Innovate Design, the UK’s leading invention development company, today announces that it helped The Apprentice candidates with one of the challenges in the new series episode 2. With Innovate Design’s support, each team had to create a brand-new electric toothbrush aimed at children between six and eight, along with an accompanying app to further encourage teeth brushing.

Alastair Swanwick, founder of Innovate Design, said: “20 years ago, when I set up the company, Lord Sugar wrote an article recommending us in his newspaper column. That article gave us the credibility we needed to launch a successful business and with our involvement in the latest series of The Apprentice, it feels like we have come full circle.

“We recognised that this particular Apprentice task would be a huge challenge due to the incredibly tight timescales involved. However, we knew we had the right set of skills inhouse to take it on – and we love a challenge! We assembled a multi-skilled team of product development experts to handle the full process from concept sketching and brush design to electronics and app development, character creation and packaging design. We found the candidates easy to work with and I’m incredibly proud of what our team was able to create with them.”

For the challenge, Innovate Design was not permitted to assist the candidates with the design concept itself but instead supported them in delivering the finished prototypes. In order to appeal to children, the boys’ team came up with an infamous brown wand-shaped brush and wizard-based app. The girls’ team created a colourful rocket-shaped brush with a terrifying tooth character. The customised brush handles were printed on incredibly rare 3d printers, while the character designs were replicated in the accompanying app with animated games.

In addition to the product design, app development, logo and packaging design, the Innovate Design team also developed the smart technology inside the toothbrush. Going a step further than other smart toothbrushes on the market, the team created a bespoke brush that not only monitors brushing time, but also monitors the exact orientation the toothbrush is held at, whether the user is brushing too fast or too slow and how much force is being applied to the brush head. Bluetooth connectivity was added to facilitate sensor reading in real time and all of this technology was made to fit within the confines of the size of a toothbrush.

The ‘Toothbrush’ episode of series 16 of The Apprentice is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

If you want to find out more information on what happens behind the scenes, visit our Apprentice page at: www.innovate-design.co.uk/the-apprentice