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. It's one that you'll probably want if you are looking to charge that iPad too, because the charging capability here isn't as powerful as the charger used to recharge most tablets. It will work, but it won't be as fast. Daily updates on the latest design and architecture vacancies advertised on Dezeen Jobs. Plus occasional news. Dezeen Jobs Weekly 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. 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 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.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. 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 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.". 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. 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%.

USB charger. Min-Kyu-Choi's first prototype of a folding BS 1363 mains plug, using the same principle asPVTis specific technology developed to allow a three-pin electrical plug to a pivot, enabling the live and neutral pins to rotate. By using PVTtechnology, the MU reduces the standard UK plug by over 70% in size, whilst still being operational in the open and folded positions. PVT, a technology that is central to the MUUSB Charging Adapter and the MUrange of products, has taken 3 years to develop and is protected by six global patents. Award winning design and concept with international recognition 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.