Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Posted: July 13th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - University of Brighton, Press coverage | No Comments »
Last night I was in Brighton showcasing some of the work from our “Designing for the Future” Competition at the international Science of Ageing Conference organised by BSRA (British Society for Research on Ageing).
If the assembled scientists were surprised to be infiltrated by product designers, they did not show it and in fact there was a good deal of interest in what we were doing.
What we are hoping to see is a growing recognition amongst medics and scientists that often it is good design which makes their discoveries and innovations more usable and wearable by the people they are aiming to help.
Posted: June 28th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Press coverage | No Comments »
We were thrilled to be invited to showcase our “Designing for the Future” University of Brighton student competition at this year’s Mobility Roadshow.
The Design Zone will feature examples of innovative and new designs in the area of independent living and is being run in association with the Royal College of Art/Helen Hamlyn Centre. Curators Denise Stephens of Enabled by Design and Hayley Smith of Such+Such Designs are both enthusiastic champions of good, inclusive design.
Also exhibiting this year are the designers of the innovative laptop/traybag, the Trabasack.
Fantastic to be in such illustrious company!
Posted: June 23rd, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - University of Brighton, Press coverage | Comments Off
Some great coverage today for our “Designing for the Future” competition in today’s West Sussex County Times, illustrated with images from the two winning designs, the Living Memorial Stone and an electronic supermarket navigator.
The West Sussex County Times have kindly supported us since we won the Best New Business Award last year.
Their jounalists are also very clued in to the problems and issues that the ageing demographic presents and have been featuring many interesting articles on the subject over the past few months. Well worth a read if you are ever in the West Sussex area!
Posted: May 26th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Press coverage | Comments Off
Great design combines functionality and beauty. We see – and expect – this combination in products for every area of our lives. Why, then, are so many products for the over-50s dull, utilitarian, and medical-looking?
Philippa Aldrich runs The Future Perfect Company. She had experience of trying to make life easier for friends and relatives who were facing the challenges of later life. She found that the products that could help looked horribly dreary. Good design had been completely overtaken by functionality. Philippa was determined to champion the need for thoughtful design for useful products for people getting older. In 2009, she set up The Future Perfect Company.
Changing demographics
The population of the UK is ageing. People over 60 outnumber the under-16s for the first time and the number of over-85s has increased five-fold since 1951. At the current rate, in 23 years, almost a quarter of the population will be over 65.
This demographic shift has huge implications for the population in these age groups and also for their families. Philippa explains: “People now want and need to stay active for longer; they want and need to stay independent and in their own homes for longer; and they want and need to work for longer. And they should be able to do all this in a way which is fun, positive and life enhancing.”
Well-designed, innovative and practical products
The Future Perfect Company offers all kinds of products that combine practicality with great design.
For the kitchen, there are Good Grips tools, cleverly-designed saucepans that are easier to lift, and bright, two-handled mugs and teapots.
Gardening and sport are made easier with gloves that provide wrist support and increase grip. Healthy Back Bags take the strain if you have to carry a bag.
Skin-care products and super-soft pretty socks are there for comfort. There are directional lamps to give some extra light for reading or working. A great range of files and journals can help to get organised with anything from recipes and journeys to birthdays, family information, and important documents.
Driving awareness
Society is changing as people live longer. Business models and products need to adapt to this change. As well as offering products, Philippa works with business networks and universities about the importance of meeting the needs and requirements of older consumers. For example, she works with the University of Brighton on a competition to encourage young designers to create a product that addresses a challenge associated with ageing.
Find out more
Take a look at what The Future Perfect Company does at www.thefutureperfectcompany.com or follow on Twitter as @thfutureperfect.
It’s a great place to find presents for yourself, or for a friend or relative. It’s also a place that makes you think: a pause for thought about the challenges that come with later life – and about how you respond to older consumers in what you make, do, or sell.
Posted: April 26th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Press coverage, Product reviews | Comments Off
Nice review here for our mugs from Playpennies.com
It shouldn’t take you too long to realise that The Future Perfect Company isn’t a company who aim their products at kids.
I can’t even remember how I came across The Future Perfect Company but I saw these double-handled ceramic mugs on their site and thought they’d be great for kids too.
All three of my children started off with the obligatory plastic double-handled Tommee Tippee cup; at some point they wanted to move away from plastic, be like everyone else and drink from proper mugs or glasses instead.
That was all very well and good but glasses don’t come with handles and have a big circumference for little hands to try and grasp and ceramic mugs are heavy, combine that with a handle on one side only and they become somewhat lop-sided.
So even though these double-handled mugs are intended for people at the other end of the age range scale, I think they’re great for kids who want to be like the grown ups and ditch their plastic fantastic drinking cups.
They start from £14 each, but if you follow the link above you’ll be able to pick up two for £20.
Posted: February 9th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Grandparents, Press coverage | Comments Off
You may have noticed that we have been getting some good press lately from a new website called www.virtualgranny.com and last week I got in touch with the founders to find out a bit more about what had inspired them to set up the site and what they are planning. Here’s what I found out.
VirtualGranny was set up last summer to provide a space for entertaining, informing and offering support to lively over 50’s grandparents by Marrisse Whittaker with the help of her business partner and husband Bob Whittaker.
Marrisse and Bob are TV producers (www.oriontv.co.uk). Bob’s background is as an onscreen TV Journalist and Marrisse was a TV/Film makeup artist for years before becoming a TV scriptwriter. They make TV programmes for all of the major broadcasters.
However, time and time again they find that TV commissioners request that programmes be targeted at the 18-34 age group, despite the fact that it is the over 50’s who have the money, watch TV and have the ability to buy the products advertisers want to sell around the programmes.
Marrisse and Bob often found hugely talented people over the age of 50 to appear on screen, with great stories to tell, all to no avail. So one day they decided to set up a website dedicated to over 50’s grandparents, “to help give them a voice as well as a place to chill out”.
As they are TV makers, VirtualGranny has video on site and eventually they are hoping to launch a regular on-site soap series. They also have more celebrity interviews in the offing and video series planned on consumerism, grandchild care, gardening, books and more. They currently have sections for discounts and competitions and a shopping mall.
Most of all, Marrisse and Bob want to develop the social networking area of the site, with visitors logging on to tell them what they think about issues and what they would like to see on the site. VirtualGranny are about to launch a search for 50Grand – 50 grandparents who will group together via the website to speak out as a group, road test products and give honest reviews and insights on a huge range of issues as they come up in the media.
Marrisse says:”Think Mumsnet for lively minded grandparents, with lots more TV footage, eventually giving the site the feel of a glossy magazine and TV channel rolled in to one”.
Marrisse and Bob’s plans sound very promising and we particularly like the upscale, intelligent and funky feel of the website and the interesting, good quality videos. There are several other websites out there vying for the attention of grandparents but we think VirtualGranny looks set to stand out from the crowd.
Have a look around and tell us what you think www.virtualgranny.com
Posted: February 8th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - Collyer's, Press coverage | Comments Off
Design For The Future
Three cheers for The College of Richard Collyer and their innovative and stylish designs focused on overcoming one or more of the challenges of ageing, with pioneering, stylish and. aspirational creations.
“Designing for the Future” is a competition run by The Future Perfect Company and Richard Collyer in Horsham, for entry by AS students, who embraced the brief readily.
Philippa Aldridge, founder of The Future Perfect Company found that the most thoughtful designs came from those who had spoken with their older relatives about the realities of ageing, something which must seem almost unimaginable to this group of 16 year olds.
The winning designer Glen Crombie, made a push out plug socket, which can eject a plug from a socket at the touch of a button – a fantastic concept for people who have not so nimble fingers for any number of reasons.
Other fantastic winning designs include a very stylish self heating mug, which does away with heavy kettles by using electromagnetic induction to heat a mug of water. Not only a great energy saving idea, but ideal for people who want a quick cuppa at their desks or want to boil up a brew on holiday.
Other designs include an ingenious light bulb changer which avoids the perils of step ladders and a very funky grip glass which makes it easy for people with gripping challenges to drink with confidence and without drawing attention to their disability.
So top marks to the students and especially to Philippa Aldridge, for bringing old and young members of the community together on a brilliant project which can only benefit both parties in the future.
For more information about the “Design for the Future” competition, which runs yearly and to peruse innovative products created especially for people who have age related challenges or general disabilities – or actually for anyone who likes funky stylish gadgets and designs, visit http://thefutureperfectcompany.com
Posted: January 31st, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Press coverage, Product reviews | Comments Off
Good review for The Future Perfect Company website by Virtual Granny (www.virtualgranny.com) this week.
“I might have suddenly come down with a touch of Arthur, but if I have I don’t want some sad old gadget to help me screw the lids of stuff. I want funky. I want fun – and I still want my funky fun gadget to help me screw the lids off stuff.
If, at some stage in life I need, for example, an electric scooter to get about, I want a range of colours to light up my day. Sky blue pink with purple dots, or psychedelic if I so wish. I don’t want to be fobbed off with bad design and a sludge one-colour-suits-all-old-crumblies carriage.
Actually one brilliant website, http://www.thefutureperfectcompany.com is leading the way, by selling fantastically designed products for those of us who are slightly fraying round the edges, but have no intention of being put out to grass and fed dull inferior products, when we still want to be funky monkeys.
Form and function go hand in hand here – with a pile of great products on offer. From two handled cups in vibrant shades to incredibly elegant cookware created to make handling easier, or stylish healthy back bags designed to counteract neck and back pain. There are even bionic golf gloves, designed by an orthopaedic hand surgeon that wouldn’t look out of place on Tiger Woods mitts.
I might even take Arthur for a jitterbug around the site. After all, he owes me a smart little gift if he’s thinking of moving in for good.”
To read the blog in full, click here
Posted: January 29th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - Collyer's, Inclusive design, Press coverage | Comments Off
Dreamed up by UK design student Glen Crombie, this concept won first prize at the Future Perfect Company design competition, which asked its competitors to find elegant solutions for the problems faced by an aging population. The idea is simple: if the average three-pronged plug is too hard for an older person to grip, add an easily-installed eject button to push the plug right out of its socket. Quick and easy. It might be nice to see this concept see some real-life use. [Wired via The Future Perfect Company]
Send an email to Kwame Opam, the author of this post, at kopam@gizmodo.com.
Read article here
Posted: January 28th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - Collyer's, Inclusive design, Press coverage | Comments Off
Ejector Plug Makes British Sockets Pensioner-Friendly
This curious plug-ejecting power-socket has just won first prize in the The Future Perfect Company design competition. The brief: Come up with “attractive and aspirational” designs that help people carry on as normal when they get older.
For most of the world, pulling out a plug is as simple as yanking a cord. Arthritis? Wrap the cord around your wrist before you pull. In England – where the fear of electrocution is only matched by the fear of the gangs of teenagers that roam the streets like marauding post-apocalyptic biker-gangs (only without the bikes) – things are more complex. Switches, interlocks and a three-pronged design with a side-exiting cable mean you need some strong fingers to unplug a plug.
Glenn Crombie’s winning design has an eject button. Press it and three prongs push the plug out and let it drop gently to the thick carpets that cover the floors of Britain. Never mind that frail fingers will have to press hard on a thin rod to make it work, or that when the plug is not in place there are three prongs sticking out to catch on skirts, slacks or any furniture you may wish to place in front of the sockets.
I guess the best thing to do would be to change UK plugs, but that’s about as likely as the country ditching the pound for the Euro, driving on the right or finally admitting that it is no longer in charge of a world-spanning empire
Last night I was in Brighton showcasing some of the work from our “Designing for the Future” Competition at the international Science of Ageing Conference organised by BSRA (British Society for Research on Ageing).
