Last night I had one of my absolute favourites … lemon sole, simply panfried in a little butter, salt and pepper and a generous squeeze of lemon.
Almost inevitably more of the lemon went over my shirt than over the lemon sole.
How I wished I’d had one of the wonderful ideas I saw at the Design Council Spark 2018 Showcase in the Design Museum a couple of weeks ago. Juicekey is a small kitchen utensil designed to magically extract juice from lemons and limes. The Juicekey’s unique features crush the internal pulp and you can then get the juice, drip-free, and with no waste.
I was both privileged and proud to see the twelve Design Council Spark finalists and the fantastic range of ideas. I was involved when the idea of Spark was first conceived and to know that since 2014 it has helped more than 130 innovators and entrepreneurs develop products which make life better.
It was the experience of the very first Showcase that prompted Damon (Bonser) and I to found the British Design Fund last year. We were both amazed that there were no follow-on funds dedicated to well designed British products … although there were as many funds targeting the next technology miracle that was going to turn into a Unicorn in a year ( oh yeh!! ) as you could shake a stick at.
With the first Fund now under our belt and five great product ideas invested in (you can see them here) we’ve just launched the second Fund and will be looking for more great ideas, as well as those of you who might be interested in investing in great products and in growing the productivity of the UK economy.
Of course we’ll be looking at the great ideas from the Design Council Spark Showcase … and you can view them all here.
Personally, I can see just enough room in my shed for another bike …. perhaps the Flit eBike, a foldable electric bike for city use?
John – Design Director, British Design Fund
