Hasta La Ideas

From Actual Source Books—a publisher, bookstore, brand and collective design studio based in Provo, Utah—comes a forest green cap with the brand’s name embroidered in fluorescent thread. Made in the USA, it’s one-size-fits-most, and can be adjusted thanks to a marine-grade bungee strap at the back.

The LUA is one ideal solution for those with pet plants. But, of course, not many people will understand why you have such but don’t worry about what they think.

Well, you don’t really have to call a plant your pet, but we won’t judge if you do. Pretty plants and flowers are quite special, and they deserve all the tender, loving care. Every plant needs a nice pot or vase and proper lighting and ventilation, and you must find the best one.

Designer: Eunsu Lee

For desk plants, you may consider getting this LUA. It’s a plant lighting solution that can further make your favorite plant stand out. We understand how it can be challenging to care for indoor plants because of insufficient lighting. But there are solutions like the LUA.

Indoor plants help the surrounding by keeping the atmosphere fresh and clean. In addition, for some people, plants help in providing emotional stability. Just one look at your plants and you can already calm down and destress.

The LUA features a minimalist design: a planter hangs like a swing, carrying whatever plant or flower variety you have. The LUA also comes with a grow light that helps you nurture and cultivate indoor plants. It looks fun as the plant can swing as it hangs in the air.

The unique planter features a minimalist design and delivers harmony to your surrounding. It boasts a clean, white tone for a simple and refreshing look. Wood and leather match the overall white look.

LUA Pet Plant Lighting must be balanced so it won’t fall off. Make sure the weight of the plant is just right. The design is very minimalist as no unnecessary wires are exposed. The LED light is what helps the plants grow even in not-so-good environments.

The LUA comes with visual stability, even if it’s just a concept. It’s something we want to see on our desk as it gives life to a rather boring environment. The LED enables the plants to grow as made possible by photosynthesis. So it’s a solution for those areas where there’s not much sunlight, but you still want to grow or display a plant.

We have already featured a number of planters here, like that smart flower system with climate control. Indoor gardening seems more fun with this smart self-watering indoor planter like the Klaustrafloria. The Pico Max is a self-watering-herb-planter that we want to see more. The ultimate solution we know is a multi-level indoor planter ideal for the millennial plant lovers.

The post LUA Pet Plant Lighting is perfect for your indoor plants first appeared on Yanko Design.

In Star Wars, the Skywalker family are introduced as “moisture farmers.” On their desert planet, they somehow pull water out of the sky using towering metal structures, which sounds more sci-fi than placing buckets under in-window air conditioners.

Researchers at UT Austin have developed a material that can actually produce water out of thin air, and it doesn’t involve any metal towers or drippy A/C units. Instead they’ve concocted a simple, low-cost gel—apparently something even you or I could make in our kitchen—with astonishing properties. When placed in an area with 30% relative humidity, 1kg of the stuff can produce 13 liters (3.4 gallons) of water a day. (For reference’s sake, Arizona and Nevada have average relative humidities around 38%.) Even when placed in a bone-dry climate of just 15% humidity, the gel can still generate 6 liters (1.6 gallons) daily.

“This new work is about practical solutions that people can use to get water in the hottest, driest places on Earth,” said Guihua Yu, professor of materials science and mechanical engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering. “This could allow millions of people without consistent access to drinking water to have simple, water generating devices at home that they can easily operate.”

So how does it work? The gel, called SHPF (super hygroscopic polymer film) is made from just two ingredients: Konjac gum, a common food additive made from the root of the konjac plant, and cellulose, i.e. plant fiber. The konjac gum is what absorbs the water from the air. The cellulose has been somehow engineered to be thermo-responsive (details aren’t provided) and is hydrophobic, so they shed the water when heated.

Making the gel is apparently cheap–$2 yields enough material to produce 1kg—and straightforward: The two ingredients are mixed and poured into a mold, where they reportedly set in two minutes. The mold is then freeze-dried, after which it’s ready to use.

“This is not something you need an advanced degree to use,” said Youhong “Nancy” Guo, the lead author on the paper and a former doctoral student in Yu’s lab, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s straightforward enough that anyone can make it at home if they have the materials.”

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and drinking water for soldiers in arid climates is a big part of the project. However, the researchers also envision this as something that people could someday buy at a hardware store and use in their homes because of the simplicity.

The gel can easily be cut into different shapes to suit whatever vessel or contraption it’s meant to inhabit. Which brings us to the next thing needed to realize this technology: Design. The lab-built equipment used to prove the technology looks like what you’d expect from a lab:

I think a good next step would be to pair with an Industrial Design program and have the students work on forms and UI/UX.

The visionary explains the design and culinary inspiration behind her pioneering Greenwich Village restaurant

Despite closures during the last two years, NYC is still home to an ever-expanding roster of acclaimed culinary and cocktail destinations. Among the upper echelons of fine dining, where gastronomy is only one awe-inspiring component of an entire sensorial experience, stands chef Angie Mar‘s Les Trois Chevaux. Opened in July 2021, the Greenwich Village jewel arrived with purpose: perfect service would accompany contemporary cuisine prepared using classical French techniques. To enter, one must dress the part: suit jackets are a requirement; blue jeans aren’t welcome. Once inside, visitors immediately succumb to Mar’s exploratory and entrancing vision, which begins with pieces of her personal art collection and concludes with blood orange pets de nonne.

Mar first amassed a following as the executive chef and proprietor of the Beatrice Inn, which she took over in 2013 and acquired from Graydon Carter in 2016. Le Trois Chevaux, her second restaurant, was built from a blank slate and as such, it’s the purest expression of Mar’s capabilities thus far. “I wanted it to be very French and feel like it’s been here a 100 years and still feel like it’s modern and fresh,” Mar tells us during a multi-course tasting of her prix-fixe spring menu. “It’s important to have juxtapositions—you need that tension. That’s what creates texture.” Texture is a word Mar often returns to, whether it’s spoken by her or through her food.

Mar worked with BWArchitects (the same award-winning team behind the Beatrice Inn) to build the visual harmony of the space. There are bombastic moments, but no one element overpowers another. “It was really important to work with people that new me very well—my design aesthetic and my sensibilities because everything here was done with a very personal touch,” she says. “For instance, we may have gone through a million shades of white to get to the white on the walls, but we found the most beautiful shade of crème fraîche.”

Among the concise, sometimes colorful visual delights, the back bar is an undeniable highlight. “The framer that I used, Marcelo Bavaro, he’s a fourth-generation framer from Florence and he restored the frame of the ‘Mona Lisa,’” Mar says. Bavaro and his team gold-leafed the mirror, which casts an earthly glow. This attribute—as well as the crystal chandelier acquired from the original Waldorf Astoria—are some of many that affirm the role of art and design in Les Trois Chevaux and its importance to Mar in general.

“I think that there are a lot of restaurateurs and chefs that create the world around them based solely off the cuisine or a theme,” Mar says. “This restaurant, I want it to be a living piece of art. I want to be surrounded by beautiful things, inspiring things, things that are aspirational but create a sense of home.” Further, she adds, “I wanted to make this whole space about artisans, artists, poets and designers: the people that have made what New York City is founded upon.”

The cuisine here is classically French though conceptually from the imagination of Mar alone. “A lot of people cook seasonally and call their cuisine hyper-seasonal,” she says. “Instead, we call ours hyper-inspirational. Of course we use seasonal ingredients but sometimes local isn’t the best. I want to cook with the best ingredients.” During the restaurant and menu development, Mar says, “I looked around New York and saw that everyone was doing comfort food and casual and I asked myself, ‘Why would I open something like that? It’s what everyone else is doing.’ That works for right now but I do not build things for right now. I build things that define the direction of cuisine moving forward.” Thus a downtown spin on fine dining was born.

“When we were conceiving of the restaurant and the menu, one word kept returning: texture,” Mar says. “You feel it from the velvet on the banquets to the ridged napkins and even the lighting and, of course, the cuisine. For the cuisine, we know that it should be art and it should say something.” The easiest way to understand the poetry of Mar’s vision is to describe components of the menu that we experienced, with the first being a Millefeuille de Foie Gras incorporating candied morels. “This is a play on texture and temperature,” Mar explains. “It’s tremendously rich but not heavy. We use armagnac and cognac to cut through the foie gras, which is whipped like a butter cream.” In fact, this dish is almost dessert-like and composed of contrasting sensations.

A quieter but no less creative moment appeared with frog legs and gentle aerated cream, accentuated with osetra caviar. However, the ensuing turbot au jus de queue de bœuf proved to be the centerpiece of the entire experience—a dish both thrilling and ponderous. This deceiving fish plate smells—and tastes—like a Sunday roast. “Everything in your head is telling you that you’re eating prime rib right now, but you’re not,” Mar explains. “You can taste the hours that it took to roast this.”

The recipe for the turbot came together in three days because Mar knew what she wanted to do. “We take oxtail and let it roast for eight hours,” she says. “As the meat slowly starts to roast, you get the drippings from the fat and the juice from flesh comes out. We take those drippings and roast the turbot in it. There’s a little bit of dehydrated truffle that the turbot is seasoned with first and it’s wrapped in russet potatoes. There’s a bit of porcini mushrooms and spring onions. The sauce is a beaujolais.” As with previous plates, it’s both light and substantial, unexpected and familiar. It sums up Mar’s textural mission.

For the spring menu, one highly conceptual addition was born from Mar addressing her success at the Beatrice Inn. “I hadn’t been ready to cook duck for a long time,” she says. “The Beatrice was so famous for it and I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t want to do anything that could be compared to next door. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t cook beef here. I needed a fresh start.” A breakthrough occurred when she cooked at duck at the behest of her friend (Samuel L Jackson), which sent her on a path to develop a new recipe.

The recipe was three or four months in the making, due in part to the fact that Mar ships sakura blossoms in from Japan to complete it. “This dish for me is super-important because it’s less about the duck and more about the cherry tree. In Chinese and Japanese cultures, the cherry blossom carries huge significance. In Japan, it’s about life and death and renewal. In China, it’s about beauty and strength and female dominance. For me, it was really about the story of the cherry blossom tree which was had in our backyard in Seattle when I was growing up.” Mar uses rouen duck for the dish, because she wanted something to taste more wild than the Peking duck she used at the Beatrice. The duck is buried in sakura blossoms with a little bit of kokuto sugar, which comes from the Okinawa prefecture in Japan and contains intense umami flavors. It’s served alongside lentils and will not disappoint.

“The philosophy of the food is that nothing takes you out at the knees with flavor,” Mar says. “When I was younger and I was creating, and this is true of many young chefs, I had a tendency to want to be loud and have this wow factor in every single dish and every single bite. As I’ve gotten older, I am so much happier not making food that screams for attention but that has this refined, dignified quality to it. It takes your breath away.” Mar looks to the work of chef Paul Bocuse and the cuisine of Lyon, as well as Fernand Point and Paul Haeberlin and the cuisine of Alsace and the ’50s and ’60s. “These happen to be the books that I’m reading right now,” she says. “I’m bringing dishes back that people haven’t heard of but, by using ingredients with purpose, I am infusing myself into them.”

Mar intends to create lifetime memories for her guests. “This is New York and this should be one of the culinary capitals of the world and it is not,” she says. “There are a handful of restaurants here that say that we are, but in the ’80s and ’90s this is where it was happening. I look around now and I don’t see anything inspiring—outside of omakase counters, that is. That’s the only sector that’s representative of the awakening of the palate. It needs to happen. That’s one of the reasons why we cook the way we cook here.” There’s an intellectual infusion into each dish, which Mar plates in designs drawn from memories. But nothing is too intellectual to be enjoyed because, with every course, even the most subtle touch enhances the deliciousness.

Hero image courtesy of William Hereford

We’ve been seeing a torrential and exciting downpour of automotive designs at Yanko Design. Each automotive was innovative, bringing to us something we had never seen nor experienced before. From killer speed to dashing good looks, to impenetrable safety standards, every automotive we featured at YD broke some design barrier for us, and hopefully, they did the same for you as well. Hence, we’ve curated a collection of automotive designs that we feel were the best of the lot! From an electric Mustang that Ford should have built to a Cybertruck-inspired bossy café racer – each of these drool-worthy automobiles is mercilessly pushing the boundaries of the automotive industry! Automotive enthusiasts will be itching to get their hands on them, and take them for a spin on the streets!

1. The Charge Mustang

Easily one of the most visually impressive electric cars that money can buy, the Charge Mustang bases its design on the iconic 1967 Fastback. If its body looks almost too similar to Ford’s own ’67 Mustang, it’s because Charge Cars uses a bodyshell that’s officially licensed by Ford. Underneath this shell, however, sits Charge’s electric platform, with floor-mounted batteries that make the Mustang an electric little pony. The electric platform that the Mustang sits on is the result of a strategic partnership with Arrival, the UK-based automotive startup that’s working with Uber to create their bespoke electric taxi cabs.

2. The Electric Stand Bike

Dubbed the Electric Stand Bike, this striking creation is the Polestar O2 Convertible of the electric kick scooter world. The personal commuter is fit for riding the city streets as well as the outskirts in maximum style without impacting the environment. The electric-powered machine has bigger front wheels and a single rear one for maximum control. In fact, the front wheels are almost triple the size of the rear one which comes with its own independent dual suspension system to take on the bumps with maximum ease.

3. The Next Wrangler

Arjun Kurunji has created a bold reinterpretation of the Wrangler both on the inside and the outside. This concept is a facelift beyond anything we could have bargained for, and whether you’ll like it or not, is thoroughly subjective. Arjun has gone all guns blazing as far as taking a bold design detour for the Wrangler is concerned. Looks like, he has taken inspiration from competitors including GMC Hummer EV, Land Rover Defender, or the Toyota FJ Cruiser. In fact, this ultra-modern take of the Wrangler looks like an amalgam of all these amazing four-wheelers in a way – of course with the Jeep’s DNA still intact.

4. 2022 Nissan Ariya EV

The Ariya looks well-proportioned, sporty, sharp, and unique. It is a huge leap forward from the Leaf. Its top version has a 91 kWh battery, a choice of two or four-wheel drive, has some innovative new tech, is great to drive, has a range of up to 310 miles, and boasts a starting price of around $47,000 for the two-wheel model. Nissan’s design brief for this car was ‘Timeless Japanese Futurism’ which allowed the design team to tap into key Japanese words to inspire their global design team to create Ariya’s exterior, words like sleek, sharp, and seamless. The overall design is definitely futuristic, but the most appealing part of its exterior for me is the front grille, which looks like a traditional grille but packs some stand-out features. Nissan instead calls their grille a ‘shield,’ as it shields hi-tech cameras, radar, and sensors that assist with the car’s self-driving system and ACC.

5. Limited edition Porsche 911 Sports Classic

This sports car is a 911 at its core powered by the 3.7-liter twin-turbo flat-six engine churning out 543 HP mated to a seven-speed gearbox. On the outside, it looks like the Sport Classic with the Ducktail Carrera RS 2.7 styled rear spoiler, front hood, and a cheesy double-bubble roof, all made out of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Those twin stripes, 60 roundels, Fuchs-style rims, and the gold-toned 911 Sport Classic badging on the rear deck truly set it apart. Keeping the Classic’s essence alive, the air intake is done from ahead of the spoiler and the engine grille. The ride height on this exclusive model will be 10 mm lower courtesy of the Porsche Active Suspension Management Sport.

6. Reverso

Meet Reverso, an e-bike that reverses every single automotive design instinct ever. I guess we could attribute its design direction to the Cybertruck, which sort to challenge the norms too with a design that was strikingly different from anything that came before it. The Reverso sits firmly in that class too, with an aesthetic that I’m struggling to put together in words, only because I can’t really find a frame of reference. Analyzing the Reverso’s strange design turned out to be much more fun and insightful than I expected. It started with asking myself exactly what I found ‘wrong’ with the motorcycle’s design… then asking if those attributes were actually important in making something a ‘motorcycle’. After all, a motorcycle is exactly that – a motor attached to a cycle.

7. SDAP

Rather mysteriously titled the SDAP, this little concept car from Mexico-based designer E. Maximiliano Salas was designed to be equal parts exotic and enigmatic… although its 80s automotive references are all too common.  With pop-up headlights that are a grand reference to a bygone era of supercars, the SDAP has a little Countach and Diablo, and a little ’84 F40 mixed into it, making it quite the eclectic beast.  The dark-ish rendering isn’t by accident either, Salas wanted his unusual concept to have a little waiting-in-the-shadows vibe to it, harking back to yet another phenomenon of the 80s, the reveal of the time-traveling DeLorean in the film Back To The Future.

8. The Storm

This majestic curvilinear beauty is courtesy of Wayne Buys, better known by his internet moniker FabMan Creations. Wayne, who works out of his home and garage in South Africa, designed this piece for a client who commissioned the project and even supplied him with an R nineT to work with. The final build, which he refers to as ‘Storm’ takes inspiration from the aerodynamic forms seen on aircraft. While the Storm can’t fly like its inspiration, it evokes a feeling of weightlessness in whoever rides it, thanks to its form that slices through the air the way an airplane would. The custom R nineT even sports two massive air scoops on its base that keep the motorcycle’s boxer engine cool and breezy.

9. The Tesla Model M

Having more than just a brief semblance of the Tesla Cybertruck, the Tesla Model M bike is made for the urban junkies as well as individuals who like to hit the serene hills on the weekends for an adventure or two. The leaning forward stance of the bike is adapted from the café racers, and the inclusion of geometric lines comes from those architectural trends. The hubless wheels radiate the futuristic character of the ultra-cool ride which emulates the Cybertruck’s steel gray color. Those headlights, swingarm, and the seat follow suit with their intimidating stance that goes perfectly with the overall build of the bike. Keeping the futuristic theme going, the translucent digital display shows the current speed and real-time map for optimized navigation.

10. Mercedes Vision AMG

This car looks like it time-traveled to a parallel dimension, and couldn’t hide its superior alienated looks. There’s a very animated character to it, but mind you this is how the EV is going to look when it finally rolls on the tarmac. Those triangulated projector lamps (resembling the Mercedes Benz star logo), matte black glasses, and the elongated tail which add to the dynamic appeal. Everything right from the long wheelbase to the contrasting short overhangs or the low-slung body – give it a domineering way above its punching weight (if that’s not too judgmental).

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