TapTop water carafe is the winner!

I'm very pleased to say that TapTop was selected as the winner for the London on Tap competition - it was announced yesterday by Boris Johnson at City Hall. Happy days - I'm now looking forward to assisting with developing the production version later this month.

(Picture with Boris Johnson courtesy of London On Tap)

http://www.londonontap.org

The Gusto Weigh-Hey! Recycled Chair Hits Cardiff Design Festival

it’s the weigh-hey! chair from gusto
just sit on the chair, look at the dial
between your legs, lift your legs off the ground
and weigh-hey! it tells you your weight,
discretely (well sort of...)



This was our entry into this years 'Adopt a Chair' competition as part of the Cardiff Design Festival. Designers are invited to pick an unloved chair from a warehouse and inject some new life into it...

The Weigh-Hey! Chair is an interactive analogue retro object which is hopefully both charming and innovative. The idea is based around the introduction of a new fun eating related function; a new lease of life and secrecy (chair meets scales). The Weigh-Hey! chair is strangely contemporary yet reassuringly traditional and we purposely didn’t apply any surface finish to the old existing parts (apart from our ‘graffiti’ logo) – it is what it is and it was what it was.

The chair was designed by Neil Barron and made by Dai Kneath.
We're told that the chair was runner up in this year's competition, which is nice:)

Neil Barron's TapTop Recycled Glass Carafe Shortlisted

It's a while since I've posted anything but hey is anybody reading this? We've been pretty busy doing lots of different types of design projects.

Last week I found out that my design for a recycled glass water carafe shortlisted in the "London on Tap" design competition. The idea is "to promote London's drinking water through restaurants, bars and hotels" as bottled water can be around 500 times the price of tap water; which in London is of a very high quality.

The carafe will be prototyped in the next month and the winning design will be made in large quantities from 10,000 - 100,000.

My entry is called TapTop and the form is derived from a stylized tap (faucet) control - this produces four pouring spouts which are drip-free and completely instinctive to use. The carafe is tall and elegant, yet quirky and contemporary like an inverted rocket.

The shortlisted designs are exhibited in the cafe at London's City Hall (Yes the onion shaped building on the South Bank).

Fingers crossed...

http://www.londonontap.org

Gusto Sticklebook in Paris, New York then Frankfurt

Gusto's patented invisible bookshelf, Sticklebook, will be exhibited in Paris this month at Maison et Objet (from 25–29 January 2008 Hall 7 stand N39 - 40) then in New York at the International Gift Fair (from 2-6 February 2008 Made by Humans booth 2956-2958) then in Frankfurt at Ambiente (from 8-12 February 2008 Hall 6.1, stand D80). Sticklebook is being exhibited by Mode; worldwide distributors who also have their own funky products (www.modestudio.co.uk).

Gusto creates wind powered park keeper's hut for UK energy giant E.ON

We have created a working autonomous alternative energy park keeper’s hut in a Leicestershire park for energy giant E.ON. The hut has a wind turbine which powers a low voltage system with deep cycle battery back up and enough power to run an energy efficient light, charge a mobile phone plus boil a kettle allowing award winning park keeper, Mick Eaton to make about 4 cups of tea per day - bringing a whole new meaning to the idea of green tea!

We do these kind of projects in order to learn more about particular technologies so that we can transfer the knowledge into our mainstream work. We have also done an autonomous ice cream bike where the freezer is powered by both a wind turbine and a deployable solar panel.
gusto design ltd, london, +44 (0)20 77368828, design@gusto.co.uk, www.gusto.co.uk
design for industry; consultants in new product development and innovation