Congratulations to Meghan McNeil from Grand Rapids, Michigan for her first place win in simplehuman’s second annual simple solutions student design competition. MoCo Loco was a media sponsor this year for the contest - being somewhat contrarian we liked the contest's focus on the relatively unglamorous homewares category. Meghan’s winning design, “Dirty Dish Mat”, is an in-sink dish mat that controls dirty dish clutter. "The dish mat makes it easy to organize and rinse your dishes in the sink, which prevents standing water from accumulating and breakage from over stacking. It also has a built-in drain stopper so that the sink can be drained with the dishes and mat still sitting in the basin.". Meghan's entry was one of approximately 200 simplehuman received from design students across the USA. Students were given instructions to design a new and innovative product, technology or concept for making household chores easier, more efficient and more intuitive. The designs were judged on utility, efficiency, innovation, research, and aesthetics. See more winning designs here.

The contest is open to students of any NASAD-accredited school. If you think you can do better, and wouldn't mind a $5000 scholarship, you can get more information on next year’s competition here.