Tag Archives: iF Design Awards 2021

This sustainable toothbrush’s bristles change color to tell you its time to replace the head!

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Switch is an award-winning toothbrush design with sustainability at its core. It allows you to replace only the brush head and keep the long-lasting metal handle. Manually replace the head by simply twisting the top of the toothbrush to remove and replace the head with a range of options. Switch is produced from recycled materials and the first of its kind available for mass production so it can make an impact quickly when distributed in the market. The design was one of the Red Dot Design Awards 2021 winners as well as a part of the iF Design Awards 2021.

The bristles change color indicating that the head needs to be changed and ensuring effective cleaning. Most of us use a brush till it is frayed but on average, you must replace it every 3 months meaning on average you will use 4 toothbrushes every year. Instead of the plastic generated by four brushes per person, Switch users have an environmentally friendly alternative while maintaining the clinical efficacy of the Signal brand. It also comes with three different head options – sensitive, complete care, and whitening – to address the different needs. Switch is also an alternative to the bamboo brushes that come with plastic bristles expanding to the range of sustainable products and encouraging an eco-conscious lifestyle.

Designer: Ben Cullis Watson and Crux Product Design

This packaging design gives the K-beauty industry the makeover it needs to be more sustainable!

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The packaging design sector is getting a big makeover as more people start paying attention to and incorporating sustainable products in their lives. A South Korean beauty and pharmaceutical company, Kolmar Korea, has designed eco-friendly packaging made from paper for cosmetic products. KbeautyThe package reinforced with a waterproof layer of coated paper withstands the weight of up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds) and can be modified to be produced in various shapes.

Currently, almost every cosmetics products use plastic or glass packaging designed to hold liquid-type or paste-type products. It is hard for makers to create eco-friendly packages using paper as they go soft when exposed to moisture. Cosmetics makers favor plastic packages because of their durability and ability to absorb shock. Also, plastic packages are lighter, making them more cost-effective in large-quantity shipping.

Kolmar Korea said in a statement on November 11 that 80 percent of the new eco-friendly package was made of paper but its cap that fits on the nozzle had to be produced in plastic. Some foreign beauty product companies have already adopted paper packages. La Roche-Posay, a French cosmetics company, released a tube-type sunscreen product using a paper tube in May.

This paper tube offers an eco-friendly advance in tube packaging. The entire body is made of paper, eliminating the use of typical tube materials such as plastics. A range of papers creates various textures. The sleeves can be personalized with the graphics and logos of a given brand. The paper tube also means that consumers can access the last remaining formula contents by simply tearing up the used paper tube along the dotted line. The paper tube, while sealed with a plastic cap, marks a major environmental improvement for the cosmetic industry, and can be used to package a whole range of personal care, health and beauty products.

Designer: Lee Je Min, Jung Jung Mo, and Kim Hee Yoon

This award-winning semi-acoustic guitar is made in a single piece from carbon fiber

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Carbon Fiber lends a very different set of features to a guitar. Aside from making it practically unbreakable and possibly quadrupling its lifespan, it lends a unique timbre to the guitar. Carbon fiber’s all-graphite construction brings a crystalline and detailed tone to the guitar while also allowing the instrument to have greater acoustic volume. The result is a better build quality (without glue, braces, or any additional fixtures) as well as a better sound. The LAVA ME PRO guitar comes crafted in a single piece, entirely out of carbon fiber. With a curved single-piece construction that goes from body to fretboard without breaking continuity, the LAVA ME PRO is undoubtedly strong as well as lightweight.

Aside from being a semi-acoustic guitar, the LAVA ME PRO comes with pickups that allow it to function as an electric guitar too. A preamp and pickup control panel sits right at top of the guitar’s body, where the player can fine-tune the sound of the electric signal produced by the guitar. When used acoustically, the guitar produces a crisp and loud sound, courtesy of the carbon fiber build, and an oddly located sound-hole right above the strings… a detail that gives the LAVA ME PRO an instantly memorable aesthetic.

Its semi-acoustic nature gives it the sound of an acoustic guitar with the flexibility of an electric guitar. Knobs on the top allow you to tune your sound to perfection, while the ability to add processors and modules helps your guitar transform from a casual instrument to a powerful guitar made for stage performances. “The novel and high-tech carbon fiber body was inspired by the extremely light but stiff honeycomb structure used in aircrafts. Combining layers of carbon fiber with LAVA’s “Phantom Structure” honeycomb soundboard gives a new dimension to your tone, producing a loud but organic sound with every chord or pluck”, say the LAVA MUSIC team.

The Lava Me Pro Carbon Fiber Guitar is a winner of the iF Product Design Award for the year 2021.

Designer: LAVA MUSIC Design Team

This sustainable storage container + shopping bag reduces your consumption emissions and food waste!

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Open your refrigerator – how many plastic containers do you see? Now open that cabinet where you store your shopping bags – do you really need that many plastic bags? We often store in our takeout boxes/plastic containers and keep those plastic bags in hopes to reuse someday because we forget to carry our cloth bags to the store. Most of these little habits are formed because it is convenient and cheap but we do them without thinking about the effects of its continued use on our environment. To solve both problems with one design, Gabriel Steinmann created P0 (pronounced pio like the letter and number) which stands for ‘project zero’  – a storage and shopping solution for food that aims to reduce consumption emissions.

P0 helps us to switch to and maintain a plant-based diet and reduce the amount of food waste. The design blends organic and sustainable materials with an earthy aesthetic to invoke warmth and a more personal relationship with the items we use. Its ceramic body and textile lining help encourage a deeper appreciation for the food we consume and make us more aware of how much food we actually need to minimize wasting it. It is also a practical and attractive utensil in your kitchen – “a symbol of change, of becoming a little bit more human,” as rightly described by Steinmann.

The jury at iF Design Awards gave PO the ‘iF Design Talent Award 2020’ because it raises awareness and facilitates sustainable food consumption using a very beautifully designed functional product. “The design will appeal to early adopters who will become ambassadors for this product. The whole process is well thought-out and the combination of the different materials is aesthetically pleasing and endorses the entire concept. The possibility of customization makes it even more personal and inspires others to change their food consumption habits,” added the jury.

This self-sufficient, parametric, adaptable storage-and shopping solution is something I would really love to see taking over the world and make that sustainable switch in our lifestyle convenient enough to ditch the plastic containers and shopping bags.

Designer: Gabriel Steinmann

This tabletop clothes washing machine was designed to clean your undergarments and save water!

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Underwear and socks take up a lot more space in the washing machine than we might give them credit. Most of the time, I reason with the overflow of socks by removing a bulky pair of jeans or a couple of t-shirts, otherwise, I keep the socks in the laundry basket to await next week’s load. It’s a good thing I own a lot of socks. The creators from EZVALO have created a miniature washing machine to take care of our smaller undergarments called NIX so they don’t take up most of the space or get lost in the cycle of our regular loads of laundry.

NIX is a miniature washing machine specifically built to clean, dry, and sanitize our undergarments, like underwear, undershirts, and socks, using less water in the process. The miniature washing machine features an inclined drum that promises to save water while also making it easier for users to load, unload, and keep an eye on their laundry. Additionally, NIX comes with an integrated water tank, allowing users to place their miniature washing machine anywhere they’d like without the hassle of having to attach hoses or electrical appliances to a wall outlet. Featuring a vertical-lifting door, the designers behind NIX boast its futuristic and clean design scheme. Along the top of NIX’s main door, a digital display screen allows users to denote which cycle they’d like NIX to perform all through the use of haptic sensors.

Shortlisted for 2021’s iF Design Award, NIX is a miniature laundry machine that saves water and space so that users can clean their smaller clothing items like pairs of underwear and socks. Even besides that, NIX seems like an especially convenient household appliance for more urgent washing matters like accidental red wine spills or guacamole mishaps. Yes, I’m speaking from personal experience.

Designer: EZVALO

NIX comes with a vertical, touch-and-lift door that opens to a tilted drum for easy access to load and unload laundry.

The door’s main digital display screen indicates how much time is left in a wash or dry cycle and features the machine’s on/off and pause buttons.

With an integrated water tank, NIX does not require any additional hose attachments.

Users only have to lift the machine’s door for access to its drum.

Available in optic white, NIX’s design is clean and sophisticated.