With a weight of about one ounce, The Prop is designed for people who need a laptop stand that can go where they do. Images courtesy of MAKE Collaboration.
A team of Nebraska designers is earning high marks — or even, we dare say, “mad props” — for its new laptop stand, The Prop.
Nicholas Pajerski and Justin Brouillette, who work together with a group called MAKE Collaboration, created The Prop, a portable stand composed of two interlocking pieces of inexpensive, lightweight plastic, in response to their frustration over a lack of good laptop stands on the market. Designed to be easily packed and unpacked, constructed and deconstructed, The Prop can be used to cool a laptop while sitting atop a surface or flipped around for use on the floor to elevate a laptop for easier cooling and more comfortable use.
Thanks to our sponsor
“The stand was designed for the on the go laptop user from studio desk to coffee shop,” Pajerski explains in a demo video for The Prop, “allowing for portability to be the driving factor.”
Its simplicity struck a chord with the judges of the Apartment Therapy Design Showcase, who last month named it a unanimous selection for the Judges’ Award in this year’s contest.
“These designers have pulled the whole concept together down to the well executed packaging,” Christiane Lemieux, one of the Design Showcase judges and the founder of DwellStudio, said in her review. “The design is simple but very effective which is the hardest balance to strike. I see great commercial potential for this product. They should roll it out at Apple stores all over the country.”
Pajerski and Brouillette appear intent on bringing their product to market, but they still need help in order to do that. They recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Prop, and as of Thursday afternoon that had helped them net $11,963 from 344 backers. But that means the project needs to raise a little more than $6,000 in the next 16 days to get the green light.
For more on what people are saying about The Prop, check out coverage of the product from these other outlets:
- “You’ll want this: ‘The Prop,’ a smart, portable laptop stand” – The Next Web
- “Design Showcase Judges’ Award – 2011” – Apartment Therapy
Watch the Kickstarter video below to see Pajerski and Brouilette’s pitch for The Prop, and visit MAKE Collaboration’s page on vimeo for more footage of the product.
