Industrial Design Student Work: An Unusual Take on the USB Power Strip

This unusual Branche(r) USB power strip was designed by Romain Thouin, while studying Industrial Design at France’s ENSCI – Les Ateliers.

Thouin started by considering the ugliness of existing power strips:

Next, “I made an analogy between botanical and electrical,” Thouin writes, “because of their network organizations and hierarchy.” After experimenting with plant-like forms…

…Thouin came up with this:

The idea is that the top is actually the screw-end of a lightbulb. This allows the Branche(r) to be screwed into an existing light fixture.

If this is not desirable, there is also a cord that allows it to be plugged into the wall. The cord connection then serves as the “on” button.

The only thing I’m iffy on, just for durability’s sake, is Thouin’s proposed material: Borosilicate glass, to “give the object more value” and “create a quality aspect.” That aside I think the form is fun and attractive.

Thouin has since graduated and is now a fully-minted industrial designer based in Paris.

Source: core77