Tag Archives: Women In Industrial Design

When AR and VR meet the outdoors. This mixed reality headset was designed to be worn everywhere

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Metaverse, meet universe. So much of our AR and VR experience is limited to the indoors. When the landline became a truly wireless (or cordless) device, the first thing that people did was move around with it. No wires means no boundaries, and the smartphone experience is proof. You can use a phone in the subway, on a mountain, even in the middle of a lake. AR/VR headsets? Not so much.

Designed as a graduation project by the students of Hongik University, Calypso is a mixed reality headset that’s designed to be worn and experienced outdoors. While the original intent of the MR headset was to be able to visualize micro aspects of the world like viruses in a much more observable way (making the microscopic world macroscopic), the Calypso’s design treatment is quite impressive, with the way the headset promotes outdoor use without sacrificing functionality or processing power.

Designers: Hyelim Shin & Youngin Cho

So, how does Calypso do that? Well, it works quite like a desktop computer does… by separating the display from the processing unit. The Calypso’s processor sits in a cylindrical gadget that straps to your body, while the display itself fits around your head, with both the devices interfacing wirelessly. Cameras on the headset send information to the ‘computer’, and the computer in return sends data back that gets displayed on the headset’s tinted MR glasses.

This separation is truly a thing of marvel, as it allows the headset to be a slick, non-clunky device (unlike current AR/VR gear that actually look like massive cinder blocks strapped to your face). Pretty much just the way a cloud server works, all the processing happens ‘outside’ the headset. If I had to draw a parallel, Google’s Stadia would be the perfect analogy. Instead of owning a powerful gaming computer that runs processor-heavy games, Stadia lets you outsource the processing online, so you’re just effectively streaming the game while playing it. Calypso works similarly, with the headset and the body-worn processor interfacing wirelessly.

This really removes all constraints for the headset’s design. There’s no need for a large CPU/GPU, a massive battery, inbuilt memory, or advanced cooling systems. The headset is now a rather sleek looking wearable that clips together magnetically near the bridge of the nose.  Wear the headset when you want to, unplug it and have it resting around your neck when you don’t… it’s entirely up to you.

Cameras on the Calypso give it its augmented reality abilities and spatial awareness. The Calypso comes with two cameras/sensors beside each lens, creating an array of four sensors near the nose, as well as two cameras on either side, above the cheeks. Astute observers will also notice the bone-conducting headphones on the temple-stems, allowing you to immerse yourself in audiovisual content.

The Calypso’s ‘meat’ lies in its body-worn processing center. This cylinder contains everything the Calypso needs to be a high-performance device. It houses a motherboard, CPU and GPU, storage, battery, cooling system, and speakers on each side that work in unison with the headset, sending and receiving information in real-time.

Is something like Calypso possible in real life? Well, the most immediate concern is sheer latency, given the amount of data input/output happening between the two devices. Something makes me think that 5G could, to some degree, solve those problems, although a simple cable also works, personally. Sure, it destroys the futuristic illusion of having two wireless devices, but then again, is a cable really that bad after all??

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This Dyson Award-winning injection-accessory may look terrifying, but it helps reduce your pain response while taking a jab

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Pinsoft James Dyson Award Winning Attachment for Needle Phobia

While its appearance could easily be mistaken for a fancy meat tenderizer, the James Dyson National Award-winning Pinsoft is an injection attachment that helps people deal with Trypanophobia or a fear of needles.

Its terrifying appearance aside, the Pinsoft sits ‘around’ an injection, and its multiple round-tipped prongs helps stimulate and ‘confuse’ your skin as the needle makes its way through. The gentle stimulation caused by the prongs distracts your brain, since it can’t immediately tell the difference between the prongs touching your skin and the needle piercing your skin. By the time you realize what’s happened, you’re done with your shot!

Pinsoft James Dyson Award Winning Attachment for Needle Phobia

Pinsoft stimulates the area near the puncture. A set of blunt round-tip prongs retract back into the Pinsoft as you push down on the skin to administer the injection. “As the needle is inserted, they put pressure on the proximal area and there is a feeling of relief from the prick”, say designers Sofia, Laura, and Juan, who secured the James Dyson National Award in Spain. Pinsoft now progresses to the international leg of the award program, with the results being announced on October 13th.

Designers: Sofía Aparicio Ródenas, Laura Martinavarro & Juan Carlos Espert

Pinsoft James Dyson Award Winning Attachment for Needle Phobia

Pinsoft James Dyson Award Winning Attachment for Needle Phobia

The post This Dyson Award-winning injection-accessory may look terrifying, but it helps reduce your pain response while taking a jab first appeared on Yanko Design.

This ergonomic washing machine design helps save our oceans by filtering out microplastics!

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Martina Mancini’s Ocean washing system is as sustainable as it is ergonomic, with special filters that recycle out microplastics and hidden adaptive features for intuitive and accessible operation.

Each time we wash a load of laundry, microfibers detach from our favorite polyester and acrylic clothes and end up in wastewater. Contributing close to 35% of the microplastics found in our oceans, washing machines are due for a sustainability cleanup. Designer Martina Mancini was recently recognized by The James Dyson Award for her work in developing an ergonomic washing machine called Ocean that filters out microplastics and recirculates the water used between cycles.

With Ocean, Mancini set out to develop a washing machine that’s friendly to the environment and ergonomic for most users. The Ocean is designed like preexisting washing machines, equipped with a basket, drum, and display control panel, to ensure familiarity during use. Once the clothes are placed inside Ocean’s drum and basket, users can start their wash cycle by selecting one on the machine’s front display panel. From there, water flows into the drum from a centrifugal pump that’s connected to a purification filter to prepare the water for recirculation once the cycle is complete.

The post-cycle water purification process first passes through a stainless steel sieve grid and then a polyester filter sponge to remove larger microplastics. Following that, the water surges into a pipe that’s connected to the machine’s centrifugal pump, which propels the water against a hollow fiber membrane through a tangential filtration process. Once the filtration process makes its rounds, the water is purified by an Ozonator before recirculating for future use. Ensuring that Ocean is as ergonomic as it is sustainable, Mancini designed the washing machine so that users can remove the machine’s filters on their own before obtaining a new one from an offsite factory. There, company workers will remove and recycle the microplastics to give them a new life.

Given that the hardware required to construct Ocean would be bulky, Mancini knew the washing machine would reach a higher height than those already on the market. Working with a bigger machine allowed Mancini to incorporate more ergonomic features, including an adjustable table located beneath the drum, where users can prepare their laundry before and following washing cycles.

Designer: Martina Mancini

The Top 10 female industrial designers who are shattering traditions + tackling gender inequality with their product designs!

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A while ago, one of Yanko Design’s Instagram posts played a huge role in exposing and shedding light on the gender bias in the design world. The viral post raised awareness on the experiences of women in industrial design, and also the amount of appreciation, recognition, and exposure they truly deserve but do not always receive. In an ode to amazing female designers and the mindblowing work they do, we’ve curated a collection of innovative product designs – all of them created by women ONLY.  From tech to furniture to architecture, there’s no design industry, left untouched by women and their creative enigma! It’s a women’s world, and it’s time we celebrate it!

Qin Li is the Vice President of Design at fuseproject, and they recently designed this fitness solution for FORME. The FORME Life Studio brings personal training and fitness classes to your home! It’s a home fitness experience that helps you feel like you’re at the gym with your trainer right in front of you. 

Matali Crasset renovated Michèle Monroy’s apartment in Paris. She showered it with colorful hues of orange, yellow, pink, blue, and green! This ecstatic rainbow-themed space instantly lifts up spirits!

Arielle Assouline-Lichten is the founder of Slash Projects, a design firm based in Brooklyn, NY, and Slash Objects, her collection of products and furniture. The Adri Chair is all about clean lines and is a renewed interpretation of a modernist experiment. Marble and recycled rubber were used to create this exquisite piece of furniture!

Elodie Delassus designed this beautiful render of the Philips Steamer 3000 series. It’s a compact garment steamer, designed to fit perfectly into our modern-day cramped apartments. Sleek, ergonomic, and aesthetically pleasing! It checks all the boxes of an ideal home appliance.

Called the Twins, this side table by Monika Mulder truly does look like a pair of twins! The intriguingly looped furniture piece features two tabletops, connected via a U-shaped pipe. It also comes in varying heights.

Alejandra Castelao is a senior industrial designer at Fjord San Francisco. She creates stunning human forms sketched in VR, which you can see on her Instagram!

 

Ti Chang is a design entrepreneur who is the co-founder and VP of Design at Crave, a female pleasure company. She also creates other interesting pieces including this Loopy Side Table! Side tables are often completely sidelined, but this one features a geometrically unique form and would make a quirky addition to your living space.

Designed by Kickie Chudikova, the Spiral of Life is a public installation that draws inspiration from the waves of the Hudson River and the sculptures of Isamu Noguchi. It offers a space to sit, relax, contemplate, and take a break from the hectic city routine.

Brazilian designer Carol Gay was originally trained in architecture, but later transitioned to furniture design. I love the pipework on the edges of her furniture pieces. They almost look like paper clips and add a quirky touch to the classic and elegant furniture designs.

Japanese designer Fumie Shibata is the founder of design studio S. Designed by Fumie, this tableware collection for kids is called ‘BONBO’, and it’s everything I would have wanted on my dinner table when I was 10! It’s minimal, clean and not to mention super cute.

This massive luxurious superyacht concept comes with three hulls instead of one

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It sort of looks like the Y-Wing Fighter from Star Wars, although designer Yeojin Jung says the superyacht’s split hull design is directly influenced by cantilevered architecture.

There are over 5,000 superyachts currently on this planet, however, none of them look as impactful as the Estrella. Designed by South Kore-based Yeojin Jung, Estrella hopes to break the mold of ‘boring’ practical superyacht design with something that’s a cross between feasible and outlandishly luxurious. Envisioned to look like the jewel of the seas, Estrella comes made for UHNWIs (or Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, as my sorry self just learnt), and sports a split-hull design that divides the yacht into the main component, and two floater components on either side, reminiscent of a seaplane.

The superyacht’s tri-swath design doesn’t make it more stable… if anything, separating the yacht over three interconnected hulls poses stability challenges. Jung, however, states that the yacht comes with separate stabilizers on the ship as well as on the individual side-hulls to counter any stability issues. This allows Estrella to make its aesthetic flex, with a yacht design that looks as beautiful from the front as well as from the top (where the superyacht’s Y-shape is more prominent). The split hull design also allows the yacht’s passengers and occupants to admire their view from multiple vantage points, getting a better experience of the sea, the marine life within it, and obviously the sky too!

The Estrella Superyacht is a winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2021.

Designer: Yeojin (Chloe) Jung

This flexible vase expands in size (like an accordion) as your plant grows bigger

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Only 3% of plants survive being repotted when they grow too big for their old, smaller planter. I’m making that statistic up, it’s absolute nonsense… but here’s something that’s absolutely, undeniably true – Repotting plants as they grow bigger is a headache. You need to be incredibly gentle to avoid damaging the root system, and once you introduce a plant into a new, bigger pot, you need to hope and pray that the plant adapts to that shift. Repotting plants is a painstaking (and frankly messy task), although Lidia Gómez has a pretty clever solution.

The FlexVase by Gómez is an expandable vase made from hard-silicone. It uses an accordion-shaped profile to expand vertically in size, allowing you to simply stretch the planter as the plant inside it grows. As the planter expands in size, it creates more space for the roots to grow, as well as breaks the soil up, aerating it so the roots get more oxygen.

The FlexVase sports a set of folds that run along its width from top to bottom (looking sort of like pottery lines but much more uniform). Tug on the upper lip of the FlexVase and the folds open one by one. This allows you to increase the vase’s height in increments, making it taller as the plant grows. A similar design detail even exists in the Que Bottle, which uses a silicone construction and a spiral-shaped accordion detail to expand and collapse, making it easier to carry around while in its compact size.

While the vase’s innovative detail is functional in nature, it does lend a unique form to it too. When closed, the FlexVase looks like a normal vase, but expand it and it takes on this interesting wavy, fluted appearance… something that looks even more eye-catching when combined with the vase’s wonderful color palette!

Designer: Lidia Gómez

Nintendo Gaming Smartphone concept images make the rounds with a very interesting camera detail!

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Let’s put my fanboy logic aside and debate this purely on strategic grounds. Smartphones occupy 40% of the gaming industry by size, and 50% by revenue… which is why a Nintendo Gaming Smartphone sounds like a pretty incredible idea. It takes the Switch lite’s portable form factor and adds smartphone capabilities to it too. Nintendo can now expand its product line while still keeping people locked within its gaming ecosystem. Now that we’ve got that elevator pitch out of the way, let’s take some time to drool over Sophia Yen’s Nintendo gaming phone concept.

Titled the Nintendo Delight, this smartphone concept builds on the success of Nintendo’s Switch, making it even more portable and adding a few extra features to it. The Nintendo Delight replaces the need to carry your phone along with your gaming console. By combining the two together, it becomes your go-to device for gaming, browsing, social media, and everything in between. Designer Sophia Yen makes a pretty astute observation when she points out that the Switch is already an Android device (YouTuber Linus Tech Tips even demonstrates how to run Netflix on a Switch), and the Nintendo Delight simply builds on it, adding network capabilities and a camera to the mix.

The Nintendo Delight is smartphone gaming at its very best. Designed by Nintendo, the Android device would already have access to Nintendo’s current Switch gaming library, but would even be able to support Android gaming, Stadia, and other game-streaming services, bringing the entire world of gaming right into your handheld device. Oh, and you can even use it as a phone – making calls, browsing the web, chatting with friends, and clicking pictures with that rather insane-looking 4-lens camera setup!

The camera setup is perhaps the Nintendo Delight’s most brilliantly creative design detail. Its diamond-shaped layout exactly mirrors the XYAB button layout seen on the Switch, so while it is, in fact, a camera module… it’s also a rather clever branding exercise that goes wonderfully with the phone’s black, red, and blue color scheme.

The gaming smartphone comes with a traditional touchscreen interface to play games, but even sports a shoulder button on the top left to give you more control as you play. There’s even a battery-level indicator on the back so you can see how much juice your device has while your phone’s charging. Quite like the Switch Lite, the smartphone doesn’t come with pop-put modules and controllers, although it’s much slimmer and lighter than the Switch Lite.

This obviously is a fan-made concept, although it does make a very compelling argument that smartphone gaming is a seriously expanding category, no matter what gaming purists say. Just like the Sony PlayStation 5G concept we featured last month, the Nintendo Delight creates the perfect hybrid device for serious console gamers as well as casual smartphone gamers. It could easily replace devices like the Switch Lite, while firmly placing Nintendo smack-dab in the middle of a smartphone market that’s desperately trying to reinvent itself. Besides, I’d pick this over that extremely glitchy and buggy version of Stadia Google is trying to ship.

Designer: Sophia Yen

This DIY watch-making kit’s latest design lets you build new mechanical timepieces with your own hands

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In all fairness, what the Swiss watchmakers do is incredibly difficult, but the Rotate Watches give you a small taste of what it is like to assemble your own timepiece together. The all-in-one watchmaking kit comes with everything you need, from the watch parts to even the tools you’d require to assemble, maintain, and repair the watch. For obvious reasons, the mechanical movement comes pre-assembled, given how critical that part is and how intricately it’s built… but you do get to put the rest together, sandwiching the movement between the two metal halves, laying in the sapphire glass display, and finally fixing the straps to your watch. You even get to fit the watch hands onto its face, giving you quite the thrill of playing a real horologist!

Founded by a group of artisans and tinkerers dedicated to keeping analog alive (and a woman-owned, minority-owned business based in Los Angeles, California), Rotate Watches package the experience of building your own timepiece. The watches come in a variety of styles with leather as well as metal jubilee straps, and each watch also has its own difficulty rating, from moderate to complex! The kit contains everything you’d possibly need, from the watch parts to tools like pliers, pry-bars, tweezers, screwdrivers, glue, and even nitrile gloves to help you assemble your masterpiece without creating a mess. Your purchase also gives you access to a complete watchmaking guide on Rotate Watches’ website, technical support from Rotate’s team, and a lifetime warranty on your timepiece. Each unit is quality-checked before shipping from Rotate’s Los Angeles facility, and you can even ask them to engrave 2-3 characters (preferably your initials) on the watch upon purchase!

Designers: Jennifer Zhang and Rebecca Lee of Rotate Watches

We were awed by Rotate’s DIY kit when they first launched as a Kickstarter campaign. Following a very successful crowdfunding effort, the company’s now established its practice in LA, selling a variety of watch styles. Showcased here, is the Galileo, with its golden body and radial-brushed blue watch-face.

For obvious reasons, the mechanical movement comes pre-assembled. Given how complex some of these movements can be, often ending up with hundreds of small parts that have their own specific purpose and require expert knowledge, the movement comes pre-built. As co-creator, you get to put the rest of the watch together, understanding its materials, assemblies, and details along the way. It also helps you build an appreciation for analog watches that smartwatches can never match!

The kit contains everything you need, from watch parts to even the tools and equipment you’d require to put your haute horologerie together. At the end of the assembly process, Rotate hopes that you inherit an interest and affection for watches, and you even form an emotional bond with your timepiece that goes beyond just picking a wristwatch from a display case and wearing it. With Rotate’s watches, you end up involving yourself in the watch’s creation, forming a strong bond with your masterpiece along the way.

The watches are available in 5 styles [from Left to Right] – Eiffel, Wright, Edison, Galileo, and Newton, each with their own unique design, assembly, and difficulty level.

This instant noodle’s water-soluble packaging becomes its sauce!

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The very concept of packaging instant noodles in plastic is baffling to me. The noodles take barely 5 minutes to cook, and another 5 minutes to eat… but the plastic packaging takes nearly a century to biodegrade. Sounds really odd, doesn’t it? Well, for Holly Grounds, a product design graduate from Ravensbourne University London, it seemed like a problem that definitely deserved fixing. Grounds’ clever little solution eliminates plastic and replaces it with something much more sensible… an edible, water-soluble gelatinous skin that actually turns into the noodle broth when dipped in water.

The Dissolvable Noodle Packaging finds a unique, no-waste packaging solution for instant-ramen. Instead of wrapping the noodles in layers of plastic (with an extra plastic sachet filled with the tastemaker powder), Holly decided to develop an edible, spice-infused biofilm to package the noodles in. When you want to cook yourself some ramen, just insert the pre-packaged noodle-cake into hot water and the biofilm dissolves in the water, turning it into a flavored broth! “The packaging becomes the sauce”, says Holly, who managed to design and develop her solution right in her own kitchen! The biofilm uses simple, edible ingredients like potato starch, glycerin, and water. “The ingredients are blended and heated until the mixture is at the right thickness. At this point, I add the spices and flavorings before pouring it into a mold to set for 24 hours”, Holly mentions.

Designer: Holly Grounds

Here’s a look at the biofilm that’s been pre-seasoned with spices and garnishes. In its pliable state, the film can easily be wrapped around a cake of noodles, allowing it to set and harden as the film dries out.

It’s worth noting that this solution translates perfectly onto packaging for other products like rice or even pasta! The biofilm can easily be seasoned with spices and powders, sort of turning the packaging into the product’s flavoring. In a way, it also replaces the need to use labels and graphics on product packaging. With Holly’s Dissolvable Noodle Packaging, you can quite literally see the ingredients like sesame seeds, chili flakes, and seaweed strips in the packaging, allowing you to visually judge and differentiate between different flavors!

The sustainable alternative to LEGO are these building blocks entirely carved from timber

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Classic toys like LEGO building blocks never go out of style. A quick Google search even proves that there’s a whole web of online stores devoted to selling and buying rare, collectible pieces. There’s one standard 2×4 LEGO brick on the market, entirely made from gold, with a firm asking price of just under $15,000 – to each their own. Then, there’s Mokulock, an alternative type of building block. Carved entirely from sustainably sourced timber and not compatible with plastic building blocks, Mokulock works in the same way as LEGO bricks but is a couple of steps ahead on the road towards sustainable toy production.

Coming from a love for trees and the natural world, the designer behind Mokulock recognized the waste that manifests with forest thinning and decided to make use of the smaller trees that are too thin for architectural purposes or furniture-making. Prioritizing simplicity and organic structure over shiny paint jobs, the Mokulock building blocks maintain their original tree’s finish, without additional finishing oil, chemical paint, or glue. While the different timber species used to create the building blocks of Mokulock vary, a sanded finish that promises a soft feel and splinter-free play is guaranteed. Currently, Mokulock uses timber from Japanese Cherry, Japanese Zelkova, Japanese Bigleaf Magnolia, Birch, Hornbeam, and Maple trees to produce their building blocks, which provide different textures and shades of wood for either smooth gradient or color block building projects.

Mokulock was initially created as a means for preservation and sustainability, but the timber used in producing these building blocks offers some mental benefits for the user as well. In addition to supporting an endeavor that provides a sustainable alternative to a worldwide beloved toy, Mokulock utilizes the soft feel of wood to help enhance creativity, stabilize the autonomic nerves by lowering the blood pressure, regulate an otherwise abnormal pulse, and generally calm the nerves. Then again, we don’t need research to remind us of the comfort that comes when we immerse ourselves in nature and notice the solidity of its surrounding trees, the soothing scent of freshly cut timber, and the warm feel of tree bark.

Designer: Mokulock

Due to the tree’s natural coloring, Mokulock offers a wide array of shades for its building blocks.

A natural camouflage color scheme is achieved through the varying natural gradient of Mokulock’s building blocks.

Just like LEGO building blocks, Mokulock bricks can be used to create large-scale 3D scenes or smaller designs like automobiles or miniature pyramids.

Mokulock stays away from using any finishing oil, chemical paint, or glue in the making of their building blocks to maintain an organic finish.

Some of Mokulock’s building blocks come engraved with quirky scenes and characters for children to integrate into their buildings.