Conventional kitchenware emphasizes convenience: spatulas turn into table side serving spoons, gadgets slice, dice, and chop, and cutting boards weigh ingredients (and calculate the calorie count). Yet in all that efficiency, cooking loses an integral component—fun. Product design team Y Line Design is determined to reverse this trend; MOLD spoke to founder Geraint Krumpe about Golden Goose, their inaugural product designed to literally flip the process of cooking eggs on its head.
Made of polypropylene and elastic, the hand-powered tool scrambles an egg without breaking or penetrating its shell by simply rotating it back and forth. “Centrifugal force pulls the egg yolk and white away from their center of rotation, causing the white and yolk to mix without being exposed to outside air,” Krumpe explains. However, the physics of the product are hidden behind intuitive design and a whimsical premise. Modeled after a Victorian-era children’s toy, the Golden Goose is designed to be as entertaining as it is practical.
For Y Line, creating the Golden Goose was a break from the conventional product design process. “The funny thing is that we, as product designers, are trained to do research and discover [consumer] needs…ergonomics, feasibility,” Krumpe explains. “But for Golden Goose, none of that applied. It was a product designed just for fun. People really grabbed onto it in a way we weren’t expecting.”
Y Line is also committed to offering 3D printing instructions for the Golden Goose—something Krumpe believes audiences will utilize and improve. “Part of our marketing strategy is to say that we developed this with 3D printers… so that our audiences—who are makers—could make it themselves.”
An instant Kickstarter success, the Golden Goose easily exceeded its $34,500 goal, bringing in a total of $170,277. But if you didn’t pledge, you can still get your hands on a Golden Goose; Y Line will accept pre-orders for delivery in November 2014. The studio is also working to expand its innovative, manually operated line of kitchenware. “People are really jazzed about our products,” says Krumpe. “They’re going to experiment with them and find things even we didn’t know.”
Keep on tinkering, Y Line. We’ll be waiting.
–MOLD contributor Adriana Krasniansky. Photos courtesy of KitchenGoose.com.
