Mu Folding Type-C 20W PD Fast Charger

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Some 40,000 have now been sold of the original design and plans are in place over the coming months to bring out coloured chargers, a more powerful plug for tablets and travel adaptors for Europe and the US. While the retail range of the plugs is growing, however, it is in effect a showcase for what could prove to be the most lucrative part of the enterprise – licensing out the design. The Mu USB Adapters are startlingly compact and hotly tipped as the next big thing to hit the world of functional design, folding flat for storage, reducing the overall plug size by over 70%. It does mean though, that this is out of bounds for cameras and your laptop. Although there is promise of a more heavy-duty option in the future. At the same time as grappling with the engineering questions of whether it could actually be made, the pair also considered whether they should make a plug that could fit on the end of any cable or make a charger, which could then be sold at a premium price and the design licensed out. They went down the charger route. "We have a business where we make and sell stuff and make a margin and we have a licensing business where we supply the solution for someone else to put with their product," says Judkins.

So yeah. More folding chargers please. And better ones. Thx. (Though I assume that nobody actually got this far in my rant.) The pair met when the designer was completing a course iat the Royal College of Art, and Judkins, who had a history in startups, was looking for his next project. By that stage, the idea had taken shape in Choi's mind. "A beautiful sketch is one thing but it is not a business. It was just two dudes with an idea," says Judkins. MU has been internationally recognised by several prestigious awarding bodies in industrial design including being the winner of the Brit Insurance Design of the Year,International Design Excellence Award,Alex Moulton Award, Institute of Engineering Designers as well as being a finalist of theWallpaper Design Awards and theJames Dyson Award. The whole time that this has been a sketch to [being] a product, we have thought about the moment that this will be a licensing play for these guys because that is how we make money," he said. Talks are ongoing with smartphone companies at present while the firm behind the Mu expects to be in profit in the last three months of this year. Judkins and Choi each own one third of the venture while investors have another third.The Mu, named by a crowd sourced campaign, is a Folder Plug. Following the original launch of the product, Made in Mind has developed further members of the Mu family based on the Min-Kyo Choi’s original folded plug concept. I have been looking at the Mu Duo which combines the Made in Mind’s innovative and patented PVT technology that allows a standard UK 3-pin plug to be reduced by over 70% in size, with a pair of USB 2.0 ports for attaching devices for charging purposes using the folded plug concept. News about our Dezeen Awards programme, including entry deadlines and announcements. Plus occasional updates. Dezeen Events Guide Now Min-Kyu and his business partner Matthew Judkins are set to launch a full range of products in 2012 to cater for universal smartphones, tablets and laptops through their company, Made in Mind. The original Folding Plug concept was the brainchild of brilliant product designer and illustrator Min-Kyu Choi. Unveiled in 2009, the Folding Plug concept became a viral phenomenon winning the much coveted Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award in 2010.

When out and about with the constant companionship of your mobile devices, it can be a challenge to ensure that these devices are kept in a charged state ready for use. While several companies have taken the approach to offer a solution consisting of a power bank type of product that can supply a recharge capability to your power hungry devices when required, this is not the only solution available. One possible example is the solution on offer from a company entitled Made in Mind. The company comprises an experienced team with design, engineering, product development and business expertise. All team members come from the Royal College of Art or Imperial College. News about our Dezeen Awards China programme, including entry deadlines and announcements. Plus occasional updates.

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The product at the core of the company is a Folding Plug that transforms from a bulky three-pin plug into a portable, hassle-free unit ideal for people on the go. When not in use the Folding Plug transforms into a fraction of its original size. USB charger. Min-Kyu-Choi's first prototype of a folding BS 1363 mains plug, using the same principle as

Using the Folding Plug design concept as a starting point, Made in Mind applied commercial thinking to the solution, considering possible further applications and product scope, market and industry considerations, commercial manufacturing processes and certification. News from Dezeen Events Guide, a listings guide covering the leading design-related events taking place around the world. Plus occasional updates. Dezeen Awards China Matthew Judkins, Choi's business partner, says: "The problem was then bloody obvious and you kind of go through a process saying how does one solve it. When you look at the plug, the problem is that you have got three pins and they are in a triangular formation and it is fairly obvious what to do then – you just make them flat and in a line and that gets rid of the bulk issue.".

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Weekly updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs. Plus occasional news. Dezeen Awards The company has launched an integrated USB transformer and has an ambitious and exciting product pipeline. I was at first encouraged by Apple’s 20w charger with some very elegantly folding pins. I thought “Surely Apple has used this design for all of their chargers!”. But no. That is the highest wattage charger they make in a folding design. Anything higher than that is a massive macbook charger, with or without bulky pins. Well, I recently became jealous of all of the Americans with their fancy folding chargers and set out on my own quest to find a 45w folding UK/Ireland charger. And what did I find? Nothing. Well, nearly nothing. It is frankly pathetic how few and far between folding chargers are for our plug. I will admit that the plug is not the easiest thing to make fold, but it has been done several times before with varying degrees of elegance. The commercial lead has an executive MBA from Imperial College, whilst the main designer of the plug holds an MA in Product Design from the RCA.

I did finally stumble across Samsung’s 45w super fast charging™ charger, designed for their phones. It has the most basic, shitty-looking folding ground pin it has ever been my displeasure to come across. I remember seeing these kinds of folding pins on HTC chargers from half a decade ago, and they show up on this thing? I would have thought that Samsung would’ve put some more thought into this kind of thing, but I suppose I should give them credit where credit is due as the only manufacturer (that I could find) actually making anything in this category. Well, the only one that didn’t pull a USB-C style Bernie Madoff. Daily updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs. Plus occasional news. Dezeen Jobs Weekly As soon as you see the Mu plug you can’t help but be wowed by the pure genius of its design. It only measures in at a slim 1cm and the design allows the two bottom live and neutral power pins to rotate by 90 degrees, thus halving the size of the plug’s body. Made in Mind was formed in 2009 to commercialise the award winning Folding Plug design now available commercially as the MuTM.

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Tl;dr: There aren’t enough folding UK/Ireland chargers, and the ones we have are crap. Manufacturers, please make more and better ones. The Folding Plug was a gold medal winner in the International Design excellence Awards in 2009, and was featured in numerous publications including Wallpaper and Wired. Min-Kyu Choi, designer of the plug, recently won Brit Design of the Year award, which resulted in substantial media coverage. It is unlikely however that the foldable plug will be seen at the end of cable for a table lamp or on a toaster in the near future. There is no problem there to solve, it seems. "If you are never going to use it, like in the wall, then there is no reason to have a folding plug, only when you are lugging it around," he said. What makes it different What you do end up with is a device that looks good and will fit in your bag without digging into your other gadgets or getting tangled. Plus, it's something that looks cool and you'll be keen to show it off to any mates who are also impressed with innovative design.