Tag Archives: Concept Designs

Odd sustainable stool concept prioritizes minimizing materials over recycling

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The majority of sustainable designs today focus on using responsibly sourced or biodegradable materials as well as the ability to recycle components at the end of the product’s life. While these are indeed a big leap compared to common production practices, it’s still from the ideal. Even sustainable materials like wood, metal, or bioplastics produce material waste that still gets discarded at the end of the production process. And depending on the materials involved, recycling can actually consume more energy and even result in more pollution, offsetting whatever benefits it should have brought. Another approach to sustainability is to actually reduce the materials used and, therefore, the materials that need to be recycled, as what this rather unconventional “two-piece” stool design tries to propose.

Designer: Kitae Pak

The less materials you use for a product, the more products you can make out of that material. If a single 1,220mm x 2,440mm sheet of plywood would normally yield 24 circular plates with a diameter of 310mm, you could potentially squeeze 219 plates with a diameter of 120mm. That’s the kind of increase in yield that the Dots stool concept is claiming, making more efficient use of a material without compromising on quality, at least in theory.

The concept accomplishes this by completely redesigning what a stool is expected to be. Yes, it’s still a piece of furniture for seating, but there’s no hard rule that the seat has to be one large and whole piece. Instead of a single big circle, the Dots stool utilizes two smaller discs to support the body at rest, hence the name. It delivers the same function but at a significantly lower material consumption right from the start.

With this minimalist design, which consists of two wooden rods for legs and recycled plastics to connect the pieces into a stable whole, you can make 4 times more Dots stools than a regular stool using the same materials. This kind of conservation means that the production process itself would use less materials and energy to produce the same number of stools, while recycling would also use less energy and water as well. And since it’s mostly made of wood, the stool can also be repurposed for other designs or returned to the Earth one way or another.

While the design does check all the right sustainability boxes, it does raise questions on conform and stability. It’s arguable that it does serve its function well, but neither its appearance nor its ergonomics inspire complete confidence. It’s not a complete loss, however, as the experiment proved that there’s still a lot of room for improvement even for already sustainable designs.

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Stool has tree shadows printed on top to bring you closer to nature

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Before I started focusing on writing for design, I never really paid attention to how mostly functional things like chairs are designed. As long as I could sit on it comfortably on it, then i believed it did its job and I didn’t really need to choose based on how well designed it is. But there are pieces of furniture out there, or even just as a concept, that were really thought of well by the designers to bring something not necessarily new, but at least interesting, to the table. Or in this case, the chair.

Designer: Shota Uruasaki

Capture the Light is one such design for a stool. The furniture itself is not a groundbreaking stool but is made up of the usual three blocks (seat, two legs) connected together by one small block. It looks just like your typical wooden stool/bench that you might see at a park or at a museum. But what makes this different is what you’ll see on the seat itself. You might think there’s a tree nearby casting its shadow but if you’re inside, then that may be a mystery.

It’s actually the unique design that this stool brings. The shadows casted by trees that you may see at parks or public spaces are immortalized on the seats as the designs are printed on them. The designer went around photographing the patterns that these tree shadows make, carrying a white board with them. The photographs were then inkjet printed on top of the stools and so you have the illusion of trees hovering on you as you sit on them.

It’s a simple design addition to your regular stool/bench but it’s interesting, if you’re into nature and trees. Even if the stool is inside, you get the illusion of still being surrounded by trees because of the shadows. Of course it’s still best to actually be around trees but in cases where you can’t then this stool may be the next best thing.

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Jar blender concept brings both aesthetic and function

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A lot of aspiring product designers get inspiration from existing brands whose aesthetics are very distinct. One famous brand of hair dryers and stylers has made its mark on those interested in product design (and pretty devices) and has served as a basis for concepts. We get a lot of “what if _____ made _____” concepts from aspiring designers and it’s actually pretty interesting to see what they come up with just based on the current product line of these brands.

Designers: Anika Patel, Arya Shewale, Prapti Shah, Pratyasa Samanta, Nandana B. Nair, Pia Walia

A lot of the blenders we see are more functional rather than aesthetic. But who says you can’t have both? This concept for a Jar Blender blends (pun intended) the two as you get a cylindrical form that uses chamfered surfaces to connect to the various parts. Using the industrial and minimalist aesthetic, you have what looks like one of those modern-looking gas lamps. But it is in fact designed to be a functional blender that you can use in your kitchen or even bring with you if you’re traveling.

Aside from the sleek aesthetics, you get key functional elements, at least on paper and in renders. It has things like a liquid level window, lock alignment indicator, and a power switch and in keeping with their visual inspiration, they use rounded rectangles as a key element. And if you’re the type who likes seeing the blender in action, the section around the blade is transparent so you can see how it works in blending the various ingredients you put in it (or if you’re doing a “will it blend?” kind of content). There’s also a perforated mesh at the bottom so the blender gets proper ventilation and air circulation.

The blender also comes with a cap so if you need to carry around the juice or energy shake that you blended, you don’t need a separate bottle for it. The jar is 500ml which should be enough for a drink for one person. It would be interesting to see this aesthetic jar blender come to life.

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Sustainable 3D printed chair needs no glue or screws to connect its pieces

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Flat-packed products like tables and chairs have definitely changed the furniture design landscape and altered consumers’ tastes. But while these designs do make it easy to store, transport, and sometimes assemble pieces of furniture, they often also end up being bland in the name of minimalism, not to mention tedious and cumbersome to repair or dispose of, despite the supposed ease of assembly. Thanks to new manufacturing techniques and technologies, especially 3D printing, there are now alternative methods and designs possible, including a beautiful chair that’s not only made from sustainable materials but is trivial to assemble and disassemble because it doesn’t even use screws or adhesives.

Designer: Eva Dugintseva

3D printing has definitely come a long way from the flimsy plastic materials that they started out with. We can now print objects using a variety of materials, including metal, chocolate, and soon, even wood. It’s even possible to use recycled PS (polystyrene) plastic, which helps reduce the negative impact of mass-produced plastic chairs. That alone already makes the Som Chair concept notable, but that isn’t the only trick it knows, not by a long shot.

Thanks to 3D printing, it was possible to experiment with and use shapes that would normally be costly to pull off on a mass production line. In this case, the chair is made from two separate bent shapes with ridged surfaces that make them look like dozens of plastic tubes stuck to one another. The main structure of the chair has a small gap for the smaller piece to slide into, forming the three legs of the chair. Instead of using glue or screws, this simple mechanism, along with physics, give the chair its stability.

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This means that the Som Chair isn’t just easy to assemble, it’s also easy to take apart if you need to move it or even dispose of it. It might be possible to break down and recycle the plastic to make other objects, making it a little bit more sustainable, despite being made of plastic. You can also mix and match designs or replace only parts that are broken, giving the design more longevity as well.

Granted, this design won’t be as flat as a flat-packed chair, but you can package two of these together in a single box. Being 3D printed, there’s also more leeway in possible designs, giving this asymmetrical Memphis Milano chair more personality than your common minimalist yet plain flat-packed variety.

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Drone quadcopter concept grips power lines to recharge its batteries

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Although they may be a bit controversial due to privacy and safety concerns, it’s hard to argue that drones, specifically quadcopter models, have introduced big changes in modern life. Taking photos and recording videos can now have some dramatic flair, and deliveries of food and supplies can be made to harder-to-reach places. What these often astounding use cases don’t always say, however, is that drones have very short operating times due to their small batteries. That means they can only fly over short distances with light payloads unless they stop and land somewhere for a recharge. This research concept tries to think of a different system that takes advantage of one of the most ubiquitous power sources found in most urban areas: heavy-duty power lines.

Designers: Viet Duong Hoang, Frederik Falk Nyboe, Nicolaj Haarhøj Malle, Emad Ebeid

Given our current battery technologies, drones have no choice but to pack light. This means most drones have an operating time of around 1 hour or so, and that’s only if they’re not struggling to keep afloat with a heavy load. This drastically shortens the travel time and distance of drones unless they find a way to charge en route, almost like how a car refuels or charges along its way. That, however, would require creating “charging stations” for these drones, which might not always be possible or even economical.

Scientists from the University of Southern Denmark decided to design around a power source that is always there but isn’t solar-powered, which would be too slow and too little for the drone’s use. Instead, the drones clamp onto power lines, the very same thick cables that deliver power from one pole to another. When the drone senses that its battery is too low for comfort, it flies to the nearest power line, flies under a line, and then slowly raises itself until its mechanism grips the line. From there, it uses induction to draw electricity from the line to power that gripping mechanism as well as charge the drone hanging from it.

To test this theory, a drone that was used to inspect power lines was outfitted with custom-made sensors and a gripper before being set to its task without human intervention. The drone recharged itself five times using this method, resulting in an impressive two-hour operation. Although the task put the drone within the immediate vicinity of the electrical line that it needed to recharge, it’s not hard to imagine how delivery drones would likewise have access to nearby lines for the same purpose.

Then again, this recharging system might not be the best solution either, at least given the technologies we have today. Fully autonomous drones are still generally considered to be unreliable, so you can only imagine the fear of one of these flying robots meeting an accident on that power line and taking down a whole block’s electricity. Of course, the better solution would be to have public charging stations like those for cars, but we’re still far from being a drone-centric civilization to warrant such infrastructure.

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Cubicle-like urban car concept envisions commuting havens of the future

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Everyone travels, whether alone or with others, for work, school, or even leisure. Not everyone, however, enjoys traveling in the same way, especially those who prefer some quiet, solitary time during commutes. Unfortunately, most of the self-driving vehicle concepts seem to focus on turning cars into social spaces, practically removing boundaries between passengers. That’s probably fine for families and friends on their way to a vacation destination, but some people going to and from the office might prefer a bit of quiet downtime on the road. In contrast, this forward-looking design offers an alternative experience, one that envelopes the passenger in their own private space, and it seems to take inspiration from one of the most isolating designs man has ever made: the office cubicle.

Designer: Chloe Gao

The idea of self-driving cars is for people to spare themselves the drudgery and exhaustion of driving so that they can spend more time on more important things. For some people, that might be making connections with other people in the vehicle, but others might prefer some “me time” instead. It’s for these people, especially the “Gen Z” group who value independence and personal immersion, that this urban commuting concept was designed.

As its name suggests, the H-BOX concept turns the car into a box-like machine, and the two-seater model the chairs set to the back of the cabin. Unlike most self-driving automobile concepts, however, this seems to still pay heed to the need for manual control from time to time, so the “driver’s seat” can slide forward to take hold of the futuristic steering well if needed. That further widens the separation between the two seats, which might be a preferred configuration for two people who really want to be immersed in their own little corners.

What makes the H-BOX distinctive, however, are the seats themselves. Where most designs would feature reclining seats that seem to offer the ultimate comfort, these surround the passenger from almost all sides except the front. In other words, it boxes them in, shielding them from the other person in the vehicle while still giving them a clear view of their surroundings. Admittedly, it doesn’t look like the most comfortable design, though it wouldn’t be impossible to have the seat move forward and the backrest lean backward for that same reclining effect.

Then again, the purpose of this self-driving vehicle is to quickly get commuters to their destinations with minimum fuss and perhaps minimum interactions. At the same time, however, the interior of the vehicle still offers a convenient and advanced experience complete with a display that wraps around the interior of the cabin. It does seem to cater to a very niche audience, a generation that might no longer even be around by the time self-driving cars fully take root, but it could offer a more solitary experience for people who prefer to travel in peace and quiet.

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Minimalist water dispenser concept sits on your desk or table for easy access

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Water dispensers are essential and well, indespensable, for any office or even homes (if you don’t have a water filtering system). But a lot of times, these dispensers are just functional and a clunky fixture in our kitchens or pantries. We don’t really look for a pretty or well-designed one since we just need it to give us clean water to drink. One challenge though is that you have to walk to and from it several times a day and that those water jugs are pretty hard to replace or refill.

Designer: Lee Yi Chung for Square Design Works

The Metapure Desktop Water Dispenser is a concept for a well-designed dispenser that can actually be stored on your desk, dining table, or your meeting table. It looks like a combination of a coffee maker and a printer’s ink refilling system. The machine itself is minimalist looking and with various controls built in so you can adjust the temperature so the water can fit in with your needs, whether you want it cold or hot or anything in between.

The refilling of water dispensers can sometimes be challenging so for this concept, they thought of something that would be pretty easy and can be done by anyone. You can just put the water inside the device (similar to some coffee makers and coffee capsule machines) and then there is a filter box placed inside. The filters look like those ink cartridges that you use for printers so we assume that taking them out and replacing them is also pretty easy.

If you’re using different kinds of cups and bottles, you will also be able to adjust the tray for these different accessories so there will be no water splashing. As a concept, this one is pretty interesting and is also good looking so you won’t need to hide it in the pantry. As someone who struggles with water dispensers, this is something I will be interested in if it eventually gets made into an actual product.

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Modular cork stool concept offers sustainable seating by turning into a bench

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Sitting is an important part of our daily lives, so it’s not unusual to see different kinds of seating furniture around places where people stay or pass through. Unfortunately, it’s hard to predict when you’d need a single chair or a multi-person bench, so spaces tend to either put multiple chairs together or have a few benches and force people to sit together. That strategy does work, at least until the situation changes and you need to change seats, which often means buying new seats and discarding the old ones. This minimalist stool concept tries to offer a more sustainable solution that helps reduce waste by turning two stools into a single bench and back again, depending on the need.

Designers: Erika Avery, Stu Cole

The requirements for a stool, chair, or bench are pretty simple. At the very least, it needs to be stable enough to support the weight of a human person sitting on it without toppling over or collapsing. Comfort is, of course, ideal, but some designs seem to forego that in exchange for other capabilities. It’s arguable that the “unknown” stool concept is one of these designs, though its modular nature leaves that open to interpretation and implementation.

The core element of this concept is the sturdy column made of cork, a sustainable and easily acquired material. It’s a single cylinder that makes up the center of the stool, but its secret lies in a smaller circle that connects to a removable seat with a hole in its center. It’s a simple system that requires no screws, extra parts, or complex mechanisms, which means maintenance, repair, and replacement will be just as simple as well.

That seat can, in theory, be anything, though the simple shapes of a square and a circle immediately come to mind. However, that doesn’t limit it to a single symmetrical shape either, since you can have a long rectangular seat with holes on each end, forming a bench when set on top of two cork columns. In fact, the design of the actual furniture is determined by the shape of that removable seat, and it can be as simple or as complex as needed.

The concept doesn’t exactly define what the seat has to be made of, so it can use wood, metal, plastic, or any other material. It can be bare or it can have some cushioning or upholstery to add a bit of comfort. More importantly, the seats can be changed, repaired, or replaced without throwing away the cork core, or vice versa. It’s a simple yet effective design that limits the waste of fixed chairs and stools while leaving the door open for combinations that deliver what’s needed at any given time.

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Electric inversion table concept makes back therapy more comfortable (and pretty)

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If you’ve never seen an inversion table before, you might be shocked when you walk into a room and you see someone lying upside down on this table. It brings some Silence of the Lambs vibes with Hannibal Lecter strapped into a bed, only this table is upside down. But it’s actually a thing that people with back problems do alongside other therapies to treat their back problems without having to resort to surgery. But most of the ones in the market don’t look very comfortable and may even be difficult to operate on your own.

Designer: Eui Ju Lee

This concept for an electric inversion table for Lime, a company that manufactures healthcare equipment, aims to solve those issues. Aside from looking clunky, most of these tables look like they belong in a hospital or a public gym and not your living room. The designer did use exercise equipment as basis for how such a table can fit in your environment but the renders show a much more homey looking device that can rotate in 180 angles to help your back issues.

They also tried to solve some issues that users had with operating inversion tables on their own. The handle is normally attached to the motor but is a bit hard to reach when you’re lying on the table. But with this concept, they put it in a place where it’s easy to reach and turn the inversion table to whatever angle is comfortable and useful for you. And since you’ll be lying on it for a few minutes, it should be pretty comfortable. The backrest is wide enough to make you feel stable and the soft square plate shape is the core visual as shown in the renders.

Compared to existing inversion tables, this one will look at home in your living room and your bedroom as it can blend with the other pieces of furniture. The pastel colors and the shapes of the various parts in the renders also adds to the comfort level of the user. In theory, it should work so the next challenge will be to see if this design, as well as the principles like ankle fixation and rotation can be applied.

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Bedside lava lamp concept improves sleep with white noise, warm lights

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People are finally realizing that sleep actually plays an important role in productivity and shouldn’t be sacrificed for its sake. Unfortunately, many people by now have acquired one sleeping disorder or another, or at the very least have developed poor habits that lead to poor-quality sleep. There are plenty of methods being offered these days, from supplements to meditation to aromas, but sometimes the simplest solution is to use our body’s natural faculties to induce sleep and correct bad practices. That’s the kind of answer that this concept lamp tries to give, using light and sound to lull our minds and bodies to a more peaceful slumber and an even more refreshing awakening.

Designer: Alessandro Pennese

There are plenty of reasons why we have trouble sleeping in this day and age, but most of them boil down to our habits and lifestyles. Many of us flood our eyes with harmful blue light from our phones even while lying in bed, or let our ears be hammered by noise and distractions. Supplements rely on chemical changes to the body, which might be effective in the short term but could do more harm than good in the long run. Meditation is a good habit to develop in any context, but it only goes so far into actually inducing a physical change in our bodies.

EPY is a lamp concept that tries to trigger those changes by using white noise and warm lights. White noise has been known to be effective in canceling out ambient noise that could be keeping our brains active, using sounds from nature to lull our minds to sleep. Warm light, which is closer to natural light, also soothes the eyes and helps generate melatonin, mimicking the setting sun’s gentle glow that signals our bodies to slow down as well.

This lava lamp-like design encourages the user to develop good sleeping habits in order to help repair and rejuvenate their bodies. But although good sleep is important, waking up properly is also a significant factor in a good day. Like the sun at dawn, that same warm light helps our body slowly wake up in a more graceful and peaceful manner, ensuring that we’re ready to face the day full of energy and zest each time.

EPY’s very design is also meant to evoke a sense of calm with its minimalist aesthetic and simple controls. The translucent cap of the lamp acts as a timer when you twist it, letting you set the time of playback for up to 45 minutes. Hidden at the bottom of the lamp are two dials, one for setting how long you intend to sleep while the other sets the volume of the white noise playback. It doesn’t have complicated features, nor does it require you to reach for your phone, which would defeat the entire purpose of getting you to sleep swiftly and peacefully.

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