I finally finished trolling through all the winners of the Industrial Design Excellence Awards for 2005 (which seems to go down quite a bit). There’s the usual collection of sleeker Sharper Image designs on the same old products, thinner cell phones, tougher laptops, every product made by A-P-P-L-E and its parasites.  Whoopee.

But there are a few gems that really have a unique approach on the subject material.  Here’s a mini-tour of my top ten:

1. ASUS Vento 3600 Desktop PC has the styling of race car fused with a storm trooper.  The front comes off and apparently twists to provide access to the DVD drive.  Nothing but styling, but still, hard to say it’s not unique!  (Alternate view.)
2. The bUNIT is a credit-card size authentication device with fingerprint reading built in.  The design was intended to convey the idea "exclusive", which is not the loftiest or most humane quality to strive for, but the design certainly expresses it in spades!  It certainly makes me want to be part of the club! (Alternate view.)
3. The BenQ LCD Monitor Crazy Arm provides a menacing array of devices to hook your USB devices into.  It seems to want to reach out and jack into your brain directly.  Is that how we are starting to think about our cameras, music players, USB keys, and so forth?  I don’t think this product would give me warm fuzzies, but I confess it’s refreshing to see someone design product that communicates "menacing" so well.  Looks like it’s right out of the Matrix.
4. I enjoy when someone solves a problem that seems obvious in hindsight, but simply was beneath the notice of most of us.  The Rubbermaid Paint Buddy is such a device.  Irresistible!
5. The Barrel Grill really takes a fresh look at the barbeques cluttering up America’s patios.  I keep my unsightly old Weber hidden in the garage, which makes me even less likely to use it.  This design addresses the unsightliness of the traditional grill, with it’s underside of unsightly and grimy struts, and addresses that issue in an elegant way.  Double use as a side table is a bonus!
6. The Hullavator Vehicle Roof Rack System.  What can you say?  It’s about time!  I’ve spent decades hefting kayaks and windsurfers onto car roofs, sometimes in adverse conditions. It’s great to see a solution engineered to address this, especially as I spend more time blogging than exercising and lifting that blasted kayak just seems to get harder and harder…
7. There is nothing revolutionary about the use of the Full Contact Spice Grinder.  I use a dedicated coffee grinder myself.  But what a great shape!
8. The Lenovo Smartphone ET960 isn’t all that revolutionary, but it is the coolest styling in a PocketPC phone I’ve seen yet!  If I ditch my laptop as my personal assistant, this might take its place
9. The SHIFT Concept Bicycle tackles the problem of discontinuities in the progression from trike, to bike with training wheels, to bicycle, by making this progression occur not only in a single device, but in a single usage of that device, based on the speed of the rider!  Having just been working with my daughter on the last of these stages, this idea really appeals to me!  If the mechanism is mechanical and based on momentum as I suspect, it’s brilliant!
10. The technology required for the Snap Bracelet Concept sounds a bit futuristic to me, but the idea of a device with a sophisticated user interface and no buttons (rather than a minimal set like the iPod) is pretty intriguing!