If you like interesting design, you’ll love this post by a guest writer, Zach Shilton, but be warned, this post is packed with pure toaster awesomeness.

Forget about building a better mousetrap – we have enough stuff around the kitchen we can redesign.

As many product designers have noticed, most of the appliances and tools we use in our kitchens today have lots of room for improvement. In the past couple of years I’ve noticed a trend targeted at “foodies” migrate to the mainstream – subtly useful and eco-
friendly products such as touch-activated faucets, induction stove tops, silicone muffin pans, little metal machines that peel and core your apple at the same time, refrigerators that can dispense your favorite chilled drinks, and so on.

However, my most recent and possibly all time favorite discovery has been the reinvention of the toaster. While browsing around a favorite website of mine, I came across this beautiful and revolutionary. The days of poking around in your toaster with a fork, emptying the crumb tray, and having to deal with unevenly toasted breads are over!

The new wave of toaster technology uses motorized rollers to guide your bread through an archway of radiant heat, depositing it on heated ceramic rack for your consumption and enjoyment. The speed of the rollers can be adjusted to affect the darkness of your toast, and the archway adjusts to fit the width of your bread or bagel. Perhaps best of all, all of the electronics in the unit are sealed inside the ceramic and rubber body, so you can finally take your toaster with you in the bathtub if you so desire. Less importantly, this allows the user to wash the toaster very easily.

And of course the whole thing is designed with aesthetics in mind, so you can do away with that garbage-y faux metal look.

I’d also like to provide some enlightening words from the U.K. designer, George Watson:

“There has been little development of the toaster since the start of the century, whilst other appliances have developed and  improved incorporating new technologies and thinking, toaster have remained relatively untouched. When the toaster was first invented eating toast was a social activity that took place on the breakfast table, these days toasters have been relegated to cheap plastic objects hidden away in the kitchen landscape. This toaster is designed to engage the user, re-invigorating the social context of toasting by questioning everything about what we toast with today. I was also keen to make playful object to be proud of  having on your breakfast table. Slip molded bone china allowed me create this intricate and sculptural form, but also provided the material longevity that I required. This is a toaster that brings life and joy to a stagnant domestic appliance, and iconic object for the home.”

As you can see, this is clearly a must have for anyone who misses the vibrant social activity that toasting bread once brought to the breakfast table. I would quite seriously consider buying one of these if they were available in Canada.

For your reference, the Designboom website’s related article (check out the other contest entrants in the “Ceramics for Breakfast” category):
http://www.designboom.com/

And the site that originally led me to the discovery:
http://www.tastespotting.com/