How many times have you had to buy a separate smaller bottle of your favorite shampoo for travel? Even if you rely on those tiny shampoo bottles that come complimentary with your hotel room, it’s still an extra bottle that you now have to worry about. The Carry On is a simple, borderline-genius solution that gives you a dedicated travel mini-bottle with your existing at-home shampoo bottle. With a compact design that conveniently comes packaged with your regular bottle of shampoo, the Carry On’s mini bottle can be carried around with you on your travels, and refilled whenever you’re running low, so you don’t need to stress out about buying an additional smaller bottle separately to travel with.
Designer: Yeo Seo Koo
A winner of this year’s Asia Design Prize, the Carry On is an economy-sized 1 liter (33.8 fl oz) bottle of shampoo that comes with its own handle built into the bottle’s design. Except, when you buy it off the shelf, the handle has a perfectly-fitting carry bottle nestled into it like a jigsaw-puzzle piece. When you buy one larger bottle, you get a small one for free that’s the ideal size for your toiletry kit. At 50ml (1.7 fl oz), the shampoo bottle easily gets you through a week-long holiday (you won’t shampoo everyday, obviously) comfortably, allowing you to use your favorite shampoo instead of using those substandard ones that come free with your hotel room.
There are a few things about Carry On that are definitely award-worthy. For starters, getting a smaller bottle free with a larger bottle isn’t new – but Carry On’s implementation is genius. It fits the tiny bottle right in the negative space created by the larger bottle’s handle design. This is usually dead space that gets wasted during logistics, but the clever integration allows the Carry On to use that hollow area efficiently. Moreover, let’s also appreciate the fact that the mini bottle (either by coincidence or by design) has a rounded design that looks like a bar of soap, immediately creating that toiletry-based association! Clever, no?!
The pan’s open mesh design lets smoke pass through, allowing it to permeate into your food for that wonderful charcoal/wood flavor that makes barbecue taste so tantalizingly good!
Think of a grill, then think of a cast iron pan, now combine the two together! That’s what the award-winning Mesh Pan is all about. Designed to look like a pan, but with a mesh-lined base, the Mesh Pan lets you cook your items directly above a fire. Unlike regular utensils that are solid, only allowing heat to pass through, the Mesh Pan also allows the aromas and flavor compounds present in your charcoal, giving your food a delectably smoky flavor with really no effort. The food cooks comfortably above the fire, while any resulting fat and grease drips through, hitting the charcoal and causing more smoky flavor!
Designers: Takashi Sekimitsu & GateLightDesign (Client – NORIDOMI IRON WORKS Co., Ltd.)
For designer Takashi Sekimitsu, the Mesh Pan isn’t a replacement for your cast iron pan or griddle… or even your grill – it’s an intermediary product that solves a different purpose, making it a great addition to your existing line of outdoor crockery. The fine mesh allows you to directly sear meats, veggies, or even items like noodles or rice over an open flame (something that wouldn’t be possible on a grill). The mesh lining acts as a flame arrestor, preventing the fire from passing through the fine openings, so your food isn’t engulfed in flames. There is, however, a slight danger of causing flare-ups by grease/fat dripping through the mesh directly onto the fire. I’d say maybe avoid grilling anything too fatty like bacon or a wagyu, and opt for leaner game meats, carbs, and veggies.
Once everything’s said and done, cleaning the mesh is as simple as taking a scrubber to it to quickly unclog the pores. You could burn the food clogged in the pores over an open fire too! And if your mesh eventually reaches the end of its life, simply replace it by installing a new mesh on the same existing pan handle!
The right lighting can make or break any interior space. When considering interior design or even comfort, light fixtures can bring a lot to the table. During the day, floor lamps might feel most appropriate and luminescent, but then come evening time, a desk lamp might offer that more intimate mood lighting that’s better situated atop a desk or wall mount. Depending on your personal preference, SAN, a new modular lamp design, adjusts accordingly.
SAN, 2020’s Asia Design Award-winner, comes in eight parts. Linked with magnets, these parts come together in order to build three different types of lamps: floor, desk, or wall. When all the parts are put together, the fixture comes together as a tall, floor lamp that can either bend or remain upright. By using one less magnetized rod, the pieces can comprise a slim and foldable desk lamp. Using the minimum amount of rods, the fixture can lastly turn into a small lamp that can mount onto any flat surface. SAN operates with an industry-standard USB Type ‘C’ cable, which transmits lots of power for optimal lighting. SAN is definitely user-friendly and easily adjustable as it requires no tools to set up. The construction details are helpfully outlined on the package’s box, in which all eight parts are properly placed and understood. Fitting into the base of the light fixture is a light socket with a magnetic head, which begins the link of magnetized rods.
SAN’s simple design is attractive for industrial or contemporary interior design and easily changeable so that any living space can be turned into one that’s right for you. So, whether a tall, standup light for outfit changes in front of your mirror or a desk lamp for reading come night time is needed, SAN modulates according to your changing needs.
Last year, the Bium wifi router took home the Bronze award from the Asian Design Prize for its unique mission: to help users disconnect from the internet. Ironic? Perhaps. But in the Internet age, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with information and mild distractions. The occasional break from social media can do wonders for your mental health.
Sometimes, it’s hard to step away from our devices. The Bium has a setting that switches off the internet periodically, helping users clear their minds of digital distractions. The length of these internet-enabled intervals is indicated by four glowing antennas on the router. As the data “runs out,” the light fades — almost like a candle flame. Users can also extend the Bium’s self-imposed internet limit by placing their phone on the little tray that appears to double as a wireless charger. This is such a clever feature because it truly stops users from going online; they can’t be tempted to use their phone data. No cheating allowed.
When you first look at the Bium, its function (as a wifi router) is not immediately apparent. It looks more like an electronic incense holder – a smart design choice that helps foster a calm, meditative environment. However, its appearance and function perfectly embody its name, bium, which translates to “emptiness” in Korean. The digital world is full of distractions, which is why the Bium encourages users to put down their devices and embrace the bium.
2019 was a pretty big year for the Asia Design Prize, with Karim Rashid presiding as head-juror. Conceptualized in 2017, and currently on the road to its fourth edition in 2020, Asia Design Prize has really evolved from an idea to a massive awards program that’s been supported by and organized with partnership from design institutions and professionals around the world. With 46 top designers from 14 countries, and a judging procedure that prides itself in being unbiased, ethical, and accurate, Asia Design Prize rewards the best concepts and products from around the world. At the end of the program each year, ADP organizes an awards gala for its winners, where they receive their certificate and memento, and also network with one another as well as with their jury panelists. Winners of the ADP award are also included in Asia Design Prize’s annual yearbook, a permanent place in the Asia Design Prize’s online exhibition, and even have their works featured in prominent design magazines and journals across the world, truly bringing attention and credibility to their work and their skill sets!
As the wheels begin moving for next year’s Asia Design Prize competition, we look at some of the top winning projects from this year’s program, hand-picked for the award by Karim Rashid himself, along with the 41 other esteemed jury members from around the world. Cycle through to see some of our absolute favorites, but more importantly, use them as a barometer to measure the worth of your own design concepts, because come 2020, your work could win a prestigious award too!
01. OAVE Microwave by Youngwoong Kim & Jungbae Gong
Unlike conventional microwaves that exist as a box-shaped oven with a door and a rotating plate on the inside, OAVE takes on a much more ornamental approach to gadget’s design, giving it a cylindrical structure and a cloche-shaped lid you can take off to reveal the food inside. OAVE gives your microwave oven a much more aesthetic, table-friendly avatar. The two-part design comprises a rotating base, and a perforated metal and glass cover that sits over your food. Visible from all sides, the food rotates on its lazy-suzy base, illuminated by an overhead light. When you’re done, lift up the lid to reveal the fresh hot meal beneath!
2. Bium Wi-Fi Router by Jonghoon Yoon
Probably one of the most interesting takes on appliance design, the Bium Wi-Fi Router and Wireless Charger assumes the demeanor of an incense-stick burner. When active and transmitting data, the antennas of the router glow with an orange tip, looking like burning incense sticks. When the power runs out, or the internet connection goes down, the antennas go black, almost as if the sticks have been extinguished. The fact that the router charges your smartphone wirelessly is just a cherry on the cake!
03. Pocketea by APLOP Limited
Almost like the Nanopresso of tea, Pocketea is a pocketable tea-infuser that you can easily carry around, either in your pocket or in your bag. The tea infuser occupies the same amount of space as a large-ish thumb drive, and comes with an infuser chamber made of perforated metal on the inside, with an outer plastic cover. The plastic cover’s purpose is dual-fold. Not only does it enclose the infuser while not in use, it also opens up sideways to become a platform that suspends your infuser in a cup filled with water! You can easily load Pocketea with the tea-leaves of your choice, taking it wherever you go!
04. ZAMO by Thecreamunion
ZAMO’s building blocks aren’t like your usual stackable block toys. Their unusual shapes are in fact characters in the Korean alphabet which, when joined together to create a word, light up and read the word out for the child. ZAMO brings a novel approach to enhancing a child’s cognitive skills by giving them the building blocks of language. Rather than teaching them how to create stable buildings and structures, ZAMO focuses on building a working knowledge of Korean grammar. Each block comes powered by Arduino, with LED lights on the inside, and magnets around the rim that let you snap individual pieces together.
05. MPOW Earbuds by Shenzhen Qianhai Patuoxun
Designed as wireless earbuds that actually complement the shape of your ear cavity, MPOW’s earbuds are as comfortable as they’re functionally top-notch. With customized 8mm drivers delivering pristine audio that’s balanced across all frequencies, and an organic design that sits comfortably within your ear, the earbuds are good enough to be worn for hours, without ear fatigue or the danger of them slipping out. The earbuds come with their own charging case, as well as a series of silicone sleeves to fit different ear-types.
06. Onda by Giacomo Fava
The 14-storeyed Onda by Giacomo Fava is a celebration of fluidity and a wonderful use of the Gestalt law of continuity, creating an organic transitioning building by overlaying different floor-plans on one another. The 14-storeyed condominium comes with 18 separate apartments, all with their own dedicated terraces, thanks to the organic design, creating running balconies on every floor. Designed as a sea-front property, it almost looks as if the sea-breezes are sculpting and molding the outer form of this incredibly attractive, fluid building!
07. Squaring Bookshelf by Yisestudio
This neat shape-shifting bookshelf practically doubles in storage, thanks to the use of hinges and the ability to rotate and expand at the same time! The Squaring Bookshelf by Yisestudio sits squarely on a wall, with its 3×3 storage allocation. However, rotate the squares and you get four extra storage spaces, by expanding the negative zones between each of the original squares. Pretty cool, isn’t it?
08. Magic Stretcher by Dalian Minzu University
This stretcher is more than a transportation device, it’s an advanced diagnostic tool. Designed to shorten diagnostic times by performing some of the tests while in transit, the stretcher comes with its own X-ray imaging device that can perform a full-body scan by simply sliding up and down the rails to scan any part of the skeleton, testing for fractures or anomalies on the spot, saving both time as well as lives!
09. Accurate Fire by Dalian Minzu University
The Accurate Fire Extinguisher from students of the Dalian Minzu University helps allow you to focus on a particular area while putting out a flame. The extinguisher body comes with an integrated nozzle that expands, allowing you to go deep into the roots of the fire while maintaining your distance. When collapsed back, the hose sits flush inside the extinguisher’s cylindrical form.
10. Catching Truck by Dalian Minzu University
Designed as an addition to a fleet of firefighting trucks, the Catching Truck from the students of the Dalian Minzu University comes with hydraulic arms that create a safe landing-net for people trying to evacuate a burning building. The hydraulic arms can adjust the height of the net to ensure people jumping from higher floors land safely, while cameras on the top of the cockpit help the driver calculate the best place to park the truck to ensure everyone evacuates the building safely.
Conceptualized in 2017, and currently on the road to its fourth edition in 2020, Asia Design Prize has really evolved from an idea to a massive awards program that’s been supported by and organized with partnership from design institutions and professionals around the world. Asia Design Prize’s biggest success story is its judging procedure, an elaborate, accurate, and fair judging system that gives everyone from students to professionals, and even multi-disciplinary design studios equal preference, judging the quality of the idea and the project in the most ethical and fair way possible.
The Asia Design Prize’s judging procedure relies on its strong jury of 42 design professionals, design educators, and design journalists from 14 countries. Projects are presented to the jury members without revealing the designer’s name, nationality, organization, or any other personal information. The process occurs in two rounds, with different judges in each round looking at the work, resulting in an evaluation that’s fair and accurate. The chairman of the jury judges the top 10% of the awarded works to decide the grand winner of the Asia Design Prize for the year. At the end of the programme each year, ADP organizes an awards gala for its winners, where they receive their certificate and trophy, and also network with one another as well as with their jury panelists. Winners of the ADP award are also included in Asia Design Prize’s annual yearbook, a permanent place in the Asia Design Prize’s online exhibition, and even have their works featured in prominent design magazines and journals across the world, truly bringing attention and credibility to their work and their skill sets!
As the wheels begin moving for the Asia Design Prize 2020 competition, we thought it would be fitting to showcase some winning concepts from the last year. Cycle through to see some of our absolute favorites, but more importantly, use them as a barometer to measure the worth of your own design concepts, because come 2020, your work could win a prestigious award too!
Head to the Asia Design Prize website to know more! They’ve just announced their 2018-19 winners. You can find our favorites below!
Last Date to Register Early Bird Submission: September 30, 2019
01. TAC Air Purifier by Junku Jung
Air quality varies from place to place as much as allergies vary from person to person… so, it makes very little sense that we all have the same purification systems available to us! Designed with this in mind, the TAC air purifier provides custom air cleaning to suit you and where you live. Unlike other purifiers, it features unique filters, each dedicated to a specific type of allergen or pollutant. Live in a big city? Throw on the smog filter. Allergic to pollen? There’s a filter for that too. Simply layer the brightly colored filters to get just the right balance for you and your unique space!
02. Paprika Stool by Yoshioishikawa
The Paprika Stool has a pretty neat idea behind it. Stools, or furniture in general, occupy space even when they’re in retail, or being transported from factory to the shop. What if you could design a stool that’s deflated when transported, and inflated to be a stool only when purchased? The stool is, in principal, like a balloon with 3 legs. Made out of fabric, it remains soft and comfortable on the outside, and is filled with PU foam on the inside just minutes after it’s been purchased, so a customer can take home a soft, solid stool back home that they can sit on. The stool saves money by making logistics simpler and more efficient, and can easily be manufactured in different sizes by filling PU foam into a larger stool cover, much like filling cotton into a cushion cover or a mattress, or polystyrene balls into a beanbag!
03. Pencil Sharpener by Di Lu
If you’ve ever sharpened a pencil (and if you haven’t, what planet are you living on?), then you know how easy it is for the shavings to fly all around your desk or workspace. Unless you’re hovering over a waste bin, that discarded lead and wood can mess up your work. Designed with this in mind, this pencil sharpener by Di Lu serves as an extra collecting-vessel to gather shavings so they can be easily discarded. Simple, right?
04. Molt Chair by Taylor Cheng
Inspired by the Ming Dynasty, the Molt Chair combines western furniture design with ancient Chinese cultural values. The angular floating armrests and the chair’s front take inspiration from the thrones of Chinese emperors, while the side view looks more like the stylings of a modern rocking chair.
05. Slim Smart Washer 3 by American Standard
Designed to retrofit onto existing toilets, the SSW3 aims at easing the transition from toilet paper to a water-based cleaning system. A simple lever on the side lets you work the SSW3’s controls, pulling up for a bidet-style front-wash, or pushing down to trigger the rear shower. The system neatly integrates into existing toilets, and requires no electricity to function!
06. Veark CK01 by Daniel Ronge
Designed as a unibody tool, with a knife handle that borrows from tool design, the Veark CK01 gives knives the reverence they deserve. The knife is by far a chef’s most favored and most important tool, which is why the CK01 has such an industrial-tool-aesthetic. The CK01 blades are all manufactured in Solingen, Germany, the holy grail of knife-manufacturing and bladesmithing in all of Europe. The drop-forging technique results in each knife handle having its own individual texture, each one unique like a fingerprint, and a hardness of 58 on the Rockwell scale. And the unibody design has more to offer then just great looks: The open handle design invites your thumb to rest on the blade and pinch grip the knife like a pro. The metal blade also provides a counterbalance that allows you to maneuver the knife with ease. A singular body also means the knife is easier to maintain, with no place for food, dirt, and dust to get wedged into. A simple rinse makes the CK01 as good as new!
07. Leaf Hair Dryer by Yejin Choi, Jinah Kim & Juhyuk Yun
With an aesthetic that definitely seems new for its category, the Leaf folding hair dryer explores a completely organic, novel design direction. The standing hair-dryer occupies little to no space on your desk, docking on its contact-charging plate when not in use. The dryer’s air-barrel folds inwards, integrating with the handle to become almost monolithic, but when you fold it out, it assumes a leafy aesthetic, thanks to its white outer shell. Just lift it off its charging dock, unfold it, and begin using it for the silkiest, smoothest hair ever!
08. Hougyoku by Kenichi Ken Mizuno
Combining aspects of pottery and jewelry making, Hougyoku resembles a bird nurturing its egg. It’s a result of traditional and modern pottery techniques developed in the Japanese pottery-town of Seto. Integrating the two into a single form, the bird and egg are represented as positive and negative forms, denoted by the color schemes. The Hougyoku can be used as a sculptural element but also as a place to store small keepsakes.
09. Coat+ by Baoliyuan, Wangaihong, Maqianqian
This regular jacket has an inner expansion mechanism for pregnant women! Realizing that fashion should be more accommodating for women in their maternity period, the designers decided to reinvent the coat so that it fits women who are as well as who aren’t pregnant. It doesn’t make sense having to buy separate clothes just because you’re expecting a child, only to throw those clothes away after the child is born, right? Coat+ is a coat that women can wear all through their lives! An extra fabric attachment zips to the coat allowing you to expand it… when you don’t need the expandable attachment, you can wear it as a scarf!
A winner of the James Dyson Award as well as an Asia Design Prize, the Lumir K is a lamp that uses cooking oil, instead of kerosene, as fuel. However, the oil doesn’t help burn a candle wick, but rather powers the lamp’s LEDs by converting thermal energy into electrical energy. The Lumir K relies on a phenomenon called the Seebeck Effect, where a temperature difference between two dissimilar electrical semiconductors produces a voltage difference between the two substances. The lamp burns at a 100 lumens too, making it brighter than most conventional kerosene lamps.
The beauty of Lumir is in how it provides a better solution in every aspect. “Lumir K uses cooking oil as fuel not kerosene, which is difficult to use due to its uneven quality depending on the region,” says Jehwan Park, founder and designer of the Lumir K. Given the ubiquity of cooking oil, and the fact that oil is seldom reused after something’s been fried in it, the Lumir K makes use of something that would normally be considered waste after fulfilling its need. The Lumir K also generates more light than a kerosene lamp, thanks to the Seebeck effect. Unlike Kerosene, which releases 90% of its energy as heat and only 10% as light, the Lumir L actually uses heat or thermal energy to produce electricity. Couple that with the fact that the Lumir K runs on powerful LEDs and you’ve got a lamp that uses an easy-to-find fuel to create light in a much more energy-efficient manner!
Joining the roster of the Asia Design Prize as the grand jury member this year is none other than industrial design stalwart and the “Prince of Plastic” Karim Rashid! Arguably one of the most renowned and revered designers in the industry, Rashid’s works are famous for how they seamlessly blend form and CFM into one incredible package. He brings these design sensibilities and a world of experience to the jury panel of ADP 2019.
YD has partnered with the Asia Design Prize to offer free registration for all Yanko Design readers. Click on this link and grab your free registration coupon and save up to $150 on the entry fee! Designers who make it to the finalist judging round will get a chance to have their work evaluated by none other than Karim Rashid, amongst other esteemed jury members. (Finalists are required to pay the Finalist Judging Fee)
The Asia Design Prize recognizes design efforts in and outside Asia, with a permanent online exhibition for all its winners, and works being featured in design magazines and blogs world over. Winners get trophies along with a certificate and the rights to use the ADP logo on their work, while the Grand, Gold, and Silver winners get cash prizes and framed plaques.
The Asia Design Prize is a brilliant way to get your work noticed as well as validated. People pay much closer attention to projects that win awards or gain accolades, and there’s a dramatic increase in your chances of getting featured on various portals across the world. Besides, where else would you get a chance to have Karim Rashid look at your work?!
Plastic straws take a staggering 500 years to fully decompose, which is a lot for saying they are only used for around ten minutes at a time! But arguably something that is far worse than them ending their life on a landfill, is the fact that many find their way into our oceans and become a significant risk to our fishy friends and their sea-dwelling companions!
A solution for this is of course to use reusable straws, but unfortunately a lot of people are put off these due to their fiddly cleaning process; this is the issue that designers Chu Hiu Ching and Cheung Wa identified, and their solution came in the form of the rather ingenious Icicle Straw.
Icicle can be split into two separate parts when it comes to cleaning time; the extrusions in the metal body allow the user to easily slide the two parts apart and clean inside, without the need for cleaning tools!! And when it’s time to enjoy another beverage, simply snap the two back together!
Hospitals are a daunting and unfamiliar environment that can be especially intimidating for young children. Having a product that makes the situation a little less unsettling is always going to be welcome, and that’s exactly what the Animal Ringer is intended to do!
The Animal Ringer is exactly what you think it is, an animal inspired ringer that’s aimed at pediatric patients. Not only do they make it more approachable and personal, but they also introduce a familiar form into the ward and add an element of much needed friendliness.
They also offer a benefit to the medical care personnel; their animal-motif form and unique colors make them conveniently identifiable, and the patient can quickly be associated with the animal!
The Animal Ringer is a winner of the Asia Design Prize for the year 2018.
