Eager to design again, I found a 30-day design contest online hosted by Sustainable Minds that challenged people to innovate a new toaster design. Each team had to submit three designs along with other deliverables. I designed and submitted the following three. The red toaster rolls the bread through while toasting it using spikes on the rollers. The green toaster heats the bread when a slight force is applied to the protruding metal springs on top, completing each of their circuits to allow them to heat up. The blue toaster cooks the bread by inserting spikes into the bread and then heating up. All three of these rely on conduction heat for toasting, not convection like traditional toaster. I did not win the competition, but it was a lot of fun and I learned how important marketing can be, regardless of how practical a design is.

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