22 December 2006 REAL PEOPLE DOING UNREAL THINGS A perfect fit By Heather Formby Brian Steinhobel - Product designer

THE UNREALITY CHECK He began designing by using a bread knife to cut furniture out of foam offcuts He's designed some famous products, like the Barracuda pool cleaner He combines engineering and art to design products that might never have seen the light of day His next idea is to develop "an iconic" homeware range When he was nine, product designer Brian Steinhobel used offcuts from a foam factory across the road from his home to make furniture. After drawing his design on it with a pen, he would cut the foam with his mother's bread knife to make curvaceous sofas. People were amazed by his drawing skills even when he was only four, he says. "I've always designed. I used to make bird feeders in my father's workshop." Steinhobel planned to study architecture, until a friend invited him to a lecture on industrial design. "I didn't know that it existed. But it was so perfect for me that I nearly choked." One of Steinhobel's first designs, created for a maxillofacial surgeon, was a dummy suited to children with cleft palates. Another was an automatic teller machine for NBS Bank. He now has a large product design business in Johannesburg, where he combines art and engineering. "Eighty percent of the work I do is engineering, but the art part is very important. My design is an applied form of sculpture," he says. "I like to think that we impart a design culture to SA society. It's not an elitist thing. Anyone can have it. It's functional art." Some of Steinhobel's designs include the now famous Barracuda pool cleaner (renamed Zodiac), the brush tee (which looks like a toothbrush on top of a golf tee and has become a world best-seller), the Qolf game set (a mixture of croquet and golf), a miner's helmet (which has an onboard PC) and a shark pod (which scares sharks away from surfers and can now be attached to a surf board). Steinhobel says he gets around 40 inquiries a week from wannabe inventors. He works with them to develop their ideas into something real. Hundreds of patents are registered for these products. He criticises China's counterfeit industry, where manufacturers and traders blatantly ignore the concept of patents. "They copy everything," he says. Steinhobel says many of his ideas come from travelling and being over 40. "I once travelled to 26 countries in 13 months, going to design shows, but the Internet means I don't have to do that so much anymore. And you only get a grip on design after 40." His favourite design is always his most recent one. This happens to be a new model of Cobra tap. His next idea is to develop Steinhobel homeware, which is his favourite category. "It has a good chance of being an iconic brand and my grandchildren will be using my designs," he declares confidently.