Industrial designer Gustav Rosn and business partner David Lindell recently launched Kord, a Swedish design brand. Their stock-in-trade, at least to start, is power. "We saw an opportunity to take something as common as power strips," says Lindell, "and give them a distinct presence and design that feels natural in both homes and other environments. There are few products in this segment that deliver both function and aesthetics and we wanted to fill that gap."Their inaugural product is the Cuboid, a diminutive power stripsorry, cubewith four outlets. A Cuboid+ variant features three outlets and two USB-C ports. "Cuboid is the result of a holistic understanding of the limits of geometry, technical constraints, functionality, and aesthetics," says Rosn. "The asymmetric placement of the outlets gives the product character and originality. At the same time, it is the outcome of technical limitations and the ambition to create a beautiful yet highly compact object. The interaction between form and function brings clarity and purpose to the design. Cuboid is an excellent example of our ambition to merge technology and design in a way that creates value for the user."Both models come with a 2-meter cord, and the company bills them as the smallest multi-socket power strips in the world.They're also offering this optional Cumulus Case, which seeks to "[transform] the Cuboid into a sculptural object." To me this seems a strange choice, one that actively works against purposefulness of the existing design. At press time, the recently-launced venture had yet to announce when they're going into production and where these will be available.