Tag Archives: mug

Handle-free mug exercises your grip while sipping your coffee

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Drinking coffee or tea is often imagined as a relaxing and chill activity. That’s why cups and mugs for these drinks are designed with comfort in mind. Handles are, of course, the main part that makes it possible to hold even a piping-hot mug of cocoa with confidence.

But what if you took that conventional handle away? Would that mean being cursed with cold or, worse, lukewarm beverages only? This mug has a rather interesting answer to the question no one really asked, designing a mug that you can still safely grip regardless of the contents, presuming you have the finger strength to do it. Or, at the very least, develop that strength from gripping this mug made for rock climbers.

Designer: ma3t

Grabbing a mug of hot liquid with your bare hands is nothing short of dangerous, which is why handles were made for this kind of drinkware. As long as you keep most of your hand away from the mug’s body, however, you’re mostly safe from burns and pain. Even if you just need to grip some parts with your fingertips, all will be fine. Hopefully.

The Pinch Hold Mug was designed precisely in that fashion. While most of the mug is smooth, one side has a rough and uneven surface that would remind you of a rocky crag on the side of a cliff. There are specific indentations where you could place your fingers on and grip them with just your fingertips. It’s definitely a precarious grip, unlike the confidence of a handle, so why would anyone design such a mug?

The answer is that while this mug still lets you enjoy your coffee, tea, or cocoa, it also makes you work for it by exercising your grip every time you want to lift it up. In other words, it’s designed precisely to exercise how you would hold on to rocks while climbing mountain faces and cliffs. If you haven’t guessed yet, it’s a mug designed for rock climbers, but anyone with a strong grip can also get some exercise as well.

The Pinch Hold Mug also strikes an interesting visual, with the juxtaposition of smooth and rough surfaces on opposite sides. It’s made from bone china with a white finish, which is a bit ironic for its rocky inspiration. There’s also a tinier Espresso Cup version designed to hold double shots with some milk for those who like their coffee strong and their grips small.

The post Handle-free mug exercises your grip while sipping your coffee first appeared on Yanko Design.

ClayClay Container’s shape is based on a stretched slinky

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ClayClay Container Inspiration

We can never have enough of quirky containers from different designers. Getting a new one every time a new design is introduced may be unnecessary, but creative enthusiasts and designers know the delight such things bring. The ClayClay Container is yet another piece that can be used in different ways. It can be a mug for your coffee or a small bowl for your cereal or fruits. It can be a pot for your small plant or a small knick-knack for your desk.

Designer: Paper Play

ClayClay Container Details

ClayClay Container

This ClayClay Container comes with a soft shade and curves but is hard; of course, it is ceramic. It is made by Paper Play, a Chinese company that designs different everyday products in more innovative and creative forms. The new container’s design is based on the rainbow spring, the Slinky. The shape appears like a rainbow spring in its stretched form as one plays with it. There is a silver ball on one side as if supporting the slinky. The ball also functions as a handle for when you want to use the container as a mug.

The ClayClay Container appears to be available in purple and black. The glossy finish makes it a standout, but we can imagine it in other textures and materials too. Unlike the purple model, the black version features a matching black ball for a more neutral look.

ClayClay Container Designer

The shape of the ClayClay Container is unique but offers that modern contemporary feel. It will be an attractive addition to wherever you want to put it when not used as a mug. It may also spark creativity as its form evokes a sense of playfulness with the slinky reference.

Some kids today may not know what a slinky or rainbow spring is. Perhaps this ClayClay Container will be an excellent introduction. Drink your coffee first before showing the slinky because we’re certain your kid won’t make you stop playing with it.

ClayClay Container Design

ClayClay Container joins the roster of interesting mug designs we’ve featured here. It follows the Hug Cup and the self-filtering mug for their innovative design. It’s creative like the Creative Ceramic Tea Mug and the Earless Mug. It’s as useful as the Drop Rest Mug and is as attractive as the Slurp Mug. The slinky shape of the mug is similar to the Pet Table with its S form. But unlike the Pet Table that combines two separate parts, the ClayClay is only one unit.

Concept ClayC

ClayClay Container Concept

The post ClayClay Container’s shape is based on a stretched slinky first appeared on Yanko Design.

An incredibly cute cup warmer that heats your drink and charges your smartphone is the new winter essential

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Power banks have become a must-have accessory for their portability and convenience to juice up your mobile device on the go. Now taking a leaf out of that book, a designer has visioned a desktop appliance, which is functionally a cool mug warmer (to keep the beverage inside at a drinkable temperature) and comes with a USB slot to charge your phone or a smartwatch like a power bank!

There is nothing that meets the pleasure of a steaming hot coffee or tea while working. You get an extra kick to stay productive for a few more hours. However, there are times when you tend to forget and that hot beverage is left to become a cold brew sitting on the table. This is where a cup warmer like the one conceptualized by designer Dadaism J comes into the equation. The functionality of this cup warmer is to keep your compatible cup heated from the bottom to ensure the beverage inside remains at a particular temperature. This ensures you don’t have to sip on cold brew when your mug should have had a piping hot beverage. When I came across this cup warmer, I did a little search and found that this domain is not saturated at the moment, not many recognizable brand names have entered the category, meaning there is time and requirement for innovation and this cup warmer with charging functionality does deserve to see the light of day.

This I believe for a fact because the mug warmers currently available on the market come with an induction plate to place your mug. It aims to maintain a specific temperature of the beverage for you. Dadaism’s design just betters on the idea with the inclusion of a USB port on the front, which can be used to charge a mobile device simultaneously. There is also a small digital display on this colorful mug charger – it’s designed in three lovely colors – that shows you the temperature at which your beverage is being heated. Presumably, the cup warmer with a charging function also has an adjustable timer and auto shut off, which is common in the cup warmers already on the market.

While this cup warmer is primarily designed for your workstation, it has to connect to an electric socket for power. Given the niche functionality, this could also be useful in the outdoors to heat your mug of water or coffee at a camp per se, and when required also juice up your phone so you can remain connected even when you’re in areas off the grid. For this, the cup warmer will need to be battery-powered or even solar-powered; hope Dadaism would consider my suggestion for the prototype!

Designer: Dadaism J

The post An incredibly cute cup warmer that heats your drink and charges your smartphone is the new winter essential first appeared on Yanko Design.

Meet the hug cup, an evolution of the traditional tableware that allows you to easily hold your warm mug on those chilly days!

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Hug Cup is an innovative reinterpretation of the traditional ceramic mug, replacing the conventional side handle with a central grip tunnel that serves as an internal handle for those living with joint pain or osteoarthritis.

Kitchen cups and mugs have been endlessly reimagined through design over the years. The cup’s simple form makes room for innovative design across industries, from ceramic to inclusive reinterpretations. Designer and ceramic artist, Eszter Imre offered their own take on the conventional ceramic mug, casting a center finger tunnel that makes holding the cup feel like you’re hugging warm tea and makes holding the mug easier for those who struggle with holding a mug’s traditional side handle.

Imre’s Hug Cup was created to drill home the designer’s belief that, “we give special attention to things we use in our everyday life. We like to have a personal relation to the objects we touch closely, such as a cup.”

The internal handle is a unique take on the mug’s traditional side handle, allowing users to securely grip Hug Cup while feeling the warmth of the liquid contents inside. Describing the mug in their own words, Imre states, “The whole cup creates an intimate tunnel through the cup itself for your finger, you may enjoy the heat of your beverage without burning your palm.”

While Hug Cup’s innovative handle is playful, it is also a solution-based design. For those living with joint pain, more specifically osteoarthritis, gripping mugs is a feat on its own. The central tunnel on Hug Cup allows users to hold onto the mug without altering the way their hands naturally fall. By simply sliding your thumb through the internal handle, half the battle is won. In creating Hug Cup, Imre notes, “It’s a fun, engaging object that wouldn’t make you feel like an outcast from society due to your special needs.”

Designer: Eszter Imre

Darth Vader Chrome Ceramic Mug: The Shiny Side of the Dark Side of the Force

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What’s better than sipping coffee from a Darth Vader helmet mug? Sipping coffee from a chrome-finish Darth Vader helmet mug. The Sith Lord’s black outfit is so shiny you could comb your hair in its reflection, but this mug is even more reflective thanks to its mirrored ceramic finish.

I like to imagine Vader walking around his Imperial Star Destroyer like Bill Lumbergh in Office Space, sipping coffee from this mug while micromanaging the crew about missing cover sheets on their Imperial TPS reports and asking them to come in and work on the Death Star II on the weekend.

If you like your coffee dark, like your favorite side of The Force, you can grab the Darth Vader chrome mug on Amazon (affiliate link) for $19.99.

Excel at Sipping Coffee with the Spreadsheet Shortcut Mug

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I like to think I’m pretty adept at Microsoft Excel.  Whenever I show some neophyte how to use a Pivot Table, I feel like a spreadsheet god. Despite my skills at manipulating rows, columns, formulas, and macros, I don’t have all the Excel keyboard shortcuts memorized. I mean sure, I’m a master of Copy, Paste, and Undo, but after those, I don’t remember most of them. Now, every time I go to take a sip of hot coffee, I can brush up on my spreadsheet shortcut knowledge.

Firebox sells this Excel Shortcut Mug which lists a number of the available keyboard shortcut sequences for Excel, including classics like “Ctrl Shift +” and “Alt F1.” I had no idea that you could copy a value from the cell above with “Ctrl Shift Quote.” Heck, I’m already smarter and I haven’t even bought this thing yet. Next stop, creating complicated and abstruse financial models that make venture capitalists throw fat stacks of cash at me.

Like all ceramic computer reference materials, the Excel Shortcut Mug holds 12 oz. of your favorite hot or cold beverage and is dishwasher and microwave safe. You can grab one for your desk today over at Firebox for just $11.

 

Designing products that break biases with Render Weekly and Ti Chang!

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If you are a part of our Instagram community, you could have not missed this viral (and controversial!) post that shed light on gender bias in the design world. As conversations progressed, I realized the bias goes beyond genders and there are MANY segments of our audience who are underrepresented. We need to talk to and more about women, BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled groups – pay attention to their experiences, their needs, parts where they have felt left out of consideration when using a product or service. The post was a conversation starter but it needed to be followed by action, so Yanko Design teamed up with designer (and powerhouse) Ti Chang as well as Render Weekly to encourage participation from the global community with the aim of designing to break a bias.

“This is a chance to start to redesign products and experiences that do not address the needs of womxn and many underrepresented groups and historically marginalized communities. Let’s reimagine what could be! Let’s get these ideas out there by collaborating with EACH OTHER! Talk to your community, reexamine your privilege, reach out to this community and see if you can team up with them! Offer to realize other people’s ideas if you are super strong in rendering! If you have a great idea reach out to someone who is a great sketcher! Just get these ideas out there for us to see what a more equitable world COULD look like,” said Ti Chang.

Here are some of our favorites from the #RWDesignBias challenge –

CURVD by Amin Hasani

Hasani is one of the co-founders of CURVD, a universal mug that works for everyone! “Disabilities do not exist, design flaws do. When a product fails to serve a person, that person is not disabled, the product just wasn’t designed right. The CURVD mug was designed to allow all hands, regardless of their hand capability or shape, to be able to enjoy a beverage without limitations,” says Hasani. The mug was launched as a human-friendly design with a patented handle that allows all people, regardless of their hand capability, to be able to enjoy a beverage without limitations. Enjoying a warm beverage is a universal joy and deserves a universal design.

Maria Contraceptive Pill Dispenser by Romane Caudullo and Theotim Auger

Maria is a smart pill dispenser specially designed for the contraceptive pill with the aim to free women from pill omission pressure and its side effects. “Because, while the pill benefits the whole couple, the woman is often alone in managing this contraceptive, the constraints, and stress associated with it. It seems to us right and necessary to use design to improve this treatment,” says the team. Maria makes it easy for women to take the pill and improves its effectiveness by making the process more efficient. A much-needed redesign that comes 60 years after the FDA approval of birth control pills!

 

Changing Station by Claudia Miranda-Montealegre

Baby stations in public are only found in women’s bathrooms and do not take into account the needs of male caregivers. The current design does not feel safe, or hygienic, which leads to people using surfaces that might not be ideal (cars, floors, and counters/tables). This puts the burden on the female partners and takes away equal access from male partners. This conceptual baby changing station has a touch-less opening system, includes UV and alcohol self-cleaning capabilities, as well as integrated adjustable lighting. It upgrades the safety features to provide a comfortable experience for parents and infants alike. It also includes details such as hooks for bags, safety belts that can be adjusted using one hand, and a diaper dispenser for a seamless experience.

Pivot by Iris Ritsma

Even in 2020 majority of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is still being designed for the male body including body armor which is made to protect people from being harmed or even killed by gunfire. 71% of women working in emergency services wear PPE that is designed for men – it doesn’t fit women, their bodily movement, health issues, and more. Pivot is a soft concealable armor designed to optimally fit the anthropomorphic characteristics of women’s bodies. Each size comes with three variable chest sizes and the diagonal straps fit neatly around women’s naturally tighter waist with raised sides on the bottom provide extra freedom of movement in the hips. Pivot provides optimal protective coverage, maximizes women’s mobility, and increases women’s comfort significantly.

Liberia by Nipuni Siyambalapitiya

Current luggage scales in the market assume that most people can lift up a 50 lb/23kg on a hook/strap and weighed, it doesn’t take into account the elderly or those with disabilities. Liberia is a pneumatic luggage scale that allows you to weigh your bag WHILE packing! It is a pillow-like scale and accompanying app. It comes with an electronic air-pump that inflates it and a pressure-sensitive valve that records change in air pressure inside the scale as the weight on top changes. Buttons and tabs are large enough for people with low grip strength and have different tactile qualities, making it easy to maneuver the scale even if you can’t see too well. Simply place the deflated scale on the floor, put your bag on top, inflate the scale via the app and start packing while Libera tells you the weight in real-time.

Interruption Buzzer for women by Kristi Bartlett

Trump interrupted Hilary Clinton 51 times during their debate and in 2020. This buzzer is inspired by the board game Taboo and aims to make group discussions easier. The AI-enabled meeting assistant combats the phenomenon of women being talked over in meetings. Put it in the center of the table at your meeting and adjust the dial to reflect the gender makeup of your group to make sure the contributions follow the proportions. The device will buzz annoyingly and loudly when it detects a woman being interrupted by a man or another woman. It will also turn blue if it detects that men are speaking more than 50% of the time and pink if the same applies to women. The goal is to keep your meetings purple – equal chances!

Diffuser by Caterina Rizzoni

This diffuser re-imagines blow-drying curly hair, using a handheld form factor to help users offset discomfort and pain when using diffuser attachments on traditional dryers. Caterina spoke to over a dozen curly-haired womxn and relied heavily on design for usability. She aimed to reduce the ergonomic pain points present in the current design. This dryer was designed to protect naturally curly hair – the extra deep bowl saves room for curl pattern formation, while the dished fingers naturally conform to the user’s head. The use of metal for the diffusing end allows for even more drying from radiant heat, which means less airflow and less frizz! The soft braided cord easily swivels out of the way during use, and the soft heat-resistant over-mold on the body is easy to grip + easy to clean. Curly hair people are often forgotten like left-handed people and we need to break this bias.

BAGPAL by Tim Zarki

Public restrooms lack hooks to hang your bag from, and no one likes putting their bag on the gross public restroom floor. It is an uncomfortable and stressful experience, especially for women as they carry bags more often than men. BAGPAL can be used to hang your bag when you are using a public restroom and need both hands to change a tampon or pad. It is a multipurpose hook-shaped product that travels with you to hold your things when you can not. It has a strong stainless steel skeleton and colorful waterproof skin that is easy to clean when you wash your hands. With the pandemic, people are all the more careful of common surfaces and we don’t want to carry germs back home with us on our bags!

A Dungeons & Dragons D12 Dice Mug: Let The Good Times Roll

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Looking for the perfect coffee mug to let your coworkers know you’re down to do a little tabletop campaigning on your lunch break? Well, now you’re in luck, thanks to this Dungeons & Dragons D12 coffee mug available from Firebox. Now roll to see if I should add a little Baileys to this coffee.

The officially-licensed mug (it has the Dungeons & Dragons logo on one side) costs $18 and holds approximately 16-ounces of your favorite beverage. Or your least favorite beverage if you really want to punish yourself in the morning. That does make you weird though.

Coffee: you have to drink it out of something, and, speaking from personal experience, your bare hands just aren’t the best option. Use a mug. Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘But why? I have a perfectly good boot by the door,’ and that is just some sound logic that I can’t even begin to argue with.

A coffee cup with a color-guide to help you make the right coffee every time!

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MyCuppa makes the question “How do you like your coffee?” a little easier to answer! The cup, which comes with its own color-matching guide along the rim, helps you make consistent coffee every time by allowing you to visually judge the coffee’s strength. The color guide ranges from milky beige (which incidentally is how I like my coffee) to a strong, dark black. Just pour your coffee in and keep adding milk or creamer till you get the color your heart and taste-buds desire. There’s even a color-guide version for tea-drinkers, so you can calibrate your beverage’s intensi-tea!

Designed by the fun-loving folk at SuckUK, the ceramic mug comes in a single standard size, and is microwave-safe and dishwasher friendly. Makes a perfect stocking-stuffer for any coffee-craver or a tea-vangelist!

Designer: SuckUK Design Team

Click Here to Buy Now

Click Here to Buy Now

Circular Design 101: A coffee cup made from recycled coffee husks!

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The Huskeecup is the coffee equivalent of drinking a coconut cocktail out of a coconut… No, seriously! Each Huskeecup is, in fact, made from recycled coffee husks combined with a binding agent and molded into a reusable cup that’s impact-resistant, non-toxic, dishwasher-friendly, and uniquely pleasing to look at or even smell!

An estimate of 600 billion disposable coffee cups are produced worldwide each year, 99.75% of which are dumped in a landfill or the oceans without being recycled. What the Huskeecup does is solve that problem, while also looking at the humble coffee bean as a raw material. The fine folk at Huskee gather coffee husks discarded in the roasting process, and pulverize them before binding them together with a biopolymer and finally forming them into cups. Designed to be reused, the cups can either be purchased by coffee aficionados to use at home, or by cafés to serve coffee to their patrons. The Huskeecups come in a variety of styles and sizes, including an adorable set of 6oz espresso cups with saucers to match, or 8oz and 12oz travel mugs that come with sipper-lids made from the same coffee-husk material.

Apart from being eco-friendly, sustainable, and reusable, the Huskeecups are really designed to pair well with the coffee-drinking ritual. The cups come with a textured outer surface that’s comfortable to hold, while the material itself keeps your coffee hotter for longer. The cups are also far more durable than ones made from ceramic or glass, and are BPA-free and non-toxic, unlike plastic tumblers or plastic-lined paper glasses. Moreover, old cups that are broken or discarded can be repurposed into new ones, creating a closed-loop that ensures each cup has the potential to be recycled without generating waste, so you can drink your coffee guilt-free!

Designer: Huskee