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With its absurdly cool sci-fi-inspired design, the GravaStar Sirius Pro may be the sexiest TWS Earbuds ever made

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I personally hold Steve Jobs accountable for ruining the word ‘Sleek’. It’s now used to describe every single thing we see, especially in consumer technology, where if it isn’t sleek, it isn’t worth marketing. In a world where everything’s designed to look slim, have plain, flat surfaces, and look quite like an alien designed it, the GravaStar Sirius Pro TWS Earbuds stand out for the fact that they embody a rugged, robust, cool design, while still being compact. The earbuds and their accompanying case have an almost ‘industrial’ coolness to them like they were designed by a sci-fi-driven future. Oh, and if that wasn’t ruggedly cool enough, the case even doubles up as a bottle opener… making these the first headphones to also be able to crack open a brewski. Cool.

Designer: GravaStar

Click here to Buy Now: $79 $129 (38% off). Hurry, only 160/500 left!

The fact that they’re designed to look like a prop out of Ghost in the Shell or Fallout isn’t entirely accidental… GravaStar’s known to make some absurdly futuristic products – you should check out their Mars and Venus Bluetooth speakers! The Sirius Pro follows that brand ethos by being unconventionally sci-fi, while serving as pretty great earbuds too. They come with an enhanced bass response, boast Environmental Noise Canceling, and actually have an incredibly low latency of 65ms that’s perfect for gaming. When not in use, they sit inside a rather unconventionally designed case, with a cutout running right through the middle, and a bare-basics cage-like lid that secures the earbuds in place without concealing them.

The hollow cutout in the center of the case breaks the monotony of most TWS earbuds with their monolithic cases. The GravaStar Sirius Pro’s case boasts of a strangely alluring and unusual design, outlining the earbud chamber on the top, and the battery pack and circuitry at the bottom.

The hollow area in the center makes the GravaStar Sirius Pro’s case a perfect fidget toy, while also serving as a rather nifty bottle opener, combining consumer audio tech with a crazy EDC function that a lot of people will appreciate. The fact that your earphones can also open a drink is just something nobody thought they’d need but will almost certainly always keep using.

Once you look past its eye-catching design, the Sirius Pro pack quite a punch as far as the tech specs are considered too. The 7.2mm dynamic drivers sit on a Knowles balanced armature, delivering distortion-free highs along with full lows and mids.

The earbuds also have built-in ENC that help minimize any environmental noise (you know, for more immersive listening and gaming), and do everything you’d expect from a TWS earbud, like accept/reject calls, play/pause music, increase/decrease volume, and summon your phone’s voice assistant. Additionally, the earbuds have in-ear detection too and can be used independently.

The GravaStar Sirius Pro’s case comes made from a tough zinc alloy which makes it damage-proof and scratch-resistant, not only upping the product’s durability, but also allowing that bottle-opener to function immaculately every single time. The earbuds themselves are IPX5 waterproof and along with the charging case, have a battery life of up to 24 hours. As far as colors go, the Sirius Pro do much more than just plain white or black. Taking cues from its gaming inspiration, the Sirius Pro come in 3 colors – war-damaged grey, space grey, and a rather funky neon green. Couple that with the fact that the case even has an LED strip with 6 dynamic RGB lights and you’ve got a pair of earbuds that are undeniably some of the most unconventionally sexy-looking ‘buds on the market. Speaking of bud, someone pass me a beer!

Click here to Buy Now: $79 $129 (38% off). Hurry, only 160/500 left!

These sustainable Mushroom lamps are actually grown into their funnel shapes, instead of being mass produced

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With its oddly rustic design aesthetic, Sebastian Cox’s Mycelium pendant lamps aren’t made… they’re grown.

Mycelium, or the vegetative part of a mushroom, has found itself in the limelight for being a cheap, sustainable, and vegan alternative to suede and leather. If treated correctly, it looks and feels just like leather, offering a cruelty-free and biodegradable alternative that doesn’t have as much of a carbon footprint either. Teaming up with researcher Ninela Ivanova, British designer Sebastian Cox’s “Mycelium + Timber” examines the viability of mycelium as a potential material in commercial furniture design. The mycelium fibers are bound to scrap strips of willow wood, which provides the base and fodder for the fungus to grow. The result is the absolute antithesis of mass production. Designed in part by nature, each lamp is unique, has its own aesthetic, and is beautiful in its imperfections.

The lamps take anywhere between 4-12 weeks to ‘grow’. The scrap willow wood is first sourced from Cox’s own woodland, and cut into fine strips before being woven into shape and placed inside a mold. The mold is then filled with a fungus called fomes fomentarius, which was cultivated using more scrap strips of wood. Inside the mold, the mycelium and wood fuse together, creating a unique type of composite material. “In our workshop, we don’t use composite wood materials because I’ve never been quite satisfied with the binding agent holding the wood together,” Cox said in an interview with Dezeen. “As a result, I’ve always had a kind of fantasy interest in ‘reinventing’ a type of MDF and finding new ways to bind wood fibers into either sheets or mounded forms, ideally without glue.” The resulting lamp is removed from the mold when it’s fully grown and is supplied with 2.5m of oatmeal round fabric braided cable. The entire Mycelium lamp is sustainably produced and entirely compostable.

“It’s not just about the fungus, it’s about the marriage of the two materials,” adds Ninela Ivanova, a researcher who collaborated with Cox over this project. “These two materials have a natural relationship in the woodland, so let’s see how we can exploit that.” The duo plan to continue their collaboration and are working on releasing a full collection of mycelium and wood composite products in the near future.

Designer: Sebastian Cox with Ninela Ivanova

You can easily make your own products out of recycled cardboard too, like the Olympic beds

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The technique isn’t too different from making papier-mache products, and all you need is a set of molds to really compress the cardboard pulp, creating a robust, durable product.

The response around the ‘anti-sex’ Olympic beds has been pretty amusing if you ask me. Cardboard’s definitely got a really bad rap as a material, because of its ‘packaging’ status. Paper can actually be pretty durable and robust if you get your physics right (try whacking yourself on the head with a hard-bound book); something Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan even demonstrated by jumping up and down on the Olympic village beds to prove their durability. YouTube-based creator XYZAidan’s worked out his own way of recycling cardboard into durable products too, by shredding old corrugated board panels and turning them into a pulp, which he then proceeded to cast into 3D-printed molds. The result is a lot like engineered wood, except made from disintegrated cardboard instead of sawdust. It’s just as durable, and if your molds are designed properly, the end product can come out looking pretty clean and finished. You can check out the process video above, or scroll down to get access to the mold 3D files that XYZAidan made available on his Thingiverse page.

Creator: XYZAidan

If you’re familiar with how injection-molded plastic products are made, the process for working with cardboard pulp is rather similar. You’ve got liquidized raw materials that fit inside a mold, which helps form and compress the fluid mass into a tightly packed design. Once ready, the mold separates into its different parts, releasing the final product. XYZAidan started by first preparing his raw materials. Grabbing any cardboard he could find and finely shredding it in a paper shredder, XYZAidan then proceeded to blend the cardboard strips with water and a water-soluble binder. To keep things eco-friendly and biodegradable, he opted against synthetic PVA glue for a more natural rice paste, made by mushing cooked rice in water over a stovetop to create a starchy pulp that would hold the cardboard fibers together in the mold.

Depending on the kind of product you want to make with your recycled cardboard, XYZAidan recommends using 3 or more mold parts, so that the product can release from the mold easily. Given cardboard’s fibrous, absorbent nature, the product tends to expand inside the mold, so you best create a mold that’s easy to disassemble, or you’ll either break your product or your mold in the de-molding process. XYZAidan took to a 3D printer to make his molds, ensuring that they were robust and had a strong inner support structure since the mold would need to be clamped together.

Once everything’s ready, just assemble your mold and pour the liquid pulp in. There’s no fixed ratio or volume, and a lot of it has to be done by eye. You’ll need to over-fill the mold, since the pulp has to be compressed into shape, and you’ll also need to have separate drainage holes for the water to exit through. Just clamp your mold in shape and leave it for a day, allowing the cardboard pulp to set in shape.

Once you’ve let an entire 24 hours pass (add a few more hours for good measure if you’re doing this in the monsoons), disassemble your mold and your product should be relatively set and easy to pull out. It’ll still be slightly wet, which means you’ll need to leave it out for another day to completely let it dry. Once dried, just trim the flared cardboard bits and you’ve got a final recycled cardboard product that’s robust, solid, yet incredibly lightweight. Depending on the quality of your mold, it’s possible that your product could have those 3D printed step-lines or layers too (see below). The best solution is to either to sand down your mold or sandpaper your products after they’ve completely dried. Then just finish them off with a layer of paint and you’re ready!

The possibilities are absolutely endless. You could create shoes for yourself, stationery-holders like pen-stands or cups for paper clips, robust laptop stands, or even textured sound-absorbing panels to mount on your walls! XYZAidan’s been kind enough to make all his 3D printing mold-designs available for free on Thingiverse, and you can even visit his YouTube channel to see what else he’s been up to.

This turntable design pays homage to the retro feeling with minimal aesthetics and modern tech!

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When you think turntables in 2021, you get a flashback of vintage visuals and it is not something you might associate with modern music listening. Well, meet RMV – a turntable designed to blend the retro and modern vibe, hence the initials! By combining the past turntable and modern technology, RMV brings the past and the present together in a naturally harmonious manner.

“RMW” is a product that allows people to feel both analog and digital sensibilities unique to turntable. RMW can enjoy music using mediums such as mobile phones, headsets and speakers that users use using Bluetooth principles. It is not heavier than traditional turntable in form, and it is designed to suit the interior by pursuing spatiality and morphological sophistication with minimal design. We selected the color of the product, black and white, which are not widely divided between men and women of all ages. In addition, we selected black and white colors to make it basic and most harmonious for interior design.

Product button: To help users approach the product quickly, conveniently, and familiarly, and to quickly understand the product, we used a direct UI on the buttons of the product. Also, I added orange for white and red for black to highlight the product that may look a bit plain. Unusual features: Turntable was enjoyable to watch LPs spin. In order to add joy and freshness to the user, RMW incorporates digital into the existing turntable’s tonearm movement method, giving a little more digital feel than conventional analog, allowing analog and digital feel to harmonize. Back button: We added a back button for users who want to use more functions and get to know more about the turntable. You can enjoy the turntable with more functions using the button on the back.

Attachment method: The size of the turntable is larger than users think. Many users feel uncomfortable because it takes up a lot of space when placed on a table or something. To solve this problem, RMV was designed to attach to the wall, and it was also made using screws and bolts and stickers. In order to maintain the simplicity of the design intention of the product, I designed the holder and the product information. It is kept simple by selecting and marking the necessary product information without being noticeable.

Designers: Sang Keun Kim, Kyung Jun Lee and Cheon Ryong Choi

rmv

 

This futuristic superyacht doubles up as a floating seaport for other boats & costs $300 million!

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Remember that swan-shaped megayacht that was costing $500,000,000 to make? Well, Lazzarini Design Studio is here to wow us again with this 328-foot long (100-meter) superyacht that also doubles up as a private seaport for smaller boats! Elegantly named ‘Saturnia’, this conceptual superyacht is designed to be made entirely with dry carbon fiber structures that will make it 50% lighter than similar-sized vessels and push the top speed up to 30 knots!

the main body of saturnia subdivides into five floors plus the top antenna area. the vessel can be configured into different layouts, accommodating between 10 and 20 guest suites and 20 crew members.

Lazzarini’s concept features an all-around walkable deck area and openings on both sides that lift up to reveal a private port for tenders. tenders with up to 1.5 meters of draft can moor inside the private port or be easily loaded while the yacht is navigating.

the upper part of the openings extend into glass-bottomed decks. inside the centrally-located private port, large sliding windows maximize connection to the outside. meanwhile, the side openings can extend from the upper deck into glass-bottomed lounge areas.

designed with hybrid propulsion, the yacht utilizes twin side diesel engines and a central electronic water jet system, which can push the yacht with zero emissions. Lazzarini Design Studio estimates that the saturnia superyacht concept could be built for $300,000,000 USD in about 30 months.

tenders with up to 1.5 meters of draft can moor inside the private port or be easily loaded while the yacht is navigating. the personal port. tenders with up to 1.5 meters of draft can moor inside the private port or be easily loaded while the yacht is navigating

Designer: Lazzarini Design Studio

Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Besoz need to get their hands on this space-friendly luggage!

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Space tourism is currently a race and a status symbol amongst billionaires but it won’t be long before it becomes the next big travel trend…of course, the ticket costs will be out of this world for most of us, but we can still get the appropriate luggage and daydream! Astroneer is luggage designed keeping in mind the possibility of space travel becoming a popular ‘exotic’ destination in the future. Even if you aren’t going to space, the way bags are handled at the airport might make this NASA-level luggage an investment worth considering.

Travelling in zero gravity at insanely fast speeds already induces so many changes in our bodies despite training and protective suits – can you imagine what would happen to the belongings in your bag? Exoplanet exploration requires luggage that can survive with you. “We didn’t want future travellers to carry a crumpled carrier, with harsh conditions, rugged terrain and differential atmospheric pressure,” said the designer duo and made sure that Astroneer is modular and has no volume constraints – once again, something we on Earth could also use. Astroneer comes with bags of different sizes that can all compactly be packed into one unit. It also has increased liquidity in the environment with the suspension of wheels so that you don’t have to carry your bags even though they might be lighter in outer space, roll with it…literally. The CMF is carefully chosen for the concept to provide visibility in an environment where it is difficult to check the contents inside by giving electric signals to the glass which lets you adjust the transparency of the luggage – this might just be my most favorite feature yet. It also has internal environmental controls to protect your belongings!

So while Richard Branson went to space, he certainly missed out on having the coolest suitcase at baggage claim. Maybe by the time its our turn to take off, we can get an Astroneer in custom colors!

Designers: JooHyung Park and Sunjin Baek

 

What happens to old bulletproof vests and firefighter suits? They become garbage, but Vollebak is recycling them into fireproof sweaters

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There isn’t much you can do with a bulletproof vest that already has bullet holes in it… or a firefighter suit that’s already beginning to show evidence of burns. They essentially become garbage – highly specialized garbage that’s difficult to recycle (because they weren’t built to be recycled) and impossible to incinerate too.

So what do you do with such garbage? Well, most countries just dump it in a landfill and it’s now the earth’s problem… but Vollebak seems to think those garments still have some life in them. The name Garbage Sweater may throw you off a bit, but it highlights something that Vollebak’s shown to be able to do time and again… make highly functional apparel out of practically any material. The Garbage Sweater is an olive green, loose-fitted sweater that’s made from a 70:30 composition of firefighter suits and bulletproof vests.

Vollebak chose this unique ‘category’ of garbage for two broad reasons. Firstly, firefighter suits and ballistic vests have a short lifespan. With regular use, when they’re exposed to heat, chemicals, and abrasion they gradually degrade. Once they’ve broken down to the point where they’re no longer safe to be worn as protective gear, they need to be discarded. That’s where reason 2 comes in – recycling garments made from meta-aramids and para-aramids is ridiculously hard. “While it might not be strong enough or safe enough to work as protective gear anymore, in reality, the clothes have only lost a fraction of their original properties”, say the folks at Vollebak. That fractional loss in functionality is enough to put a human’s life in danger… which makes discarding them justified, but it also results in a lot of waste over the years.

The process for making the sweater starts with sourcing the discarded vests and suits (as well as the leftover pieces of fabric you get from making them) and shredding them to extract the fibers out. Once the fibers are extracted, they’re cleaned, blended, and spun into the new sweater. While the Garbage Sweater is built with unconventional materials and experimental techniques, it’s still comfortable, warm, soft, with a texture quite similar to fleece. In fact, while the aramid fibers don’t remain bulletproof anymore, they still retain fire-resistant properties. Hold a flame to it and the fabric never catches or spreads the fire. It’s quite an unusual property to have in a sweater but works pretty well outdoors when you’re working the barbecue or trying to kindle a campfire.

The Garbage Sweater joins Vollebak’s unique catalog of cutting-edge fashion, including their greatest hits like their jacket made from ceramic, their carbon-fiber tee shirt, and their disease-repelling jacket made from copper textile. Available in 5 sizes, the Garbage Sweater can be snagged on Vollebak’s website for $495. It’s a little more than you’d pay for your average sweater… but then again think of the amount of bullet-absorbing and fire-fighting history woven into your sweater’s fabric!

Designer: Vollebak

These non-humanoid robots express emotion by reacting to physical touch, just like plants do!

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Most often, we only see plants moving and growing when they’re filmed in slow-motion for nature documentaries. But even in those slow scenes, watching plants bloom and grow into themselves feels emotional. It’s like watching a baby tiger wake up from a cat nap on the big screen, except it doesn’t have a face and it’s green, not furry. Inspired by the growth cycle and emotive movement of plant life, student designer Keunwook Kim designed Post-Plant, a collection of non-humanoid robots that respond to and move through non-verbal, physical interaction.

Following a period of researching how humans can read emotion from non-verbal cues, Kim gathered that arousal (dynamic energy), valence (intrinsic attractiveness), and stance (visual disposition) can each be interpreted as signs for emotional analysis. Applying this information to Post-Plant, Kim’s non-humanoid robots do not express emotion through facial expression, but through movement and changing forms. Built into each one of his Post-Plant robots, Kim incorporated a motor interface that combines an input and output system, registering when the robot is touched and responding with movement.

For example, when the top of Kim’s green robot, which could also be an interpretation of Maypole dancing from Midsommar, is turned, the robot responds with arousal, by spinning its ‘leaves.’ Signaling when its valence is turning negative, the Post-Plant robot binds its leaves tightly together. Once those leaves are touched by a human, the robot spins its leaves out once more, indicating a changed, positive valence. Similarly, Post-Plant’s white robot spins its propeller-like leaves in response to being touched but shivers to express unhappiness, indicating a need to be touched once more. By studying how humans read emotion, Kim hopes to cultivate the emotional relationship we have with robots and the potential to express a robot’s emotion through non-humanoid, kinetic gestures.

Designer: Keunwook Kim

Keunwook Kim built three different non-humanoid robots resembling various forms of plant life.

Taking cues from nature, Keunwook Kim researched the different ways humans can read emotion through non-human gestures.

When expressing happiness, this robot spins out its leaves, binding them together to express a negative valence.

This robot spins its propeller-like leaves to express happiness, shivering to express the opposite.

To express happiness, the single electrical string that flows through this robot stands erect.

When unhappy, the string falls limp.

A built-in motor translates input and output information acquired via touch to respond with movement.

To express positive valence, this Post-Plant robot rotates freely.

Spinning its propeller, this robot expresses general contentedness.

Inspired by everyday objects familiar to humans, Kim conceived the form of his non-humanoid robots.

Following multiple iterations, Kim felt inspired by plant life to build the bodies of his robots.

The leaves of this robot seem to be constructed from leather bands.

A wearable multitool EDC shaped like a ring, so you can carry an entire toolkit on your finger

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“It sort of looks like Green Lantern’s ring, and gives you all sorts of superpowers too.”

Meet the Tool Ring, a finger-worn EDC that can do everything from open bottles and boxes to tighten screws, and even sign documents while you’re at it. The uniquely shaped ring comes with space to dock various hex-shape bits, making it possibly the smallest toolkit in the world.

Designer: Vanik Piliguian of Carbn Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $35 $60 (41% off). Hurry, only 5/40 left!

The Tool Ring is exactly the kind of product you get from someone like Vanik Piliguian, an Industrial Designer born in a family of jewelers. Made from titanium the ring acts as a holder for the Tool Ring’s ecosystem of hex-bits, which include a Philips-head screwdriver, a ballpoint pen, a box-cutter, and a flashlight. Independently, the ring sits comfortably on your finger and even has a unique appearance that is also capable of being used as a mini pry tool for opening lids.

The Tool Ring’s design is characterized by the three hexagonal slots integrated into its form. These slots allow you to slide in the Tool Ring’s hex-bits (although you can use other standard PH2 hex-bits too) and use the ring as an instrument of your choice. The top slot offers the most functionality, allowing you to do things like twist screws, point the flashlight, or even cut open boxes with a fair deal of dexterity.

The slots on the side are perfect for storing bits that aren’t in use, and the way they’re positioned aligns them up with your finger, so they don’t obstruct your hand’s movements. To ensure that the Tool Ring holds onto the bits securely while you use them, the slots come with rubber inserts, providing extra friction so the bits don’t slip off while in use.

The ring’s design brilliantly intersects the aesthetic appeal of jewelry and the functionality of multitools. Its titanium construction makes it reliably robust, and the edges of the ring are rounded off for added comfort, thanks to a round of machine tumbling to remove any burrs. It comes in a polished or a satin finish, and a bunch of anodized colors too – purple, blue, gold, and a personal favorite rainbow finish that just emphasizes the ring’s jewelry background.

Talk about form, function, and fashion! You can either get the ring with a single hex bit (and pair it with your existing PH2 toolkit), or grab the entire set including the ring and 4 bits for an early bird price of $65. This includes the box-cutting knife bit, a ballpoint pen bit, and a water-resistant 10-lumen flashlight bit.

Click Here to Buy Now: $35 $60 (41% off). Hurry, only 5/40 left!

This LEGO kit comes with LED lights to build your own Flux Capacitor, like the one in ‘Back to the Future’

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In Back to the Future, Doc Brown warns Marty, “Whatever happens Marty, don’t go to 2020!” Wise words, Doc. While 2020 certainly wasn’t our golden year, 2021 is making up for the lost time. Alternatives for safe travel are cropping up and product designs for playing and relaxing at home are too. While we don’t want to travel back to 2020, perhaps some point in the distant future sounds more like it. While electronic hobby group Brickstuff has yet to construct an IRL version of Doc’s Flux Capacitor, a miniature LEGO replica will suffice for now.

Building with LEGO blocks will never go out of style. If I had a bucket of LEGO bricks in front of me right now, I wouldn’t waste any time before getting on the floor to build my dream home, making my younger self proud. Fusing the nostalgia of watching ‘80s cult classics like Back to the Future and spending entire afternoons building with LEGO bricks, Brickstuff designed the LEGO version of Doc Brown’s Flux Capacitor as a kit for anyone to construct, all ages welcome. The kit comes complete with a whopping 18 new LEGO bricks, a pre-assembled pliant circuit board, LED lights that actually glow with the help of a battery pack, and three AA batteries. You’ll have to buy the batteries separately, but the kit comes included with illustrated assembly instructions to aid in the building process.

LEGO bricks are the type of toy that instantly brings us back to our childhood. There was a time when LEGO was my whole universe. Back to the Future is nostalgic in itself, and I can still remember the first time I watched the movie–English class, sophomore year of high school. Brickstuff brings together these two forces from our childhood to create a miniature collectible item that we can build ourselves, reminding us that we can accomplish anything if we put our minds to it.

Designer: Brickstuff

Brickstuff’s LEGO replica of Doc Brown’s Flux Capacitor features glowing LED lights and a miniature circuit board.

Users can open the Flux Capacitor to mimic iconic scenes from Back to the Future.

An attached battery pack requires three AA batteries for the LED lights to turn on.

The kit comes with 18 new LEGO bricks and illustrated assembly instructions.

The kit comes with everything you might need to build your own Flux Capacitor – just add batteries.