What would you do, as an industrial designer, if your client asked you to optimize a tool—and you couldn’t? That was the challenge faced by ID firm Goodwin Hartshorn, when client Joseph Joseph asked them to redesign the kitchen peeler. “We learnt a valuable lesson when developing our Multi-Peel (and Multi-Slice) for Joseph Joseph,” the firm writes.
We started by looking at many different alternatives to the standard peeler design in order to improve the function. However, it became clear that, aside from a few very specific shortcomings, they have been beautifully optimised over many decades to balance function, cost and manufacturability.
So, instead of trying to re-invent the peeler itself, we explored how we could add functionality to improve their usefulness.
We added scrapers to the two standard peelers to make scraping new potatoes easier. We added a combination zester/orange-peel cutter to the serrated peeler, and we added a channel knife to the julienne peeler.
Sometimes, more is more!
Both were designed over a decade ago, and are still on the market. They retail for $11. That’s good, enduring design for the masses.