Electrolux Design Contest pseudo entries

For just another year, Electrolux Design Lab gives a chance for young and talented industrial designer-guru wannabes to submit their designs and win prizes.

As Vide and Emo have never even stepped into the industrial design faculty of any University, they took the challenge mostly from its creative side (their trust into the Olympic principle doesn't seem to fade with time and declined entries from many other competitions).
For the 2010 brief stated that designs should emphasize on greenness, flexible to space and customizable, Vide and Emo's response to points one and three was pretty literal - all their appliances were painted green to comply with the requirement and are customizable in a way that they would greet their potential owners with a lively "Hello, Tim" or "Hi, Lucy" blinking on their LCD displays. Smooth shapes and licked edges is a bonus we let jury enjoy for free. So much for the design...

There come the ideas.


The Dog Dietitian

Problem

When owners leave for a summer-long vacation all pets start worring – is it going to be the neighbour that will take care of the them or there would be a pile of food that will make them overeat the first several days and then be left to the Providence to decide their nutritional fate?

Design Solution

The Electrolux Dog Dietitian is the first and foremost device for pet feeding. Despite the name ir bears [chosen solely to preserve first letter repetition], it could be used equally successful for any other pets too. Food is put into the Dietitian in advance and then it is pre-programmed to allocate user-defined ratios of food - hourly, daily or weekly.
It takes the shape of dog’s muzzle with a sensor display at its nose and ears that flap to the sides to serve the purpose of food trays.

The Heavenly Heater

Problem

Even though contemporary irons have a dial to choose the right heat for different clothing materials, using it correctly takes time, consideration and some knowledge of the materials themselves. And does anybody know the setting for the rare kashmire or camel wool clothes?

Design Solution

The trick that makes all the difference here is a small and fully automatized sensor that figures out the exact nature of the material to be ironed. Then Heavenly Heater self-adjusts to operate at optimal temperature.
Controlled via the sensor display on top.

The Fish-O-Fine

Problem

Fish is delicious and healthy but cleaning it could be a tiresome drag! Which sounds even more convincing to those who have actually tried (and to some extend managed) to remove the out- and in-testines of seafood.
Until now, there was no purposful design to address this troublesome routine.

Design Solution

The Fish-O-Fine is a revolutionary hand-held fish cleaner that takes care of everything but the eadible part of what is to be served as part of a seafood menu. Looking like a fish itself, it has a sharp lower ‘lip’ that scratches off the flakes on fish’s skin and its inner parts. Once detached, all junk goes straight in the vacuum-operated ‘mouth’ that safely stores it in its internal compartment.
It sports a rechargeable battery.
The Blossom Bunker

Problem

Few things irritate more and cause more confusion than smelly shoes.
Problems here include but are not limited to lack of suitable storage space, inefficient odor-battling sprays and degrading shoe satisfaction.

Design Solution

Looking like an oval-shaped box, Blossom Bunker not only removes unpleasant odors but also prevents feet diseases through special gas ventilation. An interface censor display on its peak delivers all of its functionality to the finger touch its owner. One full operational cycle lasts for only 15 minutes, which makes one hour enough to process all what most people’s shoe drawer has to offer. The result of the magic that happens inside the Bunker is shoes that are deliciously fragrant and much safer to wear.

The Flower Friend

Problem

There is a good reason why people compare women to flowers. Except for the beauty, they also compete in the Care category, demanding vast investments of time and attention. As for the flowers, care translates as proper amounts of sun and water. With noone to water them, they soon begin to fade and finally die.

Design Solution

The Flower Friend is a sophisticated execution of a really simple and practical idea - a small device that pumps water out of a bucket or other larger/smaller container and directs it in specified amounts to three flower pots.
A brightly lit central display reacts to human touch to help determine the flow of water to each of three flowers it services.
Cable or battery operated.


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