Cutting Scale by Giffin Termeer

There are so many kitchen and other home gadget designs that claim to make life easier. While many may add new functionality to your life they often cost more than they are worth or perform redundant tasks at best, and at worst add long-term clutter to your house while making you work harder than ever to get things done.

Simple but quite brilliant, this combination cutting-board-and-scale would actually be a useful addition to the kitchen. It combines two kitchenware designs that are individually essential but together could take up less space, mean fewer things to clean and make the cutting and weighing of food during preparation even easier.

Alas, it’s just a concept by product design studio giffin’termeer, which consists of Jess Giffin and Jim TerMeer, who produce a broad variety of small-scale objects and are also both faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, teaching in design, fashion, and print media.

It’s pretty cool though, right? Makes you wonder why more kitchen objects aren’t combined into a single useful item like this to save space, especially as our homes seem to be getting smaller and smaller.

Here’s a description of “Cutting Scale” from the designers:

“Here is a concept for a cutting board that has an integrated scale within a defined area on its surface. Ingredients can be cut and measured on the same surface with very little extra effort.There is a transformative trend in cooking based on the science of food. Central to this is the idea that precise measurement leads to more possibilities for new flavors. Recipes will become more demanding, requiring simple ways to be precise in the kitchen.”

Cutting Scale measures 10″ x 15″

Project Details:

Exhibition, Home of the Future, 2006 curated by Innovation Lab, Home Inspiration for Everyone Expo, Herning, Denmark- Winner 3rd Place Your Way to Coway, International Kitchen + Environment Design Competition sponsored by Designboom with Bussel, Milan, Italy