Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen promotion: there is just one day of public voting left in the LaunchBox new product contest, before the ballot closes on 11 July.

LaunchBox is an online competition created by Cut&Paste, Intel and HP, which exhibits new pre-crowdfunded product designs from across Europe.

There is a total of £14,000 in prizes to be won in contributions towards crowdfunding campaigns, as long as projects have not received any sales revenues or crowdsourced funds prior to entry.

This year’s entries range from concepts and ideas to fully-developed prototypes. A number of the projects focus on transport, with bicycles, a motorbike and car concepts among the submissions.

Highlights include modular furniture, clay kitchen utensils and a medical lighting system for developing countries.

Fuzo is a piece of furniture made from wood and welded metal consisting of three parts, which can be turned into a high seat, footrest, locker or plant pot.

“I think the compact size of this creation will interest people who don’t have a lot of space to live, maybe students or young couples,” Fuzo’s creator Bertrand Besnard told Dezeen.

“Initially, the user can’t fully understand the project because its isn’t shaped like a familiar interior furniture piece, but after using it they gradually discover multiple functions.”

Exo Electric City Car is a concept for a three-seater city car with a unique structure designed to improve the safety of the vehicle.

Its creators Mark Beccaloni and Mauro Fragiotta removed all the details that usually sit on the outside of a car, replacing them with an uncovered exoskeleton and unified chassis.

“We had to think about a completely different car system, choosing advanced technologies and different space distribution from a conventional car,” said Beccaloni and Fragiotta.

“At first inspiration came from nature, in particular from arthropods, which are animals that have an exoskeleton to protect their internal organs.”

Its angular exterior and external chassis are intended to reduce the car’s weight and cost, as well as increasing its speed.

“We used Buckminster Fuller’s work on geodesic structures to adapt our exoskeleton idea, developing a light but strong geodesic external frame,” Beccaloni and Fragiotta added.

Squeezer is a terracotta orange juicer, initially created by Jacopo Ferrari for an exhibition called Terracotta Everyday at Milan Design Week in 2014 to celebrate the material’s strong link to Italian culture.

“The exhibition was about daily objects, which is why I designed a squeezer,” said Ferrari. “It’s a modest object that is always needed in any kitchen.”

The product consists of two parts that are linked together by a coloured rubber gasket, and the upper part is unglazed.

“Every time someone squeezes an orange in my home, its flavour lingers in the air for some minutes. The properties of unglazed terracotta led me to design a squeezer that absorbs and slowly releases the orange flavour,” Ferrari told Dezeen.

“I hope Squeezer will be appreciated outside design community, by people who love simple objects made of beautiful materials,” added Ferrari.

The LaunchBox Gallery will be reviewed by a panel of industry jurors, including senior vice president of design at Fab.com Evan Clabots and 3Doodler’s Maxwell Bogue.

Click here to browse the full gallery and vote for your favourite projects. Voting closes on Friday 11 July.

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