Graduate shows 2015: Taiwan designer Guan-Hao Pan has created a set of condom
packages modeled on phallic vegetables, which users can hold to
determine the correct girth for their contraceptive sheath (+
slideshow).
Pan's
Love Guide Condoms are packed into tubes that are based on different
fruit and vegetables, and correspond to the size of the latex sheaths
inside.
The five different sizes range from zucchini – the biggest at five centimeters in diameter – down through turnip, banana, carrot, and
finally cucumber, measuring three centimeters across.
The designer hopes that by holding the cylinders, users will be able to match one with their penis girth.
In each tube, 12 condoms are individually packaged in containers with
lids patterned to look like the sliced fruit and vegetables.
Made from card, the packaging carries simple graphics including the Love Guide logo and a drawing of the food.
Pan – who studied at the National Taipei University of Technology –
designed the condoms to prevent users from picking up the incorrect
size, as this can have consequences.
"Studies show that more than 60 per cent of users choose a wrong size
while shopping for condoms," he said in his project statement. "In
addition to discomfort, wrong size selection increases the risk of
slippage and rupture."
"A condom becomes much less effective if it is the wrong size, worn
on the wrong side, or its tip is not squeezed when worn," Pan added. "It
may cause pregnancy and/or sexually-transmitted diseases."
He also identified that condoms are commonly worn inside out, increasing the risk of tearing the latex and of spillages.
To prevent mishaps, he added a flap inside each container that pushes up the teat for easier application.
"Each condom comes in a specially designed case with a rising tip,
making it easy to pick the condom from the right side while squeezing
the tip at the same time," said Pan, who added that this also aids
application in the dark and for the blind.
Earlier this year, a group of UK schoolchildren won an award for a conceptual condom design that would change colour when it comes into contact with a sexually transmitted infection.
Designers
have come up with a variety of other ideas for improving contraception,
including a condom wrapper that can be opened with a simple
finger-clicking action and an open-source, intrauterine device made
using a one-cent coin.
Condom device wins Most Beautiful award
Design
Indaba update: a condom applicator designed to help AIDS prevention has
been named the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa by Dutch designer
Jurgen Bey.
Bey, who was in Cape Town to speak at the Design Indaba conference last week, selected the product from a shortlist of 15 products at the Design Indaba Expo.
The applicator, invented by Willem van Rensburg and designed by industrial designer Roelf Mulder of South Africa's XYZ Design, allows a condom to be put on easily and rapidly.
The user holds the device with the thumb and forefinger of both hands, pulling the condom down over the penis in a single rapid movement. See video demonstrations of the product below:
It is hoped the design will encourage the use of condoms, thereby helping reduce the spread of AIDS.
The applicator, which was selected for the SAFE exhibition at MoMA in New York two years ago and is in the museum's permanent collection is now being marketed and sold under the Pronto brand.
Diagram
One Handed Condom Wrapper by Ben Pawle
British designer Ben Pawle
has come up with a condom wrapper for people with disabilities that can
be opened with a simple finger-clicking action (+ movie).
The One Handed Condom Wrapper is designed for people with hemiplegia,
a condition which paralyses one side of the body, making some everyday
tasks extremely difficult. The wrapper requires a simple finger-clicking
action to break both the outer layer of foil and the thin plastic
lining inside.
"I guess it's just common sense - why is a condom an obstacle and hindrance instead of enhancing a moment?" says Pawle. "It was born out
of a project that looked at a specific condition but it actually had a
value that everyone could appreciate or connect with."
Here's some more information from the designer:
Preserving human dignity
The project concerns hemiplegia, a condition affecting one side of
the body with semi-paralysis symptoms similar to that of a stroke, which
makes simple daily tasks we take for granted surprisingly difficult. I
chose to focus on how indignity manifests itself in these situations,
trying to prevent these moments from occurring by providing a designed
intervention. I looked at the challenges a hemiplegic faces over the
course of their life with particular focus on the experience of growing
up and the social anxieties that we feel experience.
Through research I managed to gain insight into the effects of
hemiplegia on people's lives. One of the most common effects is hand
dystonia - involuntary contraction and twisting of muscles. This has
very obvious physical effects, limiting function, dexterity,
manipulation and numbing the senses in the affected side.
Condom
At a time when you perhaps want a moment to run as smoothly as
possible, unwrapping a condom can be a stressful experience. With
increasing feelings of awkwardness between partners and the added
pressure from surrounding social groups, this activity can cause
surprising distress.
The design is a one handed condom wrapper to help newly sexually
active young adults to avoid embarrassment when using a condom. It is
easily opened to boost feelings of confidence, allowing the individual
to perform and sustain a mood without the awkward distraction of a
difficult wrapper. I wanted to try to exploit the moment of opening, to
make it as smooth in real life as the moment that exists inside your
head, focusing on the gesture making it charming and cool!
A durable outer layer of foil with perforations protects the thin
inner plastic lining sealing the condom. It uses a finger snapping
action to exert enough force to break both layers.
It is not a hardcore product design as deep and detailed as
materials, glues and welding, but it is a crafted experience, and
feasible nonetheless. I have creative barcode protection and have
registered the design.
Color-changing condoms proposed to detect sexual infection
A group of UK schoolchildren has won an award for a conceptual condom design that would change color when it comes into contact with a sexually transmitted infection.
Daanyaal Ali, Muaz Nawaz and Chirag Shah – all under the age of 15 –
proposed a condom embedded with chemical indicators that would react to
bacteria that causes infections such as chlamydia and syphilis.
When a specific bacterial strain is detected, the condom would change colour to warn those at risk of the threat. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are passed from one person to another through unprotected sex or genital contact. Official figures from Public Health England showed that almost 440,000 people were diagnosed with an STI in the country in 2014.
The team of students from Isaac Newton Academy in Ilford, Essex, came
up with their S.T.EYE condom to help reduce the number of cases. "We created the S.T.EYE as a new way for STI detection to help the future of the next generation," said Ali in a statement.
