Thinking outside the box is always important when it comes to creative thinking and we think it’s good to start young designers early. Someone who knows all about that is our good friend and designer, Ahmad Fakhry, one half of Designgoat, a Dublin-based industrial design studio. We asked Ahmad to review My Crazy Inventions Sketchbook by Andrew Rae and Lisa Regan and here is what he thought.

If ever there was a book to make me feel bad about my creative process, it’s Andrew Rae & Lisa Regan’s My Crazy Inventions Sketchbook. As an industrial designer, day-to-day I’ve gotten to design pieces of furniture, lights, interiors, exhibitions, plates and even food. This all sounds great, however on none of those days have I had the freedom to design an umbrella for dogs, shoes that could make you walk on water à la Jesus, or my very own dream toilet (though maybe someday I’ll get this job).

This book is aimed at young inventors and future designers, but that hasn’t held me back from getting involved. It’s a wonderfully illustrated read that showcases madcap inventions from around the world, from chewing gum to pickled onion skewers. It encourages its readers to think outside the box and come up with their own delightful gizmos and gadgets. Each page seems like a still from the mind of artist/designer Dominic Wilcox, who has invented such wonderful machines as a tummy rumbling amplification device, shoes that guide you home with red lights in their toe, and a fully stained-glass driverless car for you to sleep in on your journey.

As you work your way through the book, you are constantly given new directions with plenty of space given to illustrate your eccentric ideas. Each featured product has been given incredible thought, all of which exist despite reasonable logic. For example, on the page where we are asked to design our own submarine, we are met with an image of the ‘Seabreacher X’  – a submarine that is shaped like a shark, carries two people, and can leap out of the water to do twists and rolls (cue Youtube search). These bizarro machines are a fantastic way to change your thought process from the standard yellow submarine.

One of my favourite sections comes from more simple products – The Unuseless. This is a concept derived from the Japanese ‘Chindogu’, which is ‘the art of designing bizarre, purposeless inventions’ . These are products that aren’t exactly useless – their aim is to solve a problem – but they can’t really be described as useful either. This book gives the perfect examples, like duster slippers for cats and gold earrings equipped with ear plugs for loud parties. My research into Chindogu led me to fan-mounted chopsticks to cool your ramen, and the Butter Stick, yes butter formed like Pritt Stick (it’s actually genius).

Most of the books I buy, flick through in shops, or add to my amazon wish list are filled with very serious chairs in very serious buildings by very serious people. My Crazy Inventions Sketchbook was a delight. I’m certain that with this book as an intro to the world of creative thinking, we will have some wild inventions patented by young designers in the not so distant future.

You can buy My Crazy Inventions Sketchbook: 50 Awesome Drawing Activities for Young Inventors from the Laurence King Publishing website and you can catch Designgoat in the Irish Design 2015  flagship exhibition Liminal at the Design Hub, Dublin this November. Laurence King are also giving all lucky OFFSET London attendees a 35% discount in our pop-up shop throughout the duration of the festival.