When I first saw the products pictured above I was not sure what to make of them. You are wondering what you are looking at? They're actually fire extinguishers from Fire Design. However, in case of fire I would like anyone who's around to be able to find the fire extinguisher in the blink of an eye. And a cool graphic design doesn't exactly help to identify these objects as being fire extinguishers. They might as well be one of those hip 'design' SIGG bottles.

When someone has to find something quick, it helps if the 'something' is looking like they expect it to. In which case it helps to conform to the norm. And in western countries a bright red fire extinguisher (and not blue) is still the norm. Of course fire extinguishers don't have to be ugly. They can be quite stylish, as Maarten Heijltjes and Sanne Pelgrom demonstrate with their award-winning submission for a design competition for a new fire extinguisher.



[Fire Design extinguishers via thinkemotions]