Design graduate student rethinks the standard UK power plug

Min-Kyu Choi, a recent graduate from the UK’s Royal College of Art, has redesigned the standard British power plug with beautiful simplicity. His design reconceives the bulky unit originally invented in 1946 into a new form factor that folds up to just 10mm wide, about the same width as a MacBook Air or a #2 pencil.

Min Kyu’s proposal	Current British Mains plug

He has even come up with a clever multi-plug adapter into which one can fit three of his plugs in the space currently required for a single one.

It’s such a simple solution that one wonders why it is that the British have tolerated such ungainly plugs for 60 years. But then again, sometimes the most novel redesigns are for common objects sitting under our noses that we have long since taken for granted.

All images copyright Min-Kyu Choi unless otherwise noted.

Further Reading

• Icon Magazine: RCA student radically improves the UK plug
• Min-Kyu Choi’s project description