HOT 50: MIN-KYU CHOI

PLUG

Min-Kyu Choi, the designer of the inspirational folding plug, has made this year’s Hot 50 following his triumph at the 2010 Brit Insurance Design Awards.

Choi, who graduated from the Royal College of Art’s Design Products MA in 2009, developed the folding plug design with help from his tutors Ron Arad and Sam Hecht. He gained inspiration from Apple’s ultra-thin laptop and the fact that in the UK we still use the world’s biggest three-pin plug.

His intention was to make the slimmest three-pin plug possible and still meet British Standards regulations. The ingenious solution was to turn the plug into an object that is just 10mm thick.

When the Brit Insurance winner was revealed last March, artist Antony Gormley, chairman of the Brit Insurance judges, told Design Week that the plug ’shows how intelligent, inventive and elegant design can make a difference to everyone’s life’.

After graduation Choi joined forces with Design London’s business incubator, funded by Nesta, which brings together talented teams from business, technology and design backgrounds, to help transform the prototype into a viable business proposition. Working with the likes of Paul Thomas, developments for the folding plug are fully underway, with hopes to bring it to the market this year.

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