Hasta La Ideas

Whether you’re working from home, or in a corporate office, the one thing that’s pretty much consistent in both these scenarios is a desk! A desk is probably one of the most important pieces of furniture in our modern lives, only because we spend the majority of our day on it. You may be typing away to glory, munching away on a snack, or simply fidgeting with a random object – you do end up spending hours on your desk. And hence, it’s really important that your desk be neat, tidy, and uncluttered. Not only will this improve your work routine and productivity, but it will also help you maintain a clearer and more streamlined mindset. And, I’ve discovered that adding limited, quality, and innovative products to my desk setup can help me in achieving these goals!  And one such super cool addition to your desk would be the Hexcal Studio desktop organizer.

Designer: Hexcal

British company Hexcal created the Hexcal Studio desktop organizer and it aims to be the ultimate desktop organizer and the workspace accessory you definitely need! Designed to be a monitor stand and a desktop organizer, the Hexcal Studio attempts to eliminate clutter, hide wires and provide shadowless lighting. The goal is to create a neat, tidy, and destressing workspace where wires are smartly hidden, and multiple screens can be installed to support a conducive work environment.”Hexcal Studio is designed to make work effortless and enjoyable, to help everyone seek their life values,” said the brand.

The organizer’s distribution system can support up to 14 devices, including those on AC, DC, and wireless power. Its patented cable management system will make all your wires disappear, providing you with a wire-free desk.  It also features an integrated shadowless light to reduce the strain caused on the eyes due to screen glare and direct lights. Built from steel and aluminum, the unibody design of the organizer is extremely durable. The Hexcal Studio was designed with precision to detail and accuracy to create a product that “brings out the best in people”. Would you consider adding this accessory to your desk setup?

The post Sleek all-black desk organizer makes all wires disappear + offers shadowless lighting first appeared on Yanko Design.

This MC9 Uncino barstool, by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, achieves the best of what a minimalist and carefully-considered furniture design can do: At first it doesn’t look like much, but look closely and some (literally) captivating details emerge.

The overall form is unobstrusive and simple—it seems like two discs connected by a cylinder, and a spare amount of metal rods—until you notice the way the seat, which tapers ever so slightly from back to front, has been notched on the sides and drilled out to capture the rods. The rear half of the seat, which is conventionally made from edge-joined boards, has had its perimeter unconventionally milled to echo the cylindrical form of the rod.

The construction of the chair combines old with new, having been shaped by both traditional craftspeople and a multi-axis CNC mill.

The MC9 Uncino barstool was designed for, and is in production by, Italian furniture brand Mattiazzi. (“Uncino” is Italian for “brace,” specifically “a cord, ligament, or rod, for producing or maintaining tension.”)

Rulers are one of the most ancient draftsmanship tools humans have come up with, serving both as a measuring device as well as a guide for drawing straight lines. Its design has barely changed over the centuries, still traditionally a long and flat stick of wood, metal, or plastic. There have recently been a few wild ideas on how to improve the experience, but many of those completely change the design to the point that the tool is unidentifiable as a ruler. Not all improvements have to be that drastic or revolutionary, however. Sometimes, you just need to think outside the box just a bit to produce a new design that is not only more usable than a regular ruler but also more attractive, like this ruler concept with sexy curves that make it double as a piece of decoration on your desk.

Designers: Chung Ping Lun, Kuo Kai Lei (Medium2 Studio)

On the one hand, there is no need for a ruler to be overly complex, and its simple design has proven to work for centuries. On the other hand, it’s neither the most efficient design nor the most beautiful unless you add so many elaborate embellishments that end up getting in the way of the tool’s usability. Traditional rulers, in particular, risk smearing or smudging the paper because its flat body is always in contact with the surface underneath.

Some more creative designs have the edges of the ruler raised so that you don’t drag the ink or graphite across the edge, which may lead to accidental smearing or bleeding. That, however, doesn’t solve the problem of the ruler itself smudging the marks beneath it. The Ruler_C concept tweaks the design just a little bit to minimize how much contact the ruler makes with the paper or surface beneath it, resulting in an unusual form that turns out to be pleasant to look at as well.

Instead of being completely flat, the Ruler_C’s body curves up toward one side so that only one long edge and both short edges are ever in contact with the drawing surface. This minimizes how much damage the ruler could cause while also improving the tool’s usability. It’s a small change that few would have probably considered but it is an effective one nonetheless.

It also gives the Ruler_C an interesting shape that immediately calls attention to itself without being loud and showy. The gentle slope and anodized aluminum material give it a touch of elegance that you might not expect from such a mundane tool. Even the packaging, which comes as a sliding box, has been modified to visually mimic the way light bounces off the Ruler_C’s curved body. This, in turn, makes the ruler more than just a tool but also a designer product worth showing off on your desk.

The post Curved ruler avoids smudging using a beautiful and elegant design first appeared on Yanko Design.

Last year British engineers launched the MetMo Driver, a sleekly-modern redesign of an antique German ratcheting screwdriver. It was a wild smash on Kickstarter; they were seeking just £5,000 (USD $6,290) in pledges, but netted £1,107,288 (USD $1.4 million).

The original MetMo Driver

The original MetMo Driver

How could you improve upon the design? MetMo’s answer: Make a smaller, more compact version with the same functionality. A shrewd move, as it then hits up that gigantic EDC market looking for pocketable items.

The new, reduced-dimension MetMo Pocket Driver

The new, reduced-dimension MetMo Pocket Driver

The new, reduced-dimension MetMo Pocket Driver

Thus their new MetMo Pocket Driver is smaller and weighs less. Where the original was 165mm (6.5″) long, 30mm (1.2″) in diameter and weighed 320g (11.25 oz), the Pocket version is 103mm (4″) long, 20mm (0.8″) in diameter.

Weights for the Pocket version vary by material options: Anodized black aluminum, 109g (3.8 oz); black steel, 149g (5.2 oz); stainless steel, 230g (8.1 oz).

The MetMo Pocket Driver is currently up on Kickstarter, with buy-in starting at $112. They’ve already achieved their paltry $6,287 target; at press time they were coming up on $500,000 in pledges, and there’s still nearly two months left to pledge. I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t eventually surpass the original in funding.

Say hello to the world’s smartest running and cycling infrastructure – the Loop. Located in Dubai, the Loop is a 93 km sustainable urban highway designed by URB. Designed to be a zero-emission transport system, it aims to connect more than 3 million residents using a healthy mode of transportation – one that involves walking and cycling. The Loop utilizes kinetic energy to run on 100% renewable energy, and it is also irrigated with 100% recycled water.

Designer: URB

With the Loop, URB plans to change and transform how people get around and commute in Dubai. Since, at the moment, the city is overrun by cars, and hence with the Loop they want to make a smooth and efficient switch to more eco-friendly modes of transportation. The environment of the highway will be controlled all year long, in turn, encouraging walking, running, and cycling among residents of the city. Around 80% 0f residents will be encouraged to cycle and bike within the next few years.

“Dubai is the best place for entrepreneurship in urban mobility. THE LOOP project is an embodiment of that entrepreneurial spirit, which aims to make Dubai the most connected city on earth by foot or bike. In Europe, most people ride bicycles or walk to get to work. In Dubai, our aim is to get more than 80% of people to use a bike on a daily basis,” said URB.

By encouraging people to walk, run or cycle not only does the Loop support eco-friendly modes of commute, but it also boosts and encourages public health. It will nudge people to be more active, and use their feet, and transform Dubai into a “20-minute city”, ensuring that residents are within 20 minutes of major attractions by bicycle or foot. This will encourage people to bypass cars, and instead opt to walk or cycle so they can reach places faster.

The interiors of the smart and sustainable highway are designed to be biophilic – that is it is full of plants, and loads of greenery. It will be a highway-park hybrid that will feature waste recycling stations and kinetic energy tracks that supply power to the smart energy grid.

The post Smart sustainable urban highway that runs on 100% renewable energy to open up in Dubai first appeared on Yanko Design.