I have a secret obsession with scissors. There’s a room in my home where I do all my clothing work and in a box are scissors from Germany and Japan since they seem to make the best steel. I would love to add one more to my collection from designer Michael Antrobus called Ground Tools. A stunning pair of shears made from carefully bent flat steel bars using homemade jigs and presses. The result is minimal, raw, even primal..

Designer: Michael Antrobus

Or a cracklin. How cracked do you want your nuts? Very cracked, or just opened up a little bit? You need those nuts cracked. Walnuts. And if it’s not the winter holiday season, you’re going to look too weird using a traditional nutcracking agent. So what are you gonna do, then, hey? You need this wild thing right here. It’s a walnut yo-yo. Yo! It’s not just for fun. It’s for cracking your nuts.

All you need to do is put the nut in there, yo, re-yo, and bang! Actually you’ve gotta hit something with the yo. You fasten the nut inside the yo, then you yo the yo right into a wall, the floor, or your grandmother, and bang! You’ve got a cracked nut.

And if you don’t have a cracked nut after hitting your grandmother with the Walnut Yo-Yo, you’ll probably be feeling some paint pretty soon.

In the nuts.

Designers: Xiaofei Wang and Beibei Wu

If you’re heavy into design, like you’re an addict, you basically can’t stand to see much in your environment that ISN’T put in place by a human being, you’re basically guaranteed to be at least generally alright at both interior and exterior design, the arranging of elements in your environment. And if you are, and you’re a generally make-your-own-profit sort of person in our modern world, you also like to find ways to conserve energy and make things less expensive for yourself. How about harnessing the sun for all of this?

Woo yes! Sunlight! It’s up there shooting out energy and we’ve not even really begun to delve very deeply into the ways we aught to be able to use it. Well let me tell you something. Drzach and Suchy are sticking their fingers into it, and they ain’t getting burnt! Nay! Let’s look at this!

What they’ve created here is called “Piksol,” and it is made to both collect solar energy and create arbitrary patterns and images on a building’s facade. Win? Yes.

Then, in combination with Shadow Casting Panels, these Piksols can be used to create fabulously lovely images that can change dynamically throughout the day as the sun changes positions.

Quite simple, quite smart.

Designers: Drzach & Suchy

Hello there archerists. I know that word is wrong. But you wouldn’t be telling me it was wrong if I had a BOW and ARROWS would you? No way! Having a bow and arrows is totally intense. Completely fierce, and not just Beyonce fierce. Like really wolflike and cougarlike. Comin at ya! And you know this bow is wild if we’re featuring it here on Yanko. We only feature the most fierce! This bow is a Recurve Bow, the kind they use in the Olympics. And you know they only let wolves in that.

This bow is called the “INNO CTX”, designed by a couple of intense designers by the names Won-Jae Lee and Won Jung Shin. Made of X carbon, aka the of the aviation sort, with according to these statistics I read before me in the information provided by the designer, is an 40% increase in intensity over the strength of any other carbon, while at the same time is thinner than any that’s come before it. That, and the elasticity’s increased over 190% compared to the general carbon used today. What’s this do?

It raises the intensity of the handle.

It strengthens the role of the bow as a shock absorber.

And it totally gives you like 100+ points to your archery skills.

Designers: Won-Jae Lee and Won Jung Shin for Win Archery

The last Rubik Cube that we saw on Yanko Design had textures as tease for the visually challenged; this current iteration uses only Braille. Colors embossed include green, blue, red, yellow, white & pink. One of the more sensible concepts in a long time that hopefully will delight the sighted folks too! Maybe we’ll learn Braille in this process!

Designer: Konstantin Datz

In supermarkets where loads of veggies is stacked and dumped, freshness may not be a priority. Keeping a track of all that’s been brought in can be time consuming and not all buyers may have a knack for freshness count. The Fresh Code offers a simple solution to this problem; it’s an intelligent barcode with a graph that indicates the freshness level. As time passes by, the graph on the barcode keeps receding, till it finally reaches “0”; indicating that the veggie needs to be dumped and not sold.

Designers: Sisi Yuan, Yiwu Qiu, Lei Zhao, Qiulei Huang, Lijun Zhang & Weihang Shu

Here’s a slightly different take on the backpack. The Dumpling, inspired by the delicious pouch foods, is a backpack that treats your belongings as color coded and compartmentalized items. The backpack is actually made up of a series of roll-up bags. Take only what you need and roll them up into the main support guard which is quite simple in design – a couple straps and a big hook. It looks crafty but something about it is very attractive.

Designer: Shin Ji-Young

If you were to study human interaction, you’d find there is a tight knit group of people who you are closest with. This is also known as the human web and connections outside the web can extend infinitely. That’s called 6 degrees of separation. If you were to visualize all of that into a tangible object, you’d probably end up with something similar to the Drops concept.

Drops is a unique prototype that physically represents the interactive possibilities between your closest kin. Confused? Everyone in your circle of friends gets a unique personalized wood token and a docking station. Simple interactions like docking your token lets everyone else know you’re there. Stroking them sends out a subtle glow – a playful reminder. It’s meant to be an esoteric gesture, but an important one which is why it’s made of wood to symbolize strength and the organic nature of friendship.

More pictures of the process: Here & Here.

Designers: David Sjunnesson & Pedro Nakazato Andrade

Drops from Pedro Andrade on Vimeo.

One of the cutest and most universal signs of growing up, marked by the parents of the child, is the pencil mark above the head on the wall. Pencil mark on the wall to show how tall. Young ones growing up, head height by head height. The only thing is, the place where this is generally marked is on a wall in a house that might not even be in the possession of the person once they’re grown up. So how does one keep this treasure? Let me lead you to it. Mark it here.

This right here is the “MeasureMe Stick” by our pals at Studio 1a.m., made of bamboo and printed ink. Dimensions are 84″h x 4.7″w x .5″d. Weighs is 5 pounds. Hand made in Chicago, Illinois, stainless steel mounting pegs included.

Pretty! Feel free to hang em all up, even if you’ve got only a bunny and a kitty and no kiddies like me.

Batteries not included.

Designer: Studio 1a.m. [ Buy it Here, MeasureMe Stick is available for $120 @ YD Store ]

MeasureMe Stick is available for $120 @ YD Store

So you’ve got some laundry to be hanging out in the dark, right? And you don’t want the boogie-man to get that laundry out there, right?! You need these rechargable light-up pegs to keep them safe! OR you could use them for about a million other projects or situations I bet. You’re a “gotta use it” sort of person, right? I bet. These is the “light PEG” project, and it’s going to hook you basically instantly.

You have a tree charger that’s plugged into the wall, you’ve got 8 individual chargeable pegs, each one of those pegs with 6 LED bulbs in them. Each of the pegs turns off and on with a simple click, and they work in wet, and cold as well as room temp because they’re waterproof, and they hold 4-5 hours of power after just a 30-40 minute charge.

Lamp is made from spatial electrically conductive material and pegs are made from recyclable plastic with LED bulbs. Must. To. Me. Give.

Designer: Natalia Romanova

It is just like it. Like a fantasy. For bottles. It’s the Ribbon Bottle Opener, and all you’ve got to do is place it near the bottle and it will be opened magically. OR you could be in the real world, and you’d have to actually pop that top off. It’s made of polished stainless steel, formed as a continuous ribbon-like loop.

Woop the loop.

It’s totally the same on both ends, and looks just fabulous at any classy party you’ve got. Or are going to have! Let’s say you’re going to have a party and it’s going to be called a “Fancy Dress Party.” What kind of bottle opener are you going to put out there for everyone to use? Not the Vikings Football bottle opener. No way! That’d be totally weird. You don’t want to be weird at the Fancy Dress Party.

You want to be classy. So classy. You want the Ribbon.

Designer: Scott Henderson [ Buy it Here, Ribbon Bottle Opener is available for $25 @ YD Store ]

Ribbon Bottle Opener is available for $25 @ YD Store

Infectious is a light concept made up of modular silicone spheres charged in a set-up one could call a luminous tree. The spheres react to each other so pile them up to bring on the illumination. It’s soft, squishy, and the kind of lighting that makes everyone look good. No word on when it’ll hit the market but looks like the French will be the first to enjoy.

For PEGA, Designed with Cecilia Jia, and Johnny Chen

Manufacturer: Beau et Bien (France)

Designer: Julien Bergignat

One of the biggest challenges in architecture is to create homes that provide more than just shelter. We’re on a slow march of strip mining our resources so the question is, can a home benefit the community and in turn, the environment? Agricultural Urbanism is a proposed residential project that combines thousand year old terrance farming with modern construction.

Each level has its own terrace where a number of crops can be grown privately and communally. Harvests can be shared and sold to supplement incomes. The irregular shape was designed to follow the way the sun moves across the sky to give plants the most amount of sunlight. The substrate not only provides ample grounds for farming, but a natural insulating layer keeping the entire building cool in the summers and warm in the winters. The benefits of vertical farming are two fold. Pests don’t like this kind of structure and runoff is minimized since the entire system is self regulated.

Designer: Greg Chung Whan Park

The hectic fast-pace life that we lead makes us accustomed to many sounds and vibrations that literally become a part of our existence. Sounds of chirping birds and scampering squirrels may be alien but a flying jet or sirens make us comfortable. Something is wrong in this equation and if getting back to the roots (better still-meditation), is what we desire, then blocking out all external noises and channeling our inner peace is what we should be looking at. Ecocoon is just for that! It effectively blocks out “Incoming acoustic stimuli” and gets you more attuned to your inner being. Zen Bliss shall we say?

Designer: designaffairs STUDIO

Reusing water is what’s best for underwear. And if you don’t wear underwear, you probably know someone who does. Seriously basically everyone wears underwear. And most of those people have clean underwear on, or at least underwear that was clean when they put them on. Why? Because they ALL use this machine, every single one of them. It’s called the “Mr. Klein” and it uses reused, reusable water.

Put it wherever you want because it doesn’t need a restrictive hose comin on into it. It’s all transportable. It uses the water, filters the water, then uses that water again. And you know you SHOULD be washing your underwear regularly so you’d better get on top of this.

Designer: Yoon Kisang

The Firefly Table is honestly a very neat concept that I can foresee being snapped into production. Intended for outdoor cafés and restaurants, the idea is to use a solar lamp instead of romantic candlelights for illumination. The centrally placed lamp pops up to emit a soft glow while projecting any form of branding (via stencils) to the floor-space below. Imagine being “popped the question” in this unique fashion, or even attracting sponsors with this extra added value. Tobasco, Heinz, you listening?

Designer: Vuk Dragovic

I couldn’t stop thinking “Una-Mug” when I first saw this project. That’s not the name at all! It’s called “Umarmung,” and it’s basically a floor-level-chair. Sort of defeats the purpose, yes? No way! This project is inspired by the ancient tradition of floor-sitting culture in Japan. During research, the designers were surprised to find that the only similar product to theirs was the zaisu chair (legless chair) of the
">tatami room.

It’s important to mention that the designers keep the idea that in this tradition, the connection between the body during conversation is not restricted to “universal seat height and conventional definition of the sofa.” You couch potatoes pay attention!

Umarmung, also known as the floor-sitting couch, is basically a backrest that supports the body in many comfortable positions while that person is sitting on the floor. Umarmung is shaped in a way that accepts the body either sitting up or leaning back. Made of reinforced polyester resin with steel support. Cover is eco-friendly flame-retardant polyurethane foam.

BONUS: “The process adopts the latest variable pressure foaming (VPF) technology. It minimizes the environmental impact as it is virtually emissions-free.”

Designer: Cheungvogl

Question to all smokers out there…how do you normally put out your cigarette? Most people I know just stub it under their foot, and obviously mess up the floor. Keeping this natural motion in mind is the AshPlate, a manhole-esque cover for public smoking zones. The hollow beneath the cover collects all the stubs, while giving the smoker the satisfaction of stamping his light. The floor plate form was finalized after a study of smokers’ postures (sitting, standing and squatting) was taken into consideration. The pole with the hole looks practical too.

Designer: Kang Kyeyoung

So you lovebirds think you can lead a balanced life, eat balanced meals and stay on the same wavelength on every issue? I got a test for you two; try eating from this SeeSaw Dining Plate! It’s got only one rule….the plate must stay balanced at all times; similar pace with similar actions will help you through! If you’re out of sync, you’ll break the equilibrium and obviously fail my test. Hands Up all those who would like to give it a try!

Designer: Daniel Ballou

Time is a good healer but without grit, determination and efforts, the range of motion to the affected limbs of a Stroke patient can take longer to recover than expected. Move On is a temporary training device that helps patients recover faster and get over their motion awkwardness. Apparently the muscle signals of those affected by a stroke are too low for complete contraction, but when Move On is strapped to the patient, it senses adynamic muscle signals and translates them into a desired movement.

Due to an inverse stimulus, people get their normal motor skills. The Orthosis gives the patient the minimum amount of support necessary to gain back muscle power, towards a total recovery.
Move On helps people move and get integrated into a normal life again.

Desoigner: Matthias Menzel