While most design competitions reward ideas, SHAPL is actually committed to developing them. One of the few design competitions that’s focused on the outcome rather than just the concept, the SHAPL Design Competition takes winning ideas and actually develops them into real-world products that people can buy, use, and be delighted by! The process is quite simple. Develop your design, upload it to SHAPL’s competition dashboard, and it gets judged not just by a jury, but also by consumers who would love to own the product. Consumers vote for products they like, bringing the human-centric element into the competition, allowing the market to choose the most market-ready, market-worthy product… while the jury panel also helps vet designs based on practicality, aesthetics, and overall appeal. Winners not only see their products turn into reality, but also get patents to their designs, and hefty cash prizes of up to $10,000. (With total cash prizes amounting to $100,000!)

The SHAPL Design Contest is currently in its 3rd edition and entries are free for all, and open till the 17th of December 2020… that gives you a month’s worth of time to come up with a great idea for a product, design it, and tweak it till it’s a stellar concept! The contest offers a great opportunity to really test the waters with your product and actually gauge market response, thanks to the ability for the audience to choose the winners. There are no strict rules or regulations pertaining to what category of product you can submit, giving you the freedom to create anything from consumer electronics to home-decor, and from fashion and personal-care to even child-care! SHAPL oversees the production and prototyping of your concept, collaborating with you over choice of material, CMF, etc. If you’ve been published on Yanko Design, take it from us, your designs stand an even stronger chance of being one of the many winners of the SHAPL Design Contest! Go ahead and shoot your shot! (did we mention, it’s free?) Entries are open till the 17th of December 2020. Give your renders the limelight and opportunity they deserve, and your portfolio the street-cred it deserves! Scroll down to check out some of the past winners from the 2018-19 design contest!

Click Here to Submit Your Designs Now! Last Date for Submission: December 17th, 2020.

Winning Designs from 2018-2019

01. Hairstyler Pro (Gold Winner)

The Hairstyler Pro is perhaps the best example to highlight how innovation-driven and consumer-focused the SHAPL Design Contest is. This U-shaped hairdryer radically re-imagines how hairdryers look, behave, and interact with the users. The Hairstyler Pro looks nothing like a hairdryer because it’s so much more than one. Designed to be a dryer that works in your hand as well as hands-free, and with an attachment that turns it into a curler, the Hairstyler Pro is the ultimate hairdressing appliance. The U-shaped profile bends and contorts to assume different shapes that give it its variety of functions. A curler attachment (which applies the same curling principles found in Dyson’s curler) uses spiral wind patterns to quickly and effectively curl your hair, and the hands-free mode lets you use both your hands to comb/style your hair while the dryer stands vertically on your dressing table, blowing air exactly where you want it to! Pretty innovative, huh!

02. Furia Bicycle by Francesco Manocchio (Bronze Winner)

If the Furia bicycles fearsome form looks familiar, that’s because you’ve definitely seen it before… only, not in a bicycle! It’s one of the first to utilize motorcycle-inspired hub-center steering. Rather than above the wheel, the pivot points are located in the wheel hub, allowing the steering, braking, and suspension functions to be separate. This results in a smoother more controlled ride, especially over bumps and road irregularities. Shocks are immediately absorbed by the suspension with minimal transfer to the rest of the bike. This also assists with rider endurance. Combining carbon fiber composite and 3D printing, it’s unmatched in lightness, strength and performance.

03. OAVE Microwave by Youngwoong Kim & Jungbae Gong

Unlike conventional microwaves that exist as a box-shaped oven with a door and a rotating plate on the inside, OAVE takes on a much more ornamental approach to gadget’s design, giving it a cylindrical structure and a cloche-shaped lid you can take off to reveal the food inside. OAVE gives your microwave oven a much more aesthetic, table-friendly avatar. The two-part design comprises a rotating base, and a perforated metal and glass cover that sits over your food. Visible from all sides, the food rotates on its lazy-suzy base, illuminated by an overhead light. When you’re done, lift up the lid to reveal the fresh hot meal beneath!

04. Baek-Ja Fire Extinguisher by Ko Yuni

Modeled on the pottery style of the Joseon Dynasty, the Baek-Ja Fire Extinguisher looks less like a fire-safety device and more like an oriental vase you’d have no qualms about keeping in the center of your room! The faceted outer body simply acts as an external cover for the inner extinguisher vessel. The bulbous part of the vase protects it against impacts and shocks, while the concave part extends beyond the base of the inner vessel to keep it from coming in contact with the floor while in use. I’m not entirely sure if having a fire-extinguisher colored white is ‘up to code’, but this concept sure looks less utilitarian and more aesthetic than the other extinguishers out there!

05. LITO Candle Holder by Mina Kasirifar

Designed to not just class up your cake but also prevent the wax from dripping onto the food below, the LITO Candle Holder quite literally makes your birthday-cake heavenly! The angelic candlestand can be push-fitted into the cake facing either inwards or outwards, and can hold all sorts of candles… even the numbered ones!

06. Luft Flow by Luft (Gold Winner)

The Luft Flow explores a unique approach to air filtration. Divided into two parts, this purifier separates the appliance’s two core functions – purification and humidification. You can simply detach the small, portable purifier unit from its humidifier base and carry it around with you. The purifier works on an internal battery, filtering the air of whichever room it’s kept in, while the base of the Luft Flow works towards regulating temperature and humidity in the house!

07. Chess Pick by MEARI

They say chess is a great game to make your mind healthy, but what if it could make your body healthy too? These adorable chess-piece food-picks are an interesting cross-over, in part because they make your fruit-bowl look interesting, but also because they’re just intuitively designed to be gripped (as all chess pieces are). Don’t say we can’t play with our food now!

08. Model Y Router by Ninety Studio

Unlike the antiquated box/antenna form, Y’s triangular shape is at once minimalistic, sculptural and functional. Its internal parts have been reorganized in a more sensible way that keeps the antenna contained and protected. Better yet, one section of the triangle is dedicated to cable storage! You can actually tuck away any extra cord directly into the device. Until Mark Zuckerberg gets thats universal internet idea off the ground, I NEED this in my life!

09. Unit Pen by Unit Pen

Think of the Unit Pen as an ultimate instance of fidget-stationery. Designed almost like beads strung around a necklace, the Unit Pen comes with multiple playful units strung together using the pen’s refill. You can either fidget with the different pieces, spinning them around on their axis, or rearrange them to make a nice, tactile piece of stationery your hands and eyes will love!

10. Infrared Foot Dryer by Jeans/Industrial

Modeled to look like a doormat, this nifty appliance is actually a foot-dryer that uses infrared to generate enough heat to gently (and safely) evaporate the water on your feet. The dryer comes with a central control-hub that you can maneuver with your feet. Push down on it to activate the dryer and a combination of heat and wind quickly dry the water off your feet. Any excess runoff water gets drained out through the grills on the mat.

– Total Prize: $100,000
– Production Bonus: $10,000

Click Here to Submit Your Designs Now! Last Date for Submission: December 17th, 2020.