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12 Inspirational and Exclusive Interviews on Yanko Design – Robert Brunner

Everyday Yanko Design assimilates and presents pioneering concepts that are sourced from a pool of talented young designers. In an effort to do something special for this brilliant community, I have pieced together a series of 12 exclusive interviews with renowned designers who talk about their journey and experiences, share lessons they have learnt and give you an insight on how to draw on your own energies to be the best. I start the series with my talk with Robert Brunner, founder of Ammunition Group and past-Director of Design at Apple, the designer of the original Macintosh PowerBook and Newton.

Modular Maestro

Blu is a modern musical instrument that draws inspiration from the keyboard, re-imagining keys in a modular and flexible way. Much in the same way a child learns to build structures from toy blocks, they can learn to understand tonality and song composition simply by changing the position of the modular keys around the central unit to control pitch and timing of the notes. Its smart, colorful user interface makes learning music an exciting and memorable experience.

Designer: Eric Pautz

Digital Skin

As intuitive as touchscreen tablets maybe, I think there are certain situations where you wish you could add on the keyboard for a more comfortable laptop experience. PC Digital Skin addresses this need in a very clever way. It is the combination of a tablet, a mobile phone and a lizard-skin cover, which doubles up as a Bluetooth keyboard. All three used together, give you the perfect laptop experience and yet retain their individuality.

Designer: Sono Mocci

Written Messages

Rediscover the art of writing to your friends rather than typing on cold keyboards. Get it done with ‘Handwriting’, a digital tool fashioned as a pen that replicates this long forgotten art! Photoelectric sensors on the tip record your messages and transfer to your chat-friends via the Internet. Your friend’s chat appears on the side screen of the pen. Friends online and available for tête à tête are indicated via flashy lights and I think its kinda cool.

Designer: REN Fangying

Always Socially Connected

The LG Finestra is a display-charging cradle-Smartphone concept. What we have here is a display with a charging cradle and the ability to sync with the Smartphone so that you can access your social sites at whim. The advantage is that you can manipulate the display to showcase pictures as a window display and enjoy different sceneries. The phone beams out a virtual keyboard for easy navigation.

Designer: Kairi Eguchi Design

Million Keyboards in One!

Our favorite design studio Art lebedev is back with an update to their Optimus range of keyboards. This time around we have the Optimus Populyaris & Optimus Mini Six. While the Populyaris is a compact keyboard that configures with very many options (like English, Russian, Photoshop etc.), the mini six is an auxiliary device with six customizable keys that can be assigned any function, including displaying information related or non-related to the current program in use. Mini Six is perfect as a Tools panel, remote control, or an indicator with static or animated graphics!

Designers: Art Lebedev Studio

The Total User Experience

Designer Victor Johannson’s mobile phone concept focuses on ease of use by providing multiple input controls that the user can customize to their liking. Features like dual sided scrolling and volume control as well as side a back-side keyboard, clock, or place to dock apps are definitely bonuses. The coolest feature by far, however, is piezoelectric feedback technology that gives tactile signals in four different directions that makes it possible for the user to ‘feel’ the direction to travel.

Designer: Victor Johannson

5 Cool Concepts that YD Likes

In our quest to bring you the best in concept design, we often come across projects that are simply superb but due to lack of information or technicalities are put in the backburners for further research. Here is a collection of 5 Cool Devices and Gadgets that were in our resource pool but never got published. Enjoy!

Designers: Various

One Remote Control to Rule Them All

TV is Evolving. Yes, the screens are getting thinner, but the real evolution is the content. Beautifully thin flat screens with streaming internet are making television increasingly personal. The challenge of having all this content to choose from is how to harness it. You need a remote for the TV, a keyboard and mouse for the internet, and a controller for gaming. Toggle delivers a touch experience without a touch screen. Points on the remote’s surface are mapped to specific keys and functions. But here’s the twist.

Designer: Carbon Design Group

Tablet High On Felt!

The HiLo is quite an interesting concept; it is a 10” OLED Tablet with a wireless felt keyboard. Now the thing about the keyboard is that it’s styled as a jacket to hold the tablet. At the same time it features fused (hot pressed – embedded circuitry) keys on the outside. Naturally, you use the keyboard as desired, however I’m getting a kick out of the casual interaction between the protective jacket and the tablet. It’s just too awesome!

Designer: Roni Margolin

QWERTY Focus

Most cellphones have joined the touchscreen bandwagon so once in a while it tickles me pink, to come across a QWERTY concept merged with the touchscreen option. The handy keyboard is placed to the right of the phone and it has a 30˚ slant to it. It’s quite a handful but in a good sense and I think we can do with a Samsung Cave!

Designer: Kim Min Seok