Wire Wars

The Outlet Wall, courtesy of Ironic Sans

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Going Wireless

Whether by convenience or by design (or by desperation) I have been on a wire-war ever since my first hairdryer, and I find one solution which has been grossly under exploited in recent times is the simple good old coil. It worked so well on phones before we went wireless, one can only wonder why this has not been more generally applied and updated with more modern materials and solutions? Unless you want to DIY it.

But the world, to my great relief, is going wireless, fast. The only kit that I never want to see without a wire is my mouse. One asks so little of this vital piece of gear and yet none of these qualities are found in wireless mouses (this is indeed a correct plural aberration). And so I stumble on the Wireless Power Consortium, which not only sounds like a very serious enterprise, it is. Setting international standards for wireless charging, developing technologies, researching efficiency and with a “Linked but not tied” motto, I can’t wait to sign on the dotted line for a wireless relationship. Their website is wonderfully accessible as all their articles avoid confusing jargon and take you through their coherent development process. Surely better late than never, it does seem slightly ironic that we are finally asking for global compatibility as a standard whilst going wireless.

Nonetheless, Nokia will soon give us a wireless charger, whilst others are looking into simple methods of developing self-generated portable energy…

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In the meantime, the « doing with » option

But for now, I need to clean up my office. Tidying cables, hiding cables… Again, I wonder why computer appliances and chargers aren’t better equipped with integrated cable-hiding? This has had no problem in the kitchen appliances’ evolution: both my toaster and water boiler have space for coiling away extra length. For me, it’s the design’s equivalent of natural selection, given common sense, as my euros will go to the most wire-friendly apparel. The Xbox has also quickly grasped the need for hide’n tidy, although I shan’t speculate why here…

Integrated storage: this desk only lets the wires you need out.

Power grommets are a great solution but I don’t have time to DIY, I’d almost rather buy a new desk with integrated cable storage. Failing that, I could always shove’m all in a box, or I found Ikea has a simple unpretentious and affordable solution.

Ikea’s no fuss solution

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If you’ve got ‘em flaunt ‘em solution

Going by one of my favourite design solutions, if I hate a compulsory element, I put a neon sign on it or obsessively repeat it, and all of a sudden it looks quite sexy.

Julia Wolf’s wall stickers

Here, you can go for Lacie ‘s coloured cables, or some fun socket stickers by Julia Wolf, a Berlin-based designer. I also liked this eye-catching and honorably-designed variable to the multi-plug, but my definite favourite has to be the outlet wall. I want one.

If it feels too daunting and you have kids running around, I also found the idea of drawing with cables quite cute, or keep those kids busy while you work and get them to bead your cables or get fancy and braid you wires, although I think the skill set for that is a profession unto itself, and doesn’t leave much room for going mobile afterwards.

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Filed under: design