With their guide stick in one hand and a firm grip on the handrail, the visually challenged rely on instincts while negotiating a flight of stairs. The Safety Dot is a set of braille indents on a handrail, which makes using the stairs an easier task. I love the thoughtful intent and the simple way it can be integrated.
Designers: Monocomplex & Jungjoon Hwang
Leave it to an Oregonian designer to come up with such a great bike-rack design. The Yakima Super Joe Pro and King Joe Pro by James Owen are this years top-of-the-line racks. High-clearance design met with ultra soft cushioning ensure your car is never comes in contact with your bikes. These racks are highly adaptable thanks to Yakima’s QuickTrigger Hub system- trust me, attachment easy as pie.
Designer: James Owen
A winner of the 2011 “Dreamboat” Millennium Yacht Design Award, this brave interpretation of the motor boat concept by designer Hyun-Seok Kim was inspired by all of the natural beauty and fun activities found at sea. Tofi’s unconventional shape and unique furnishings compliment it’s far-out exterior and spaceship aesthetic, stimulating the imagination on board, while features like the hide-away diving board and safety buoy system promote fun in the water.
Designer: Hyun-Seok Kim
Gone are the days that bigger is better. Streamlined packaging designs like the flat pack Spline Light are in… for good. The simple yet elegant design of this matt black pendant light helps save on shipping costs and ease up on the environment. With an interesting shape and unique shadow-cast, it don’t look half-bad either.
Designer: Tom Fereday
The Contact Series gives a dynamic and sensorial experience to the visually impaired user by adding a tactile element in the form of braille lettering to everyday objects. The Contact Series is comprised of mugs, flower vases and coffee cups with raised braille descriptions such as “coffee”, “espresso”, “yours”, “mine”. The Contact Series is inclusive in design and makes dining a fun, seamless and comfortable experience.
Designer: Alafuro Sikoki
Yeah babies are cute and all but ever try administering one medicine? It’s totally no bueno. Babies are smart and unlike adults, they spit anything out that tastes disgusting. The Dr. Shuuuuuut (sic) is a pacifier with a special chamber to hold meds. Place a capsule inside and turn the cap. The motion causes the capsule to explode and very small amounts are slowly ingested as baby sucks – apparently so small, baby won’t notice.
Designer: Nicolas Moussallem
The majority of the world population comes from China and I suppose every country in the world has a China Town. Therefore I vote for the people of the world to start learning the Chinese language, rather than they learn ours! Now I agree Chinese lesson will cost a bundle, but if you’re armed with Origin Intelligent Chinese Platform, you can master the language and become a pro! The tablet includes a pen, translation card and a translation viewfinder.
Designers: Chen Xinghai, Qian Cheng, Zhang Jing, Zhao Peng, YangHuan & Duan Yufeng
-and it works. With it’s super minimal (even dark) interior, the Juvet hotel uses modern design elements to bring focus to the natural beauty of the Norwegian fjord landscape in which it is situated. Each of Juvet’s 10 rooms are positioned in the most stunning spots of the topography, and each sports at least 1 glass wall facade with it’s own unique view of the picturesque landscape. A perfect retreat for nature lovers who believe that less is more.
Designer: Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor
This contemporary and functional modular lighting concept allows users to create the perfect arrangement depending on size or intention. Suspended from the ceiling or adapted to a table lamp base, the object can live 2-dimensionally or the components can be rotated and conjoined creating a unique 3-D form. I love the floating “chemical structure” look of the finished product.
Designer: Adam Wendel
Introducing the Hyper Touch Guitar. From the mind of Max Battaglia at Givingshape Design Studio, this unorthodox design replaces strings with a multi-touch screen, allowing the user to adjust the number of “strings” and frets, as well as tuning and sound effects. A wireless command center that permits endless customization and infinite possibilities of expression.
Designer: Max Battaglia
I can’t because my eyesight fails me! You don’t need to be an old hag to have hypermetropia. Any generation can suffer from it and so we need handy aids like the Zoom-in Tape. A clever magnifying (convex) transparent tape that you stick onto labels with fine print to read with ease!
Designer: Ching-fang Hsu
The Free Form Ruler enables you to measure the length by “drawing” an invisible line, straight or curved. The unit of measurement is displayed and can be adjusted at the top. What a brilliant idea! Where was this when I was in design school? I studied fashion design and all the straight edge and french rulers in the world probably couldn’t have given me measurements as accurate as this concept proposes.
Designer: Monocomplex
I’m embarrassed to admit it but I was one of the first people to criticize the concept of cyber cafés and even bet they wouldn’t last. To cut the story short, I had to swallow my words and I’m here to make amends. What we have here is the Biz Café – a concept targeted towards the jet-set workaholics who need gadget ready environments even while relaxing with a cup of coffee.
Designers: Youri Hong, Moonhwan Park & Hyoshin Kim
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