This Modular laptop/tablet’s hybrid design uses a unique hinge to unleash its versatility!

Nowadays, almost everyone is a self-identified creative, and rightfully so – the laptop or tablet is already buzzing at our fingertips, all we need is for inspiration to guide them. Whether it be cartoon illustrations, trendy graphic design, or EDM sets to DJ, all we need is the technology and we’re halfway there. But sometimes that’s the hardest part. In order to make it all a little easier and more attractive, Charley Bircumshaw designed a modular hybrid of a laptop-tablet so that creatives who feel inspired by more than one artistic outlet will always have their very own ‘one-stop-shop.’

By inserting bespoke hinges to the tablet, the purpose, structure, and facade of the overall design changes in order to provide alternative forms of usage. By simply removing the laptop’s keyboard and attaching a music-making unit, the product turns into your very own DJ module. Making up the design are some key components: two, fullscreen tablets, a music module, a computer keyboard, a couple of bespoke hinges, and electric grooves. Each part comes to comprise the mutability that transforms this particular design into something special. The varying modules click into one another, like chargers into phone ports, in order to transfer energy from one component to the next. The bespoke hinges bring this design to the next level by providing the electric current necessary for energy to run through the connected devices for operation. Once connected, all you’ll need is the itch to create.

Bircumshaw’s commitment to producing a hybrid laptop-tablet with a minimal and symmetric structure turns its modularity up a notch. Not only is the product impressive in its assembly of four different pieces of electronic hardware, but its slim finish reveals a dedication to today’s cool technological aesthetics. The modular laptop-tablet is a contemporary, elegantly modest design that works as a constant reminder of the endless potential behind creation.

Designer: Charley Bircumshaw

Duo imagines a world where the smartphone is made up of a modular computer + detachable displays

Think of the Duo as an all-in-one PC that just needs a display to work. This separation means you can attach your all-in-one PC to a handheld screen, a large 4K monitor, or even a projector, alternating between them while still having all your data in the same place. Scale that down to something handheld and you’ve got the Duo, a Phonebloks-style concept that has two simple parts… The display, and everything else.

The ‘everything else’ or as designer Roc H Biel calls it, the ‘electronics module’ is in this case, a tiny, portable thumb-drive-sized device that snaps to the back of a screen. You could attach the electronics module to a 6-inch smartphone screen, or to a 12-inch tablet display, and the Duo works instantly, seamlessly switching between the two interfaces, while keeping the data constant. The touchscreen displays end up being the input and output, but Roc H Biel says that having a display isn’t entirely necessary. The Duo electronics module possesses the ability to work without screens too, relaying information in a non-visual format, the way smart-speakers do. Moreover, the Duo’s tiny size makes it easy to carry around by simply clipping it to your pocket (or potentially even to the neck of your tee shirt), while its ergonomic voluminous form eventually acts as a good gripping mass while holding your phones in one hand. I wouldn’t mind living in this future, tbh.

Designer: Roc H Biel