An egg-cellent design clinches prize honours

An egg boiling in a pan may seem an unlikely inspiration for a prize-winning project. However, the bubbling egg has led to success for University of Teesside Design graduates Johann Litherland and James Kennedy.

For the creative duo has designed a safe egg-boiling kit, which clinched first prize in a national competition. Johann and James won 5,000 Euros (£3,600) in the Imagineering industrial design competition, organised by DuPont Engineering Polymers. In addition, they also gained free placements with DuPont.

The prize-winning entry will now be judged in the global Imagineering competition later this month, facing competition from 1,700 international designs.

Johann, 22, from South Devon, has achieved a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Product Design Strategies and Digital Prototyping at the Middlesbrough-based University. He first started to think about the design while watching his mother Trudy boil an egg at home.

Johann said: “Part of our studies involved observing how people deal with products in their everyday lives. I saw the problems my mother was having transferring a hot egg out of the pan, and I then talked to James about designing something to solve this.”

The duo’s design includes a submersible egg cup and hook-knife. This allows the user to boil the egg in the cup, removing the problem of transferring the egg from boiling water to the cup. The hook knife is also multi-functional; it can fish the egg cup from the pan, cut the egg open and slice any accompanying toast.

James, 23, from Darlington, has also gained the same MSc as Johann and said: “We were absolutely ecstatic and over the moon to win the UK round of the competition. We were happy just to make the initial shortlist, and now we’re in an international final, up against entries from a range of countries, including France, Italy and Japan.”

Johann and James’ design will be judged at the international final in Düsseldorf at the end of this month.

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