international home & housewares show 2012

Meeting knives. International home & housewares 2012.

Mar 27, 2012

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Your brain may say more form than function but not as much as you might imagine. And the weight and material feel quite appropriate. The mismatch may be the highly philosophical Fionacci sequence with it’s base of the average hand width that determines the knives proportions and the name of these knives: the Meeting Knives. Suggested retail is $1,250 for the set of four though $750 online. You are paying for precision as the knives fit perfectly together. Not surprising that Yves Béhar, designer of the Herman Miller Sayl, a least materials design solution, put a set of these knives on his holiday gift list. The design won the European Design Award for Cutlery Creation. [ designapplause objects ]

designer: mia schamallenbach
producer: deglon
material: stainless steel, teflon

Design student winners. International home & housewares 2012.

Mar 20, 2012

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photo: back l>r alex broerman, patrick fiori, vicki matranga: h/idsa, design programs director iha, samuel cheng | front l>r jeannette ralyea, mariel z. piña, elizabeth reuter

2012 marks the 19th year that the International Housewares Association has been recognizing design students. The winners, the judges, the awards are listed below. DesignApplause has asked the winners to present their winning effort and we would post it. If you wish to contact the students, please contact Vicki Matranga at IHA or DesignApplause. [ international housewares association ]

[ 2012 student design competition winners ]
First Place $2,500
Samuel Chen
Cyclone Kitchen Fire Extinguisher
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, junior

First Place $2,500
Mariel Z. Piña
Ambos—A Greater Colander
University of Houston, senior

 Second Place $1,500
Patrick Fiori
Heart Start Infant CPR Assistant
Purdue University, junior

Second Place $1,500
Jeannette Ralyea
Visio Home Safety Guides for the Visually Impaired
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, senior

Third Place $1,000
Alex Broerman
Slivr Home Meat Slicer
University of Cincinnati, senior

Third Place $1,000
Elizabeth Reuter
PoshPaw Pet Nail Clippers
Purdue University, junior

[ grants to the winners’ schools ] $415 to Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
$830 to Purdue University
$415 to University of Cincinnati
$415 to University of Houston
$415 to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

[ honorable mentions $250 each ] Richard Beien
Edge Adjustable Cane
Purdue University, junior

Jennifer Clark
Leverage Door Knob Lever
The Ohio State University, junior

Laura Cioffi
Beck Cutting Board with Measuring Flute
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, junior

Michael MacLean
Safe Step Ladder
The Ohio State University, junior

Breanna Stachowski
Winturn Ergonomic Snow Shovel Handle
University of Notre Dame, senior

Evan Trickey
ZipCord
The Ohio State University, junior

Michael Young
The X-Zip Cord System
Columbus College of Art & Design, senior
 Kevin Wu
Tilta Garden Cart
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, senior

[ 2012 student competition judges ]
David Angel
Technical Design & Product Innovation Manager: Hard Home
JCPenney Corporation

Barbara Ayon
Vice President, Product Development and Sales
Tabletops Unlimited

 Thomas M. Edwards, IDSA Chair, Industrial Design Kendall College of Art & Design
 Maury Fredricks  Fredricks Design, Inc.

Michael Kahwaji, IDSA KitchenAid Brand Studio
Global Consumer Design
 Jonathon Kemnitzer, IDSA
KEM Studio

Jon Lindholm, IDSA
Director, Business & Product Development

International Home & Housewares 2012. The booths deconstructed #1.

Mar 19, 2012

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Most everyone goes to the show to view the goods. We do too. But we conceived this post to showcase the presentation of brand and object. And we failed in execution, in part because we started our booth documentation at the end of our list of things to do. Next time, looking at presentation is going to be first item on our list. Though the booth and the object relies on one another in presentation, we separate the task of evaluating the object and evaluating the booth.

Here are several examples from this show. Most are from the exhibitors who were showcased in this year’s Discover Design competition. Most are small companies with few products and presentation is an easier task.

The criteria:
* how visible is the booth from afar
* how visible is the brand itself
* how special are the goods presented
* how well does the booth shield the viewer from visual distractions
* how creative is the booth concept

medium-sized booth. we liked this booth last year too

large totally contained oxo booth

We do like white in most product presentations but Built makes it work with wood.

wins iron-pansy award

Room Copenhagen has visual knockouts Lego and Pantone, among others, and present these objects on boxes covered with brown carpeting. Shown here on the Discover Design display, not the booth. They do much better next year.

rare example of objects presented with and without the packaging

JosephJoseph a bit over zealous with quantity in this mid-size booth. But it’s well-organized and they present the object with and without the merchandising packaging. They also get best product award so there you go.

guessing most minimal booth in mccormick place.

Monbento plays it cool. The glass vase on right is a best of show award. That’s our trolley in foreground junking up the image.

note: We intended to make mention of those booths that were not photographed but presented exceptionally well. But a photo is worth a thousand…next time. What’s it all mean? Well, a great product might not even come to this show and still be successful. The fact that the great presentations went hand-in-hand with the awards means little in this post. We were not being objective in this matter. And careful with the brown carpet.