IQ Design winners announced

Dominic Hargreaves’ Bike Lock and Yusuf Muhammad’s Yu Type were declared overall winners last night by a panel of eight judges, which included Design Week editor Lynda Relph-Knight, RCA designer and head of products Ron Arad, Toyota chief engineer Lance Scott and Sebastian Bergne, designer and visiting professor at the RCA.

Hargreaves and Muhammad scooped £5500 each, and a third designer, Graeme Davies, claimed £4000 for his Quicksnap design.

Using the Toyota IQ as inspiration, RCA students were asked at September’s London Design Festival to create a design for ‘intelligent urban living’ across living room, kitchen and garage spaces.

Hargreaves – winner in the garage category – has designed a locking hoist storage system for garage or external walls, which releases a bicycle using a smart card.

Muhammad’s Yu Type – winner in the living room category – is a device for ‘two-finger typists’, which works by placing a screen in their peripheral vision to avoid a shift in focus between keyboard and monitor.

Davies’ Quicksnap won the kitchen honour. It is an ice-cube tray which prevents all of the ice falling out when the tray is twisted.

An exhibition of the 12 products which were vying for a total of £15 000 in prize money went on display at the RCA yesterday, where they will remain on show until 22 January.