Top modern gifts for people who love great design – YD Holiday Gift Guide 2021

We took the thinking and planning out of gift-giving so you don’t have to worry about what to buy for yourself or for a loved one this holiday season! Here’s a list of great home, kitchen, and lifestyle products to spark joy in your life and the lives of the people around you. The one thing that’s common across all of them? The fact that they’re clever and innovative products that get the stamp of approval from the design-elves at the YD headquarters.

Be sure to snag some of these products while they’re around (and on discount), or share them with a friend/relative/partner if you want to give them hints!


Air6+ Air Purifier by YFLife

The AIR6Plus purifier by YFLife is about the size of a smart speaker and can be placed anywhere within the house… yet within it is air purifying technology so advanced, it’s even used by NASA. Referred to as photocatalytic oxidation or PCO, this technology obliterates any kind of germ or organic compound, turning it into CO2 and water. The technology would normally sound like overkill for using inside our homes on planet earth, but considering deteriorating air quality, the presence of pathogens, and a whole host of other organic compounds (smoke even) … it actually makes for a rather advanced air purifier that gives you the cleanest breathable air possible. Operating with a simple touch of a button, the AIR6Plus comes with 3 fan modes, and can sanitize the air down to 0.001 micrometers within a space of 360 sqft without generating any sound or even any waste… and with a ridiculously energy-efficient power consumption of 13W (that’s about as much as an LED bulb). Grab one for a YD-special discount below!
Click Here to Buy Now. 15% Discount Code YankoHolidays15

Nanopresso Handheld Espresso Maker by Wacaco

An espresso-maker that’s smaller than a Starbucks cup, the Nanopresso from Wacaco is designed to give you the most luxuriously rich and crema-laden coffee wherever you go. Just load hot water into the Nanopresso, pack coffee grounds into the pod (or use a Nespresso pod of your own), and the Nanopresso’s custom-designed pumping system can generate a whopping 18 bars (261 PSI) of pressure, pushing the hot water right through the tightly packed coffee grounds to produce up to 80ml (or two shots) of pure concentrated espresso. The Nanopresso also comes with a cup to dispense your fresh coffee in, and requires no electricity to use, making it perfect both at home or even outdoors. Once you’re caffeinated for the day, the Nanopresso is easy to clean, and even comes with a nifty EVA foam case to carry it around in!
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Koda 12 Compact Pizza Oven by Ooni

Imagine never having to stand for hours outside Lucali’s to get some crazy good Neapolitan-style pizza. Or rather, imagine being able to make that pizza right at home! That’s what the Koda by Ooni promises, with its ridiculously compact design that can frankly sit on most outdoor tabletops, letting you turn any table into an instant pizzeria. The Koda 12 is small enough to make a 12-inch pizza or calzone, and comes with a foldable design that you can flat-pack and carry home with you once you’re done (and once the pizza oven’s cooled down, obviously). The compact little gas-powered oven takes mere minutes to set up, and can heat up to ripping dough-baking temperatures in just 15 minutes. Use it to make pizzas, breads, babkas, steaks, or even grill veggies!
Click Here to Buy Now

Nanoleaf Shapes Modular Wall Lights by Nanoleaf

The year is 2021 and wallpaper has just been rendered obsolete. Meet the Nanoleaf Shapes, a series of slim, smart LED panels that come in geometric shapes and can be connected to one another to create a dynamic work of art on your walls. The modular panels can be used to create shapes, patterns, textures, even text, and they add a touch of color to spaces when off, but completely transform the ambiance of a room when switched on! The smart LED panels work via touch, and can instantly be transformed into an interactive installation that changes hues when you touch any of the panels. Alternatively, they can connect to your smart speaker and change colors to the rhythm of the music you play, or better still, hook them to your television and activate Match Mode, which lets the Nanoleaf panels light up to match the colors on your TV screen, creating an immersive experience that’s nonpareil!
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Bradley Element Tactile Wristwatch by Eone

Easily one of the most iconic watches of modern time, the Bradley watch from Eone comes with a spectacular design that’s backed by an even more incredible story. Named after former naval officer and Paralympic Gold medalist Bradley Snyder, the watch hopes to champion inclusive design by being a timepiece that you can read not just with your eyes, but with your hands too. The watch hopes to celebrate the brave legacy of officer Bradley, who lost his vision while diffusing bombs during his time stationed in Afghanistan. Championing Bradley’s no-can-do attitude, the watch features two ball-bearings that magnetically travel around the timepiece’s face to read the time (one bearing on the front tells the minutes, and another on the rim tells the hours). The wearer can simply run their finger across the watch to feel for the bearings and get an immediate sense of what the time is. If the bearings shift position while you touch them, they can slide immediately back thanks to the underlying magnets… which make the award-winning tactile timepiece double up as a nifty toy too!
Click Here to Buy Now

Millo Wireless Blender by Millo

Designed like something out of Apple’s or Dyson’s design studio, the Millo is a smart, sophisticated, and silent blender, that makes 4x lesser noise than your conventional blender, generates twice as less heat, and 2x more energy efficient. Moreover, using it is bafflingly futuristic. Just load your smoothie ingredients into the Millo, screw the top on, and rest it inverted on the base… and just like a phone starts charging the moment you rest it on a wireless-charging surface, the Millo begins whirring and blitzing all your ingredients into a fine smoothie. You can control the Millo’s intensity by sliding your finger around the rim of the base, as lights under the surface come to life, letting you see what power you’re running the blender at. When you’re done, lift the blender up and the blade magically stops spinning. It’s a sight to absolutely admire! Yes, this blender is everything Steve Jobs would love. It’s sleek, wireless, quiet, and removes any ugly mechanical details that would blemish the blender’s pristine design. Oh, and the base is made out of Aluminium too!
Click Here to Buy Now

ZenBeam Latte L1 Portable Projector by ASUS

Rather adorably named the Latte, this coffee-glass-shaped device from ASUS is actually a portable projector, capable of delivering 720p content while also functioning as a speaker-system. The ZenBeam Latte blends 720p HD projection and Harman/Kardon audio performance into a compact, lightweight, and ultra-portable design that’s similar in size, shape, and weight to a grande cup of coffee. The tiny projector can project screens measuring up to 120-inches in size, and works seamlessly with iOS and Android devices. Go ahead and Netflix & Chill in style!
Click Here to Buy Now

Levitating Smart Moon Lamp by Gingko

Dim the lights and switch the Gingko Smart Moon Lamp on and it quite literally looks like you’ve got a supermoon inside your home! Having gone certifiably viral on TikTok, its gravity-defying levitating design completes the illusion, creating a pretty remarkable-looking prop that’s great for decor as well as photography! The floating moon comes 3D printed from translucent PLA, complete with craters and undulating surface details to make it look like the real thing, and it floats on its base too, gently rotating as a planetary object would. 140mm (5.5 inches) in diameter, the moon floats on a wooden base made of dark walnut or light ash wood, suspended in place by a strong rare-earth magnet. It comes with built-in LEDs that give the moon its signature glow, with 3 light temperatures to choose from – warm white (3500k) and white (5000k), and a special yellow warm (2700k) for that rare blood moon effect! Each Smart Moon Lamp comes with its base and a 12V- 1A AD adapter to power the entire experience. Plus, Gingko offers a cool 2-year warranty that should quite literally send you ‘over the moon!’
Click Here to Buy Now

The post Top modern gifts for people who love great design – YD Holiday Gift Guide 2021 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Wacaco made the world’s smallest espresso machine, and it’s the size of a coffee-cup





Small enough that you can wrap your hand around it, Wacaco’s Picopresso pushes the boundaries of how tiny a coffee machine can be… while still being able to produce a phenomenally robust and creamy espresso.

You’ve got companies like La Marzocco, Breville, and De’Longhi that make the most high-end coffee machines, and then you’ve got Wacaco, a company that’s dedicated to compressing those coffee machines into their smallest possible form. Wacaco’s greatest hits include the 2014 Minipresso, which put the company on the map, followed by the Nanopresso in 2017, a smaller, better version of its predecessor. The Picopresso (highlighting its use of metric nomenclature) pulls out all stops. It isn’t just thermos-sized, it’s cup-sized. Designed to be small enough to carry in your pocket, the Picopresso lets you brew that perfect shot of espresso coffee no matter where you are.

Click Here to Pre-Order: $99

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

The Picopresso stands at 10.5cm tall, or a little above 4 inches, making it perhaps the smallest ever coffee machine to be able to pressure-brew an espresso. That means even at 10.5cm tall, the Picopresso makes a luxuriously silky double shot of cafe-quality espresso, complete with that layer of crema on top that you’d see from any good espresso machine.

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

Its internal 52mm-wide basket holds 18 grams worth of coffee (enough to make a double-shot), while the water tank holds about 80 ml of water (2.7 fluid ounces). How you prep the Picopresso is no different from your countertop espresso machine. Just fill the basket with 4 teaspoons of coffee grounds and compress them into a nice puck with the tamper that comes along with the Picopresso. Then add the hot water to the water chamber and put the entire device together.

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

What’s notable about the Picopresso is that it works entirely without electricity. Its impressive inner pumping system generates 261 PSI (18 bars) of pressure to pump the hot water right through the coffee grounds, giving you velvety smooth espresso underneath. Just manually push down on the piston on the side as you hold the Picopresso above your coffee cup and the thick coffee pours through almost instantly.

The Picopresso is directly a result of the innovation kickstarted by the Minipresso in 2014, which, for its time, was the first-ever portable espresso maker to use a single hand-powered piston. Over the years, Wacaco’s worked hard at making that brewing/pumping system smaller without sacrificing taste, durability, and consistency. Wacaco claims that the newly engineered pumping system of the Picopresso is more reliable and capable than ever, giving you the possibility to extract professional-grade espressos quite literally in the power of your hand.

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

Even for its small size, the Picopresso is durably built, with a rugged design that travels incredibly well. The Picopresso comes with its own travel case and everything you need to brew barista-grade espresso and even clean up after. Priced at $99 (available for pre-order on Wacaco’s website), it’s an incredibly affordable purchase for anyone who’s passionate about their coffee… plus its 2-year international warranty should really sweeten the deal.

Designer: Wacaco

Click Here to Pre-Order: $99

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

Wacaco Picopresso Portable Espresso Coffee Maker

If Santa Claus owned a portable espresso machine, this would be it…

Back in a winter-themed seasonal avatar, the Nanopresso from Wacaco is perhaps one of the smallest, most portable espresso machines in the world. It compresses every element of a coffee-maker into a form-factor small enough to fit right into your bag, and pair it with either a Nespresso pod or your own coffee-powder (placed in the Nanopresso’s pod) and you’ve got yourself espresso on the go, anywhere, anytime.

Partnering with artist Emma Tissier, Wacaco’s Nanopresso now comes in a bright red color, complete with seasonal artwork. Titled the Red Tattoo Pixie Edition, this Christmassy coffee maker is set up for a limited run, and comes with its own EVA foam case for you to carry around. Just add your coffee powder or pod and some hot water, let the pressure build up, and pour the freshest espresso right into Nanopresso’s cup. For a seasonal touch, top it off with a cinnamon stick and a spritz of Kahlúa!

Designers: Wacaco and Emma Tissier

Click Here to Buy Now

Click Here to Buy Now