Designboom, a mod blog devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, recently came out with the winners of its 2006 Dining in 2015 contest. The challenge was exactly as it sounds: to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home. Chefs and designers from Italy and Japan judged the entires and came up with the top three and an honorable mention.
Let's start from the bottom and work up. The honorable mention [ed. note: shown in photo] was an eco-friendly solution to dinner prep: silicone and nylon triangle-shaped buckets that allow the cook to boil three different foods all in one pot, thereby saving energy, time, and water. I totally expect it to be selling out on QVC in no time.
Third place? A creative ceramic salt and pepper shaker that forces you to physically break open the canister to access the spices inside. The goal of the project? There isn't any, really, but we bet it's really, really fun to break open. Save it for a day when you're really pissed off at someone, and then smash away. (But don't get carried away - - then you'll just have a mess of salt, pepper, and white ceramic shards to clean up).
Second place is a fun, cute design that really just gives you a new reason to chew on your pen: the designers came up with spoon, fork, and knife toppers for your ballpoint pens. Even cooler? The product uses biodegradable starches and fibers, and it's packaged in recycled wood pulp bags. Personally, I think I'd constantly forget the top was off and accidentally chew on the pen nib...but that's just me.
Now, you're probably thinking, these products are cool, but first place has to be something truly revolutionary. Well, um, think again. First place is *drumroll, please*...a leaf-shaped...spoon. There are no words, people.
Cheese Course: Brebis Pardou
A transcendent summer tomato salad
Sliced bread turns 80 today
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-22-2008 @ 11:33AM
SeanMike said...
I don't really understand the winners in this contest. A leaf-shaped spoon? Salt and pepper shakes you can break? That sounds like something for today - I'd think that for a contest about 2015, you'd be saying "what will we be using in 7 years that we're not now?"
The honorable mention was the closest one to that I thought.
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1-22-2008 @ 11:54AM
K said...
The photo above links to the contest, but he's a link for those of us who are impatient to see the others she's talking about ...
http://www.designboom.com/contest/winner.php?contest_pk=21
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1-22-2008 @ 12:04PM
Ellen Slattery said...
Hi guys! Thanks for reading.
The link to the additional winners is actually at the bottom of the post - just click on the word "Read." It's a bit hard to find - sorry for the confusion!
Peace,
Ellen
1-22-2008 @ 12:22PM
Barry said...
Honorable mention for creating a pot that keeps food separate in hot water? How is that better than having a multipurpose spider or basket and a pot?
Why would I want bits of ceramic with my salt and pepper?
This selection of winners seems shortsighted at best.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:10PM
Alex said...
I'm as perplexed as the others. How will a ceramic s&p shaker that you have to break be useful in 2015? Or at any time. What a waste. The pen toppers seem odd, too. If you have the space and foresight to pack one of these in your purse or backpack, why not just stick in a regular fork? Then you can still cover your pen top if you accidentally throw your fork away. As for the spoon... Ellen summed it up with "there are no words."
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1-22-2008 @ 2:52PM
Shawn Harstad said...
The pot sounds cool. Th rest are useless. Sounds like some kind of commie, tree hugger contest.
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