30 November 2010

Help a design student out


Evan Morikawa is a student at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA. He loves design, building things, and finding interesting new ways to solve old problems. He has a kitchen gadget he's putting into production and he asked me to tell him what I thought of it.

Frankly Evan I'm flattered but who cares what I think? If it helps, I think it's an elegant piece of functional sculpture. I'm far more interested in helping you get your idea in front of an audience. I believe very strongly in giving good ideas a leg up and Evan, yours is a good idea.


What do you guys think? Is it an elegant piece of sculpture? Is this something you can see using yourself or giving as a gift? What words of encouragement and advice do you have for a new product designer who's offering up his first design?

Evan's producing these prototypes through the end of the week and you can order them through his website. He's selling them for $45 a piece and you can contact him directly with questions through his site.

13 comments:

  1. I think that is a great idea! He's only an hour away from he as well! I hate putting spoons on the countertop, I never trust that its 100% clean.

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  2. $45 price point is way to high. I like the idea and I would use a more compact version. If he designed it 1/2 of it's current width and sells it at $14.99, I'd buy one for me and the other for my mother :-)

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  3. Thanks for the feedback guys, Evan's watching this comment thread like a hawk. I'd hope to get a few more by now but we'll take what we can get.

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  4. I love this idea and I agree with the above comments. I have a small space between the wall and my stove and would need only half the size. $14.99 is far more inciting then the $45. Also do the two bars move/expand with different size handles? I mainly use wooden spoons when cooking and not regular spoons as shown in photo. Also is this something that is mounted to the counter top or is it portable? How heavy is the base? I ask because I wonder if a longer heavier spoon would cause the base to topple over.

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  5. While I am all for attractive objects (which this is), why not just use the spoon rest that is under the spoon? Seems incredibly redundant to suspend it in the air only to have something on the counter to catch the drips. With counter space in most kitchens at such a premium, it takes up way too much space. At the very least the tray should be integrated so as not to require a secondary means of keeping the drips off the counter. It's just way too "belts and suspenders" and doesn't really solve a problem. The most useful spoon rests are the ones that clip to the side of the pot so the spoon is exactly where you need it and drips back in to the pot.

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  6. Well, I hate the ones that sit on the counter and you set the spoon inside, they take up more space then this design, and you have to wash them afterwards. With this design, it will drip on your counter, but aren't you wiping that up afterwards anyway?

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  7. Great questions Shannon, I was wondering the same thing about the adjustability.

    Dustin: I cook a lot and I'm forever using large tablespoons to stir and sample things. Every time I grab a spoon I set it aside and forget about it. By the time I have dinner ready I'm out of spoons. I don't know how typical my spoon use is, but I would find this useful.

    Eric: I'm with you all the way.

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  8. Clever idea. Maybe approach chiasso.com, they sell unique things like this. Good luck!

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  9. Also, a catchy name would help with the marketing of it.

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  10. I was thinking about Alessi for the same reason you were thinking about Chiasso. And he owes you a royalty if he uses that name. Brava!

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  11. Wow, everyone! Thank you so much for the feedback! I've heard multiple comments about its size. I definitely like the wall mounting idea. If you check back later this evening, I'll have a smaller version to look at.

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  12. I disagree somewhat with Eric. While an onloaded conventioanl spoonrest takes up more room than one of these unloaded, as soon as you put a spoon in it they both take up the same amount of room. And yes, I'd do it with an integrated drip catcher. Probably, I'd put some sort of plate on the bottom for the upright to attach to, probably with a lip to keep stuff from going over the edge onto the counter. It would also make it take up as much space loaded as unloaded, which I see as a requirement. It would also counterbalance the spoons better than a weighted upright. I don't want to have to move stuff out of the way when I bring this device out. As for wiping the counter anyway... EEWWWW!!! I don't want to have to wipe up drips if I don't have to.

    In my mind, the real value of this device is that I can use many spoons that are for many different things without having to clean the spoon rest in between. The disadvantage of a conventional spoon rest is that the spoon rests in the drips. One other use for it would be to hold a spoon with some tasting quantity of stuff in it that's cooling while I'm doing something else.

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