To Seoul with Gusto: 48-hour Inclusive Design Challenge

Last month I was involved with a great British Council project in Seoul, S Korea. This was organised and managed by Julia Cassim from the RCA and by the British Council plus the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The 48 hour Inclusive Design Challenge saw me plus 6 other professional designers lead teams of around 6 or 7 designers (from a number of different countries) each working with a Korean disabled person in order to find insights which could drive innovation into the wider world. The whole experience was amazing - involving very intensive group working and immediate engagement with the needs of someone (in our group's case) who was profoundly disabled in another country and in another language. We had brilliant interpreters, very enthusiastic student helpers (who really stepped up to the mark) and very open enthusiastic designers as part of the team.

Our innovation (branded 'Aura') was all about presence and communication and attempted to highlight physical presence and promote engagement - this was then applied to the wider world from children's buggies to courier's boxes.

There's a more detailed account of the whole project here :-

http://bit.ly/6zXiWC

Gusto harnesses pedal power to teach about electricity

This summer (what summer?) Gusto have created a bicycle powered giant buzzer game to teach children about energy, electricity and alternative sources of power.

The project has toured primary schools in the Midlands as part of E.ON's Energy Experience programme. Presented by Konnie Huq, the Experience enables children to learn about energy through fun and activities. Funnily enough, they were most keen on getting their teachers to pedal the bike whilst they enjoyed the game!

TapTop water carafe is launched with Aldo Zilli & Rosie Boycott

The first batch of TapTop water carafes were delivered to Aldo Zilli at his Zilli Fish Soho restaurant on Tuesday. Rosie Boycott (Chair of London Food) and I delivered a box via rickshaw (how else!). Nazeing Glass are producing the carafes and it was the culmination of their and Thames Water's hard work. The carafes will now be rolled out around London restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels. It looks like my original option of frosted glass will be available as well as clear, blue and green. Companies can have their logos produced onto the side of the carafe as an option.

The project has come at an interesting time economically and environmentally and I'm sure we'll see more people exercising their right to drink (free) tap water with their meals. Tip-top-ety-tap; it's been fun for me!

Gusto Create Boots Smooth Skin iPL Device

Monday 10th February 2009 saw the launch in Boots of the Smooth Skin iPL device designed by Gusto for Cyden. iPL is Intense Pulsed Light which is a safe technology developed and patented by Cyden to remove hair and treat skin marks. Neil Barron worked with the Cyden team at all levels to produce a desirable, easy to use, ergonomic consumer product which takes the essence of the i400 clinical device (also designed by Gusto) and brings it into the home. So now you can take Boots vitamins or remove hair with Gusto!

Images courtesy of Boots and Cyden

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