The Toyota iQ Design Challenge involved students from the Royal College of Art who were to design innovative concepts to make urban easier. The inspiration for their designs had to be the new Toyota iQ. The students have imagined household items that might just make it to the stores in the near future.
Some of the most interesting concepts presented at the Toyota iQ Design Challenge include a Bike Lock that puts your bike out of the reach of thieves and a Yu Type - a computer peripheral that increases the speed of 'two-finger' typists.
All the designs entered in the Toyota iQ Design Challenge will be on display at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU until 22 January 2009.
Toyota Press Release:
The Toyota iQ Design Challenge for new ideas for the modern home has produced concepts that range from the wonderful to the downright wacky.
In a creative partnership with Toyota, Royal College of Art students were asked to help promote innovative design for urban living, using Toyota’s new city car, the iQ, as inspiration.
Students from the world-renowned center for design have developed household items that they could pitch on Dragon’s Den and which might even make their way to local high street stores.
Some of the highlights include:
Bike Lock - out of reach, out of harm: bike thieves and their boltcutters will be thwarted by this locking hoist storage system, mounted eight feet above the ground on garage or external walls. Owners simply can use a remote control or a smart card for quick and easy access to their wheels.
Yu Type: a computer peripheral designed to help ‘two-finger’ typists increase their speed and accuracy. A small screen displays the text typed, positioned in the user’s peripheral vision, eliminating the need to keep shifting focus from keyboard to monitor.
Click-click, chink-chink: a simple snap release on this ice tray sends cubes straight into your glass, not on to the kitchen floor.
Squeeze your lemon, wrap your lemon, save your lemon: there’s no waste with this neat squeezer-keeper gadget.
Waste not, want not: the Pack Lamp is made from the box it comes in.
This feelgood wallcovering has a welcome in store, opening into a riot of flowers when it senses you coming into the room.
Tell your bills to “get stuffed” with a cushion that has built-in filing pockets to keep all your receipts neatly stored.
The iQ Design Challenge exhibition is at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU until 22 January 2009, open to the public daily from 11am to 6pm, admission free.
