This designer turns boring power boards into colourful works of art

Electrical boards, though wildly useful, aren’t the jazziest of things. They just kind of sit there, albeit usefully, powering a bunch of your plugged-in devices, without any kind of personality or pizzazz. 

But one designer wants to change that. Diego Faivre, based in the Netherlands city of Eindhoven, has come up with a unique way to customise power boards, turning these undeniably useful but pretty nondescript electrical objects into fun, colourful pieces of art.

Faivre creates these unique, cartoonish casings with an air-drying clay he calls “Diego-Dough,” which can be moulded around existing objects to give them new life.

“When I first discovered the Diego-Dough, and realised that it could be stuck on any surfaces, I realised its potential to re-use and upcycle daily objects,” he told Mashable. 

Faivre was inspired to make the power boards when he was putting on an exhibition, and wanted to have his own custom electricity outlets for the show. So, he added Diego-Dough to them. “People’s reaction made me think about the electrical plugs, that they are immensely practical yet very ugly and hidden in corners,” he said. “So in the end, I’m just enhancing them and making them more appreciated!”

Even though it’s a casing on top of a casing, you’ve still got to put safety first when it comes to electrical goods. Faivre made sure that the Diego-Dough wouldn’t interfere with the power plugs.

“I spent a few months perfecting the recipe and the materials are organic,” he said. “Whenever I work with a material, I test its properties, and it is a material that is made for children so it isn’t toxic. But when I tried to burn it, it carbonises meaning that the material turns black. Also I am using existing plugs that are already safe to use, and it is only the casing that is being covered in the end so it doesn’t interfere with the electricity inside.”

You can buy the power boards on direct order from the designer through Faivre’s website. Every board is bespoke, and customers will be asked for their favourite colours and any patterns they’re keen on. But in a unique twist, you’ll also need to determine how much time should be spent on the project.

Faivre actually developed this system as part of a project called Minute Manufacturing, a production set-up in which he makes objects by the minute —  €1 equals one minute of production time. The starting price on a power board is 40 minutes (so you’re looking at a minimum of €40), but the more time spent on the piece, the more detailed it will be. 

The project was developed as a means to explore the concept of preset time in relation to making things. Working in a factory, Faivre developed an appreciation for standard production time, but it actually goes back to his childhood.

“I’ve constantly been surrounded by the obsession of time,” said Faivre. “For instance, when my mum cooks a pie and she makes a new recipe, my father will reproduce the exact same recipe by trying to do it faster, to finally become a 25-minute pie. I grew up in an environment where efficiency ruled.”

Faivre doesn’t just do electrical boards either – using his Minute Manufacturing process, he also covers chairs, walls, doorstops, bookshelves, and even a fire escape in his signature Diego-Dough. Some of these creations are made from scratch using waste materials like plastic boxes and cardboard tubes, which are then covered with the clay. 

Pretty neat way to use one’s time eh?