Ugmonk's Tenth Anniversary Set

Our good friend Jeff Sheldon is celebrating its 10th year of his Ugmonk brand. Each year, Jeff will design and come up with an anniversary set that will blow us away and this year is simply clean, unique and as we are publishing this article. All the sets are sold out within the first 24 hours! That's awesome! For the lucky ones who were able to snag a set, you will be getting your 10th-anniversary tee, a special notebook, a steel ruler, black leather coaster and more.

Mission Workshop introducing a Capsule Padded Case, Laptop Briefcase and Laptop Sleeve

We are providing a pretty rad update from our friends from Mission Workshop where I have been reviewing myself The Rhake for the last few months. The review should be coming in a week or so. Today, we would like to introduce a bunch of new products from what they called: The Capsule, an innovative padded case.

Our Picks: Headphones

Whether it’s on public transport, at the office, or kicking back for a round of Fortnite at home, there’s a pretty good chance I’m wearing headphones. And as someone who wears glasses, finding the right mix of comfort, style and sound can be a bit of a hurdle. Luckily, here at ABDZ, we get to test out quite a few gadgets. And out of all of them, there are a few headphones that stood out. Here’s my list of the best headphones to get you through your day, workout, flight, or family dinner.  

Industrial Design: Bunk - The wireless smartphone battery

Let's take a look at this minimal and colourful concept by Will Kail who is a Product Design Graduate based in Norwich, UK. His concept? A wireless smartphone battery named: Bunk. With the current solutions now available on the market, Will saw an opportunity to create a product that is magically working because of magnetic sticker on the back of the smartphone case. For those who are wondering the Multi-Coil solution will allow Bunk to align with the receiver coil on any smartphone.

Industrial Design: Xbox Adaptive Controller for gamers with disabilities

Earlier this week, we have shared the awesome new product by Microsoft with the Hub 2. Today, they introduced another product but more specifically for gamers with disabilities which is makes it even more inspiring with great admiration for them to go down with this initiative. I would be highly intrigued to give it a try myself. You just gotta love it when brands cares of accessibility for everyone and props to everyone from Microsoft who have worked on this project.

Tide X Otter: Beautiful, Sustainably Designed Surfboard

We were lusting after this beautiful surfboard at first sight and then we discovered the wood was sourced from sustainable woodlands and we fell in complete love. As part of a workshop to design and make his own surfboard, Martin Spurway worked with Otter Surfboards in Porthtowan, UK to make a wooden surfboard sourced from sustainable woodlands.

Product Design: Bringing Back Humanscale Manual from the 1970s

As of late, we've have published a series of revisited things from the past on ABDZ coming from manuals, branding items and more. It's somehow quite interesting because the things are stuff that we haven't even known its existence. It's kind of where I am heading with this Kickstarter Campaign of the Humanscale Manual originally created in the 1970s.

From Waste to Wearables: Sustainable Bamboo Slip Ons

If you've ever had the great opportunity to visit Hong Kong you may take quick notice of the iconic skyline and the amount of cranes constructing yet another skyscraper. In fact, Hong Kong boasts the most skyscrapers in the world surpassing New York and Dubai by far. You may also notice the bamboo scaffolding that looks more like an art display than a centuries-old building technique that locals celebrate.

Thoughts on: What should be my design title?

What should be my design title? This is a different approach from our usual inspirational features, hope you will follow along. This question was brought up by a good buddy of mine on what should be his design title? It wasn’t a question of “Fake it till you make it” but mostly what are the industry standards nowadays in terms of what is my title and what are my roles? For this article, let’s go deeper for the case of what are the differences between a UI/UX Designer, an Interaction Designer, and a Product Designer. Shall we?

Product Design: Wrist Watches

Some people love their wrist watches. I usually don't use one, but I sure enjoy a well designed clock. When it comes to the product design of clocks, we can find thousands of models online and it's just a matter of taste to find the perfect fit for you. Here I've selected some awesome pieces of product design for you. Some are quite different, and it's great to see the variety of details in each one. Don't forget to tell us on Facebook what's you favorite from this list, or any other watch you might want to share. I hope you enjoy this selection. Cheers! ;)

Gather by Ugmonk: Minimal & Modular, your Next Desk Organizer

Your desk, is it organized or just a cluttered mess? Most desk organizers on the market always on either ugly, badly designed or/and cheap-made. Well, our good friend Jeff Sheldon over Ugmonk is introducing Gather. A minimal, modular organizer that cuts clutter and it's amazing. We've been fans of Ugmonk for a long time, we always admire his avant garde entrepreneurship and his care of good design.

Mumu: A Set of Play Toys based on Taiwanese Cultural Lifestyle

With the era of how technology has evolved, young kids have started to be pretty familiar with our smart devices and companies have started to build smaller and yet more interactive things. Well, Dualai Studio had another concept; setting aside our smart devices and introducing Mumu. Inspired by Taiwanese Cultural Lifestyle, it's a set of play toys to build their own little house structure with magnetic interchangeable parts by trigging their freedom and joy to simply play.

Mujjo is bringing its Full-Grain Leather Case for the Samsung S8/S8+

With the arrival of the newly Samsung S8/S8+, Mujjo is bringing its full-grain leather case for the occasion. We've featured them before and now they are back with its unique case to the market. With a super slim fully leather-wrapped silhouette, you'll have an interior lined with the finest Japanese microfibre. Last but not least, you'll have enough chamfer for effortless use of fingerprint sensor.

Industrial Design: Disney Camera Concept

Let's take a look at this colourful industrial design by Soo Mok of a really kid-friendly design of a camera for kids by Disney. The idea/concept behind this design is quite fitted for kids as I quote:"The Dream Camera aims to make kids’ get-a-way in Disneyland more ideal." It's a really cute MOD design where I can see kids using and looks pretty solid, wouldn't be worried if it would fell on the floor. What strikes me the most is the different colour scheme that would represent some of your favourite characters! Which is your favourite?

Industrial Design: AE1 Hand-made Premium Film Camera

AE1 is a concept industrial design and product design project created and shared by Jun Semin on his Behance profile. The beauty of this project in my opinion, lies on the pursue of a classic and premium look resulting on a super clean product. It brings a lot of references in terms of style and aesthetics from Leica, as you can see from the images below. Jun even uses that as reference during his design process.  

Industrial Design: L-Rod Monitor for your Laptop

Being on-the-go is something we all strive for and being able to be mobile for all occasions is an addition as well. Imagine having a portable screen? We are taking a look at industrial design of a monitor concept named: L-Rod. Coming with a minimal bezel and a curved display, this concept is aiming with a single USB-C cable to both be used as power and image data. It’s an interesting approach for an external screen, what do you think?

Product Design: Anicorn Hidden Time Watch

I think most of us shared our love for gradients. As a designer, I do! What if it shares the time through a gradient on a beautiful watch?! This is the product design we are sharing today named: the Hidden Time Watch. It’s a play on the colour contrast of the gradient to tell the time, it’s quite a genuine concept. It almost feel like an optical illusion and I think it’s such a cool factor.

Product Design: The Grid Game

We would like to share this product design by Estudio Victor Alemán about a simple but fun game for your events and parties. In line with yesterday’s article going too digital, it’s nice to put our smart devices on the side and just have fun. As it’s mentioned, let’s bring back the ritual of board games. The starter edition starts with 50 tiles and can be played with 5 players. You should definitely check out their Kickstarter Project.

Product Design and UI/UX: iPhone 8 Concept

It’s that time of the year where a lot of tech blog/news would share their rumours about the next iPhone. With the fact that Apple is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, most of us are kind of eager what they will come up with. Bezels? Tiny bezels or none? Let’s take all the features aside, let’s take a look at this product design by Moe Slah’s iPhone Concept and what was his direction for the UI/UX. I really enjoyed his refined design with an updated iOS 10 UI and think it will be greatly received by everyone.

Product Design: Kontrol Editing Tablet

We’ve seen tools like the Wacom and even the Touch Bar from the MacBook Pro to somehow increase our productivity and workflow. They both have their pros and cons but I would an issue I had with the Wacom for example was its size especially when you think of working on-the-go or in a coffee shop. How about we rethink it a little. Let’s take a look at this editing tablet product design concept named: Kontrol by Jonny Tran. With a minimal approach, I can’t help to enjoy the idea of having your tablet separated in different components. It’s quite neat!