Tag Archives: Red Dot Concept 2019

Let’s just say I’m a “fan” of these sketch pens!

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Created as a cross between a Pantone shade card and a stationery set, the Pen Fan fits 8 different flat-head sketch pens in a small, easy-to-carry set. The flat pens are connected to each other, forming a neat Japanese-fan style layout that displays all the 8 colors for you to pick and choose from. Each individual sketch pen is detachable too, allowing you to snap off and on pens to create a palette of your choice! Stationery-hoarders, you’ve been warned!

The Pen Fan is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Arman Emami of EMAMIDESIGN

Kitchen timer that can be set with dirty hands and no touching!

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Chances are that your hands are dirty, and you want to open some lids, switch on the oven and set the kitchen time… all at once. Chances are, you will not wash your hands and do all of the above and leave stains on lids, knobs and timer. Well, now with the No-Touch Timer – chances are that you will not soil it, and instead set the timer without even touching the device!

The No-Touch Timer gives you the chance to set the timer hands-free. When it is in its default mode, the device functions like a clock, but when you bring your hands near it, the device transforms into a kitchen timer. You can set the timer hands-free by taking your hands close by to wake the clock up. You can adjust the hands from a distance and the further away you take your hands, the more time is added to the clock.

Details of the time include real-time feedback on the screen, infrared sensors to detect how far hands are away from the device and thus converting into a corresponding time value. In essence, the further away the hand is from the timer, the longer time will be set. Too bad, it’s only a concept.

Designers: Fu Yibo & Wen Ruoyu

This pen-shaped devices is an extensive male-grooming kit

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It isn’t No-shave November yet, so how about you groom that rough mane a little! Kong Dezheng’s Multifunctional Convenient Shaver is a one-piece, two-part product that lets you take control of frizzy, unkempt facial hair.

The pen-shaped device slides right into your pocket, allowing you to carry it around with you wherever you go. When needed, the pen packs a pair of grooming scissors at one end, and a folding razor at the other, giving you the ability to groom yourself on the go. Quite nifty if you ask me!

The Multifunctional Convenient Shaver is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Kong Dezheng

This gaming controller’s layout adapts to suit the mobile game you’re playing

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You could be one of the billion people playing Fortnite or Clash of Clans, or even Pokémon Go on your phone. The point is that even though all of them are technically mobile games, their controls are completely different and require different interfaces for effective gameplay. Some need complex joystick movements, some simple swipes and taps. LumiControl’s design brief was to design a controller to cater to them all.

The mobile joycon titled ‘LumiControl’ comes with two grips and an expandable design that fits your smartphone in between. Designed to cater to different phone sizes, the grip expands outwards and then promptly snaps around your phone, firmly gripping it from both sides. The controller connects to your phone, understanding the interface requirements of the game you’re playing, and adjusts its controls accordingly. Two touch-sensitive circles on the grips light up with the controls, allowing you to tap, slide, and maneuver your way through whichever game you play. The controller’s backlight adapts to the game you’re playing, allowing you to play anything from a racing game to a shooter to an MMORPG with the same device, while Making sure you’ve got an ergonomic set of controls that don’t cover your smartphone’s screen, making for more comfortable and immersive gaming!

The LumiControl Game Controller is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Wayne Wang

Japanese wave-inspired gas stove that cleans easy while saving space!

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The Dry Mountain Gas Stove has a meditative quality about it, brought about by its inspiration from Japanese and Buddhist landscape gardens. The stove’s design is dominated by curved, soft forms that make it appear calming, while also giving you a little extra countertop space, thanks to the rounded edges. The stove’s wavy resting plate is one of its strongest visual features. The wave-inspired plate doesn’t just provide an allure to the stove, it also makes it easier to clean when you’re done, with a cloth and a single swooping action.

The Dry Mountain Gas Stove is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Shen Wenjiao

“The bottom plate’s distinctive wave pattern is inspired by the ‘rocks’ and ‘rivers’ of Japanese dry landscape gardens. The curvature of each wave was precisely calculated to prevent boiling water from overflowing to the countertop. Wiping oil off the cooktop is also easier than conventional gas stoves, thanks to the wavy surface. The burner is designed with zero dead angles, preventing any debris from being trapped. Similarly, the iron-formed pot bracket references the curves of flower petals, making it easier to sweep debris away,” Shen told Yanko Design.

To help users maximise their countertop space, the bottom plate is rounded off. This not only saves 20% of countertop space, but also softens the form at the same time.

The Adesse Watch showcases minimalism achieved through ‘design-by-subtraction’

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Minimalism is much more than just sleek lines, simple forms, or the liberal use of the color white. To Jansen Che, minimalism means looking at a product and identifying what’s unnecessary, what’s expendable. The Adesse Watch (shown here in renders, although Jansen says a real watch is coming soon) literally has a watch strap and face. It strips away the watch of everything Jansen believes can be removed, but still retains the watch’s functionality. The watch has absolutely no hands, a plain, unbranded face, and even uses minimal markings around the rim of the inside of the case, rather than on the dial itself. This results in the watch’s dial being an absolute empty canvas. Taking inspiration from an hourglass’s ability to use shadows to tell time, Adesse comes with an offset on the surface of its watch-dial. The offset casts a slight shadow, making it visible as a hand, which points to the time. The offset works as an hour hand, but also does a pretty good job of telling the time by minutes. As the hand progresses from one hour to the next, slight indentations help the user read the time in 15 minute increments. While this isn’t exactly a watch for someone who needs absolutely accurate timekeeping, it’s perfect for someone with a more zen-like spirit, or someone who doesn’t want a computer or a fancy chronograph on their wrist, but just a watch that lets you empty your mind and breathe a little.

The Adesse Watch is a winner of the Red Dot Design Concept Award for the year 2019.

Designer: Jansen Che

Live from Singapore! Here are the ‘Best of Best’ Red Dot Design Concept Award 2019 Winners!

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Concepts form the backbone of innovation, and our ability to build on them and refine them sits at the very core of our future. YD’s always had its finger on pulse when it comes to conceptual designs. We honestly love them (even the impossible ones) because they help showcase a designer’s ability to step out of their comfort zone, and imagine something for a scenario that’s either partially or completely out of our reach. That’s one of the many reasons why we fly down to Singapore every year for the Red Dot Design Concept Awards. The Red Dot Design Concept Awards bring light to innovative and inspirational design concepts. These concepts start with a game-changing idea, and transform into a product visualization. The purpose of the Red Dot Design Concept Award is to scope out these interesting projects and bring them into the limelight, so that one day, they may develop into practical products that change our world. Live from the Red Dot Design Concept Awards 2019 in Singapore, here are our top winners from their Best of Best category… with the grand-prize Luminary Award winning project at the very end! You saw it here first!

01. Smart Intelligent Stroller by DO and BE Design

The Smart Intelligent Stroller is by far the most advanced way to travel with your child. The stroller comes with a hood that extends all the way down, giving the child a safe covering from top to bottom, while an internal system helps purify air and maintain a pleasant temperature and humidity levels inside the stroller, keeping the baby comfortable.

02. Tri-Cane by Jordan Lau Tsz Chun

This nifty walking stick can turn into a stool when you need! The Tri-cane considers the needs of the person using it, offering more than just support. The cane’s innovative design allows the handle to open up into a seat, while the cane itself comes with three collapsible legs that open outwards, turning it into a tripod-stool.

03. Smartians by Frolic Studio

Born out of necessity (or sheer laziness and genius combined), the Smartians actuators help turn these physical experiences into digital ones. The tiny actuators come with a base, a smart hub, and a wide variety of attachments that can perform actions like pulling, pushing, twisting, rotating, releasing, etc. Use your ingenuity and a combination of these attachments to turn regular, tactile experiences around your house into smart ones. The Smartians can turn lights on or off, rotate the dial on the thermostat, put the kettle on, or even water your plants

04. NeoMano Robotic Glove by Neofect

Designed to give the power of movement to people with paralysis, the NeoMano Robotic Glove sits on the hand, allowing the index finger, middle finger, and thumb grip onto objects and release them when needed. The ‘grip’ button on the controller flexes the fingers to make a gripping gesture and tightens the grip. The ‘release’ button loosens the fingers to relax the grip and returns the hand to its neutral position.

05. Dry Mountain Gas Stove by Shenzhen Shenwenjiao Design

The Dry Mountain Gas Stove has a meditative quality about it, brought about by its inspiration from Japanese and Buddhist landscape gardens. The stove’s design is dominated by curved, soft forms that make it appear calming, while also giving you a little extra countertop space, thanks to the rounded edges. The stove’s wavy resting plate is one of its strongest visual features. The wave-inspired plate doesn’t just provide an allure to the stove, it also makes it easier to clean when you’re done, with a cloth and a single swooping action.

06. Complete Plate by Lu Di

Designed as an aesthetic and functional take on the sushi-eating experience, the Complete Plate has a ramped channel running along its rim that lets you pour soy sauce into it. The ramped-design works almost like a clock, as the soy sauce level keeps diminishing with each dip, completing a full circle, giving you a very clear idea when you run out of sauce!

07. Doggy Leg by Guo Jiaxin, Li Zhi, Ma Huanhuan, Wang Yiru, Wang Yunqing, Yao Wenhua, Prof. Xu Kun, Prof. Zhang Yong

This prosthetic leg for our furry friends helps them scamper around with no difficulties! The flexible prosthesis was designed to mimic real-limb movement, thanks to an elastic plate connecting the upper and lower elements, so the leg feels absolutely natural in use as well as while resting.

08. Cord Reel Table by Zinus Inc.

Part table, part extension box, and complete ingenuity, the Cord Reel Table lets you wheel it around the house, thanks to its handle and its single-wheel design… but it does more than just that. It also lays out a wire between the table and the plug-point it’s connected to, giving you the ability to plug in and charge your phone or smart speaker from anywhere around the house! Hey Alexa, isn’t that a brilliant idea?

09. Lightweight Skateboard by Shenzhen Hanma Creative Technology

This porous skateboard may seem outwardly fragile, but it’s designed and engineered to be as strong as any other regular skateboard, if not stronger. Designed to be more sturdy and ecologically conscious than wood, the Lightweight Skateboard is die-casted using a magnesium alloy that’s finished using CNC Machining. The high-strength, low-weight skateboard comes with an adjustable wheel-base too, giving it even more of an edge over your regular wooden skateboard!

10. Lilium Jet by Lilium GmbH [Luminary Winner!]

With 36 tilting jet engines that give this eVTOL the power of flight, the Lilium Jet is capable of carrying up to 5 passengers for a distance of 300km on a single charge! It boasts of a wingspan of only 11 meters, with a design that has no tail, rudder, gearboxes, or oil circuits, making its design truly revolutionary. The luminary winning design is all set for its debut in 2025, with a hope that future models will be able to fly autonomously too!

The JBL Jr Pop is a wireless bluetooth speaker just for the kids

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“Big Sound for Music’s Tiny Fans” is perhaps the best way to describe the JBL Jr Pop, a conceptual speaker created by Shenzhen-based Kim Hyojin.

A winner of both the Red Dot Design Concept Award and the iF Design Award for the year 2019, the JBL Jr Pop is a junior speaker, designed to be child-friendly, and give children their dedicated music-listening device. The Jr Pop is small, light, rugged, and comes with a leash that the child can use to carry their sound with them. A comforting ring of light around the speaker gives it a halo, illuminating the branding, and captivating the child with dancing light visuals as they listen to music.

The Jr Pop is loosely based on the JBL Clip speaker design, sans the carabiner clip. It pairs via Bluetooth, probably to the family iPad or to a parent’s smartphone, playing music for the child, and is designed to give them the joy of having a personal musical experience, powered by JBL’s remarkable audio technology!

Designer: Kim Hyojin