Talk about the power of simple, intelligent design! A team of industrial design students at Western Washington University have jointly developed a tea-brewing device called Imbue. It consists of just six "ingredients" that, once put all together, enable you to easily brew loose leaf tea:

After producing and selling a small batch locally, the group of students decided the design was successful enough to try for a larger run with a Kickstarter campaign. Setting their sights on $20,000, they had attracted $323,752 at press time, with less than 24 hours left in the pledging period.

Some more details on those ingredients:

The container is constructed from shatter resistant borosilicate glass that works as an effective insulator, keeping your beverage hot and your hand cool. The lid is made from bamboo, a sustainable hard wood used in many household products because of its strength and flexibility. The lid has a powerful neodymium magnetic ring embedded in it to attract the stainless steel filter that holds the tea and is covered by a permanent food safe silicon gasket that is leak proof. This feature makes the interface between the Imbue lid, filter, and draining dish effortless. The removable sleeve is made from a natural insulated fabric with a no slip suede interior lining for maximum grip.

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If all goes right, the Imbue will start shipping in October of this year.

Congratulations to the students, and WWU's ID department! Hopefully this will motivate ID students at other schools to try launching their own designs.

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