Hasta La Ideas

While other high-profile design contests might milk their shortlist for months, one can never accuse London’s Design Museum for doing the same. Just under two short month since announcing their finalists, the annual Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Awards have named their top pick: Samuel Wilkinson and the product design company Hulger, for their creation of the Plumen light bulb. Essentially, it’s a compact fluorescent bulb, twisted into more fluid shapes to set them apart from those standard, boring CFLs you find in packs at Home Depot, thus hopefully making it more appealing to consumers who have been reluctant to make the energy-saving switch. Here’s a portion of the description of the big winner from the Design Museum:

Low-energy light bulbs have never been regarded as a stylish product, the Plumen addresses this by creating an aesthetic bulb which works just like any low-energy bulb. By bending the glass tubes of a light bulb, Plumen have designed a product that uses 80% less energy and lasts eight times longer than an incandescent bulb. Compared with the standard fluorescent light, Plumen 001 is a beautiful light bulb designed to be seen.

You can get a look at the winning bulb in all its bulbous glory, along with the rest of the shortlisted picks, from now until August 7th, at the Design Museum.

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