Categories

Have Fins, Will Swim

Amphibian was developed as an aid for lifeguards (and Baywatch beauties) patrolling the beaches. Comprising of beach shoes and extendable fin modules, the set is meant to help the rescue worker swim up faster towards the victim. On land and in shallow waters, the fins don’t act as a hindrance like the conventional flippers, coz it has a unique retractable system that allows you to keep the modules retracted till you reach the waters. On the way back, after the rescue, a simple jab of the toes on the seabed, retracts the modules once again.

Designer: Edward Shelton

Intelligent Wristwatch Gaming

It is only every few years that a new hand-held video game system gets invented. They keep getting smaller, having better graphics, and being basically the same amount of weird and bulky to carry with. What Wilson Song was tasked with doing was making a gamer that not only utilized the best in chips for graphics, but also stored a pen, earbuds, and had the ability to become smaller for easy carrying. Peel and see!

Designer: Wilson Song

Lighted Artwork On My Walls

The closest I ever got to needlepoint or patchwork was way back in school when I was forced to do it (for grades!). Looking at the Breathing Patchwork has stirred the artist in me to try out some artsy work in the name of innovation. Basically these modular light tiles are marriage between doing “family patchwork quilt and home-made stained glass windows.” Using your creativity, paint out images on the tiles (which look translucent during the day) and watch them to come to life in the evening thanks to the OLED emitter. Create the ultimate “stained glass” mosaic!

Designer: Shane Crozier

Savior In Deep Waters

Generally the focus is always on rapid action response kinda systems that help provide relief during disasters. The flat-pack recovery Rescue Boat seen here is not for rapid response but for post-disaster scenarios. The focus is on a systematic, reliable vessel that will help recover cargo and victims. It is stored and transported in its stackable 9″-deep form, with pontoon tubes detached; till its services are required.

Designer: Matthew Spencer

Mobile Script Phone Needs No Stinkin’ Batteries

Yay! It’s been awhile since we’ve posted a mobile phone concept that promises to do everything under the sun in the thinnest form factor. I was getting withdrawal symptoms. The Mobile Script phone explores what functions any contemporary mobile device should have; internet access, documents on the go, games, communication, and mobility.

Designer: Aleksandr Mukomelov

Classy Kitchen Companions

Of the many things that you require to make your kitchen aesthetically functional, the cutting board, colander, and knife block require the most amount of attention due to the work that they do. These components have to be visually appealing as well as competent enough to endure the rigors that they go through daily. A set of sculpted functional blocks called the Workspace Component Group has been specifically designed for the Backplash System of kitchens by Henrybuilt. They are designed to be integrated around the sink and work classy!

Designer: Henrybuilt

Smartbooks Are The Next Step

Yes. Is the start of my last jam. This project is right on. I’ve been thinking about, suggesting, pushing the idea that these tiny internet machines (ipod, blackberry, etc) need to be just a little bit bigger, but not quite as big as a laptop. Students at the Savannah College of Art & Design have mocked up a messa concepts for this very purpose. With the help of Freescale chip manufacturers, they’re bustin up the streets with a nice list here!

Designer: Students at SCAD

10 Creative Reasons To Take Up Sports And Get Fit

Couch potatoes and computer-addicts like me can’t just rely on the remote control or the keyboards to get us enough exercise. And sweets, walking to the fridge for refills or fingers flying over the keys don’t count! Since YD is all about inspiration, let’s showcase Ten Scintillating reasons for us to take up some sort of sporting activity, that will make us fit.

Designers: Various

Mix Some Sound Patterns In The Batter

The physical patterns produced through the interaction of sound waves in a medium, best describes Cymatics. The Electrolux Re-mix concept seen here mixes food by using the vibrations emitted by sound frequency. It’s like mixing a batter of pancakes to the beats Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or making sauce to the pulse of AC/DC. Simply hook on the digital music player to the Re-mix device and enjoy the visual treat. I guess you’ll get a clearer picture after you see the awesome video after the jump.

Designer: Kenny Hopper

An Array Of Starts To Tell You The Time

The perk of being an editor is that I get to sift through the most humorous, tedious, boring and musical description that accompany concepts from designers. I don’t mind them at all because they form the essence of my articles. It’s only when relevant info is not forthcoming that I get stumped. Occasionally a designer sends in a poem to support his concepts, and I really appreciate that. For instance, this Galaxy Watch is a quite a piece with a constellation of stars indicating the time. Subtle yet romantic, as the poem Kai uses to describe it…

Designer: Kai Yu

Talking with Tucker Viemeister, Co-Founder of Smart Design, Frog NY, Springtime-USA and more

For the last installment coming out of the IDSA conference, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Tucker Viemeister whose long list of credits in the annals of industrial and strategic design is best described by his Wikipedia entry.  Presenting a “Manifesto of Industrial Design in the Post-Economic Era”, his talk highlighted the misuse of design as an engine for the economy when it should be pursued for its own end.  Read on for Tucker’s perspective.

Overhead Gaming Revolution

Whoa a revolution! Total revolution. For people who bring their giant computers all to one spot and give the party that ensues a name: LAN. Local Area Networks with 1,000 cables no more! Here it is in one machine. Each console can handle up to 16 players. This machine, the “Iris,” is a computer, router, switch, and projector. And! And! And! it costs around the price of a single home computer. Now with updates from the man himself!

Designer: David Jones

Royalty Free HDRI Stock

Advance computer rendered imagery have become sort of a double-edge sword for us designers. On the one hand it enables visual comps with unparalleled realism. On the other hand the technical mastery of such imagery is a challenge - that is until you throw in the advent of high dynamic range lighting provided you can find good sources. Bunkspeed just launched a ginaormous library of royalty free HDRI images for all your rendering needs. Sign up, buy some credits, download, and watch your creative work take a giant step forward.

Resources: Bunkspeed HDRI Library