Laptops today are truly powerful computers worthy of the title of “desktop replacements,” but despite their name, they have never really been great to use on your lap. Yes, you can put them there, at least until they get too hot, but they’re not the most comfortable nor the most ergonomic positions. Some laptop desks or trays, particularly the ones with cushions, try to fix some of that by slightly raising the laptop while still pressing down on your lap and preventing proper blood circulation. The ones with legs, on the other, are best used in bed or sometimes on desks, undoing the benefit of portability. This rather curious design, however, promises to address all those and let you use your laptop in your seat or even have food or a drink on the side.

Designer: FansDreams

Unlike a typical laptop desk with legs, the Fansdreams Pi takes a few pages from the Japanese art of paper folding to keep its form slim and light. In a nutshell, it uses downward force to lock the legs in place and uses flat planes to hold the desk up. Thanks to that, the Pi is only 0.5 inches (12.7mm) thin when folded, while the use of PU leather and high-strength fiberglass gives it its durability and light 2-lb weight.

Perhaps more interesting than its appearance is the different functions the foldable desk serves. Of course, it holds your laptop up at a higher level, but there’s also enough space to put other items at the side, like a game controller, a bowl of food, or even a drink. Ideally, you wouldn’t put liquid near a laptop, but it can happen at times. And when not in use as an actual laptop desk, the Fansdreams Pi can function as a car table for actual eating or maybe working white paper.

The Pi laptop desk has one rather curious form where you turn it upside down and use one of the legs to raise the laptop at an incline. This configuration is good for having the screen at a higher level, though you’ll probably have to use a separate keyboard to type more comfortably. Either way, it’s also a good demonstration of how sturdy and stable the legs can be if they can support the weight of the laptop directly.

The Fansdreams Pi’s thin and lightweight design makes it easy to bring anywhere, though its rather long surface might not fit some smaller bags. And while it does bring the convenience of being able to work even in a car, it does encourage a rather unusual and somewhat unhealthy lifestyle of simply working and eating anywhere.

The post Origami-inspired foldable laptop desk also functions as a car table and food tray first appeared on Yanko Design.

Lamps are some of the things that you either look for functionality or design. Well, you can always go for both as well but sometimes other considerations like budget, space, and aesthetics will make you choose either or. Portability is not something that you really think about when it comes to this kind of accessories but it is something that’s nice to have. And as we’ve been seeing a lot of flat pack products lately, we knew we would get something like this for lamps.

Designer: Kazuhiro Yamanaka

Tsubomi, named after the Japanese word for bud, is a vacuum-sealed flat pack that opens up and becomes a lamp. It is inspired by a couple of Japanese traditional cultural things: paper-folding and the Shoji screens that we see in doors, windows, and room dividers. It’s basically like a crumpled piece of paper put into a vacuum-packed flat rectangle package that “magically” becomes a source of light once it is unfolded.

What’s interesting about this is that even when unfolded, the paper still shows the wrinkles and creases and that is intentional. The designer actually wants this product to challenge the idea that only those items that are “perfect” in form are considered beautiful. With this lamp, the plain white or grid pattern are able to highlight the wrinkled, imperfect appearance of the lamp. If you choose the grid, you even get a tinted lighting that will illuminate the surface that is lighted by the lamp.

The material used for the lamp is actually a special plastic compound that is used in the aforementioned Shoji screens that we see in traditional Japanese establishments. So with the Tsubomi lamp, you get the best combination of traditional materials and practices but with a contemporary functionality because of its flat-packed form. And you get a portable, pretty lamp of course.

The post Vacuum-sealed flat pack lamp unfolds into a Japanese inspired lamp first appeared on Yanko Design.