Tag Archives: Graphics

These sleek gaming headphones go stalk-less to deliver crystal clear audio!

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Gaming is a full sensory experience. Your seat has to pass the Goldilocks test, an HD screen brings everything into focus, and the audio needs to be crystal clear. That means that the right pair of headphones can change the whole game. Reconceptualizing gaming headphones to meet their personal requirements, design team Vasudevansr visualized a pair that moves past bulky hardware and poppy audio to instead deliver headphones that mean business.

Vasudevansr Design initially felt inspired to design its own pair of headphones to elevate the gaming experience. Frustrated by the jumps and general scratchiness that microphone stalks fail to equalize, Vasudevansr designed a pair of stalk-less headphones so that gamers don’t have to speak directly into the microphone to be heard. Confessing to this, Vasudevansr describes his initial inspiration, “I have a general dislike for stalks poking out of the units and for people who breathe into it,” they told Student Design Showcase on Instagram, “A slight protrusion from the main body, housing two microphones on each side is my idea of tackling the [microphone] stalk issue aesthetically.” Ditching the microphone stalk for an internal input and output system, Vasudevansr’s gaming headphones look sleeker and should deliver crisper, less shrill, and muffled audio.

Communicating with other gamers across servers is half the fun of playing video games, but not when all you’re listening to is someone’s breathing. To remedy this, Vasudevansr integrated an internal audio system that would be able to capture a full spectrum of frequencies without the bulkiness that accompanies protruding microphone stalks.

Designer: Vasudevansr Design

An internal audio system is contained in each earbud, equipped with dual microphones to pick up a full spectrum of frequencies.

A tough, metallic outer ear borders the headphones’ inner cushioning, which wraps the user’s ears.

Ditching the stalk microphone for an internal, slightly protruding microphone gives Vasudevansr’s headphones a cleaner look.

The pair of headphones have a slightly exposed look to them, offering view of its internal structure.

These bamboo villas curve into lotus flowers creating a Disney-worthy villa!

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Known for creating 3D visualizations of architectural residences that shake up the thrillseeker in each of us, graphic designer Thilina Liyanage has conceptualized a subdued bamboo retreat for when the adventurer grows tired. Taking inspiration from lotus flowers and magical realism, Liyanage’s Hideout Lotus Bamboo Villa rises above the ground on bamboo pillars to form a raised, single-story home resembling the look of a giant rattan table with an intricate, interwoven bamboo lotus mounted on top.

From an exterior perspective, the Hideout Lotus finds a common outdoor area just below its mounted single-level lotus-inspired living area. Four curved bamboo pillars stack atop one another to create borders around the common area, creating a tiered walking space that contains the villa’s canopied deck. Wooden panels line the deck, complimenting the rest of the bamboo structure, where globular concrete mounds harness the villa’s main support beams.

Three wide bamboo shafts elevate Hideout Lotus’s upper deck, which supports the villa’s main interior living area. In a congruent style with the ground deck, the upper deck fashions wooden panels for its flooring, which merge with the villa’s more intricate bamboo lacework. Like a lotus flower floating in a pond, the main villa casually rests on the upper deck, with its bottom petals artfully draped over the edge. The villa’s windows are stationed behind an overlaid bamboo lattice that enwraps the entire villa, giving it an alluring, if not elusive personality.

Symbolic for rebirth and groundedness, the lotus is lauded for its ability to bloom beautifully despite murky waters. Positioned in a dense, wooded area, Liyanage’s Hideout Lotus Bamboo Villa bursts from the ground below in bamboo roots and chutes to grow into a hideaway that creates space for recharging and getting away from the thrill of it all.

Designer: Thilina Liyanage

The villa’s ground-level deck contains an outdoor common area complete with petal ceiling fans and rattan furniture.

Forming a cluster of villas, each one of Liyanage’s Hideout Lotus Bamboo Villa is connected to one another by strings of lights.

Reminiscent of cloaked fairy tale bungalows, the bamboo lattice that envelops each villa only enhances their enigmatic personalities.

Draped over the upper deck’s edge, the curved bottom petals of each villa are some of the finer details in Liyanage’s tribute to the lotus flower.

Supported by groups of concrete-fortified bamboo support beams, each lotus villa rests on a stabilized, secure foundation.

This public horticultural pod cultivates plants and multi-generational relationships through the act of gardening!

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The act of gardening provides many proven physical and mental health benefits that alone make cultivating your own garden worth it. Taking it one step further, community gardens carry the same benefits and then some. Interacting with members of your own community while growing plant life, crops, and flowers not only makes fresh food available for all of those who help cultivate it but also brings people closer together in the process. Enrich Group, a team of designers with Virginia Tech University, created their own community greenhouse to help forge human connections and bridge generational gaps within the community.

Gardening promotes many physical and mental health benefits, including an increase in physical activity, relaxation, and access to fresh food. Enrich Group aimed to combine physical activity and mental relaxation with an environment that cultivates multi-generational relationships with their community greenhouse. Following a year of social isolation, Enrich Group built their own community greenhouse because they believe age is nothing but a number and doesn’t change each aging individual’s desire to connect and build meaningful relationships within their own community. Cultivating genuine relationships between people from different generations through the act of gardening is the “embodiment of purposeful living,” notes Enrich Group, ensuring that “we all have the chance to grow, together.”

The greenhouse’s interior is designed to feel similar to traditional meeting spaces, with an island or table in its center that contains the garden’s main communal herb garden. The main island is also multi-tiered to optimize the greenhouse’s interior space. Hanging plant fixtures form an outer ring above the island’s main communal herb plot. In addition to the plants’ tub, gardening spaces around the pod’s perimeter feature health monitors for each plant, sliding storage bins with open handles for easy accessibility, as well as a general working space. The greenhouse appears as an approachable, modern, and public hub with glass-coated acrylic panels, aluminum ribbing, and a wooden entryway.

Designer: Enrich Group

Enrich Group’s community garden, called Enrich features an exterior design close enough to traditional greenhouses to fit any outdoor space.

Inside, community members can develop interpersonal relationships as well as grow crops.

Enrich wears an approachable design, inviting community members to come inside and tend to the garden.

Around the perimeter of the gardening hub, plant pots and tubs can be found alongside workspaces and sliding drawers.

In the center of each pod, a communal herb plot creates more space for gardening.

Before tending to your own plot, Enrich provides a preliminary survey that reveals what type of gardener you are.

The location of your garden can be chosen according to your community of residence.

Gardeners can also select what types of crops they’d prefer to grow.

At its core, Enrich operates as a social hub for multi-generational relationships to thrive.

This chess board uses visual projectors to help you learn the game and learn creating strategies!

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Like many, chess was one of the hobbies I took up mid-pandemic. Half the battle of chess is learning and remembering the directions and formations each piece is allowed to move, once that’s squared away, strategy can be weaved into your game. I never got that far, but the new chess set Illuminis designed by Bülent Ünal might do the trick. It’s a chess set that enacts visual pointers on the actual board for kids new to the game who want to learn the rules, but it’s tailored for anyone who’s taking up the new hobby.

Familiarly decorated almost like miniature orange and black minions, the chess pieces look inviting for kids, with a gleaming outer coat and round bodies and heads. Setting his chessboard apart from the rest, Ünal’s chess pieces’ faces have been replaced with protruding circular projectors that look similar to antique scuba diving helmets. The minuscule projectors work by illuminating the squares on the chessboard where each piece is allowed to move, allowing kids and learners of chess alike to understand the rules of chess accurately and quickly. The visual indicators that come equipped with Ünal’s pieces merge technology with the antique chess board to give the game a modern edge, fit for today’s younger, more technologically perceptive generations. The bottom of each chess piece also comes outfitted with battery slots for fast and accessible charging and longer game time.

Chess is a game of skill, memory, and discipline. While it takes determination and patience to develop your own strategy, Ünal’s Illuminis chessboard might help streamline the beginner’s learning process and harness the memory and skill it takes to become tactical at the game of chess.

Designer: Bülent Ünal

Dressed in gleaming orange and black outer coats, the chess pieces have an undeniable personality that will speak to kids and beginners alike.

The pieces’ projectors indicate the different squares on the board each piece is allowed to move.

Underneath each chess piece, batteries can be inserted into slots for quick and easy charging.

Each chess piece has its own distinct personality to hone in on the character’s elements (i.e.; knight, queen, king, rook, and bishop).

This smart desk gadget doubles as a stretching aid to keep you moving while working!

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Transitioning from working out of the office to working from home has undoubtedly thrown our daily movement routines for a loop. While our days once consisted of walking throughout the office and completing our daily move goal ring by lunchtime, our workdays are now split between slouching at a desk and laying on the couch for short breaks. Turning to smart technology to help incorporate more mobility throughout our days, a team of designers based in Korea developed a smart stretching device called Root.

The team of designers behind Root incorporated smart technology into the handheld device that mimics the experience of movement tracking from other smart devices like the Apple watches or built-in smartphone health monitors. Built to be the size of a large pen, Root is as compact and portable as any other health-tracking smart device. Most of the device’s operability is integrated into its internal structure, coming complete with an elastic strap inside that extends for full-motion stretching and built-in motion sensors and coils that provide the groundwork for smart technology. Root’s accompanying app receives information from the device’s internal sensors to provide stretching exercises that are most appropriate for each user’s limitations and individual needs.

After pairing Root with the app via Bluetooth, users can return to their own profile to view upcoming stretching routines, exercises, as well as activity training throughout the day. Integrated coaching and in-app expertise guide users through each movement that Stretch recommends, depending on the handlebar sensors to ensure correct body placement and movement. In developing Root, the team of designers hoped to create a stretching device that helps users generate a solid foundation for our daily movement that will ultimately turn into a daily routine to open up the day to new possibilities. With the chunk of our days taking place behind screens and hunched over our smartphones, Root’s minimal screen provides the ideal recharge we all need.

Designers: Eric Kim, Jae Hyeon Lee, and Nemin Jin

The designers settled on the name Root after finding inspiration in three words: root, routine, and infinite.

The charging station is as compact as the actual stretching device, offering a minimalist display for busy workspaces.

Root is a stretching smart device that’s as compact as a large pen.

Root can easily pair with your smartphone and accompanying app.

Inside, Root carries an elastic stretching band for full-body movements.

Root has an ergonomic build and intuitive design for optimal usability.

Root’s PUI display on its 2.5D glass screen informs users when and how to exercise.

Root’s main smart technology is integrated into the internal structure of the device itself.

root can be used anywhere, at any time throughout the day.

The main body of Root is composed of a type-C port and coils for charging, motion sensors, and wire sensors.

The home page of Root contains each user’s scheduled routine for stretching.

Users can swap out exercises as they see fit.

Integrated smart technology signals to users when their stretching is correct.

Activity tracking fills out most of the app’s main purpose to ensure productive stretching tailored for each individual.

Built-in coaching guides users through each exercise.

These wildlife-inspired futuristic cabins suspend off the cliffs like StarWars jets ready for takeoff!

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Thilina Liyanage is a Sri Lankan 3D visualizer who conceptualized architectural fortresses that resemble wildlife, including villas that bend over mountainsides or a yacht club whose roof flexes into the curve of a manta ray’s backside. Developed to be constructed entirely from sustainable building material like bamboo and responsibly harvested wooden chutes, some of Thilina Liyanage’s 3D visualizations take a different approach. For example, one of his recent designs finds futuristic glass and metallic cabins inspired by the shape of dolphins puncturing a cliffside overlooking the ocean.

Similar to his Cliff Cabin 3D visualization, Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins are lodged into a tropical mountainside, piercing the cliff to suspend in midair with a cantilever structure. Resembling the shape of a dolphin’s body, the Futuristic Ocean Cabins doubly mimic the rugged science fiction aesthetic of Star Wars, stationed on the cliffside like resistance X-Wing fighter jets ready for battle. Liyanage envisioned each structure bored into the cliffside with angled steel beams wrapped in concrete and yanked tight on their horizontal planes with four high-tensile suspension cables to create enough support for each cabin’s foundation. Accessible from an adjacent steel staircase, the interiors of Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins come complete with enough space for a bathroom, sleeping area, kitchen, as well as a small living area.

Coated with glass facades reinforced with a concrete framework, Liyanage envisioned a future getaway that hinges on a transparent, exposed external structure and linear, open-air internal space. Jutting out from their cliffside foundation with the same tension of Star Wars III, the true thrill of Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins rests in their support methods (four high-tensile suspension cables and one main support beam bored into the cliffside) to keep its cantilever structure horizontal over the bustling ocean below.

Designer: Thilina Liyanage

The wildlife of the mountainside merges with the futuristic structure of Futuristic Ocean Cabins to create a rugged, sci-fi escapist hideaway.

Bored into the mountainside, Thilina Liyanage’s Futuristic Ocean Cabins remain suspended over the sea.

The cabin’s glass facade framed with concrete give it a rugged look fit for the set of Star Wars.

Inside, the linear layout of each cabin allows space for a living and sleeping area, as well as a kitchen and bathroom.





In addition to the cabins’ beam foundation support, four high-tensile suspension cables sling the cabins horizontally over the ocean.

A vertical steel staircase grants access to each cabin’s interior space.

The cabin’s cantilever design gives it the thrilling edge that Thilina Liyanage is quickly becoming known for.

Equipped with all the amenities and utilities that one might need, the thrill of living above the ocean is balanced with human comforts like AC and septic tanks.

Michelin debuts inflatable sail system to decarbonize the global maritime industry, providing freight ships with clean wind energy!

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Michelin Group, the multinational French tire manufacturing company, has its tread pointed towards becoming a leader in sustainable mobility. Veering away from tire manufacturing, Michelin is making strides on the ocean. Revealing a sustainability project aimed at the high seas, the global tire manufacturing group presented WISAMO, a wind-powered Wing Sail Mobility project, during this month’s Movin’ On global sustainability summit.

In a collaboration between Michelin R&D and a couple of Swiss inventors, WISAMO was designed in part as a contribution to their long-term goal of cutting global maritime transport emissions by more than half by 2050, Michelin’s WISAMO project provides inflatable sails to increase efficiency across all kinds of freight and cargo ships. The Wing Sail Mobility project was conceived to decarbonize the maritime industry at large, prompting Michelin to construct a wind sail system that fits most commercial cargo ships by enacting a plug-and-socket installment system.

Designed as a supplementary power source for freight and cargo ships, the inflatable sails would work in addition to the ships’ engines, propelling the ships forward with help from harnessed wind energy. WISAMO is an automated, retractable, and inflatable wind sail system that folds over the ship’s deck when not in use. The sails’ foldable design allows cargo and freight to pass under bridges or sail through storms without the worry of damage to the actual sails. Relying on a telescopic folding system, WISAMO’s sails unfurl via an automated system that uses an air compressor for inflation.

Offering his own technical and experiential knowledge, world-renowned french sailor Michel Desjoyeaux collaborated with the team at Michelin to help develop WISAMO. During its debut at the 2021 ‘Movin’ On’ global sustainability summit, Desjoyeaux cited the project’s environmental charge, “the advantage of wind propulsion is that wind energy is clean, free, universal, and totally non-controversial. It offers a very promising avenue to improving the environmental impact of merchant ships.”

Designer: Michelin Group

Relying on a retractable and inflatable sail system, WISAMO can be installed on most commercial cargo ships.

WISAMO was designed to hybridize freight ships, propelling their engine-driven speed further with wind power.

The inflatable sail systems can fit on most merchant and leisure ships.

With the insight gained from experienced French sailor Michel Desjoyeaux, Michelin built WISAMO to garner optimal wind energy.

WISAMO retracts over the ship’s deck when not in use.

The telescopic folding design allows ships to still sail beneath bridges and through storms.

The automated folding system works with an air compression unit that’s activated with the push of a button.

This non-slip smartphone case is the perfect package to Netflix and chill safely!

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The wider our smartphones get, the riskier it becomes to take photos with one hand. If taking landscape photos from outside a window with one hand twenty-one flights above the ground floor below isn’t enough for your heart to sink to your feet, take the photo on a windy day and see how you feel. In collaboration with TORRAS, design studio inDare created a non-slip smartphone case that uses an ergonomic structure to ensure the smartphone is secure in your clutch.

The clever anatomy of smartphones primarily caters to their software, while the sleek build of most smartphones can easily slip from our grip. While the number of memes about phones falling on our faces as we endlessly scroll through tweets is enough to prove the smartphone’s slippery build, inDare went further to reveal their take on an ergonomic phone case to keep the screen in front of our faces instead of on top of them. The smartphone case tacks on a concave grip to its cover that transforms into a raised kickstand to scroll hands-free.

Built from military-grade, drop-resistant material, inDare’s smartphone case protects and tightly secures your phone in place even if, on the off-chance, it does fall from your hands. Located next to the case’s concave grip, an inconspicuous quick-release trigger ejects the case’s raised kickstand to be positioned for viewing your smartphone in either landscape or portrait mode. The tiered structure of inDare’s smartphone case allows users to still use the iPhone’s MagSafe Charger without interruption or having to remove the phone from its case.

Designer: inDare

The smartphone case’s quick-release kickstand allows users to view their screens in either portrait or landscape modes.

The ergonomic concave grip allows for secure handling when scrolling or taking photos.

Built with military-grade, drop-resistant material, the smartphone case protects your phone even if it doesn’t slip from your grip.

The smartphone case’s tiered structure allows users to use Apple’s MagSafe Charger without interruption.

Samsung Serif TV gets an abstract screensaver filter to give you movie theater curtain vibe!

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TVs mounted above fireplaces or propped up in the center of the living room can turn into eyesores when not in use– empty, black boxes staring back at your guests don’t bode well for the overall interior design of your living room. South Korean design studio Master Pictures conceptualized a screensaver called Curtain Mode for the Samsung Serif TV to help remedy the television’s idle screen downfall.

Recently, people have taken to transforming their television screens into pieces of artwork, photo slideshows, and abstract moving images when they’re not streaming their latest binge-watch. Instead of the blank stare from empty television screens that pervades the living room, screensavers like Curtain Mode from Master Pictures create more dynamic, eye-catching displays for when the TV’s not in use. Curtain Mode for Samsung Serif TV essentially abstractifies your idle TV screen, taking what you were previously watching and veiling the screen with an abstract impression of it.

Without turning the TV off itself, the idle on-screen content is overlaid with a digital filter that operates like an opaque, abstracted curtain, undulating in contrast and time with the moving images of your previous screen. When curtain mode is active, users can still access television services such as the clock, Bluetooth speakers, apps, and their photo gallery. Since Curtain Mode blurs the television screen into ripples of abstract shapes like curtains, users can customize the screensaver by adjusting how much the pixels are blurred and by selecting the curtain’s color.

Designer: Master Pictures

Curtain Mode abstractifies the previous screen to create a moving digital filter for your television.

Curtain Mode’s abstract impression can be customized by adjusting the color and pixelation.

The abstract impressions work to create a moving digital curtain.

Curtain Mode’s color customization can be chosen according to the television’s previous screen or preselected pixelation.

Instead of empty, black screens, Curtain Mode transforms your television screen into an undulating digital curtain.

Curtain Mode’s color scheme can be chosen in conjunction with your living room’s interior design elements.

Apple meets GoPro in this action camera designed for every adventure enthusiastic influencer!

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Conceptualizing new technology using the design language of iconic brands like Apple and GoPro is a hard feat, but when done right, it makes you wonder why the product doesn’t already exist. Apple is known for its minimalist and sleek product designs, with every new generation, the iPhone seems to get even slimmer and glossier than its predecessor. GoPro takes on a more rugged approach to their design, delivering durable, weather-resistant, and pocket-friendly action cams. Varun Anand conceived and visualized the iCam Pro, an Apple and GoPro-inspired minimalist action camera for the modern thrill seeker, merging the two giant brands together.

Inspired by living life on the edge and documenting travels along the way, the iCam Pro was conceptualized using top-grade technology fit for the adventure seeker who isn’t about to be held back by limiting camera setbacks. Equipped with Apple’s A12Z Bionic Chip, the concept of iCam Pro boasts lightning-fast feedback and the same power efficiency we’ve all come to expect from Apple. In addition to its ultra-fast microchip, the iCam Pro comes outfitted with LiDAR sensors, an advancement in camera technology that fills out Apple’s camera to take videography to another level. LiDAR sensors essentially use remote sensing to examine the Earth’s surface, and all of its nooks and crannies to deliver photos that are as close to the real thing as you can get from phone cameras. In a similar vein, a 12 MP ultra-wide sensor expands the camera’s view to deliver fuller photos, while the iCam Pro’s 22 MP wide camera captures crystal clear colors for more realistic documentation.

Today’s social media industry expects vloggers and influencers to come prepared with the most technologically advanced cameras to document their adventures in their truest form. Boasting a waterproof rating of 1 ATM, the iCam Pro was conceptualized to be water-resistant for up to ten meters deep, and the camera’s new underwater camera would allow users to take 60fps underwater shots, the same frequency rate used by sports cameras to capture slow-mo and action footage. Since the iCam Pro was created using Apple’s design language, Anand also thought to include all the perks that come with an iPhone, including access to photos, music, iCloud, as well as Face ID authentication.

Designer: Varun Anand

While Apple is known for more simple, minimalist designs, GoPro is rugged and versatile.

The sleek build of iCam Pro is immediately recognized as an Apple-inspired product, with rounded edges and full screens.

Boasting the speed of an A12Z Micro Bionic Chip, the iCam Pro would deliver lightning-fast feedback.

Anand was sure to include all the perks that come with Apple products, including iCloud, photos, and a music library.

iCam Pro’s ultra-wide cameras would capture fuller footage for more realistic documentation.

With a water resistance level of 1 ATM, the iCam Pro can reach depths of 10 meters and take photos underwater.

Unlike other action cameras on the market, the iCam Pro would not be battery-operated. Instead, the iCam Pro would operate on wirelessly charged power.