yPad by Bunpei Yorifuji

It’s appropriate that I post this today given the Apple announcement that everyone has been watching. #overhyped #sickofit  Coincidentally, today graphic designer Bunpei Yorifuji released yPad (1,575 yen), a combined calendar and project planner (for the purpose of this post, let’s call it a planendar).

About 10 years ago, after an exhaustive search, and the discovery of many standalone calendars and planners – but never 2 in 1 – Bunpei Yorifuji decided to design his own planendar. He drew out a 3-week schedule, overlayed with a progress chart that could accommodate 35 projects and…success! His productivity skyrocketed and schedule conflicts plummeted. Over the past 10 years he has continued to tweak his planendar, adding functionality such as unimposing yet sumptuous margins for notes/doodles and a typeface chart (for Japanese fonts, or course).



I think one of the major drawbacks of e-planners are that days, and time, for that matter, become fragmented and one can easily lose track of the flow of day-to-day time. The yPad proposes an elegant solution for this, and also comes with delightful Yorifuji-style illustrations. It’s obviously not for everyone, but for the few who have not embraced e-planners some may still find comfort in an enhanced physical planendar such as Bunpei Yorifuji’s yPad.


In case you were curious the name’s origin comes from its size – when collapsed, it’s exactly the same size as an iPad – and from the first letter of the designer’s name – Yorifuji.