#HTE

The British Version of Japanese Overdesign FTW?

I couldn’t guess what this thing was by the CAD drawing, and I got a kick out of the answer. This little device totally seems like something cooked up by a quirky product designer in Japan:

If the accent didn’t tip you off, the Fold-Ease actually comes from the UK, and even has an “As Seen on the BBC” provenance (it was on “Dragon’s Den.”) As silly as it might seem to those of us who don’t fold paper all day long, it is an intelligent design that solves a problem, and the little fingernail slit is a nice touch. They run £3.99 for a two-pack.

Large-scale, flashy, design-ey projects often get all of the glory. But I like the idea of inventors developing highly specific, inexpensive little products like this that improve the end user’s life in some small way.