It feels odd to write about analog cameras these days. They seem old fashioned and out of date to someone like me. Perhaps that’s why young people embrace them. If you too would like to embrace them (or at least know more about them), Yanko Design has two recent articles you might want to check out:
Kodak even has a translucent one in their mix, because why not.
Do they take good photos? I guess “good” is in the eye of the beholder/photographer. Still, worth a look.
While I am a big fan of tiny homes on this blog, I haven’t done a post on them in some time.
I used to do them on the regular because a) I like the idea of tiny homes b) a blog I follow called Yanko Design often posted stories on tiny homes, giving me lots of material to comment on.
As it is, I still love tiny homes, and I still follow Yanko, so here’s four recent posts from them worth checking out:
I think tiny homes are excellent, and I wish more people embraced them. If you are a fan as well, check out those links.
This is minimalism at its best: a side table concept uses a single wood sheet with almost no offcuts. Smart. Lovely.
Over at Yanko Design is a story on a table that can go from this:
to this:
If not magical then certainly amazing. Sure you need a space to expand into, but anyone who has to host larger gatherings on the regular and has the space should check it out.
And to all my American friends, happy Thanksgiving!
In my mind, there is not enough eco-friendly design out there, and there should be. It can be a great way to recycle and reuse.
Case in point, the stools above, which are made of plastic and fiber-based waste. Or these concept shoes below that are made of sugar derived from plant waste and microbes which is then turned into nanocellulose as a material.
For more on the topic, I owe it to myself to go through all these Eco-Friendly designs over at Yanko Design. I recommend you do too.
As we move to living in smaller places as well as working from home, minimalist desks can be the solution we need to get things done. For example, this ignite desk that separates work and personal life in a simple yet effective way:
Very nice. Or how about these sleek desks designed to perfectly meet your work from home needs declutter your workspace:
Love the wood. Need more? Here’s 10 desk designs every workaholic needs to amp up their productivity, including this one from teenage engineering:
Awesome.
We all need a good surface to work from. Sometimes that surface doesn’t have to be very big. These desks prove it.
All images and links from Yanko Design. If you are in need of a minimalist desk, check them out.
Why do we have only one phone? In truth, many of us have many phones: we just use one at a time. But why?
I was asking myself this question when I was reading about this sensible foldable phone with minimalist + clock mode is digital detox done right from Yanko Design. I would like to have this phone as well as my iPhone. When I get home I could ditch the Apple device and just use something like this device to stay up to date with important information.
The clue to the answer is the photo below:
We are tied to two things when it comes to our phone: the carrier and the device maker. Device makers don’t allow you to easily have two or three phones and transfer the SIM from one to the other. And carriers don’t support have multiple devices with the same SIM.
Sure, you can have phones just using wireless to get and send information. That’s something. But it would be great if you could have multiple devices using the same connection to get and send data. Some day, perhaps.
The colorful can be found here, IKEA Nytillverkad Collection Delves Into the Archives in Colorful Fashion at the site Design Milk, while the cool can be found here: top ten minimal furniture design at Yanko.
If you want to jazz up your place, then that collection from IKEA will do it. On the other hand, if you yearn from simple pieces like this below, then head over to that link on Yanko.
Two very different sets of home furnishings, but both being well done.
I love me some Yanko Design. But I have looked at these five different chairs for unwinding after a long day at work and I have to say, I dunno. I mean, these chairs are cool:
But I would have to sit in them before deciding it was comfy.
As for this:
Well, it looks great. But comfy? I can’t imagine.
Let’s check out Design Milk and this easy chair that can turn into a bed or a sofa:
Yep, it looks more comfy. Good colors too.
Yeah, the Sova Lounge chair is ergonomic and comfortable, but it’s also made from sustainably sourced wood. Oh it’s also gorgeous.
At some point most if not all the things we buy will be made from sustainably sourced material. As it should be. Here’s to more things like the Sova.
For more on this beautiful and smart chair, head over to Yanko Design for more.
Over at Yanko Design are 10 of the cabins they chose as the best for 2022. Best for 2022, and 2023…really any year you want to get out of town and into some place nice and rustic.
Whatever the season, wherever the location, these places are the kind of places most people would like to spend some time. I’m more of a city person, but I would be happy to hang out in any of those 10 cabins.
what you see in this post is just two of the places they write about. To see more on these top 10, click here.
I love the site Yanko Design. They highlight some amazing designs, especially when it comes to furniture. Here’s some of the ones I’ve been collecting from them that I thought were really good.
First up, I thought this was a cool chair. It reminds me of the old telephone tables people used to one have.
Something that would go really well with it is this very cool coffee table.
If you want to get something really amazing for your walls, I would suggest this beautiful but very high end (Raf Simons) shaker furnishing. Or this thing: an odd device to help you relax. It’s hard to describe: you really have to go to the piece.
I love that crazy but beautiful shelving you see above. It’s incredibly modular, too. Over at Yanko Design they have a variety of configurations showing what you can do with it. Quite a lot!
P.S. This is not Yanko but good if you are interested in 4k TVs . Hey, TVs are furniture. 🙂 Finally, this from the New York Times: Have You Seen This Table Lamp? If You Eat Out in New York You Will. It’s a cool lamp. Good for restos, but good for you too.
Seriously, how cute is this??
The paper looks like rain! It’s awesome! Thank you, Muji!
For more on it, see: Muji cloud is a fun tool to condense paper into small pile of shreds – Yanko Design
If this shoe was coming out from anyone other than Nike, I would just straight-up praise it. It’s a practical shoe. It will likely wear well over the months and even years. If you are someone who likes to wear the same shoe all the time (e.g. Birkenstocks or Blundstones) then these could be perfect for you.
Coming from Nike, though, which is famous/notorious for making rare and high priced shoes intentionally, the fact that they make these and portray these shoes as typical of them is …well, something.
To step back, Nike does make shoes for different markets. The Pegasus brand and the Air Force 1 lines are for mass markets, just like these are. Just like the Jordan brands and other high end lines are for different markets. It’s all just capitalism: they have a model for whatever you value and whatever your values are. For more on the these shoes, check out Uncrate and Yanko Design.
That’s what I was thinking when I read these two pieces:
IKEA, for a large part, is DIY furniture. But for many reasons, there is a limited range of furniture pieces to choose from. I wish there were better alternatives to them that offered more thoughtful pieces, like the ones found in those Yanko Design articles.
Anyway, it’s likely not going to happen soon. But I think there is a market for it. We just need the right business leaders to build it.
(Image from the first article.)
It’s nice to sit outside in the summer and have some music playing while you grill food or enjoy a fire or simply relax. Now thanks to this collaboration, you can: IKEA teams up with Spotify to debut the Vappeby, a $65 wireless lamp/speaker with built-in ‘Spotify Tap’
The nice thing about it is that it is not only portable, but that it looks just as nice inside too:
If having sound outside this summer is on your todo list, check out the piece in Yanko design, then head out to IKEA (or their website) and try and get one soon.
Sadly, only a design concept, but I wish these Braun wireless earbuds were a real thing. I’m a big fan of Braun, and while I like my earbuds from Apple, if time came to switch, I’d love something like this to be for sale.
Let’s make it happen, Braun! (It likely won’t happen in such a competitive space, but I can dream. )
I love all three of these pieces of furniture. First there is this table that also functions as a bookshelf:
Then there is this table /desk that has tons of storage:
A few years ago when I was making furniture, I made something similar. I could definitely see someone good at DIY/carpentry making the above two. As for this one below, I love that desk but it’s not for your typical DIYer! Fabulous though:
They remind me of the old telephone tables people used to have. They used to have a particular function, and they had special storage as part of them.
All three links lead to Yanko Design, where you can find out more about each of them. Worth a look.
Yep, it’s time for another — likely my last — edition of cat furniture links. It’s been a weird fixation of mine. I blame Yanko design, which keeps posting these links: they are like cat nip for me. So here’s some more cat furniture to check out.
It’s not all goofy stuff for spoiled felines. For example this post has good design aimed for your pets, like this wheelchair for dogs:
The again, there is this dryer/sauna for cats….I dunno: 
Still more cat stuff.
There is also this, so you can be like your pet. Sheesh
Finally, there is this dog leash + smart tag design tracks your pet’s emotions to help you communicate better.
Ok, that’s enough of all that. Enjoy!
I know I feel that way after looking at some of these babies. For example, this could be uncomfortable, but just look at how great this modular ebike looks!
For something a bit more practical, there’s this cool café racer bike:
Very nice!
If you want something bigger, there’s this 2022 Harley:
Too big? How about this little number via Justin Bieber no less:
But wait, maybe you agree with this piece on bike road safety that laments how dangerous riding a bike is in the city? In that case, maybe you just want something like this exercise bike:
The weather is getting nicer. Get yourself a bike and get out there.
(Images courtesy of Uncrate and Yanko Design)
Whenever new robots are released, I like to feature them. Robots are still pretty limited in the home, but there has been some attempts to get past the Roomba and have them in other parts of the house. Cases in point, this Toilet cleaning robot and this Pool cleaning robot .
Check them out. The robots are coming.eventually.
(Image via Yanko).
There are topics on this blog I write about frequently because they are near and dear to my heart. And then there is this topic: crazy cat furniture. I just find it fascinating how designers go to great lengths to design furniture for their cats. For example, most cats would be happy with any old cardboard box, but this designer took that a step further and made this cardboard cat house (see above).
Then there’s this minimal wooden cat scratcher that doubles up as a cozy chilling spot for your pets! My belief is that the only way the cat will settle in any given spot is either a) it’s warm b) to annoy the dog you have.
Finally there’s this!
Yes, a wall mountable cat bed that gives your cat a place to lounge up high while saving you space. They even put shelves on the wall to make it easier for the cat to get there!
Ok, that’s it for me. For now. 🙂
(P.S. All images and posts from Yanko Design, the good people who keep me stocked with all these ideas to post. )
I love this! Not only can you charge your Apple Watch easily, but you can also use this device to easily see the time and your alarm. Brilliant. More on it, here:
Nightwatch Magnifying Clock Dock.
If you are still working at this date, you are either working desperately to finish or you are killing time until the end. If you are the latter, these are for you:
(Images of this cool bike from Yanko)
Nope, that’s not a piece of sculpture: it’s a fridge. Yep! It’s meant to go underground, not unlike a root cellar. It’s part of the various zero waste product designs found here: A sustainable underground fridge + more product designs to help you lead that zero waste lifestyle! – Yanko Design
There’s some really interesting designs there worthy reviewing. Some of them smaller than the fridge above. 🙂
I love this Author Clock show above. It…
…uses passages from literature that have mentions of the time in them… so at 9 o’clock, the clock shows a passage from The Great Gatsby that has the phrase “9 o’clock” in it, and at 12, it displays verses from Hamlet when the clock strikes 12. Ultimately, the Author Clock turns something as mechanical as the ticking of hands into something much more whimsical and joyful… especially if you’re a bookworm or a lover of literature.
Brilliant! You might think it’s not possible that there would be a quote for each minute of each day, but apparently it is. For more on it, see this piece: This absolutely genius clock uses actual quotes from literature to tell the time! from Yanko Design
Smart People I Know 