This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The folks behind this week's Utah Crowd-Funding project follow the motto of Rodney Copperbottom, the hero of the computer-animated film "Robots": "See a need, fill a need."

That need is the mess of charging cords that emanate from one's computer.

Quell & Co.">The Spool Dock, being developed by Salt Lake City firm Quell & Co., provides an elegant solution: A felt-covered stand for your iPhone or iPad, and a wood-and-metal spool to hold in the charging cord in a compact and esthetically pleasing way.

The Spool Dock is the brainchild of Jeremy Saxton, a former designer for Nike and HP. His creation was profiled Monday on Wired.com.

Quell & Co. has launched a Kickstarter campaign, seeking to earn $85,000 to start production of the Spool Dock. If all goes well, the company aims to have the device in stores — and in the hands of its Kickstarter backers — by February.

The campaign runs through Nov. 7. So far, the campaign has raised seven percent of its goal, or $6,212.

If you have a crowd-funding project you'd like mentioned on The Cricket blog, email it to: spmeans@sltrib.com. Be sure to put "crowd funding" in the subject line.