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An Unhealthy Bond With An Xbox (future!)

Once upon a time the complete technological infancy of our game consoles made starting, playing and maintaining a video game a ritualistic feat. Who doesn’t remember inserting, reinserting and if that don’t work, blowing the cartridge before inserting a game? Yes I’m spoiled cuz all I have to do is press the start button on my wireless controller but the Xbox Portal eschews all that in the name on “bonding.” Sounds dirty don’t it?

Designer: Taylor Phillips-Hungerford

Boomerang That’s Got An Identity Crisis

Mid-life crisis, financial crisis, relationship crisis…ah! there are too many crises in this world! Add to this list a Boomerang that thinks it’s a camera: IDENTITY CRISIS!

Don’t mistake Glare for your run-of–the–mill summer time toy, it’s a proper gadget with a functional, eject-able camera. You know the drill of a boomerang don’t ya. Fly it out in the open and let it swish back to you.

Designer: Christopher A. Gregory

20 Tips for Designers to Beat the Recession

It is all around us, talk of Doom, gloom, job cuts, job losses and recession etc. This is not what a young designer, fresh out of school, wants to hear. It is also not what an employed designer wants to hear. However it is not the end of the road, and as long as the Earth keeps turning, there will be a tomorrow. Personally, I like to believe a recession is a time of great opportunity for everyone. Particularly for forward looking designers who have the right skills and are well placed to take advantage of a recovering economy.

Recycle Kitchen Waste For The Sake Of Your Plants

It took me my son’s science project on recycling to realize that we can really do something constructive out of the waste we generate from our kitchen. Before you turn up your noses and crank about the “Rotting Veggie Odors + Recycling”, let me explain the pros of the Terraviva Domestic Composter. This is a device that sits neatly on your counter top, as stylish as any other appliance that you own. It simply makes a mish-mash of all the veggie waste into something palatable for the plants.

Designer: Ravel Casela

Beepers are BACK

On your wrist. In a moment I’ll get to the main function of this bracelet – but first: when you get an email, you get a notification of it on the bottom of the display. That’s it. Just like a beeper.

Also, the main function of this bracelet is to be a watch that appears to be a simple bangle, where in fact, when you run your finger through the hole, the time is displayed. Wowie!

Designers: Andy Kurovets

Pro Skiers Will Really Like This

Of all the winter sports skiing is one that I really like to watch but dread to try out. Call it the fear of falling or making a fool of myself, but I’d hate to be that pile on the snow that everyone is laughing at. Pros on the other hand need everything to make their tryst with the slopes as exhilarating as possible. Charlie Pyott has designed a mean pair of skis that is specifically meant for racers. The Twin Parabolic Ski, as it is called, is exciting enough to warrant production.

Designer: Charles Pyott

With One Hand He Lifted, His House Designed

Clouds from the sky he used, and colors from the atmosphere. He would with two hands attach them to eachother, and with maybe the help of a string or two, to the ceiling hold them. The kids would find them fort-like, and the mother of juice-stains find them easy to clean, as this is a detachable grid of replaceable fabric pieces; tiles, if you will.

Designers: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec in collaboration with Kvadrat Textiles

That’s Not Jack In The Box

I have some water and I have some bulbs, hmm…what can I make from this? Oh I know, but then I’ll need some spring and a box too. Done…my craft teacher will be so proud of me!! Wicked as this sounds, “Don’t” by designer Djordje Cukanovic is just this, but a hell lot more creative. It’s (NOT) a Jack-in-the-box that uses light and mesmerizing reflective properties of water along with fake snowflakes and aluminum pieces. Snow globe of the future perhaps?

Designer: Djordje Cukanovic

When Plants Inspire Lights

You remember that photosynthesis lesson you bunked in school? That was way long back in time, but folks at D’arc Studio revisited that period and decided to haunt you with that chapter (pun totally intended!) The Sinthesya is an indoor/outdoor light that looks like it’s out of a sci-fi movie set and draws inspiration from nature’s food-factory. Solar power is the name of the game, but just in case of an emergency, an electrical plug has been included.

Designers: Daniele Calisi, Alessio Tommasetti, Rosa Topputo & Camillo Vanacore

Open Debate: What Should This Mac Book Mini Hold?

Everybody has an opinion and at YD we encourage it. However this time around I want to do things differently. I came across these renders for a Mac Book Mini by Isamu Sanada (he is a devoted Apple freak). Prod as I did, he didn’t have any suggestions or ideas on what exactly this book should hold. Except for the fact that it has a very convenient sliding track pad, the design gives away nothing. Heck we are a design site so lets get some ideas from you erudite guys.

Designer: Isamu Sanada

Time is Creepin on My Wrist and I’m Peepin’ It

What kind of time are you telling? The kind the bell tower is selling, or the time that your Mom is yelling? Check the hour hand on the “ON Air,” it’s got the minutes that you need right there. The red light has the time, as minimal as possible. Ask the siblings Asanaliev if you want one, they’ve got the strings that you’ll have to pull, no bull.

Designers: Iskender Asanaliev & Adilet Asanaliev

Display in 16 by 9 or 4 by 3, Literally

Studio FRST is going to get your squared away with a TV that simplifies(?) to an extra degree. The studio says that the form shows the function. That’s true. It’d fit right in at the home of a modernist, probably also at the house of a minimalist. It leaves space to put your tiny fern if you want! Put it right there under the side there! It will look nice, totally nice!

Designer: Studio FRST

Skateboard Deck Chair for the Old or Fantastic

If you’re a crazed art collector with little to no cash, you are a paradoxical sort of person. If you collect “street art”, you’ve got two options: pay the toll, or find it on “lesser” canvases. One of the more odd to display products in this category is the skateboard deck. Guess who’s got your back?

The design team at Tunto.

Designer: Tunto Design