cornexo

Ok, hands down, best thing shown here: Portable Light.

Are you kidding me?  No one has thought of this before?  Apparently not.  This product is absolutely brilliant (no pun intended).  An extremely light, solar-rechargeable, unbreakable, very bright, versatile flashlight.  Yes a flashlight.  But it is more than that.  You can link them together for faster recharging, energy sharing, or brighter light.  They can be customized for inetegration into local lifestyles.  It can be dropped out of an airplane, land (thud!) on the ground, and be turned on.  What?!?!

This combination of extremely simple, mass produced, components into a highly functional device is what design innovation is all about.  Leave the marketing kids at home, build a product, the market will find you.  Off the top of my head I had at least a dozen other uses for this product.

I want one.  What can you do with Portable Light?

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, one of my favorite, is currently taking nominations and votes for it’s People’s Design Award as part of the National Design Award.  Phew, a lot of Design in there.

Get in there, check find some cool products, and VOTE!  And for the Charlottesville peeps…there is a local entry, our — ahem — beloved Community Chalkboard.  Not particularly my cup of tea.  I prefer something a bit more functional.