redesigns?

Arman – Retro-redesigns is no option for me. We all are not born to repeat the past, but rather to create something new. Of course we have to consider and respect the history of design, but we should look to the future and not to the foretime.
In my opinion, retro-redesign is reactionary and demonstrates a lack of imagination and creativity.

YD - What has been your biggest challenge so far?

Arman – The biggest challenge is not to design or come up with ideas. It is always a big challenge to convince and encourage and conservative decision-makers to invest in innovative concepts.

YD - Tell me more about your book … what inspired you to write it?

Arman – Industrial design is a multi disciplinary matter. You have to think and work like an engineer, an inventor, an artist, a marketing expert and at the least you have to be the aesthete. There are a lot of books about industrial design. There are enough texts out there using unnecessary jargon, philosophical theories or otherwise setting aims that are not concrete. I have been missing a clear and well-laid out description of all relevant aspects from different fields to create an overall picture. I have summarized my experiences in practical and daily work as an industrial designer

YD - What has been your biggest learning experience so far?

Arman – Learning from nature is the best. And it is not limited to bionics and solutions found in nature. We can also learn about colors, form, haptics and much more from nature. But the biggest learning experience is life itself. You can do everything right, but If you don’t have enough life experiences, your designs get lacks of charisma and soul.

YD - What is your daily routine like? A day in the life of Arman Emami?

Arman – I have to confess that I’m not an early bird. Therefore the day begins a bit later with a coffee latte. The rest is different, appointments, meetings, designing, preparation of presentations… everyday occurrence. But the nights are mostly long. So to say, I am a night owl and I get my new ideas mostly in the night.

YD - How do you expect to make a change in the world of design?

Arman – Every designer changes the world of design to a greater or lesser extent. We live in a rapidly changing world that is becoming more complex with every passing second. Natural resources are getting scarcer and the increasingly intense competition on the world market is forcing designers at large to rethink the design process. Decoration for decoration‘s sake has become a thing of the past. Fanciful objects like the pretty paper-weight have had their day. Prettiness is no longer enough! Designers working on sustainable products now have to consider the bigger picture and in short: have to optimize design as a multi-disciplinary work. We are here to make our contribution for a better life and a more beautiful world.

YD - What will your advice be to young designers who wish to participate in the Red Dot?

Arman – Thinking out of the box is a must. First of all, it is important to free ourselves from outdated and narrow thinking. Development needs change; it is the basis for all progress. But likewise it is necessary to recognize that not every cliché is necessarily a bad thing. Design is an evolution, so today’s achievements are the result of a long-term process. Of course you can develop a wheel further, but to be honest, no one needs an angular shaped wheel. Do not try to be different at all costs! A change should always be for the better. And don’t ignore the problems in everyday life. Every problem is an approach for a new solution and a new design concept. And of course you can find more tips in my book 360° Industrial Design.

YD - What is the most challenging part of participating in the Red Dot Awards?

Arman – In a competition is any part the most challenging part of participating. You need a good idea, an aesthetic implementation and a clear presentation.

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Yanko Design
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(Friday Giveaway: 360° Industrial Design by Arman Emami – 5 Books to be WON was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Book Review: 360° Industrial Design

Someone rightly said that success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. This kind of consistent success is something I have witnessed first hand with Emami Design, headed by Arman Emami. Last year, at the Red Dot Awards Night in Singapore, I had the pleasure of speaking with him, and my only questions to him was … how do you manage to win these many accolades every year! The answers can be found in his latest book: 360° Industrial Design.

With the intention of answering questions like – What challenges are pace and complexity bringing for product design? Arman Emami has given us a book that encompasses short, clear and entertaining texts. The book comprises a comprehensive view of relevant matters relating to industrial design. Key takeaways include:

  • Development steps from idea to mass production, which are described gradually and supported by illustrated examples of good practices.
  • A working compendium not only for design students and young designers, but also a guide book for creative lateral thinkers, product and marketing managers and all those who are interested in intelligent design.
  • Complex processes are displayed in an entertaining and easily understandable way.

To be very honest, our world is developing in the fast lane, getting more complex by the second. Rapidly shrinking resources and ever-fiercer global competition are in any case forcing us to re-think the entire design process. The importance of form, function, feel and appearance has evolved over the years.

The challenges of modern design

According to Arman, “Today’s product design needs to achieve a good deal more than merely being ‘beautiful’. Right from the start of the design process, a different approach is needed for a product to assert itself against the competition: form and function, look and feel – all have to harmonize with one another. Economic and marketing considerations cannot be ignored either, of course. The world of modern product design is a multi-disciplinary one. In order to satisfy all these requirements, it is necessary to take into account a large number of factors in the early stages of the design process. This descriptive book highlights key factors and analytically considers current requirements. Almost as if it were a textbook, it shows how different aspects can be integrated into the concept development process.”

Besides being a great addition to your coffee-table book collection, this book is educational work for readers interested in design. A must-have for every Design House too!

Use it as a reference work, as inspiration for your own design process, as a stimulating textbook or to dip into as reading matter that stimulates the imagination!

Available: Online [ Buy it Here ]

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE - We are more than just concepts. See what's hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Book Review: 360° Industrial Design was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Tap Totally Locked!

The Locko is an outdoor water tap meant for installation in gardens and public areas. The concept addresses the need for keeping these faucets secured and locked as unauthorized people may use them. The Locko uses a combination lock system to keep the tap locked and only those who know the combination will be able to use it. This will help prevent water theft (yes this happens!) and wastage.

LOCKO is a 2012 red dot award: design concept winner.

Designers: Arman Emami & Emami Design

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Yanko Design
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(Tap Totally Locked! was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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