QUARTERLY OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA 
FALL 2020
YEARBOOK OF DESIGN EXCELLENCE Winners and Featured Finalists of the 2020 International Design Excellence Awards
IDEA 2021 OPENS FOR ENTRY ON JANUARY 4
IDSA.org/IDEA
QUARTERLY OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA
FALL 2020 ®
Best in Show winner, BESPOKE Refrigerator, page 54.
Publisher IDSA 950 Herndon Pkwy, Suite 250 | Herndon, VA 20170 P: 703.707.6000 F: 703.787.8501 idsa.org/innovation
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The quarterly publication of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), INNOVATION provides in-depth coverage of design issues and long-term trends while communicating the value of design to business and society at large.
2020 YEARBOOK OF IN EVERY ISSUE DESIGN EXCELLENCE
IDSA AMBASSADORS Charter supporters indicated in bold.
7 In This Issue
3M Design, St. Paul, MN
24 2020 IDSA Honors
8 Letters to the Editor
Cesaroni Design Associates Inc., Glenview, IL;
41 IDEA 2020 Jury
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52 IDEA 2020 Winners
162 IDEA 2020 Featured Finalists
10 Design DNA
181 IDEA 2020 Index of Winners
by Scott Henderson, IDSA
14 Beautility
FEATURES
by Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA
18 Design Defined by Jessica Jean-Baptiste, IDSA
20 IDSA on TV 22 Empowering a New Future
by Chris Livaudais, IDSA
184 A Final Thought by Hector Silva and Dominic Montante
Santa Barbara, CA Covestro, Pittsburgh, PA Crown Equipment, New Bremen, OH Metaphase Design Group Inc., St. Louis, MO Samsung Design America, San Francisco, CA TEAGUE, Seattle, WA Techmer PM, Clinton, TN For more information about becoming an Ambassador, visit idsa.org/ambassadors or contact IDSA at 703.707.6000
by Don-Tae Lee, PhD
36 IDC 2020 Recap 40 Designing for Equity
by Jonah Becker, IDSA, IDEA 2020 Jury Chair
Statement of Ownership Publication: Innovation Publication Number: Vol. 39, No. 3 Filing Date: 09.08.20 Issue Frequency: Quarterly No. of Issues Published Annually: 3 Annual Subscription Rate: $100 Domestically, $165 Internationally Mailing Address: 950 Herndon Pkwy, Suite 250 | Herndon, VA 20170 Mailing Address for Headquarters: Same as above Owner & Publisher: 950 Herndon Pkwy, Suite 250 | Herndon, VA 20170 Managing Editor: Christopher Livaudais Issue Date for Circulation Data: Summer 2020
Cover photo: The design process of IDEA Silver winner, Tempo, page 142. QUARTERLY OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA
FALL 2020
INNOVATION YEARBOOK OF DESIGN EXCELLENCE FALL 2020
YEARBOOK OF DESIGN EXCELLENCE Winners and Featured Finalists of the 2020 International Design Excellence Awards
Innovation is the quarterly journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the professional organization serving the needs of US industrial designers. Reproduction in whole or in part—in any form—without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The opinions expressed in the bylined articles are those of the writers and not necessarily those of IDSA. IDSA reserves the right to decline any advertisement that is contrary to the mission, goals and guiding principles of the Society. The appearance of an ad does not constitute an endorsement by IDSA. All design and photo credits are listed as provided by the submitter. Innovation is printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks. The use of IDSA and FIDSA after a name is a registered collective membership mark. Innovation (ISSN No. 0731-2334 and USPS No. 0016-067) is published quarterly by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)/Innovation, 950 Herndon Pkwy, Suite 250 | Herndon, VA 20170. Periodical postage at Sterling, VA 20164 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to IDSA/Innovation, 950 Herndon Pkwy, Suite 250 | Herndon, VA 20170, USA. ©2020 Industrial Designers Society of America. Vol. 39, No. 3, 2020; Library of Congress Catalog No. 82-640971; ISSN No. 0731-2334; USPS 0016-067.
Total Number of Copies: Paid/Requested outside county: Paid in county: Sales through dealers/carriers: Other classes mailed through USPS: Total paid: Free distribution outside county: Free distribution inside county: Free distribution mailed through USPS: Free distribution: Total distribution: Copies not distributed: Total:
Ave. Year Single 1,860 1,562 1,477 1,301 0 0 135 116 52 49 1,678 1,461 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,697 1,610 180 101 1,858 1,562
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54 Best in Show | BESPOKE Refrigerator & Family Hub UX Gold IDEA in Digital Interaction and Silver IDEA in Home Just The Way You Want It 56 Chair’s Award | Easy, Affordable Vision Screening for Developing Countries Gold IDEA in Medical & Health and Silver IDEA in Social Impact
I See You 58 Curator’s Choice Award | i’mnot - Yamaha music instruments for non-musicians Gold IDEA in Student
Welcome To The Joy of Music 60 People’s Choice Award | Welch Allyn RetinaVue 700 Imager Silver IDEA in Medical & Health A Clear View
AUTOMOTIVE & TRANSPORTATION 62 Elroy Air Chaparral Super Highway in the Sky 64 Silver Winners 67 Bronze Winners BRANDING 68 Forge Ahead Strutting Down the Runway 70 Silver Winner 71 Bronze Winner CHILDREN’S PRODUCTS 72 Silver Winners 74 Bronze Winner
Left: IDEA Bronze, ElectionGuard Voting Machine, page 137. Right: IDEA Silver, de Youngsters Studio, page 104.
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COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL 76 Hyundai Vest Exoskeleton (VEX) Uplift 78 Leica BLK2GO, the first wireless handheld laser scanner One-Stop Shop 80 Silver Winners 83 Bronze Winners CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY 84 FUJIFILM PROJECTOR Z5000 Throwing Off Convention 86 FUJINON TECHNO STABI TS-X 1440 Rugged and Reliable 88 Sonos Amp A River of Sound 90 Silver Winners 94 Bronze Winners DESIGN STRATEGY 97 Bronze Winners DIGITAL INTERACTION 98 Silver Winners 101
Bronze Winners
IDEA Program Partner Through an ongoing partnership with The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, winning IDEA products are entered into the permanent collection of the museum and
ENVIRONMENTS
remain an ever-present symbol of ingenuity and mastery of
102 Museum of Literature Ireland A Home for Stories
and the pursuit of excellence. The museum welcomes over
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Silver Winners
106
Bronze Winners
craft. The Henry Ford name is synonymous with innovation 1.7 million visitors per year and is a national historic landmark, with an unparalleled collection of artifacts spanning over 300 years of human ingenuity.
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FURNITURE & LIGHTING
PACKAGING
107
Silver Winner
132
Silver Winners
109
Bronze Winner
134
Bronze Winners
HOME
SERVICE DESIGN
110 Miranda O3 Pulldown Kitchen Faucet The Power of Chemistry Meets the Finesse of Design
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112 Triple Care Dishwasher Incognito 114
Silver Winners
117
Bronze Winners
Bronze Winner
SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGN 135
Silver Winner
137
Bronze Winners
SPORTS, LEISURE & RECREATION LIFESTYLE & ACCESSORIES 120
Silver Winner
121
Bronze Winner
MEDICAL & HEALTH
138 Awake RÄVIK Environmentally Responsible Surfing 140 Tonal Strength Training System Fitter Faster 142
Silver Winner
143
Bronze Winners
122 REAL Immersive System A Recovery Game 124
Silver Winner
125
Bronze Winners
OFFICE & ACCESSORIES 126 C9 A Future-Proof Office 128
Silver Winner
129
Bronze Winners
OUTDOOR & GARDEN 130
Silver Winners
STUDENT DESIGNS 144 Cairer – An AI directed therapy tool to support dementia carers Proactive Support 146 Dart Electric Rideshare Bike For a Stylish, Sweat-Free Urban Commute 148 HanDo Freedom 150
Silver Winners
159
Bronze Winners
GOLD
SILVER
BRON ZE
Key: Award level is indicated by color coded headers. Starting on page 54.
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I N T H I S I S SUE
OVERCOMING THE UNEXPECTED
E
ach year the editors of INNOVATION reserve one issue to celebrate the award-winning designs entered into IDSA’s International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) program. IDEA is a year-round production for IDSA, and we have a dedicated team in place who help to ensure everything happens in a carefully choreographed cadence. When we launched the IDEA 2020 call for entries in early January, everything was running just as planned and designers from around the world were crafting their entry materials. Then COVID-19 hit and the team behind IDEA had to quickly envision a different way to complete the program, all while ensuring that our jury process upheld the high standard of rigor and quality that has become a differentiating hallmark of IDEA compared to other awards programs. The IDEA jury process happens in two rounds. The first round takes place online via our custom awards platform on which judges log in to review and score the entries. Since round one already happens in a virtual setting, the jury didn’t have to make too many COVID-19 related adjustments in order to keep on track. In round two, however, things got interesting. The Henry Ford Museum, the long-standing host of our round two judging process, was forced to shut its doors in mid-2020 in response to COVID-19. For over a
decade, we’ve invited IDEA jury members to the museum in Dearborn, MI, to participate in the second round of judging over the course of three days. It’s an intense process that is yet another defining element of IDEA. With no way to meet in person, we had to pivot this portion of judging to a virtual format. At times it was scrappy, but always thorough. The group was iterative in its approach and always looking for areas to make improvements. Round two was a true collaboration in the most classic of ways, and we are very thankful for the commitment of our IDEA jury and Jury Chair, who never lost sight of their quest to seek out the very best from this year’s entries. Over a two-week span, and by leveraging a variety of online collaboration tools, they completed their mission and selected our winners on time. Ambiguity and adaptation are central to the design process, and they are attributes that many designers inherently embody. Just as the IDEA team had to alter its course to recognize the top entries this year, we’re certain that the designers who created the products, services, and experiences featured here were faced with uncertainty and overcame unexpected difficulties while bringing their creations to market. This is a distinct mark of excellence and one we’re proud to share with you in this issue. —INNOVATION Editorial Team
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F E E D B ACK
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Tucker and John-Michael,
Y
our article in the Summer edition of INNOVATION mentioned “ideas that seem appropriate for everyone.” My question for you is, Where is the challenge to the Parsons students to incorporate recycling in everything they design, produce, and consume? Since retiring, I have joined with six other “junkers” at our local Habitat for Humanity to take apart products that no longer function so the pieces can be recycled for the income that lets us build homes every year. Many of the items contain components with a variety of plastic materials that are not identified with a number to indicate their potential for recycling. No number, no chance for identifying the material for recycling. All products with Santoprene, for instance, cannot be recycled as the products’ components are not designed be separated from this soft material. On the other side of the size spectrum, the plastic components in vehicles cannot be repaired, and there is no market here in Virginia or other states where these styled and designed vehicle parts can be recycled. That is a lot of wasted plastic! Where have our fellow design professionals lost their vision? If we are part of the design, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing process, can we at least insist that all the materials are identified for recycling? Almost 40 years ago, several of my fellow designers and I made a presentation at the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) for plastics materials identification. We proposed that a four- or five-digit number be assigned to every plastic material listed in the Plastics Materials Encyclopedia. The numbers would give recyclers information about the potential grind and reuse of the products they run across, assuming, that is, they cared to look them up. The proposal received a positive response from the SPE, but when we presented it to IDSA, it was labeled cumbersome. The proposal was never approved for use. When I was at Wear-Ever Proctor Silex, Inc., we used a lot of phenolics. After a bit of experimentation, we were able to grind this material and add about 15% to 24% of the regrind phenolic to new parts without losing strength or heat-resistant properties. Where is this kind of designerengineer-production interface today? If products are meant to be repaired or disassembled, why do I find three head sizes of the same type of screw used to assemble a portable power tool? Why are screws assembled in holes that are too narrow for a standard
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screwdriver shaft to enter? If people around the world wish to disassemble junked products to recycle materials to get some income, how will they acquire the variety of tools for the removal and recycling of components? The best way in some remote situations would probably be by using a hammer after trying to smash the product on a rock, rather primitive disassembly techniques for well-designed hightech products. Should and couldn’t products be designed for easier disassembly with more basic tools? Carry on with your class presentations, gentlemen, but please do not forget that at the other end of the product development rainbow is recycling! —Marshall Johnson, L/IDSA mjoh105055@aol.com
To the Editor,
I
n their end piece “Opportunity for Change” in the last issue of INNOVATION, Hector Silva and Dominic Montante wrote, “Designers graduating today are wholly unprepared for entering the workplace.” But isn’t the goal of education to get the job done, not just to get a job? Anyway, we are now in a good time to assess things because no one is prepared for what’s going on today. Mike Monteiro expresses similar ideas in his book Ruined by Design, “Design Education Stinks: We need to teach students the responsibility of their craft.” Our ancestors who created the industrial design profession did not have all the prescribed skills either (they didn’t know what they were yet). They did have talent and the entrepreneurial spirit necessary to invent the profession. Today we are in a similar situation where things are changing all around us. Luckily, the trajectory of industrial design education from that beginning in the ’30s was based on a proven system: trial and error. Figure it out. Try it. If it works do more! ID is the most cross-disciplinary pedagogy, more agile than liberal arts. Design education shows students not only how to navigate uncharted waters but how to steer toward innovative solutions. It does that through hands-on learning that empowers students’ curiosity, training nimble thinkers and doers. As Lucia DeRespinis says to her students at Pratt, “Welcome to design … you’ll never be satisfied again!” See ya, Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA
IDSA H Q
ON THE TOPIC OF RELEVANCY
W
hen I became IDSA’s executive director in 2018, the first book I read was Race for Relevance: 5 Radical Changes for Associations by Harrison Coerver and May Byers. A few colleagues with association experience recommended it to me, feeling it would serve as a good foundation for my new role. The book was originally published in 2011 but had clear applications to the work ahead of me. The authors present “five radical changes” every association should make in order to maintain their relevancy: • Overhaul governance and committees • Empower and enhance staff expertise • Define your member market • Rationalize programs and services • Build a robust technology framework Race for Relevance influenced a lot of my early thinking, and I’m proud to report that we have made significant progress in implementing many aspects outlined in the book. We’ve adapted them to our own unique circumstances and sought to incorporate feedback from our community wherever possible. This work, in turn, has had a direct correlation to improvements in our overall IDSA membership experience and the services IDSA headquarters provides on an ongoing basis. During conversations with members in those early days of my term, I was frequently asked, “We’ve got to be more relevant. What are you going to do to keep IDSA relevant?” I would typically respond with a list of things we were working on inside the HQ office and a variety of external factors that were influencing our new approach to preparing IDSA for future success. Reference my IDSA HQ piece in the Spring 2019 issue for more detail on that early thinking and strategy. Now as I reflect on our progress and on the dramatic challenges 2020 has delivered, it’s clear that our quest for relevancy is vital to our future, perhaps now more than ever. I am currently collaborating with IDSA’s Board of Directors on our plans for 2021 and beyond. We’re approaching these conversations and decisions with a mindset of being conscious of our current reality and being adaptable when forces outside our control demand it.
COVID-19 has caused considerable disruption to our global economic and social systems. We expect a slow recovery in the year(s) ahead. Concurrently, cultural shifts have placed a renewed lens on racial inequities in the United States. Organizations like ours can no longer be a silent bystander. We must lead by example.
Today, keeping IDSA relevant is about our agility, responsiveness, and proactive outlook. Agility means that we strive to adjust and adapt where we need to (in some cases very quickly) in order to keep pace with current events, trends, and conversations. This helps demonstrate that IDSA has a firm grasp on the pulse of the industry and that you, as a member, know where you can look for up-to-date information. Responsiveness means that we actively seek to listen to the needs and concerns of our community and respond in an appropriate, timely manner. This is critical so that members in our network know that they are being heard and that they can have a seat at the proverbial table. We know that the best decisions are not those made in isolation but rather those that embrace input from diverse voices. And finally, keeping a proactive outlook means that our team at IDSA is always keeping an eye on the future and continually evaluating how we can make improvements, no matter how small they may be. Being mindful of what our community is going through and creating content, services, and experiences that reflect those realities is a key element of maintaining relevancy in the industry now and in advancing our Society for years to come. —Chris Livaudais, IDSA, Executive Director chrisl@idsa.org
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D E S I G N DNA
THE LOST MESSAGE OF DESIGN
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“Nothing useless can be truly beautiful.”
—William Morris, 1880
I
f you look up the word “design” in the dictionary, you don’t get one clear definition, but two. The first one reads: “A plan or drawing produced to show the look, function or workings of a building, garment, or object before it is built or made.” Definition two goes like this: “An arrangement of lines or shapes created to form a pattern or decoration, as in “pottery with a lovely blue and white design.” Unfortunately, it’s the second of these two definitions that seems to have stuck with 99.99% of the population—mostly due to the miscommunication of our message or even our own lack of definition of what our message is. I have two nieces. “My uncle is an inventor,” they say, a kind euphemism they deliver in a supportive and encouraging tone. “What does your wife do?” is an interesting follow-up question in the cocktail huddle. One niece bounces around from various marketing related jobs; the other is a lawyer. They are so far removed from our world of design—along with almost everyone else—that they just can’t put together what I actually do. I no longer subject them to my fruitless explanations at the Thanksgiving Day table. I just let it go. I have grown weary of saying “It’s like architecture for things like your coffeemaker.” That crowd pleaser usually generates a brief silent pause just prior to a “Pass me the red?” In my own mind, I leave myself shrouded in a mystical mystery, like a creative dark lord who has bucked the conventions of the society that they must laboriously conform to at their “real” jobs. In their minds, I am the eccentric, wild-haired tinkerer in a cluttered, rickety workshop on the hill with a single dimly lit window punching a square yellow hole through the night’s cricket-chirping blackness. Crayola Expressionism Interesting, though, how the word “inventor” makes so much more sense to them than the word “designer.” To their ears, the word “design” conjures distant memories of the miniature kindergarten table and the intimidating stack
of white paper flanked by the Maxwell House can of Crayola stubs. The lovely Miss Heart would say, “If you can’t draw it correctly, it’s OK. Just make a design.” A design in this example meant some waxy purple and yellow lines woven together randomly like an abstract expressionist Spirograph. If your creation did not look like a scene from the yard, it was deemed a design—and that’s OK! Yes, our first exposure to any organized learning, perhaps even our very first formal school lesson ever, relegated design to a lowlier status than that of a daisy. The five-year-olds who could draw mom and the oak tree were exhibiting a higher level of cognitive ability, and thankfully design was there as the face-saving safety net for everyone else—a stop gap to prevent sobbing. I’m personally quite happy to be thought of as an inventor. It’s a vastly more accurate and descriptive portrayal of what we do. My favorite movie as a kid was bar none Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’s really the quintessential designer’s movie from an entrepreneurial, engineering, and marketing perspective. Here is Professor Caractacus Potts, a struggling inventor living in a leaky windmill. At the bemoaning of his children, he buys a wrecked car long forgotten in a sunken roadside mud bog and welds it up into a flying boat in the shadows of the night while everyone else reads bedtime stories. The distant sounds of metal grinding metal and the faint glow of burning embers faintly illuminating the windowsill is all I needed to see. I was hooked! Inventors are the underdogs who save the day with their intellect and are doubted every step of the way for their ability to conjure newness. “It will never go my boy!” says Grandpa Potts, who escapes reality by retreating to his outhouse on imaginary sojourns to India—and so says society of our efforts, which are just one dimension too far for quick comprehension with a name like design. So we go it alone and talk amongst ourselves in our secret meetings, congratulating each other.
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D E S I G N DNA
Potts goes on to make his millions by tripping over a discarded idea in his workshop brimming over with discarded ideas, the genius of which is illuminated by his non-designer girlfriend Truly Scrumptious for its purity and simplicity. Born is the Toot-Sweet, the blockbuster whistling dog biscuit. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the movie was originally a children’s book written by Ian Fleming, the same writer who delivered us the James Bond character in his 1953 novel Casino Royale, a story filled with even more fascinating gadgets and shiny barware. Designers often evoke romantic stories of early toaster disassembly projects, but tell me truthfully that Q’s bagpipe flamethrower didn’t subliminally put you on the career path you enjoy today. Big Picture, Not Micro Details Designers often think that the origins of our profession stem from the time, people, and practices of the Bauhaus school. But the real origins actually go back much farther than that with early roots in the work of William Morris and his brotherhood of Pre-Raphaelites. Morris was a poet, fiction writer, architect, painter, textile designer, and political activist—a true renaissance man in the most da Vinci sense of the word who immersed himself in studying the medieval period and who hated overconsumption. He examined how furniture was made in medieval times—by hand with axes, mallets and wooden joinery—which generated a purity, simplicity, authenticity, and sustainability that was in stark contrast to the swoops and curls of Morris’ time. The era Morris lived in, the mid-1850s, was at the height of the Industrial Revolution when ornate Greek columns were being cast in iron by the millions and placed on building facades everywhere, offering fake antiquity and nonauthenticity galore—and choking the skies with a black silt during their needless manufacture that would drift to earth like an oily talcum mist. Now that we could make anything, we chose to make lots and lots of two-thousand-year-old designs! Morris was one of the first to see this absurdity and object to it—long before Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, was ever born.
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Sometimes designers think it’s a cop-out to say that merely designing something better is in and of itself friendly to the planet and sustainable, but in the context of Morris’ soot-filled age of industrial non-creativity, this was definitely the case. The world needed better designs as well as an entirely new approach, a completely new design philosophy. Through his fiction writings and their intricate illustrations, Morris gained popularity, but his take on simplified furniture and other architectural creations basically single-handedly revolutionized Victorian taste and gave birth to the Arts and Crafts Movement, which would later evolve into modern design. Yet what Morris is primarily known for today is his elaborate textile and fabric motifs—his “designs.” Yes, the entire rethink of smokestack-belching factories and how to wield heavy industry in a more thoughtful way—which gave birth to ideas greatly expanded upon by the likes of Gustav Stickley and later Frank Lloyd Wright, Gropius, Eileen Gray, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier—has been remembered by history as flower patterns. The triumph of thinking differently in response to a problem, the achievement of pioneering a philosophy that would become the essence of design as we know it today, was deemed—probably dismissed—as arts and crafts.
Arts and crafts, once a major design movement that shaped all things modern yet to come, later became the class you took at day camp when it rained.
If you enroll in shop class in high school because you want to learn how to make real things, people assume it’s because you can’t hack calculus. The kindergarten table where we made designs because we couldn’t draw trees yet has shaped everyone’s idea of what we do. Our grumbling response to this has been a systematic shunning of our ties to the arts out of self-invented embarrassment, favoring science as something more credible and valuable. Somewhere along the line we started devaluing beauty in favor of what we think of as the total design experience that requires a scientific study to uncover it. However, the simple Morris chair, an icon of design that led to the widely adopted Mission and Prairie styles, was design stemming from neither of these micromanagerial camps that are buried deep within the much bigger picture of today’s design equation that we have yet to adequately and effectively articulate. In Morris’ view, the world needed to become more like the sustainable medieval times to prevent industrialization from destroying our planet, bodies, minds, and souls. Now that is one solid thesis—the bedrock under which monumental skyscrapers of design can be built! Could it be that today’s design discussion should focus less on a process, less on the artifacts of our craft and how we sell them and more on identifying a new ideology, a new code, an entirely new approach to address the many deadly problems that threaten us? Did Morris incessantly describe how he went about creating his designs and why that specific process has so much value like we constantly do about the fivestep process known as design thinking, or did he instead focus on why he was creating them in order to address a much bigger overarching concept? We read about the pivotal course corrections throughout the history of design and architecture—the Arts and Crafts Movement, American Modern, the Bauhaus Movement, Memphis. If there was ever a time for a new movement of our own, a big-picture model and philosophy that we all can get behind, that time has most definitely arrived.
Nowhere Is Real Looking back on it now, the kid at the miniature kindergarten table who was bent on perfecting the perfect squiggle was probably in fact the genius in the room—maybe subconsciously tapping into threads that define how the universe itself is constructed, unknowingly representing what we all observe and later instill in our work that seems to come out of nowhere: those unexplained leaps of creativity. Nowhere, though, is a place that is remarkably understandable once we discover it. However complex we think a problem or enduring mystery is, when the secret is finally revealed, we marvel at how we could have missed it for all this time, probably dismissing it as nonsense instead. Nowhere is real, and defining it is precisely what design is. The ironic truth behind the kindergarten table is that the beautiful Miss Heart, in her attempts to maintain a calm classroom, was exactly right! The squiggle on the paper that did not look like a tree was in fact a design and one that may yet play an important part in a much bigger story. —Scott Henderson, IDSA, Principal, Scott Henderson Inc. scott@scotthendersoninc.com
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B E A U T I LI TY
THE GODFATHER!
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t an IDSA conference in the late ’80s in Chicago when I was about 40, Budd Steinhilber, FIDSA, thought it was safe to admit he was my godfather! Technically, he was supposed to take responsibility for my religious education—which he didn’t do, unless you think I worship design! And he did drive my mom to the hospital when she was in labor with me. Budd is a multidisciplinary ecological social-justice Johnny Appleseed hailing from his birthplace in New York 96 years ago and onward to Ohio, then Silicon Valley, and Hawaii. Budd’s birth certificate reads “Male” because his parents neglected to give him a name. He grew up in Woodstock, NY, in an artistic family with a wrester/ watercolorist Socialist Labor Party father. “Buddy” heard about industrial design from the source: Donald Dohner, who created the standard industrial design pedagogy we all use today and headed the program at Pratt. Budd, as he was officially called when he graduated from the High School of Art and Design in New York, at 15 was too young for Pratt, until Dohner saw his portfolio and admitted him to the new industrial design program with teachers like Eva Zeisel, Rowena Reed, FIDSA, and Alexander Kostellow, FIDSA. While at Pratt, Budd interned for Raymond Loewy for $17.50 a week, where he worked on the Greyhound double decker bus and learned how to sign Loewy’s signature. Budd and Read Viemeister, FIDSA, (my dad) became best friends at Pratt. In 1943 they graduated first and second in their class (they didn’t care in what order). Without passing Go, they started their careers at the top, working for two of their Pratt teachers, Dohner and Gordon Lippincott. That year Dohner and Lippincott had opened their top-floor Fifth Avenue office with a 3D graphic called “Conditioning Factors of Design” labeled with the four factors: tools and process, materials, function, and, at the top, ecology. Budd said it was the first time he had heard the word “ecology.” Dohner and Lippincott turned the broad design methods they developed for teaching design into a lucrative enterprise. The industrial design process worked on everything from products, packaging, graphics, cars, and even creating clients’ names—the whole identity (“experience” we call it now). For instance, while they redesigned Walgreens stores, Budd beefed up the brush stroke logo (still used today). They called it CI (corporate identity); we call it branding. Lippincott’s projects included the Campbell’s Soup red-and-white can, the Betty Crocker spoon, and the Graham-Paige car. Dohner became the first editor of the new Industrial Design magazine, which began as an insert in Interiors and later was known as I.D. For the premier issue in June 1943, he wrote a plea for manufacturers and industrial designers to prepare for the postwar economy and asked Budd (wait, when was his graduation?) to design the first cover, for which he used a photograph of his brother Norman playing
the role of a designer with a T-square and triangle at the center of vectors connecting factories to mass consumers. Recently, I asked Budd to tell me about Dohner: “As my Teacher, and as my Employer I felt so lucky, and privileged, to have been exposed to his personal charm, demeanor and his intellect. I think the design community lost a great future leader due to his untimely death.” Dohner died in December 1943. Budd had talent and ethics, so as a conscientious objector he refused to appear for induction into the Army. A few days later, FBI agents appeared at the Lippincott offices and hauled him off in handcuffs. Budd was incarcerated in prisons and work camps for two and a half years. In 1946, he rejoined the company. In January 1947, after the flamboyant automobile entrepreneur Preston Tucker left the offices, Lippincott came into the studio, threw down some renderings of the Tucker Torpedo (probably by George Lawson), and said, “Boys, think we can do better?” It was like throwing chicken to piranhas. Their sparkling white Prisma-on-black renderings, an interior sketch Read labeled “luxury in motion!,” convinced Tucker to hire them. They headed to Chicago to work in the largest factory in the world, a converted B-29 plant. During the next eight weeks, in a kind of design-off, the crackerjack Lippincott team faced off against Tucker’s in-house team lead by Alex Tremulis, literally side-by-side, each making their own full-size clay models. Every few days, Tucker would examine the models, pointing at this or that he liked, which both teams would interpret into their own model. As they resolved the design and the money began to run out, Lippincott’s new partner, Walter Margulies, flew out to Chicago to get his picture taken standing in front of the clay model with the team behind him and Budd kneeling by the front bumper (covered with foil to simulate chrome). To this day, Lippincott uses the Tucker project as an example of the firm’s team’s extreme dedication to their clients—their creative director even named his first-born child after the project (yours truly)! And Francis Ford Coppola made a movie about it, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, in 1988. In 1947 Budd and Read gave up their fancy jobs in the city, following Beverly (my future mom) to Yellow Springs, OH. Mom was a student at Antioch College, and the Midwest was fertile frontier for design (and corn) and hungry for new design. Budd and Read converted a chicken coop into a studio and became partners in Vie Design Studios. Antioch was one of their first clients. Their concept for the school’s new identity used Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing of Vitruvian Man overlaid with the three platonic forms symbolizing the College’s mission, curriculum, and co-op program. After all the cards and stationery were printed, the College called saying it was getting complaints about the nude figure and asking to have the genitalia removed. The Studio argued against covering up Leonardo’s classic art.
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They lost, so Budd cut off the man’s balls. In the end, the whole guy was dropped leaving a clean platonic logo. Budd and Read were nominated for membership in IDSA’s ancestor, the Society of Industrial Designers. Applicants were required to submit three of their own mass-produced product designs, which had to be for three different industries. Read and Budd had designed cars, pens, appliances, and furniture, but they thought claiming to be the sole designer was a “really dumb rule.” So they refused to apply separately and made the first joint application claiming the “inter-cooperative nature of our profession.” SID did become more inclusive when it changed its name to the American Society of Industrial Designers, and then became IDSA after merging with a few other design organizations. Budd designed the classic outline IDSA logo, was made a Fellow, and in 1986 founded the Environmental Responsibility section. He was awarded a $20,000 Distinguished Designer Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, which he used to tour design schools and conferences, speaking about developing eco-design methodologies. The Studio got to design everything from lawnmowers and lathes to greeting cards and even the Studio building. These guys had fun. They designed and built their own houses; Budd’s modular 4 x 8 grid meant he didn’t need to cut any plywood sheets. They also cooked up extravagant gingerbread houses for each other’s families (Budd never stopped baking!). In 1952 Antioch’s theater professor Arthur Lithgow (John’s dad) decided to create a summer program to stage all the Shakespeare plays. Budd designed an abstract Elizabethan stage built in front of Antioch’s main building. He designed posters and volunteered for the cast, demonstrating his artistic versatility and his belief that staging and acting are all forms of the same design (or vice versa). The Studio worked on Huffy bikes (Radiobike with a built-in tube radio; some are even still on the road today), the DAP logo and packaging, and the GraLab Darkroom Timer, (probably the first application of the Helvetica font on an American product). You can see the results in everyone’s darkrooms next to the DAP putty can still in production today. In 1960 I.D. magazine dedicated an issue to New York City design. Editor-in-Chief Ralph Caplan included Vie Design as a study in contrast: “Some exiles from New York claim they were carried out screaming. But this is a native New Yorker who tells why he left of his own free will.” The article, “I Jumped Over the Wall,” ghostwritten by George Dewey, says, “It sounds corny but we love our work, and this is part of the compensation. We could make more money in the big city, but we doubt that the extra money would be worth as much as the intangible benefits we enjoy in an atmosphere that serves us instead of competing with
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us.” To emphasize that Ohio really was the wilderness, Read and Budd dragged one of their desks and an Eames chair down into the woods and set it up next to a stream to take a portrait for the article. Then again, in 1964, Budd and his wife Ginny headed off to pioneer in another virgin territory, this time San Francisco—blossoming with psychedelic and electronic technology, it was the dawning of a new age. He worked in some movies with Antioch alumnus John Kordy and Zoetrope Studios, a kind of cooperative with Francis Ford Coppola (father of the iconic Godfather, 1972) and George Lucas. Looking for a job for myself in 1970, I visited their office on Folsom Street, saw their pool table and a fancy copper espresso machine Coppola had brought back from Italy. Twenty years later those were basic necessities for even the funkiest Silicon Valley dot-com venture. Budd teamed up with designer Gene Tepper “to prove that industrial design could thrive and flourish in a converted burlap bag factory.” Ten years later, just as Silicon Valley started to bud, his next partnership with graphic designer Barry Deutsch established integrated design on the West Coast. Steinhilber/Deutsch moved into a rundown industrial building in “wino country” at 655 Bryant Street (note: Tom Dair opened the Smart Design office right across the street a couple of decades later). They designed many exhibits, a retail display system for Esprit (including a really cool lighting fixture), JBL’s and Atari’s CES booths, Christen Eagle stunt airplanes, Electronic Arts branding, and Edge CMX video editing decks. One of their freelancers, John Gard, sent Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, “a couple of kids” in search of a design for their new computer, down the street to Jerry Mannock and David Kelly. Twenty-three years ago Budd “retired” and moved to Hawaii, continuing projects focused on ecological needs, like an electric scooter. A high school group asked him to help them build a solar-powered car. The Konawaena Solar Team qualified for the 1990 World Solar Challenge. The group of 14 students raced across Australia all the way from Darwin to Adelaide and finished 18th out of 35 university and professional teams. The Biel School of Engineering and Architecture in Switzerland was first, followed by Honda. Budd has finally retired back to Mill Valley, CA, closer to his son Carl, who lives outside of Portland, OR. His other son Donn still lives in Yellow Springs, while his daughter, Julie, is in Cambridge, MA. Like Brando’s Godfather, Budd gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse: showing me the responsibility of industrial designers to make beautility and how much fun it is. And also that a bike with a built-in radio is still cool! —Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA www.tuckerviemeister.com
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November 12-13, 2020
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VIRTUAL EVENT
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Medical Design Deep Dive
IDSA’s Medical Design Deep Dive 2020 pushes to build connections and conversations both inside and outside of the medical design industry. Medical design may not often be placed at the center of industrial design conversations, but 2020 changed that. This year also highlighted the important role that industrial design can play in our society. Members of the ID community have been reaching across industries and sectors, including human factors, 3D printing and engineering, to co-design solutions amid a global health crisis. Whether designing personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers or ventilators for COVID-19 patients worldwide, more designers have been moving into the medical space and stepping up in paradigm-shifting ways every day.
MDDD2020 is a comprehensive and immersive conference experience for design professionals at every level to understand the current state of medical design. This event explores how the role of design and the industrial designer is evolving and adapting to keep pace in these challenging times. What do designers need to know to meet these new challenges? How can our community start conversations that bring us closer?
idsa.org/MDDD2020
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FROM IDEA TO IDEA commitment “Inclusive design should not be considered a marginal but a catalyst for innovation.
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—Kat Holmes
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020 marks the 40th anniversary of the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). One of the most prestigious awards in the industry, it honors the best of the best in industrial design, covering services and products that “encourage, inspire, and push our industry forward.” However, I propose that IDSA needs a new model of design excellence moving forward, a model that highlights inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA). Inclusion Inclusion is the acceptance of individuals from a multitude of different backgrounds. In design, it means actively bringing in a diverse range of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, ages, genders, ethnicities, religions, and abilities. However, the industrial design community has a lot of work to do to get us to that point. If this is achieved, inclusive environments in design schools and organizations will promote a sense of belonging, which will enable designers to engage with one another in a way that fosters better cross-disciplinary interactions, creating better design outcomes for stakeholders and end users. It will also allow designers to be true to themselves and take pride in the work they do knowing that their opinions are valued and respected. Inclusive design is one of the core values that holds all the other facets of diversity, equity, and access together. Diversity Diversity seeks to bring different groups of people together from varying backgrounds. It is the new buzzword being used across every discipline. Companies are scrambling to diversify their teams and prove to consumers and stakeholders that they are invested in creating change. Currently, there are hundreds of job listings from major
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companies and top universities seeking diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders. Virtual conferences such as Where are the Black Designers?—co-founded by Mitzi Okou—have attracted over 10,000 people and within weeks after the event have inspired new conversations and conferences tackling issues of diversity in design. As easy as it is for me to be cynical and think that this is a passing phase, I believe this moment is a movement that will reverberate for years to come. We have made more progress in the last three months than we have in years. This change is vital and necessary as the world continues to change at a faster pace. By 2050, 53% of the country will be people of color, according to the 2019 AIGA Design Census, but currently only 3% of designers are Black across all design disciplines. The business case for diversity is clear as the design profession has already missed out on many opportunities for innovation and excellence as a result of so little input from a wider range of designers. Equity Equity is the value of being fair and impartial. However, what happens when the system at large is designed to oppress and exclude certain groups? Higher education in design schools can discourage the same people they are trying to educate: students from disadvantaged backgrounds; Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC); women; and people with disabilities. One of the first issues is that design education is extremely expensive, making it hard for talented students to attend. Students who are graduating from design programs, from industrial design and UX design to graphic design and illustration, can easily spend more in those four years than what they will make during their first year or two in the design industry. For industrial design students, the costs can be even higher with the materials
Be a catalyst in transforming the industrial design industry so that it better reflects our diverse country and world. that have to be purchased for every new project. For Black designers, the financial burden is daunting. Speaking from experience, Black students in design schools are usually coming from less privileged backgrounds. In order to advance in the industry, they may have to take several unpaid internships while in school—and even after they graduate—just to build their portfolio before they land that first major design position. In addition to the lack of financial resources, design education is designed to be exclusionary. Curriculums are based on Eurocentric design principles that do not highlight achievements made by BIPOC designers. For those students, it can be difficult to figure out what contributions they can make, and the journey as an industrial designer can become a long and lonely process. I believe that it is very hard for people from an under-represented group to
become what they cannot see. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to become a designer. Through equity, the profession can retain diverse talent who are engaged and want to contribute to this field. Access Access is all about giving everyone a voice; however, the voices of BIPOC, women, and impaired people have not been uplifted in design. In the larger design industry, females make up just 29% of leaders despite the fact that 61% of designers are female, according to the 2019 AIGA Design Census. In industrial design, the general consensus estimates the number of female designers to be around 10–15%. Jomo Tariku, an Ethiopian industrial designer, compiled data and found that just 0.32% of furniture by leading brands are created by Black designers. These are the issues we should be actively tackling to ensure there is greater access in design. We should reflect the people we serve, or else risk becoming an irrelevant industry. Organizations can create that change by hiring BIPOC, women, and people with disabilities, as well as creating mentorship opportunities within those organizations. In education, engagement with minority communities about design can begin at the K–12 level, industrial design programs should be incorporated in historically Black colleges and universities, and schools should change their curriculums to include more diverse voices and highlight the contributions those voices have made to this industry. These preliminary steps can create a new pipeline of designers prepared to tackle the challenges we face today. A Future to Believe In Recently, IDSA established the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, whose primary aim is to “be a catalyst in transforming the industrial design industry so that it better reflects our diverse country and world.” This is a great step, and the programs and initiatives that will stem from this will advance the profession in the years to come. Data will be collected over time to make sure we are on target in meeting those goals. As industrial designers, I believe that most of us want to create change and be of service to others, so creating opportunities for inclusion, diversity, equity, and access should not be an obligation, but a passion-filled mission. We have an opportunity to rise to the occasion and become better leaders, champions, and advocates for an equitable and inclusive future for everyone. —Jessica Jean-Baptiste, IDSA jessicajeanbaptistedesign@gmail.com jessicajeanbaptiste.com Jessica Jean-Baptiste is an industrial designer for HVL Lighting Group.
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IDSA ON TV: HIGHLIGHTING INNOVATION IN AMERICA
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n early 2019, IDSA received an inquiry about participating in a new TV show that was meant to feature industrial design in California. It was pitched as a media concept. You might not know, but we get a lot of opportunistic media inquiries each year. Some of them are more legitimate than others. This one, however, was interesting enough to pursue further. Fast forward to February 2020 and IDSA members Dan Harden, IDSA (Whipsaw), Ti Chang, IDSA (CRAVE), Stuart Constantine, IDSA (Core77), and Chris Livaudais, IDSA (IDSA) are sitting in a room-turned-film studio in the world headquarters of Adobe in San Francisco, filming the judging sequences of the soon-to-be-aired television show California by Design: Innovations. The countdown-style show features innovative products designed in California and tells the stories behind the designs that are changing the way we live our lives. Some of these products were created by IDSA members and are IDEA winners. IDSA partnered with MWC Productions in this endeavor because it offered a unique opportunity to celebrate the designers behind the product. The platform of the TV show amplifies the message and effort it takes to bring something to market and tells that story to a much larger audience than we could do alone. Great industrial design is more than a great aesthetic. California by Design allows viewers to explore the entire arc of what a designer goes through when developing a project or product and to really understand what is required to take an innovative idea all the way through to production.
After some unexpected delays due to COVID-19, the six episodes of California by Design aired on CBS in California from June to July 2020 and have since racked up thousands of additional views on YouTube. Following this success in California, we’re excited to share that the show is expanding its US footprint with a New York by Design show in the works. Set to air in late 2020, the New York City-based series will shine a spotlight on the Big Apple, a city known the world over as a hub of creativity, culture, and progress. A new group of industry experts has been assembled to participate as judges and commentators, including Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA, Debbie Millman, Karim Rashid, Scott Henderson, IDSA, Mauro Porcini, IDSA, and Paula Sher, to name a few. A program like this advances IDSA’s mission to advocate for and highlight the industrial design profession. “I get excited thinking about a kid watching this show on a Saturday morning and becoming inspired to learn more about what industrial design is,” says IDSA executive director Chris Livaudais. “We hear time and time again that young creatives aren’t aware of our profession until they enter college or later. I hope this TV show provides that spark of inspiration and inquiry that could send someone into an exciting career path they never knew existed.” We couldn’t be happier that the footprint of the By Design series is expanding and look forward to having the work of IDSA members and those in our community broadcast to millions of TVs across the country.
Right: Filming for New York by Design with judges and presenters Karim Rashid (top) and Scott Henderson, IDSA, with Mauro Porcini, IDSA, (bottom, left to right).
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EMPOWERING A NEW FUTURE
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oday, we are at perhaps the most unique intersection of business and society. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, 5G, and robotics are being actualized in real time while the world is facing a major societal shift tied to socioeconomics and health concerns. As we reevaluate the way humans interact with each other daily, we are also anticipating a ripple effect as these advances and changes will have global implications for generations to come. Amid this uncertainty comes an opportunity to challenge our older ways and innovate for a brighter future, one that is more accessible, sustainable, and personalized for all. One way to do this immediately is through the way products are conceptualized and designed. Design is an important part of the innovation process and can serve as a strategic tool to create the values that must be built into products in order to respond to the needs of the decades ahead.
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Design for Who? The word “design” means more than just aesthetics; it is the foundation of the entire user experience. Design innovation is the process of using design principles to take a leap forward into new capabilities and features in products, which includes innovation in traditional applications like visuals and industrial design as well as design-driven thinking to address innovations in crucial areas like sustainability and accessibility. Design is the interpretation of technology from the user’s point of view and is meaningful only when it provides a true value in their lives. Design is first and foremost for the people who use a product, and it should benefit all. Samsung offers an incredible range of products for the millions who interact with them, including phones, TVs, and appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners, among many others. We, as Samsung designers, have a responsibility to think about the user experience associated with every one of these products. And it’s not just about features; it’s about how people actually use and interact with the technologies these products provide. That’s how we know our users are finding value. Our design approach is very much the same as our overall purpose: to create products that benefit consumers by considering how design significantly empowers people’s lives through the entire experience. This drives us forward in all we do. To provide a more convenient and meaningful life for our users, there are three main values that design brings to innovation. First, when approached with care and insight, design can provide increasingly creative solutions in users’ changing lifestyles. For example, Samsung’s BESPOKE refrigerators are available with a range of different-sized compartments for users to mix and match according to their household size, dietary choices, and lifestyles—a need we knew we had to address as the number of single-family households have increased and with it the importance of space at home. This concept was conceived after seeing that for consumers the kitchen is not only a place for cooking but also a space where family members gather to work, play, and spend quality time together. The design concept started with the idea that refrigerators should be able to be built according to consumers’ tastes, which is at the forefront when purchasing home appliances. That is also one of the main reasons why Samsung runs seven design studios around the world—San Francisco, London, Beijing, New Delhi, Tokyo, São Paulo, and Seoul— to better-understand our global users and recognize the value of each culture and lifestyle in the products we provide. The second value is that design humanizes technologies for people. As more features are packed into new products, users must still be able to continue to use the technology without difficulty. Designers interpret forefront technologies into a form that allows users to feel that their experience using the product is enriching their lives. One example at Samsung is our robots. Showcased earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a series of concept designs illustrate the future
of robots as a life companion that understands and cares for people. This was based on deep research rooted in understanding what a robot needs to be to consumers in order to enhance their experience. To design a robot that can add value to people’s daily lives, our designers worked to create a holistic interaction experience. For instance, the robot is designed to keep a friendly distance from strangers—as a human would—and everything from its movement, direction, and speed is carefully considered to promote a sense of trust and foster a natural attachment experience between consumers and robots. Not to mention, the robot was created in the perfect size to perform its different functions alongside consumers and optimized with everything from the colors and materials needed to complete its tasks. Last but not least, innovative design empowers us to enable a sustainable consumer journey with our products and have a positive impact on people’s lives. To accomplish this, it is crucial that we empathize with consumers, who value ethical consumption and the environment, and empower them with continuous new applications and products to respond to their needs. One way to do this is through upcycling, also known as an eco-friendly product return process. This raises users’ awareness of sustainable living and encourages them to take steps toward more ecofriendly behavior. Samsung’s new eco-packaging facilitates the upcycling of boxes that come with the company’s lifestyle TV models, which include The Frame, The Serif, and The Sero. The thick corrugated cardboard can be used to construct small tables and shelves by following instructions that are accessed by scanning QR codes on the outside of the box. This new application leaned heavily on our design resourcefulness and encouraged our consumers to participate in waste reduction through our products in a new way, ultimately increasing awareness for environmental issues. Human-Centered Design In short, design innovation must put people first to achieve the goals we have established for the Samsung brand. It has to help people do more. The ethos of the Samsung design philosophy—“Be bold. Resonate with Soul.”—is about helping people get more out of their technology so they can do more in their lives today to create a better future. Designers, artists, and creative thinkers all have the power to inspire people’s emotions and influence their way of living, and Samsung’s design serves its true value when products seamlessly merge into a user’s life and enrich their everyday experiences. After all, design is not for the sake of innovation, but for those who use it. —Don-Tae Lee, PhD design.samsung.com Don-Tae Lee is the executive vice president and head of the Corporate Design Center at Samsung Electronics and dean of SADI (Samsung Art & Design Institute).
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Ralph LaZar, FIDSA 2020 IDSA Fellowship Inductee
LEADING THE WAY FOR DESIGN IN BUSINESS
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ith more than 50 years of membership and service to IDSA and the industrial design profession, Ralph LaZar, FIDSA, has laid the path for countless others to follow. The co-founder of the influential product design consulting firm Herbst, LaZar, Bell (HLB) in Chicago, IL, and co-founder, with the late Carroll Gantz, FIDSA, of the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), LaZar was inducted into IDSA’s Academy of Fellows on September 16 as part of the virtual IDSA Awards 2020 ceremony. The distinction is long overdue for LaZar, a renowned early champion of IDSA and of design as a value to businesses worldwide. He and fellow University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign classmate Walter Herbst founded the firm Herbst LaZar in 1963; when their college friend Randy Bell joined them in 1965, the partnership became a trio. HLB operated for almost 50 years under their management. At its peak, the firm employed 60 designers, engineers, and other professionals. LaZar was known for encouraging staff to develop multiple design programs and led by example to inspire designers in their work. Several IDSA members started their careers at HLB and later formed their own offices or assumed important roles at design firms, in manufacturing organizations, and at educational institutions, including Marianne Grisdale, FIDSA, Bryce Rutter, PhD, IDSA, and the late Mark Dziersk, FIDSA. LaZar’s service to IDSA began in Chicago, where he served as the Chapter Chair, Vice Chair, and Program Chair during the 1970s. He also served as Chair of IDSA’s
Nominations and Elections Committee, leading numerous programs and activities. In these roles, he encouraged IDSA members to reach for solutions to seemingly difficult programs, such as how to structure a program like a major conference to interest, educate, and inspire its attendees. As Chair of IDSA’s 1977 national conference in Lake Barkely, KY, he assembled an impressive roster of guest speakers that included astronaut Neil Armstrong and journalist Sidney Harris. LaZar began his career in Chicago, starting out at GE Hotpoint as a designer of kitchen appliances and televisions. Concerned with cleaning issues for Hotpoint kitchen appliances and ranges, he is credited with introducing glass control panels to industry. He went on to hold approximately 100 patents in various product areas and receive numerous design awards, including IDEA/BusinessWeek awards, Appliance Manufacturer Excellence in Design Awards, the HSMAN Graphics 2000 Gold Award, and the Italian Triennial Award. Darren Moss, former senior project manager at the Whirlpool Corporation, wrote about LaZar’s contributions to the profession, “Ralph has literally spent his entire career bettering the reputation of the industrial design community by providing great industrial design solutions to his clients.” Instrumental not only in IDSA’s formative years but also to the growing recognition in the United States of design as essential to businesses looking to innovate, LaZar often gave presentations at trade association gatherings and contributed articles to early IDSA publications, I.D. magazine, and design manufacturing magazines. He attended the
Clockwise from top right: Ralph LaZar, FIDSA, Twin Line Seating for the Brunswick Indoor Recreation Group, Revlon hair dryer, GBC binder machine.
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School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the North Shore Art League, and often lectured to students on the power of good design. LaZar currently resides in a retirement community in San Diego, CA, where he uses his abilities as a designer to assist the administration in improving the quality of life for its residents. He has been involved in an employee scholarship program that grants assistance for employees to continue their education at the university level. He also founded and designed a resident art gallery, where he heads the art committee that plans exhibitions and events. As an artist, he produces work in watercolor, acrylics, mixed media, photo transfer, and monotype techniques.
IDSA members have fond memories of the Chicago Chapter parties LaZar co-hosted on HLB’s riverfront deck at Wolf Point, as well as the many studio visits LaZar organized with others over the years, both at HLB’s Chicago headquarters and at the firm’s many satellite locations during IDSA national conferences. He is widely remembered and still known as a kind, gracious, and good-humored leader, someone who is eager to take time out of his day to help someone else. IDSA is proud to honor Ralph LaZar as a Fellow for his half-century of service to IDSA and his enduring impact on the industrial design profession.
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Tor Alden, FIDSA 2020 IDSA Fellowship Inductee
ADVOCATING FOR MEDICAL DESIGN AND IDSA MEMBERSHIP
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uring the virtual IDSA Awards ceremony on September 16, the day before the virtual International Design Conference 2020, longtime IDSA member Tor Alden was inducted into the Society’s Academy of Fellows. Alden’s Chapter-level service stretches back nearly 30 years when he began serving as secretary for the IDSA-NYC Chapter in 1992. Before and during his time as principal at HS Design, Inc. in Morristown, NJ, where he has designed medical, life science, and consumer healthcare devices since 2000, Alden has advocated for IDSA membership among his colleagues and peers as well as for the continued advancement of the industrial design profession. After graduating from Syracuse University in the late 1980s, Alden found, as most designers did at the time, a lack of awareness in business of the benefits of good design. In this era, industrial design was usually considered more of an afterthought or a styling effort, instead of fundamental to a product’s success. Alden was on the ground floor in promoting the design profession as a value to businesses that could be leveraged. While working at AT&T Bell Labs (now Nokia Bell Labs) from 1986 to 1992, Alden pushed the corporation to pay for memberships to IDSA and attendance at IDSA events, both regionally and nationally. He also got involved in early events with Core77, now an industrial design-focused website that was then a startup organization in New York City. Working with Core77 co-founder and
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managing partner Stuart Constantine, IDSA, Alden helped promote the values that IDSA and Core77 continue to share. When Alden moved to Minneapolis to work at Logic Product Development, he held the position of Vice Chair for the Minneapolis Chapter from 1996 to 1998, then Chapter Chair from 1998 to 2001. During this period, he increased group participation through integrated events with local museums and corporate offices, such as Target, 3M, and Medtronic. He created and maintained the Minneapolis Chapter website and was instrumental in setting up Chapter meetings, Student Merit Award presentations, and holiday events. As a result of these efforts, the Minneapolis Chapter grew and became a valuable resource for the local design community. This was in large part due to Alden’s efforts to open up the local design community, once isolated by competition between firms, by organizing multiple IDSA events in the region that brought designers across companies and disciplines together. Alden initiated the Medical Special Interest Section at IDSA and served as the Section’s Chair from 2003 to 2006. He continues to lead in this area, regularly providing insights and recommendations to the Society on current medical design trends. He has long encouraged medical design submissions to the annual International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) and supported the medical device specialty within IDSA by helping to organize events like IDSA’s
Medical Design Deep Dives. Most recently, he served as Guest Editor of the Spring 2020 medical design-themed issue of INNOVATION. Alden has served on the jury for IDEA, the editorial advisory board for MDDI magazine, the board of the New Jersey Technology Council, and the AAMI human factors committee, always promoting IDSA’s value. Over the years, he has contributed to groundbreaking designs that have won more than a dozen prestigious design awards, including IDEA Gold, Silver, and Bronze. His work has also been honored with Good Design, MDEA, and CES Innovation Awards. He is known for growing HS Design to become an industry leader in product development and one of the first
industrial design firms in the United States to become ISO13485 certified. Mark Evans, PhD, I/IDSA, says of Alden, “His work can be considered as transformatory in that it improves both quality of life and the saving of lives.” Moreover, Alden is respected and valued as an active business leader in his community of Gladstone, NJ, located just outside of Morristown. During the novel coronavirus outbreak this year, Alden led the design and fabrication of over 500 face shields that were distributed to hospital workers and other first responders on the front line of the pandemic. For his unwavering dedication, not only to IDSA but to elevating other designers and the practice of medical design as an integral part of the industrial design profession, IDSA is pleased to welcome Tor Alden as a Fellow.
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Hartmut Esslinger 2020 IDSA Personal Recognition Award
BLAZING THE TRAIL FOR MODERN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
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It is perhaps impossible to overstate the significance of Hartmut Esslinger’s impact on modern industrial design. As the founder of Frog Design Inc., a global design consultancy he established in Mutlangen, Germany, in 1969 and then moved to Silicon Valley, Esslinger (pictured far left) has been at the forefront of design excellence for decades. He coined the phrase “form follows emotion,” which stood in stark contrast to the “form follows function” edict that dominated industrial design until that point. He has been a dynamic force in the industry, pushing boundaries and taking risks to design products that have stood the test of time. On September 16, during the virtual 2020 IDSA Awards ceremony, Esslinger was honored with IDSA’s Personal Recognition Award for his historic achievements and contributions to the industry at large. From his first client, the avant-garde German electronics brand Wega, Esslinger demonstrated he had star power. For Wega, Esslinger designed the first “full plastics” color TV and hi-fi series, dubbed the Wega System 3000, to international acclaim. Sony acquired Wega in the mid-1970s and tapped Frog to create designs for the Sony Trinitron and the Walkman, two products that helped define the design style and feeling of the 1980s. In 1982, Esslinger partnered with Steve Jobs to create a design strategy that would catapult Apple from just another Silicon Valley startup into a global powerhouse brand. Now in California, Esslinger and his Frog Design team produced the iconic Show White design language that was applied to all of Apple’s product lines from 1984 to 1990, including the original Apple IIc and the Macintosh computer. For more than 30 years, Esslinger weathered the turbulence of Silicon Valley by doing outstanding work for loyal clients. In the 1990s, he was integral to defining Lufthansa’s global design and brand strategy, as well as the branding and user interface design for Microsoft Windows.
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He also employed his revolutionary design talents for Siemens, NEC, Olympus, HP, Motorola, SAP, and General Electric while incubating a team of designers that spun off into other influential design firms, such as Astro Studios, fuseproject, and Whipsaw. Beyond his dedication to design as a practitioner and as an educator in academic institutions worldwide, Esslinger is widely admired for his playfulness and refusal to play it safe when creativity strikes. “We must recognize that at the time of their release, the designs Hartmut and his team produced were anything but conventional; they set new precedents that were so ubiquitously copied that they became the standard,” says Remy Labesque, now a senior industrial designer at Tesla. “Hartmut has dedicated his life to industrial design, design academia, and relentless disruption. Without question, his work has been foundational to the very definition of industrial design as a discipline.” According to the 2019 recipient of this award, industrial designer Michael DiTullo, IDSA, Esslinger is “still every bit the provocateur he was when he started out” and a leading example for the next class of design disrupters: “I think we need another Hartmut Esslinger today.”
Spencer Nugent 2020 IDSA Personal Recognition Award
DESIGNING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
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ne of the emcees for IDSA’s virtual International Design Conference 2020 on September 17–18, Spencer Nugent also received one of IDSA’s top honors before the conference on September 16, during the virtual IDSA Awards 2020 ceremony. IDSA’s Personal Recognition Award recognizes IDSA members and nonmembers whose sustained individual achievement has made a valuable contribution to industrial design. Nugent is highly deserving of this honor, both for his boundless contributions to the ID profession and for the tremendous impact he has had on his fellow designers, colleagues, mentees, students, and followers on social media. As the founder of Sketch-A-Day.com, Nugent has provided free high-quality online design sketching tutorials and on-site sketch workshops since 2008. A prolific content creator, Nugent has built an extensive online network within the design community with hundreds of thousands of followers across his Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube accounts. Though many come for the daily attractive sketches, they often find themselves staying for Nugent’s easygoing teaching style and quick, helpful tutorials that have helped countless aspiring designers worldwide to improve their skills and become industrial designers themselves. A graduate of Brigham Young University with a BFA in industrial design, Nugent gained design experience working at General Motors in Warren, MI, and Astro Studios in San Francisco, CA. Recently, he served as the strategic UX and ID lead for Vivint Smart Home, guiding research, user-testing, ideation, prototyping, collaboration, and coordination across multiple business verticals. Through his own business, 50/50 creative labs, he provides creative experimentation and consulting in the categories of industrial design, UX, graphics, illustration, prototyping, and implementation. Over the course of his career, he has worked with brands such as Adidas, Dell, Intel, Hasbro, HP, Tupperware, Microsoft, Motorola, and Verifone. Besides being Instagram famous in the ID community, Nugent is known for giving talks and collaborating with other designers. His ongoing collaboration with the nonprofit organization Advanced Design includes teaching a 12-week
online course on design discourse for the educational pilot program Offsite in fall 2020, helping students figure out why they design, what they design for, and how to communicate the value of their work. During the International Design Conference livestream on September 17, Nugent led the workshop Your Product Story: Sketching to Communicate, showing participants how to break down complex stories and product experiences into bite-sized chunks that can be easily visualized. Above all, Nugent is widely regarded as an inspiration: someone who is a pleasure to work with, learn from, and look up to in an industry where Black men and women in particular are underrepresented and where Nugent’s striking combination of raw talent, strong work ethic, and generosity of spirit are rare. Those who know Nugent personally and who have personally benefitted from his teaching agree. “Spencer is someone I look up to as a mentor, not only due to his long and fruitful 20-year course as a designer but because of his well-developed thoughts and ability to articulate design and design thinking,” says Dominic Montante, a designer and fellow instructor alongside Nugent for the Offsite pilot course. “I would challenge you to find someone who has given so much and so consistently in our field. That’s what speaks to me most about Spencer. He commits his own time and money to produce these resources for the community—for years, might I add—and asks for nothing in return.”
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D’Wayne Edwards and Pensole Design Academy 2020 IDSA Special Achievement Award
OPENING THE DOOR TO DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES
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DSA’s Special Achievement Award recognizes individuals, organizations, or special projects for their creativity, innovation, passion, advocacy, or achievement in the field of industrial design. D’Wayne Edwards (pictured third from left) and the organization he founded in 2010, Pensole Design Academy, received this honor on September 16 during the virtual IDSA Awards ceremony for making a profound impact on the design community. With Pensole, Edwards has opened doors for many design students who may not have been able to pursue their dreams otherwise and helped them to hone their skills, boost their confidence, and land jobs at some of the world’s top footwear companies. Edwards has written that he founded Pensole in part to give talented young designers, regardless of socioeconomic background, the opportunity to learn from some of the industry’s best: “Growing up my dream was to become a footwear designer but there were no schools that taught that curriculum, and even if there had been, I couldn’t have afforded to attend design school. I created Pensole to provide students the opportunity I never had.” Since he started Pensole, graduates of his classes have gone on to work at New Balance, The North Face, Under Armour, Adidas, Stride Rite, Jordan, and Nike. Edwards’ interest in footwear design began at an early age. When he was 17, he won a Reebok design competition, beating out professionals and college students nationwide. At 19, he became the youngest professional footwear designer in the industry. He became head footwear designer for L.A. Gear at 23 and eventually went to work for Skechers, Nike, and the Jordan Brand, becoming one of six designers to design an Air Jordan in the shoe brand’s first 23 years of existence. He has traveled to more than 50 countries and 40 U.S. states to design or manufacture footwear, and he holds over 50 design patents.
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In giving back to aspiring footwear designers with Pensole, Edwards has produced a unique education model with passion and meaningful results. “D’Wayne identified that businesses were the ones benefiting from a well-trained pool of designers, so he organized Pensole around businesses paying the tuition for each and every student,” says Michael DiTullo, IDSA. “I can’t think of another organization that has done more to improve inclusion in the footwear and sportswear industries by reaching out and connecting young talent directly with brands.” In just a few years, Pensole has partnered with numerous universities and retailers to run local design workshops for high school students. “D’Wayne’s philosophy of giving back and product as the vehicle for a deeper message still echoes in my mind every day,” says Kaito Choy, an industrial designer and former Pensole student. “His action-driven passion of providing education for the less fortunate has inspired a new wave of talent across the spectrum of design. Pensole Academy truly sets the gold standard of specialized design education.”
Yves Béhar, IDSA, and fuseproject 2020 IDSA Special Achievement Award
INNOVATING WITH EMPATHY
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he second recipient of IDSA’s Special Achievement Award is Yves Béhar, IDSA, and fuseproject, the industrial design and branding firm he founded in 1999. The continued innovation that emerges from fuseproject under Béhar’s leadership is inspiring not only to the design community but also to the team inside fuseproject, who nominated Béhar. “We would like to show him what his contributions mean to us, and what it means to be lucky enough to have a vibrant, dynamic, and endlessly creative studio to come into each day,” wrote Harriet Tzou, fuseproject’s marketing and communications manager. “At more than 70 people, we still consider each other family at fuseproject.” In serving as fuseproject’s chief designer and as the co-founder of multiple other design ventures, Béhar is known for crafting products and experiences that establish new categories: for example, the first sleep and fitness tracker on the wrist, Jawbone UP; the smart baby sleeper SNOO; and the Herman Miller Sayl task chair. Most recently,
his notable product launches in the health and wellness sphere include Moxie, the smartbot companion for children developed alongside robotics company Embodied, Inc., and ElliQ, a sidekick for aging adults. For more than 20 years, Béhar also has pioneered design as force for positive social and environmental change. His humanitarian work includes One Laptop Per Child, which has provided 2.5 million laptops to children in developing countries, and See Better to Learn Better, which distributes 500,000 free corrective eyeglasses to school children in Mexico and California every year. For each of these causes, he was honored with the INDEX Award, making him the only designer to have received the award twice. He is currently spearheading SPRING, an accelerator supporting African and Asian entrepreneurs focused on social and economic change in East Africa and South Asia. Within the fuseproject studio, according to Tzou, “Yves is a constant and driving force of design energy, focused intently on the work and pushing fuseproject’s multidisciplinary designers to deliver nothing short of the best of their abilities. In a discipline defined by curiosity and practiced by, at once, inventive, artistic, and technicallyminded people, Yves brings vision to every project and encourages teams to build a relationship between an object and its owner so that each product can serve to positively transform our everyday lives.” Designs by fuseproject are known for their elegance and their tendency to have a socially progressive bent, from light fixtures that encourage energy conservation to Moxie, a robot that promotes social, emotional, and cognitive learning in children. Béhar’s guidance and vision are key to fuseproject’s success, and why IDSA is pleased to honor both Béhar and fuseproject with the 2020 Special Achievement Award.
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I D S A HONO R S Editor’s note: The winners of the 2020 IDSA Education Awards will be featured in a roundtable discussion in the Winter education issue.
Katherine Bennett, IDSA 2020 Education Award
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professor at ArtCenter College of Design since 1988, Katherine Bennett, IDSA, is part of the core faculty for undergraduate and graduate industrial design programs, and has taught at both the Pasadena, CA, and European campuses. She has been teaching the college’s advanced design research course since 1991 and served as the faculty advisor for IDSA’s student chapter at the school in 1988–2007. Bennett inspires design students with her specialties in research (understanding the user experience), strategic planning, and information architecture. “Katherine has had a distinguished long-term career in service to design and has certainly earned the respect and admiration of colleagues across the United States (and the world!) in her role as an educator,” says Lorraine Justice, PhD, FIDSA, dean emerita and professor of industrial design
at Rochester Institute of Technology. “Katherine was a practitioner for years before becoming an educator, and she brings practice into her classes so that research can be applied, not just a theoretical idea.” Bennett has developed designs ranging from laboratory and business equipment to tableware and furniture for clients such as Herman Miller, Johnson Controls International, and many more. As an IDSA member, she has served as the Society’s West District education representative, an IDEA juror, and Education VP on IDSA’s Board of Directors. She is an advocate for women in design and was one of the keynote speakers at IDSA’s first Women in Design conference. “Katherine epitomizes all that a design educator should be,” says Jim Budd, IDSA, professor and chair of the School of Industrial Design at Georgia Tech. “She has helped define the role of industrial design education and the contribution designers can make to the field as we know it today.”
Ricardo Gomes, IDSA 2020 Education Award
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longtime member of IDSA, Ricardo Gomes, IDSA, has been a faculty member in the School of Design (formerly the Design and Industry Department) at San Francisco State University since 1991. He was the chair of the program from 2002 to 2012 and coordinated the school’s Center for Global Needs and the Shapira Design Archive Project, which is dedicated to promoting responsive design solutions to local, regional and global issues. He also is a prominent product design and development consultant, known for his expertise in the areas of sustainable design, social responsibility, and design for community development. “I have admired Ricardo’s commitment to addressing the important, underlying issues in design and design education for close to 30 years now,” says Ed Dorsa, FIDSA. “This focus on using design to solve serious problems has impacted thousands of students at San Francisco State
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University in the School of Design.” Gomes earned his MFA in industrial design for lowincome economies and MA in architectural building technology from UCLA, and earned his BFA in industrial design from Massachusetts College of Art. A Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, in the mid-1980s, he conducted postgraduate research and product development of a container system for mobile healthcare delivery in East Africa from 1982 to 1987. Gomes has conducted keynote speeches, presentations, symposiums, and workshops at universities and international conferences throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the US. In addition, he has served on juries related to inclusive design, universal design, design for social responsibility, sustainability, and equity for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the built environment. Since 2002, he has served on the board of directors of the Institute for Human Centered Design in Boston and as a trustee of the Beta Beta Chapter of the Epsilon Pi Tau International Honor Society for Technology.
Pascal Malassigné, FIDSA 2020 Education Award
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ascal Malassigné, FIDSA, senior professor and chair of industrial design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), is celebrated by his colleagues, students, and peers for his work in the areas of medical and rehabilitation design. Beyond his many accomplishments as a design educator, he is known as a research engineer and industrial designer for the Veterans Affairs medical centers in Atlanta and Milwaukee. For these centers, he has designed and prototyped mobility systems, bathing fixtures, and other devices for the elderly and individuals with various disabilities for more than 30 years. “Pascal leads by example and believes in the higher aspirations of design as a change agent in creating a better, more equitable world,” says Haig Khachatoorian,
PhD, IDSA, professor emeritus of industrial design at North Carolina State University. “He is very much in the vanguard of industrial design as an academic and practitioner.” Malassigné’s education in industrial design in the ’60s and ’70s, both at École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and at Syracuse University, led him to a career in academia—first as an assistant professor at Georgia Tech in 1980–1990, then as a professor at MIAD in 1991. Over four decades, he has used cross-disciplinary approaches to design problemsolving, applying various methods and technologies throughout the design process to teach multiple generations of design students. An IDSA Fellow, Malassigné has served on IDSA’s Board of Directors and the Districts Committee, and as president of IDSA’s Design Foundation. He also is an active member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America.
Betsy Barnhart, IDSA 2020 Young Educator Award
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ust two years into her time as an assistant professor and program director of industrial design at the University of Kansas (KU), Betsy Barnhart, IDSA, has elevated the program and helped students to succeed in myriad ways. In addition to teaching industrial design studio classes and elective courses, she has set up sponsored studios and workshops with some of the industry’s top designers, established mentorship programs, organized the local IDSA Student Merit Awards presentations, worked with graduating seniors to put on their senior shows, and helped to organize events for the school’s IDSA Student Chapter and Women in Industrial Design group. “During my time at the University of Kansas, I have witnessed Betsy put her heart and soul into our program,” says Tori Karlin, S/IDSA, president of the IDSA Student
Chapter at KU. “She gives so much more than what is asked of her and always makes herself available. As a woman in industrial design myself, she has helped me feel empowered, confident, and capable.” Barnhart’s academic research focuses heavily on the under-representation of women in ID, which she also brings to her leadership role on IDSA’s newly established Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC). With an MFA in industrial design from Rochester Institute of Technology, she also is known for her exceptional work as an industrial design consultant in the sporting goods industry. “It is evident that Professor Barnhart is without question a designer and educator of exceptional ability, with a reputation in sporting goods and soft goods as an outstanding professional,” says Lance Rake, IDSA, professor of industrial design at KU. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked with anyone with the education, skills, experience, and compassion to consistently get design students to perform at the highest level and produce work that is at the same time passionate and professional.”
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Dr. Louise Manfredi, IDSA 2020 Young Educator Award
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ince her arrival at Syracuse University (SU) as an assistant professor, Dr. Louise Manfredi, IDSA, has made a significant impact. “Louise has recently completed her third year of teaching in the School of Design, and to say she’s an emerging talent is an understatement,” writes Don Carr, IDSA, coordinator for the Industrial and Interaction Design (IID) program at SU. “The path she has blazed has been nothing short of meteoric. … I believe over the past two years within the College of Visual and Performing Arts the total amount of grant funding she alone has secured is unsurpassed.” Having received her bachelor’s in product design and PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Leeds, Manfredi has been particularly instrumental in forging a connection between SU’s School of Engineering and IID departments, resulting in a major increase of engineering
students taking IID classes. She has developed and grown Invent@SU, a program that pairs engineering students with IID students. She also has involved many students in research projects, greatly adding to their educational experience, and is currently developing a new curriculum for the IID program with a focus on transdisciplinary classes. Additionally, Manfredi helped pilot and is an advisor to Women in Design at SU, a student group focused on empowering women, encouraging creativity, and advocating for equality in every field. She is respected and admired by her students as someone who actually listens and cares. “There are a lot of great professors at Syracuse University, but none compare to Dr. Manfredi,” says Celia Boltansky, a former student and graduate of the class of 2020. “As a professor, researcher, and individual, she exudes passion, dedication, and drive in all she does. She pushes her students to find meaning in what they are doing and leads by exceptional example. I am immensely grateful to have learned from her both in and out of the classroom.”
Kelly Umstead, IDSA 2020 Young Educator Award
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pon joining North Carolina State University (NCSU) as an assistant professor of industrial design in 2016, Kelly Umstead has been an asset. In addition to leading several sponsored studio projects with bigname companies like Under Armour and Coca-Cola, she has worked to improve the experience for incoming students by driving meaningful changes to the graduate curriculum. “Kelly has made a tremendous impact on industrial design education through her attention to curriculum development, course delivery, and student mentoring in our BID and MID programs,” says Sharon Joines, PhD, associate dean of academic strategy and professor of industrial design at NCSU. “She brings her experience as a professional medical device designer to each studio she teaches; each solution must meet the needs of the stakeholders (very often including studio sponsors) and be realizable and desirable. Kelly models outstanding communication, collaboration,
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and collegiality for our students with enthusiasm.” With a BS in biological engineering and MS in industrial design from NCSU, as well as an MS in biomedical engineering from Marquette University, Umstead has worked at Gamil Design, Smith & Nephew, and Bioventus as a product designer, manager, and development engineer. Currently, she is a member of a multidisciplinary team at NCSU that has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. This represents the largest research grant ever received in the NCSU Department of Graphic and Industrial Design. The work itself, to which Umstead is a significant contributor and co-investigator with colleague Carolina Gill, places human-centered design at the core of a major endeavor toward patient safety. “I have a long career as a faculty member in three different R1 research institutions, and Kelly is by far one of the smartest, kindest, and most dedicated faculty members I have ever worked with,” says Gill. “Kelly is respected and loved by students and faculty, and I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this award than her.”
The Design Foundation The Design Foundation was founded in 2001 by the Industrial Designers Society of America to produce charitable and educational programming for the advancement of the industrial design profession. Facilitating opportunities that expand the composition of designers in the profession, increasing access to industrial design programming, and offering more learning opportunities in schools and through local community outreach are integral values upon which the Design Foundation is built. Through its focus on education as the starting point for a successful career in industrial design, the Design Foundation also positions IDSA, as a professional membership organization, to be responsive to the present and prepared for the future. Learn more at idsa.org/designfoundation 35
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IDC AT HOME: 24 HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED DESIGN FROM AROUND THE WORLD
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DSA’s annual International Design Conference (IDC) represents the perfect opportunity to bring together our global community of designers and top creative minds each year for a few days of connection, inspiration, and knowledge exchange. Originally, the 2020 event was to take place in Seattle, WA. However, due to health concerns arising from the novel coronavirus pandemic, IDSA quickly realized that a pivot would be necessary. As a result, our biggest event of the year became virtual for the first time ever. And if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, we also tried something not previously attempted by any international design conference, to our knowledge: a continuous 24-hour format. Being forced to go virtual broke traditional conference boundaries. Attendees could log on from around the world any time they wanted unencumbered by travel. This also allowed us to expand the scope of presenters than is normally possible given the challenge of coordinating people’s schedules, particularly those on the other side of the globe. “This format helped to separate us from other events and allowed us to address a truly global audience,” says Chris Livaudais, IDSA, executive director. “It didn’t try to replicate an in-person format in a digital environment, but rather leveraged the best of what a virtual experience can provide in order to create an entirely new attendee experience.” The main event on September 17 and 18, as well as the free pre-conference events on September 15 and 16, drew hundreds of designers and creatives from at least 25 countries. With nearly 80 speakers from nine different countries, the global conference also covered a wide variety of design disciplines that intersect with industrial design, such as UX, service design, branding, typography, and much more.
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Pre-Conference Events On September 15, IDSA hosted two virtual design studio tours. The first was with Loft, a multidisciplinary design studio based in Providence, RI, and the second was with Google’s hardware design team, based in Mountain View, CA. IDSA also hosted an Instagram Live conversation with Kiki Redhead, global CMF and trend manager at Sherwin-Williams, to discuss color trends and forecasting for industrial designers. On September 16, IDSA held three live annual events that were conducted virtually for the first time: IDSA’s Annual Membership Meeting and Year-in-Review, the 2020 IDSA Awards Ceremony, and the 2020 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) Ceremony. The membership meeting, presented by Livaudais, provided a review of the Society’s 2019 performance, as well as how the organization has been navigating the unprecedented global challenges of 2020. IDSA Professional Chapters such as Northern Lakes, Austin, and Denver were recognized for how they’ve successfully adapted to holding virtual events for their communities and the actions they’re taking, along with IDSA HQ, to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in industrial design. Other improvements and successes highlighted by Livaudais include the establishment of IDSA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DEIC), dramatic growth on IDSA’s social media channels, and the success of IDSA’s new Deep Dive event format, launched in 2019 and continuing in 2020 with virtual Sustainability, Women in Design, and Medical Design Deep Dives. During the IDSA Awards Ceremony, presenters ClayVon Lowe, IDSA, IDSA’s At-Large Director (Awards), and Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, IDSA, IDSA’s Education Director, revealed the winners of the Society’s highest personal honors. The 2020 IDSA Student Merit Award
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It made me feel very connected to a global design community, especially during this very “ disconnected time. It was also a great opportunity to connect with design professionals.
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—Anna Rindos, S/IDSA
winners also were recognized during the ceremony. You can read all about the 2020 IDSA Awards recipients in this issue of INNOVATION. The Student winners will be featured in the Winter issue. The evening wrapped up with the 40th annual IDEA Ceremony. The 2020 IDEA Jury Chair, Jonah Becker, IDSA, vice president of design at Fitbit, and Qin Li, IDSA, Chair of IDSA’s Board of Directors and vice president of design at fuseproject, announced the winning projects, with designers accepting their awards via Zoom. Becker and Li also revealed the 2021 IDEA Jury Chair: Mary Beth Privitera, PhD, FIDSA, a principal at HS Design and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. The 2020 IDEA jury selected the Gold, Silver, and Bronze IDEA winners from over 1,800 entries that came from 25 different countries and regions around the world. Of the 124 entries chosen for awards, 20 were designated as Gold winners. More information on the 2020 IDEA winners can be found in the IDEA Gallery at IDSA.org/IDEA as well as throughout this issue of INNOVATION. The Main Event IDC 2020 began at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 17 and ran for 24 continuous hours, ending at 12 p.m. ET on Friday, September 18. The event was divided into six tracks, each full of multidisciplinary design content, including mainstage presentations, breakout sessions of workshops and panel discussions, Student Merit Award presentations, and keynotes. Each track was led by one or two of six spectacular emcees: Kristine Arth, Spencer Nugent, Aziza Cyamani, Paepcke-Hjeltness, and Jeevak Badve, FIDSA. The six keynote speakers were Ralf Groene, vice president of windows and device design at Microsoft; Arielle Assouline-Lichten, founder of Slash Objects; Lesley-Ann Noel, PhD, associate director for design thinking for social impact and professor of practice at Tulane University; John McCabe, director of strategy at Aether Global Learning; Owen
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Foster, co-founder and director of Aether Global Learning and the SHiFT Design Camp; and Charles Johnson, IDSA, former global director of innovation at Puma. Throughout the event, the global audience interacted with the presenters and emcees via text-based Q&As, and networked with each other on the IDC Slack and Miro Boards provided on the Attendee Hub. With industrial design as the focal point of IDC, many designers shared their processes with a focus on sustainability. For example, Ayana Patterson, IDSA, challenged attendees to consider what luxury means in different cultures, while Mark Prommel, partner and design lead at Pensa, proposed designing for the richness of the human experience, as opposed to designing for consumers and convenience. Jason Belaire, IDSA, and Stephan Clambaneva, IDSA, also moderated a panel with design leaders Kevin Bethune and Dara Dotz about how to build momentum for and community around sustainable design initiatives. IDSA’s annual Education Symposium was also mixed in with co-emcees Cyamani and Paepcke-Hjeltness leading discussions and presentations based on the 2020 theme Design Exchange. Many presenters shared how they’ve adapted to teaching virtually during the pandemic, how they’ve started cross-disciplinary collaboration between programs, and how industrial design education is changing as a result. Racial justice and increasing diversity across all design disciplines were also central themes of the event. A panel moderated by Where Are the Black Designers? co-founder Mitzi Okou centered on how to best support and elevate Black designers for a more diverse and equitable design industry. Another panel on the lack of diversity and representation in furniture design, moderated by Revision Path host and founder Maurice Cherry, focused on the journeys of Black furniture designers, with Black Artists + Designers Guild members BOA, Jomo Tariku, Marie Burgos, and Marlon Darbeau.
In addition, breakouts and sessions covering a wide variety of topics opened attendees’ eyes to many design disciplines that overlap with ID, such as social impact design and voice user interface (VUI) design. Emcees Arth and Nugent also shared their expertise in branding design and ID sketching, respectively, through in-depth skill-building workshops. Giving Back This year, IDSA was able to give more than 50 students who are underrepresented in design—including Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC); young women; and gendernonconforming students—complimentary registration to the IDC as the result of a donation from Google to IDSA’s Design Foundation and a grant with blkHaUS studios, which also gave complimentary IDSA membership to grantees. “I found the IDC to be incredibly inspiring,” wrote Anna Rindos, S/IDSA, a student at Pratt Institute who was able to attend IDC 2020 thanks to the Google donation to the Design Foundation. “As a 24-hour Zoom event with speakers
and attendees from around the world, it made me feel very connected to a global design community, especially during this very disconnected time. It was also a great opportunity to connect with design professionals, whom I’ve continued to have conversations with after the event.” Lafayette Doty, S/IDSA, an IDC 2020 attendee and a recipient of the blkHaUs studios IDC grant, wrote, “The IDC was refreshing and reenergized me for any upcoming projects and jobs. They highlighted designers from around the world, which gave me a new perspective and approach to humancentered design, healthcare design, and education. I am excited to apply this knowledge further down the line.” Watch IDC 2020 On Demand! IDSA is offering ticketed access to all the recordings from the virtual IDC 2020. This includes nearly 30 hours of top-tier professional design content that you can watch whenever you’d like. Learn more at InternationalDesignConference.com/videos
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DESIGNING FOR EQUITY
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s I write this, it was nearly a year ago to the day that I accepted the honor of chairing the 2020 IDEA jury. I can’t say that the experience has been what I expected. The world in which we find ourselves has changed dramatically due to the global coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement for racial justice. In the spring, the team at IDEA deftly transitioned from the planned in-person jurying at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, to a process that allowed us to review, debate, and select the top entries in remote forums. While we adapted to the change in the jurying environment—as most of us had already done with our day jobs—our current social and political context had a significant impact on our deliberation. On a broad scale, our priorities have justifiably changed. BLM has fueled efforts toward inclusion, equity, and diversity in professional and social spheres. And the pandemic has had widespread health and economic impacts, taking lives, disrupting jobs, and requiring communities to work together to combat the virus. It is disproportionately affecting communities of color and causing many to revisit the importance of life essentials such as health, family, and financial security. What the 2020 IDEA jury process has reinforced for me is that when it comes to design, context matters. Integral to our process is deep consideration of the intended audience, the desired impact, the right medium to achieve the goals, the environment in which a solution must function, and the cultural context within which a design must live. IDEA has a holistic set of judging criteria, unchanged over its 40-year history, that defines design excellence: design innovation, benefit to user, benefit to client/brand, benefit to society, and appropriate aesthetics. While the jury was diligent in weighing these criteria equally, what stood out to me this year were the rich discussions surrounding the questions entrants completed, including “What critical problem is it solving?”, “How is the user’s life improved through this design?”, and “Does the solution consider the social and cultural factors?”. While all entries were obviously created prior to this unique moment in history, my fellow jurors and I found ourselves evaluating them with heightened sensitivity to the current cultural zeitgeist.
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At its core, the job of a designer is to improve the human condition. Entries that pursued this purpose for historically underserved populations remain top of mind. In the Transportation category, the Elroy Air Chaparral is an autonomous aircraft developed to deliver emergency cargo to communities that are either difficult or altogether impossible to support via ground routes. In the Consumer Technology category, I appreciated how the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit addresses the unique needs of gamers with limited mobility, providing a range of customizable input devices that make gaming accessible to all. Similarly, we found many examples of inclusive design in the Student category. One great example is HanDo, a concept for a children’s prosthetic arm that includes interchangeable fittings, one for daily functions and the other for sports. It enables children to participate and feel a sense of belonging while supporting cognitive and physical development. Another standout student entry was Cairer, an AI directed cognitive behavior therapy tool to support caregivers of people with dementia. The breadth of entries that share this empathic approach indicates that both schools and students want to make positive change. It leaves me optimistic about our future design leaders. A favorite design professor of mine used to share slideshows of beautiful products with the simple introduction “beauty is good for the soul.” He offered this as an occasional respite from the rigor in the rest of our instruction. As I’ve come to expect from IDEA, there were so many thoughtful and beautifully resolved entries that streamline tasks, delight customers, and deliver meaningful business results. Their creators should celebrate and feel tremendous pride. But in this unprecedented year, the entries that stay with me most strongly are those that are magnified by our cultural context. I believe my former professor would agree that there is also beauty in designing for equity and empowering those who have been marginalized. That too is good for the soul. —Jonah Becker, IDSA jbecker@fitbit.com
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MEET THE IDEA 2020 JURY
IDEA 2020 Jury Chair Jonah Becker, IDSA | Fitbit
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onah Becker is an accomplished industrial designer and leader who has a track record of launching successful products to market. As senior vice president of design at Fitbit, he leads the ID, UX, Research and Design Operations teams to deliver on the vision of making everyone in the world healthier. Before joining Fitbit, Becker was vice president of industrial design at HTC, where he was responsible for roadmap, future vision, and branding programs across smartphones, VR, imaging, and wearables. He was also president and partner at One & Co, a San Francisco design agency acquired by HTC in 2008. At One & Co, he created award-winning products for clients like Nike, Microsoft, Sony, Dell, and Burton Snowboards. Becker has a BA in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley and a BFA in industrial design from the California College of the Arts, where he has been a senior lecturer in the design program. Above: Jonah Becker presents on the main stage at IDC 2018 in New Orleans, LA.
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Jeevak Badve, FIDSA | Sundberg-Ferar
Adam Brodsley | Volume Inc.
Jeevak Badve is vice president at Sundberg-Ferar. He helps companies understand and leverage the fundamental role of industrial design thinking to aid the sustainable growth of business by planning for the entire range of use-case scenarios and designing for the ideal user experience. With his unique blend of design, engineering, and business education and experience, Badve relentlessly rallies for the alignment and optimal inclusion of the end user’s unmet needs, unspoken wants, and unarticulated desires in a portfolio’s core value proposition to generate the much sought-after shareholder value. Badve has 22 years of work experience, seven years in India at Tata Motors ERC, Tata-Johnson, and Voltas M&H and 15 years in the U.S. at the GM Design Center, ASC, and now Sundberg-Ferar.
Adam Brodsley co-founded Volume Inc. at the dawn of the new millennium and has since served as principal and creative director. His broad range of expertise and experience is connected by the desire to engage people through the power of design, whatever the method, whatever the medium, but especially in the physical world we inhabit. Brodsley has worked on projects ranging from branding and identity to digital and print to large-scale environments for clients such as 826 Valencia, Adobe Systems, Autodesk, the Boy Scouts of America, the California Academy of Sciences, Heath Ceramics, Facebook, Google, Rizzoli, SFMOMA, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition to teaching design and lecturing nationally, he has garnered numerous awards and his work has been widely published. Brodsley is a graduate of ArtCenter College of Design and holds a BA in communications from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Shujan Bertrand, IDSA | Aplat Inc. Industrial designer and momentrepreneur Shujan Bertrand is the founder Aplat Inc., a culinary design collection that celebrates the moment of sharing food, wine, and flowers for an everyday zero-waste lifestyle. Through Aplat, she hopes to grow partnerships with holistic businesses and organizations who care about the well-being of future generations. Bertrand is an award-winning industrial designer with 20 years of product design experience. She has a stellar background in soft goods design, advanced product development, design research, and strategy. Incase, Steelcase, Nike, Samsung, LG Electronics, and Procter & Gamble are just a few of the brands Bertrand has designed and directed for. She has also been a design instructor at the California College of the Arts.
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Gaby Brink | Tomorrow Partners As its founder and chief designer, Gaby Brink is the intrepid leader and design visionary of Tomorrow Partners, a San Francisco Bay-based branding and innovation firm. Her passion for design as a catalyst for positive change is the driving force of Tomorrow’s worldview. A hands-on leader, she curates and mentors Tomorrow’s interdisciplinary team, oversees the creative process, and builds lasting partnerships with clients. Brink shares this same vision and spirit with the global design community. An internationally recognized designer and serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience, she fosters dialogue and action around the industry’s role in design-driven social change and sustainable growth. She frequently speaks on human-centered design and innovation for the impact economy and produces conferences and convenings around these same topics.
Donald Burlock, IDSA | Capital One
Matthew Carlson | Adobe
Donald Burlock is a creative leader and experiential designer based in the Bay Area. He has helped crossfunctional teams evolve alongside brand experiences, be they app-based, hardware, or installations. His design experience ranges from working with global brands, including GE, Coca-Cola, Dolby, and Cisco, to many startups in Silicon Valley. Prior to coming to the Bay Area in 2013, Burlock spent time working at IDEO as a product designer. Currently, Burlock works with the physical experiences design team as a creative technologist at Capital One doing prototyping, writing, and UX research.
As the design director of the creative cloud experience at Adobe, Matthew Carlson works on the services and content that help Adobe’s users explore new apps and achieve their creative goals. He has a special passion for illustration, typography, and the intersection of AI and creativity. Prior to Adobe, Carlson was the design director of business products at Twitter, design manager of business products at Facebook, and principal of experience strategy and design at Hot Studio, an innovation consultancy in San Francisco. He has spent time shaping brand experiences at the industrial design consultancies Design Continuum in Boston and One & Co. in San Francisco. He’s created groundbreaking brand and interactive experiences for IBM, UPS, Sprint, Zinio, Marie Claire, Seventeen, ReadyMade, AOL, Intel, Microsoft, and Robert Mondavi.
Grayson Byrd, IDSA | Comcast NBCUniversal Grayson Byrd, an industrial design manager at Comcast NBCUniversal, is an award-winning industrial designer based in Philadelphia. Before joining Comcast’s Experience Design team, he lived and worked in San Francisco designing consumer electronic and professional products for Dolby Laboratories. Originally from the south, Grayson cut his teeth at various design agencies before joining Coca-Cola to design packaging, equipment, and environments. His experience working for global consumer brands and partnering with the likes of AMC, Sam’s Club, and Home Depot has contributed to his passion for design strategy with scaled impact. Byrd earned a BS in industrial design from the Georgia Institute of Technology and currently teaches as an adjunct professor in the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University.
Liana Charles, IDSA | Newell Brands Liana Charles has been in the packaging field for over four years and has established a love of learning about the why of everything. She earned her BFA in industrial design with concentrations in packaging science and communications and has found the sweet spot between art and science. Charles is currently a packaging designer and engineer at Newell Brands. She is constantly challenging the norms of manufacturing while creating and validating innovative packaging within the consumer goods industry. Having always thought of design from a global perspective, she sees designers as advocates for their consumers and believes that in order to incorporate empathetic design, they need to step out of their shoes and see the world around them.
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Ian Coats MacColl | California College of the Arts
Tom Crabtree | Manual
Ian Coats MacColl works as an industrial designer and product developer who stands at the intersection of design and commerce for consulting clients around the world. He was previously chief creative officer at Green Toys, vice president of design at Perfect Fitness, vice president of research and design at Wham-o, and managing director of IDEO San Francisco, a product development consultancy. Coats MacColl is a full professor of industrial design at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and has taught in the program since 1992 with a specialization in sustainable design. He received undergraduate degrees in thermodynamics from Brown University and in industrial design from ArtCenter College.
Tom Crabtree is the founder and creative director of Manual, a multidisciplinary brand design studio in San Francisco established in 2009. Manual’s work in brand creative direction and design spans many business sectors, including transportation and technology, music, arts and culture, food and drink, and health and beauty. Crabtree’s experience in graphic design, specifically brand identity, spans 20 years and has taken him from London, where he worked at some of London’s leading brand design agencies, to Apple in California, where he joined the marketing team in 2006 to help launch the iPhone and design the packaging. In addition to leading the output of Manual, he gives lectures, curates exhibitions, and participates in international design events and awards.
Youenn Colin | Fjord Delroy Dennisur | Maven Design Youenn Colin is the design director for connected products and spaces at Fjord, a design and innovation service from Accenture Interactive. There he imagines people’s future relationships with the digital and physical world. Thanks to the experience he gathered over the past couple of decades at Fossil Group, IDEO, HTC, One & Co, and Salomon, Colin focuses on exploring the intersection of physical, digital, and human experiences. Identifying valuable opportunities, envisioning solutions, and crafting thoughtful user experiences, Colin has engaged in category-defining work with diverse clients such as Amazon, the County of Los Angeles, Dell, Facebook, Faraday Bicycles, Fiat, Ford, Fossil, Google, HTC, Microsoft, Motorola, Nike, Renault, Salomon, Samsung, and SNCF. In the process, he has collected a number of international awards, patents, and publications.
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Delroy Dennisur is the co-founder of the Atlanta-based Maven Design, where he leads a team of designers to develop innovative design solutions that balance stylish elegance with business strategy. He brings an unrelenting commitment to crafting beautiful design experiences with minimal environmental impact for leading brands. Prior to co-founding Maven, Dennisur cultivated his expertise working for large agencies on projects ranging from healthcare to financial services to housewares products. He has experience delivering awardwinning solutions for such global brands as Motorola, 3M, American Express, Coca-Cola, Herman Miller, and Johnson & Johnson.
Dora Drimalas | Hybrid Design
Gerard Furbershaw, IDSA | Furbershaworks
Dora Drimalas is the co-founder and executive creative director of Hybrid Design in San Francisco. Her extensive background in brand strategy and graphic design has allowed her to work intimately on projects with some of the largest brands in the world, such as Nike, North Face, Rapha, Pinterest, Google, Apple, Samsung, Mohawk Fine Paper, Steelcase, TED Conferences, Lego, AT&T, Verizon, and Starwood Hotels. Her desire to create the most innovative work possible brings her to the intersections of design, content, and culture within multiple mediums. She is always looking for new answers.
Over his 34-year career as Lunar’s co-founder, Gerard Furbershaw received recognition in numerous design competitions. The School of Architecture at the University of Southern California (USC) selected him as its 2012 Distinguished Alumnus. In 2014, Lunar received the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award for Product Design in recognition of its body of work. In 2015, Lunar was acquired by McKinsey & Company. In 2019, he founded Furbershaworks. His focus is on bringing beauty and art to limited-edition furniture pieces. Among his other industry involvements, he launched and chaired the APDF Royalty and Licensing Summit series and taught at the USC School of Architecture’s XED executive education program. He was also an adjunct professor in San Jose State University’s Industrial Design Program teaching design entrepreneurship and served as chair of the San Francisco Chapter of IDSA and as a trustee of the Design Foundation.
Hugo Eccles | Untitled Motorcycles Hugo Eccles is founder and director of Untitled Motorcycles, a design company that creates and builds custom motorcycles for private clients and for factory brands such as Ducati, Triumph, Yamaha, and Zero. Over his 20-year career, Eccles has led projects for a global clientele that includes AT&T, American Express, Alessi, Hewlett-Packard, LG, Honda, TAG Heuer, Ford Motor Co., and Nike. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, Eccles got his start working alongside Bill Moggridge and Tim Brown at IDEO, and later with Ross Lovegrove. In 2003 he became the global director of product design at Fitch and then headed the Arnell Group Innovation Lab in New York. In 2010, he became the managing director of Studio Conran in the UK and later the creative director at Native Design. Eccles returned to the US in 2014 to establish Untitled Motorcycles in California.
Marc Greuther | The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation Marc Greuther is chief curator and senior director of historical resources at The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation—which earned IDSA’s Special Award 2016. He has a bachelor’s degree in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London and has nearly three decades of experience with the collections at The Henry Ford. His seven years as a member of the institution’s Historic Operating Machinery Unit involved him in the operational stewardship of a wide range of artifacts, from 19th century machine tools and steam engines to late 20th century robots and production equipment. As curator of industry and design, Greuther has broadened and deepened the institution’s technology, innovation, and design holdings, particularly through the acquisition of several significant archival collections. As chief curator, he leads the curatorial team and the development of curatorial strategy.
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Mitch Heinrich, IDSA | Bolt Threads (formerly)
Amina Horozić ć | Nichetto Studio
Mitch Heinrich’s career as an industrial designer has spanned a wide spectrum of products and markets, including a modern airship to reduce the carbon footprint of global shipping, glucosemonitoring contact lenses for type 1 diabetics, energy storage devices for the developing world, and large-scale carbon fiber kites for electricity generation. Heinrich is known for diving into new product categories and thorny technical challenges with a tactile fabrication-forward approach. He recently established Bolt Projects, an early-stage product development studio inside Bolt Threads, a biomaterials company, where as the senior director he is focused on bringing new sustainable materials out of the lab and into the world.
Amina Horozić is an award-winning industrial designer, design strategist, and creative consultant. She specializes in design for luxury for both small- and large-scale international clients. Her work spans across industry sectors from automotive to consumer electronics, furniture, gallery installations, and retail environments. She frequently lectures on her design process at international design colleges and conferences and is the author of Breaking In: Over 100 Product Designers Reveal How to Build a Portfolio That Will Get You Hired. Prior to joining Nichetto Studio as a studio director, she worked at NIO, fuseproject, Aether Things, frog design, and Chrysler. She studied industrial design at the College for Creative Studies. She holds an MBA in design strategy from the California College of the Arts and a master’s in advanced studies in design for luxury and craftsmanship from ECAL/ Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne.
Karen Hofmann, IDSA | ArtCenter College of Design As provost at ArtCenter College of Design, Karen Hofmann oversees the college’s undergraduate and graduate educational departments. Previously, she served as chair of product design and director of the Color, Materials and Trends Exploration Laboratory at ArtCenter. Hofmann co-leads the innovative study abroad program with the INSEAD International Business School and is a co-creator of ArtCenter’s executive education programming focusing on design-driven workshops and creative leadership seminars. With degrees in psychology and product design, her expertise is in design research, strategy, and insights. She spent several years at the Johnson Controls Automotive Systems Group in advanced design and research and for the last 15 years has been teaching and consulting.
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Dane Howard | Samsung NEXT As the global head of design, Dane Howard leads the design and product experience for the Samsung NEXT product teams. He and his team foster and grow products for a growing global portfolio, focused on AI, AR, distributed computing, and digital food experiences. Howard has over 20 years of experience in building and leading teams for both startups and big companies. He co-founded a startup that was acquired by eBay in 2008. Additionally, he has held principal design and leadership roles for Microsoft, BMW, Major League Baseball, Scient, Quokka Sports, NBCOlympics, eBay, and Trov. He has been named in over 20 patents for his collaborations and inventions and is a proud advisor to standbeautiful.me. He also is an author and often speaks on design and culture transformation.
Meija Jacobs | IDEO
Lea Kobeli | McKinsey Design
As senior director at IDEO, Meija Jacobs brings her background in psychology and brand strategy to design brands, products, and experiences that matter to people—not as consumers, but as human beings. With over a decade in food and hospitality design, her work for organizations from nonprofits to Fortune 500s includes a fast casual restaurant designed to change the perception of Indian food, a wellness media network designed to support healthy behavior change, a service supporting NFL players’ transition to post-football life, and branded hospitality experiences and loyalty programs. Prior to IDEO, Jacobs was a director of brand strategy at Team One where she helped create award-winning advertising for brands like Lexus and launched the world’s first luxury hybrid vehicle. She holds an MA in clinical psychology and earned her BA in psychology from Mount Holyoke College.
Lea Kobeli is an industrial design consultant with more than 20 years’ experience designing physical products and creating human-centered customer experiences for a diverse range of Fortune 500 clients. Her client list includes HP, Intel, Keurig, Varian Medical Systems, AeroVironment, Illumina, SanDisk, Roche, and Adidas. Responsible for exploring and defining the right expression for each product, she has a passion for designing tangible objects that make it into the hands of customers to surprise, connect, and delight. Her work has been recognized by numerous international awards. At McKinsey Design, where she is design director, she is involved in defining white-space opportunities and go-to market strategies for domestic and international companies, helping them reimagine their brands and create new customer-centric experiences.
Scott Klinker, IDSA | Scott Klinker Design Studio
Donn Koh, IDSA | STUCK Design
Scott Klinker is principal of Scott Klinker Design Studio and 3D designer-inresidence at the Cranbrook Academy of Art where he has taught the graduate 3D design program since 2001. His studio practice develops furniture designs for the residential and contract furniture markets. As a designer and educator, he has worked with design-driven companies including Alessi, Herman Miller, Steelcase, Gunlocke, Burton Snowboards, Fab.com, and IDEO. He is an alumnus of Cranbrook.
Donn Koh established STUCK as a multidisciplinary design agency deeply rooted in industrial design and user experience that has wings in technological tinkering, coding, spatial development, and education. This rare combination has enabled STUCK to work on cornerstone projects like developing Singapore’s national learning framework for the design industry, redefining the concept for Singapore’s nursing homes, and creating new spatial principles for Singapore’s public preschools. Apart from work in healthcare, aerospace, consumer product innovation, and military interfaces, STUCK’s transdisciplinary approach has proven inventive in the emergent area of design-led marketing activations for Samsung, Essilor, Nikon, and Johnson & Johnson. Koh’s award-winning work includes the Air+ Smart Mask, HTC’s Evo 4G, the Leapfrog Cerebral Palsy Walker, and the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse. He is also a senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore, Division of Industrial Design.
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Gabriel Lamb | Apple, Inc.
Carl Liu | Niu Technologies
Gabriel Lamb is an associate creative director at Apple, leading a team of designers who create many of the physical experiences Apple customers encounter around new products in retail environments, installations, and launches. Before joining Apple, Lamb was a principal designer at Native Design, helping establish the London agency’s first US-based industrial design practice. Prior to that, he was an industrial designer and creative lead at fuseproject, where he led projects such as Jawbone’s category-defining Jambox line of wireless speakers, the SodaStream Source and Play carbonation appliances, the Briggo Coffee automated kiosk, and a number of large-scale Design Week installations, retail environments, and packaging designs. In prior lives, Lamb also worked extensively in politics and has a BS in anthropology in addition to his industrial design BFA.
Carl Liu, the founder of CARLLIU, is currently the design vice president of Niu Technologies, a green company that focuses on smart electric urban mobility and sustainable lifestyles based in Beijing, Shanghai, and Changzhou. He earned his design degree from ArtCenter College of Design and worked at Astro Studios and the Motorola Advanced Concept Design group before moving to China. His signature designs include the Compaq iPaq PDA and the Nike running watch Triax 300/50. Recent designs include a line of electric smart scooters. Liu is enthusiastic about elevating the level of design in Asia. His books, Carl Liu Design Book and Innovative Product Design Practice, have influenced students and designers in many counties and have even become textbooks for many universities in China. Marissa Louie | Animoodles
Lou Lenzi, FIDSA | Indiana University Lou Lenzi is a professor of practice at Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing. Prior to retiring from GE Appliances as design director in 2016, Lenzi’s 36-year career centered on design, business strategy, and innovation leadership in large multinational corporations, including IBM, Thomson/ RCA, GE Healthcare, and GE Appliances. He has led multidisciplinary global product design teams in the fields of IT, consumer electronics, home appliances, and medical systems. Over the course of his career, his design teams have received numerous CES Innovation Awards and IDEAs, and a Design of the Decade Award from IDSA and BusinessWeek for the DirecTV on-screen user interface and program guide. Lenzi has lectured on design, innovation and its impact on business at numerous academic, trade, and professional society venues.
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Marissa Louie is the CEO and chief designer at Animoodles, which transforms stuffed animals into heightened creative play experiences for kids of all ages. Previously, Louie was a design leader at Apple, Yahoo, and Ness (acquired by OpenTable/ Priceline Group). She has won over 50 awards for her work across industrial design, user experience, and technology. A passionate advocate for elevating the design industry at-large through innovative cross-disciplinary thinking, Louie is the founder of Designers Guild, a global online community that empowers designers across all design disciplines to advance their careers. She has given guest lectures and keynotes at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, California College of the Arts, Pixar and more. Louie holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, where she studied industrial engineering, economics, and business.
Lynde Lutzow, MD | Temple University Hospital
Cia Mooney, IDSA | Watson (formerly)
Dr. Lynde Lutzow is a general surgery resident at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. She also is a formally trained industrial and interaction designer. Before embarking on a surgical career, she worked in medical device development at Ximedica in Providence, RI, specializing in design research and human factors. Her work informed the development of all classes of medical devices and healthcare services for clients like Kimberly-Clark, Covidien, Smith+Nephew, and CVS. Lutzow is fascinated by the intersection of medicine, design, and human behavior and specializes in healthcare innovation with the goal of improving patient safety, surgical outcomes, and user experience. She holds a BFA in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design and obtained her medical degree from Tufts University.
Cia Mooney is a designer working with forward-thinking business and nonprofit communities to create ideas of value. Her work spans objects, products, and furniture at both experimental and industrial scales. She develops spatial narratives, planning and designing exhibitions for museums and architectural environments. Mooney maintains a studio in Portland, OR, and serves as chief design officer for Watson, a northwest furniture manufacturer widely recognized for progressive sustainable practices. She received her undergraduate degree in industrial design from the Pratt Institute and her graduate degree in industrial design from the Domus Academy in Milan, Italy.
Jesse Menayan | Independent Designer
With more than 20 years of design, innovation, and creative leadership experience, Robert Murdock is working at the forefront of human-centered design, building groundbreaking products and services. He finds his most rewarding work at the intersection of inspired design, business, and people. He is currently the head of product design at Stripe. Previously, he was director at Amazon’s UX Lab and a principal at Method, where he spent almost a decade shaping its digital product design practice, building three design studios across multiple geographies, and leading countless programs for clients like Google, TED, Nissan, and Reuters.
Jesse Menayan is an independent designer in San Francisco. His work spans from bicycles to furniture and soft goods—all products that touch the body. He is particularly interested in the intersection between comfort and performance. As design director at Casper, he developed products to enable a better night’s sleep. Menayan earned a BID from North Carolina State University and studied ceramics at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.
Robert Murdock | Stripe
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Jessica Nakanishi | MSDS Studio
Katharine Pulford | Nike (formerly)
Jessica Nakanishi is the co-founder of the Toronto-based MSDS Studio with partner Jonathan Sabine. Established in 2011, MSDS Studio produces designs that engage contemporary culture while adhering to the abiding principles of good design and the inheritance of craftsmanship, with a primary focus on commercial interiors and production furniture and lighting designs. Prior to founding MSDS, she worked in interior design for over 10 years on projects throughout North and South America as well as the Middle East.
Katharine Pulford is a materials designer and product strategist based in Portland, OR. For 20 years she has worked across a diverse range of categories, including consumer electronics, home accessories, wearables, and performance footwear. She specializes in blending consumer insight, brand values, and considered use of materials to build transformational product strategies. Pulford trained as a weaver at the Royal College of Art in London, where she developed a love of messy craft-based prototyping. These processes underpin her mission to create engaging and innovative materials for mass production. She pursues waste reduction and process simplification as central maxims and seeks close collaboration with suppliers and manufacturers to create sustainable solutions. Her clients and collaborators include Philips Design, Habitat, WGSN, Stylus, Hewlett-Packard, Bowers & Wilkins, Logitech, and Nike.
Mary Beth Privitera, PhD, FIDSA | University of Cincinnati | HS Design, Inc. Mary Beth Privitera has worked in the medical device industry since 1988 and is widely known as an expert in the application of human factors in medical product design. She is an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and works collaboratively among the Colleges of Medicine, Engineering and Design. She is the director of the Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Cincinnati. Privitera also is a principal at HS Design, responsible for human factors and research. Additionally, she serves as faculty and co-chair of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation’s Human Engineering Committee. She has been associated with more than 30 product releases and holds several patents.
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Nichole Rouillac, IDSA | level design sf Nichole Rouillac is creative director and co-founder at level design sf. She has deep experience taking complex new technologies and shaping them into forms that foster emotional connections between consumers and brands. Her work has helped create new industry categories and propelled products into the spotlight, garnering industry awards and recognition. Before founding level, she was associate creative director at HTC and One & Co. She leads Women in Design San Francisco, a group with a mission to bring balance to the industrial design field at-large.
Scott Shim, IDSA | University of Notre Dame
Ayako Takase, IDSA | Observatory
Scott Shim is professor of industrial design at the University of Notre Dame. He has actively pursued a variety of research topics through the overarching mindset of the contextual application of design thinking, encouraging him to tackle unconventional wicked problems that connect humans to culture, society and technology. His design work is recognized internationally with many of his projects appearing in a number of global publications, including the cover of Time magazine. His professional experience includes more than 10 years in product development, during which time he obtained more than 30 design patents and multiple IDEA accolades. He spent a majority of his professional career at the Daewoo Electronics Design Center where he managed various consumer products.
Ayako Takase is co-founder and design director of Observatory, an award-winning multidisciplinary design studio based in Providence, RI, which she founded in 2001 with partner Cutter Hutton. Observatory helps organizations and individuals design and develop exceptional objects and experiences while focusing on creatively answering the problems and needs of people. The firm’s projects range from furniture, tabletop products, and consumer goods to UX, UI, and strategy design for clients such as Herman Miller, Procter & Gamble, Keilhaur, and Bauer. As an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, Takase teaches hands-on studios that focus on human-centric design, emotive design, and iterative design at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Karen Stone, IDSA | Knoll, Inc.
Mesve Vardar | Independent Designer
Karen Stone is director of design for Knoll and is responsible for the design of Knoll Showrooms, Knoll Retail Shops, exhibits, and trade shows worldwide; for bringing sustainable design, new materials, and technologies to Knoll product design; and for establishing the direction for new finishes for Knoll products. Since joining Knoll in 1991, her award-winning work with the company has been cited in publications including I.D., Domus, Interiors, and Inside Design Now. She is an adjunct professor of industrial design at Pratt Institute and has lectured and taught at a number of universities worldwide. She holds a BS in industrial design from Ohio State University and a MID from Pratt Institute, and has studied at Oxford University.
Mesve Vardar is an award-winning industrial designer and creative leader with over a decade of experience in the contract furniture industry. In her most recent role as director of industrial design at Humanscale, she was responsible for leading the development of research-based human-centered ergonomic products across all product categories. In her tenure, she was behind a number of celebrated Humanscale products that have received international design awards. Among other pursuits, she continues to serve on the Design Advisory Board at Humanscale. She received her bachelor’s in art history and fine arts from New York University and has an MID from Pratt Institute.
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INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2020 Winners & Featured Finalists
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inning an IDEA is truly a high achievement. We received over 1,800 entries from 25 different countries and regions this year. One hundred twenty-four of those entries were chosen for awards recognition. Our jury reviews IDEA entries across five criteria: Design Innovation, Benefit to the User, Benefit to the Client, Benefit to Society, and Appropriate Aesthetics. These five criteria have remained unchanged during the 40-year history of IDEA and are part of what makes this program so unique among other design award programs.
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The IDEA trophy is a puzzle made up of the letters I, D, E, and A which attach to a central core with magnets. These individual pieces represent the physical, visual, digital, and experiential disciplines we all work within, and they combine to illustrate how a successful design is much more than styling or a novel idea alone. It is the effective combination of many different aspects to create something greater than its parts. See these and thousands of previous winners in our online gallery at idsa.org/IDEA
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BEST IN SHOW
DIGITAL INTERACTION
HOME
Best in Show selected by the IDEA Jury
BESPOKE Refrigerator & Family Hub UX
JUST THE WAY YOU WANT IT
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hen the IDEA jury is finished selecting the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, they have one more task to complete: choosing the Best in Show. Typically, the Best in Show winner is selected from the Gold winners. This year the jury selected two projects, the Goldwinning Family Hub UX and the Silver-winning BESPOKE Refrigerator, to jointly receive that honor. According to Jury Chair Jonah Becker, “The jury considered the two entries as a single Best in Show winner—a combination of the hardware/appliance (BESPOKE) and the integrated software experience (Family Hub).” Regarding the deliberations, Becker said “The jury was impressed by the complete experience provided by the BESPOKE Refrigerator and its accompanying Family Hub. In addition to a considered approach to the usability and aesthetics of the actual appliance, the Family Hub reinforces the concept of the kitchen as a central space—enabling family members to connect, providing access entertainment and recipes, and controlling other connected systems throughout the home.” As its name implies, the BESPOKE line of refrigerators can be customized people’s lifestyles and preferences. Household size, dietary habits, life patterns, and kitchen layouts vary tremendously. In trying to serve all consumers, standard refrigerators usually leave everyone wanting. The lineup consists of one-, two-, three, and four-door base models that were designed to be mixed and matched. Becker called the BESPOKE Refrigerator “an innovative approach to modularize an appliance.” All models share a uniform depth and height with door panels that can be customized with different colors and finishes. This flexibility lets you design your ensemble of refrigerators to look the same or like a Mondrian painting. Another feature of the refrigerator the jury commended was how it addressed practical usability issues. For instance, the custom hinge provides a built-in feel by allowing the refrigerator to sit flush with the surrounding cabinetry. The design team also developed a bespoke manufacturing system the builds the refrigerators to order, delivery them within four days. This is possible because all models share
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the same parts and by using data on customer preferences to estimate future demand, manage inventories and the supply network, and establish production plans. The customizability extends into the digital realm as well with the Family Hub. Family Hub is a high-definition touch screen mounted on the refrigerator door that provides useful and fun information for the whole family. Juror Jess Menayan called Family Hub “a believable and practical technology upgrade to your refrigerator door. It consists of four customizable themes: The Family Board records family memories; the Culinary Board provides meal planning and recipes; the Homecare Board controls and manages the entire home, including appliances; and the Entertainment Board streams music and video. It also offers an array of cover screens that add a decorative effect to the door with contextual popups that deliver information like the weather or can be turned into a piece of art for those times when users want to mute the technology. When outside of the house, users can interface with the refrigerator through the companion app on their mobile device to see what’s in the fridge, add items to their shopping list, or leave a note for their family. Those with impaired vision can control Family Hub’s major functions using voice controls. The BESPOKE lineup is not targeted to a certain generation or segment of consumers. It aims to appeal to all consumers by being adaptable to the different stages of life and people’s changing needs. “The BESPOKE Refrigerator rethinks what is likely the largest appliance most people own,” said Becker. “It is a modular system that can expand to a growing number of people in a household, optimizing for space and energy efficiency.” Adding Family Hub turns the refrigerator into a digital hearth that brings family members together and helps them stay connected. Juror Marissa Louie said of the two entries, “With its beautifully integrated industrial and digital design, BESPOKE is the ultimate lifestyle appliance for the modern family.” Designed by Digital Appliances Design Team and UX Innovation Group of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
“The future is finally here and I think Marty McFly would be proud.” —Jesse Menayan
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C H A I R ’ S AWAR D
ME DI CA L & H EALTH
SOC IAL IM PAC T DESIGN
Chair’s Award selected by Jonah Becker, IDSA, IDEA 2020 Jury Chair
Easy, Affordable Vision Screening for Developing Countries
I SEE YOU
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his year’s International Design Excellence Awards featured thousands of entries across 21 categories. The jury of 40 design professionals first narrowed the pool down to 700 finalists before selecting 124 winners. As jury chair, I have the honor of awarding a single entry that represents the values I want to share with the design community. When the list of winning entries includes a commercial espresso machine, a brand campaign for Shenzhen Fashion Week, an electric surfboard, and TV packaging that can be repurposed as cardboard furniture, it makes for an eclectic foundation from which to choose. The judging took place in unique circumstances: a pandemic that has disproportionately affected communities of color and the Black Lives Matter movement that has put a spotlight on systemic racism in the United States. Because I was spurred to action by these events in my professional and personal life, I entered the jury process primed for sensitivity to entries that were driving social impact. It just so happens that social impact is an IDEA category and benefit to society is one of the five criteria by which all entries are measured. While many entries caught my attention for their focus on historically underserved populations, my selection for the 2020 Chair’s Award is the Easy, Affordable Vision Screening for Developing Countries, branded as ClickCheck, a Gold winner in the Medical category and Silver for Social Impact. First and foremost, ClickCheck merits this recognition because it addresses a real human need. And in doing so, the designers developed an innovative and intuitive mechanical solution, designed the product to an accessible cost, and accounted for the system by which it would be distributed to those in need of vision screening. The ClickCheck team notes that for those of us in the West access to eyecare is often taken for granted. While there are many solutions for inexpensive glasses, 2.5 billion people lack access to vision screening or awareness of vision correction at all. The impact to those without vision care is significant: children struggle with or drop out of
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school and older adults experience compromised safety or lose the ability to maintain everyday life or work skills. While there have been other vision-screening solutions, they have not overcome cost barriers or solved for awareness. The ClickCheck team focused on developing a cost-effective solution that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can distribute to developing countries and cultivate awareness. With a cost below $5, NGOs can donate or sell the product at cost to advocates in key cities who then distribute to surrounding villages. The screener can then be shared between people and families within the community. In terms of its formal attributes, the design is utilitarian and robust, focused on demonstrating its intent to support many users in a community. Its translucent body removes some mystery and communicates the simplicity of the mechanism. The telescope-like form establishes an intuitive interaction, which is important because unlike many similar vision-screening devices, users self-administer the eye exam. Holding the device in one hand, you open the hinged lid that covers the eye cup and place it on your eye. Once you see the small eye chart inside, rotate the dial until it comes into focus. The resulting number on the side indicates the strength of the prescription needed. With this information in hand, ClickCheck provides the bridge between someone with vision challenges and the information low-cost eyewear providers need to create prescription glasses. The explicit goal of the project, according to the ClickCheck team, is to “help developing countries develop,” ensuring that people can maintain both their vision and their contribution to their community. In our current cultural climate, it is more important than ever to see those who are unseen. ClickCheck represents the level of social impact that designers should pursue. —Jonah Becker, IDSA Designed by Paul Hatch, FIDSA, Andreas Bell, Holly Howes, Ross Brinkman, and Eric Wiegman of TEAMS Design for Essilor
“The design of this product should be used as the bar by which
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other high-impact affordable medical devices are measured.
—Mitch Heinrich
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C U R A T O R ’S CHOI CE
ST UD EN T
Curator’s Choice selected by J. Marc Greuther, Chief Curator, The Henry Ford
i’mnot - music instruments for non-musicians
WELCOME TO THE JOY OF MUSIC
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n a normal year, The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI, hosts round two of jury selection. During that session, J. Marc Greuther, the chief curator at The Henry Ford, has the distinction of selecting the Curator’s Choice Award from among the Gold winners. Amid this year’s switch to remote jurying, Greuther choose the Gold-winning student project i’mnot - music instruments for non-musicians. i’mnot is an instrument subscription service that brings users a surprising and adventurous music experience every month. It allows non-musicians to experiment with sound and explore the world of music without ever having to know a note of music. After registering online, subscribers receive an i’mnot blind box every month containing a different instrument. The i’mnot instruments were designed to break down the stressful commitment of buying an instrument and learning to play it. With i’mnot, users can experiment with a different instrument to figure out which one they like. The instruments were designed in a way that gives users the freedom to explore and learn to play on their own. One of the main challenges the designer faced was how to make playing music easier, more intuitive, and more fun for non-musicians. The form of each i’mnot instrument was inspired by real instruments and the visualization of their sound. The form itself suggests possible ways to play the instrument, reducing the stress of learning and inspiring users to discover their own method rather than following formal techniques learned from a teacher. The i’mnot theremin took its inspiration from how real theremins make sound. By balancing stones, users explore the relationship between physical space and sound. With
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the i’mnot DJ mixer, each ball represents a soundtrack; users drop the ball on the plate to match beats. The keys of a piano inspired the i’mnot piano. The light sensor hints that users can cover the light with their fingers in different configurations to make notes. The i’mnot violin has a three-dimensional geometric design that is influenced by violin strings but removes the difficulty of angling the violin to play a chord. The i’mnot water phone plays a classic horror-movie sound and has a translucent form so users can act as a “ghost” behind a window to make music. The i’mnot xylophone separates each note into its own standalone unit. Users can physically arrange the notes however they like to compose a song. The i’mnot erhu encourages players to use both hands to feel the zigzag of the sound. Thousands of sounds and instruments can be made into an i’mnot. The instruments are supported by an app, challenging users to deepen their discovery and connection with music. Users can watch video tutorials of possible play gestures, customize the sound of each instrument, and share their music creations with other i’mnot subscribers. The app also enlarges each instrument’s life cycle. Through the app, subscribers can trade unwanted i’mnot instruments with other subscribers. By design, i’mnot will inspire more people to learn to play music. It also reintroduces uncommon musical instruments to the world, helping to preserve music culture and raising the question, what is modern music? Designed by Peggy (Mingyuan) Li of ArtCenter College of Design
“Inspiring out-of-the-box thinking and curiosity that we should cultivate
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and encourage even once we are practicing designers, and not just students.
—Amina Horozić
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P E O P L E ’S CHOI CE
ME DI C AL & H EALTH
People’s Choice selected online by the public from among all the award winners
Welch Allyn RetinaVue 700 Imager
A CLEAR VIEW
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he Welch Allyn RetinaVue 700 Imager by Hillrom was designed to make retinal exams simple and affordable for primary healthcare providers. This easy-to-use smart camera automates retina imaging with auto-alignment, auto-focus, and auto-capture features. The device offers flexible workflow options, including connecting with electronic medical record systems and Wi-Fi and enabling efficient information transfer and seamless integration into a clinical workflow. The Imager can be incorporated in a RetinaVue care delivery model to help primary healthcare providers increase access to diabetic retinal exams to improve patient outcomes while lowering healthcare costs. Designed by Hillrom, Frontline Care R&D
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MISSED IDC 2020? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! IDSA is offering ticketed access to all the recordings from the virtual IDC 2020. This includes nearly 30 hours of top-tier professional design content that you can watch whenever you’d like. Learn more at InternationalDesignConference.com/videos
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A U T O M OT I V E & T R ANSPO RTATION
Elroy Air Chaparral
SUPER HIGHWAY IN THE SKY
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emand for rapid logistics has spiked globally while barriers have grown. Traditional infrastructure like roads and airports are not scaling to meet demand, and traffic congestion is at an all-time high. Plus, more than 1 billion people live in communities outside the reach of reliable roadways. The Elroy Air Chaparral is an autonomous vertical take-off and landing system that can deliver 300 pounds of cargo over a 300-mile range, all without human contact, leapfrogging traditional infrastructure altogether. Businesses, consumers, and communities have grown accustomed to rapid deliveries. According to AT Kearney, same-day shipping has grown more than 100-fold in the last five years. Yet airports, traffic, and unreliable roadways are frequent pinch points that slow delivery times. Chaparral renders concerns over these chokepoints mute. By using Chaparral, shippers can cut their delivery time down by as much as 80%, landing directly at the customer’s site. Chaparral can also decrease the number of lives lost by providing access to urgent supplies at a moment’s notice to any flat patch of land around the globe. Currently, many hospitals, clinics, businesses, stores, warehouses, and communities that rely on existing infrastructure are unable to receive critical supplies as frequently as they need. Compound that with natural disasters that disrupt roads and air travel, an impact over 600 million people experience each year. Chaparral can increase the tempo of deliveries to these communities so they are receiving critical goods, such
as medicine, food, and vaccines, as frequently as multiple times a day. The Chaparral aircraft represents a new paradigm in aviation. It combines the adaptation and maturation of the power train from hybrid automobiles, sensing from self-driving vehicles, autopilots from consumer multi-rotor control systems, and manufacturing techniques adapted from rapid prototyping and aerospace. Heavy focus was directed toward enabling high-throughput capabilities, safe operations, and reliable function. It was also designed to be distinguishable from military, general aviation, and consumer drones while still holding a gravity appropriate to a highpowered piece of future logistics equipment. The high belly of the aircraft enables its full closed-loop logistical capability. It can find, taxi to, stand over, and retrieve cargo containers. No humans, other than maintenance personnel, need ever occupy the same physical space as the aircraft. Such a decision ensures both continuous utilization and human safety. Besides getting supplies to where they are needed when they are needed, Chaparral can also decrease pilot mortality globally. There is keen demand for this, particularly with disaster relief efforts, resupply of critical goods for the military, and deliveries to extreme climates such as rural Alaskan communities. Designed by Colin Owen, Clint Cope, Terik Weekes, Isaiah Jones, and Sean Belardo for Elroy Air
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“The dawn of large-payload commercial drone aviation is upon us,
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and the pioneering Elroy Air Chaparral gives us a glimpse into its future.
—Gerard Furbershaw, IDSA
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A U T O M OT I V E & T R ANSPO RTATION
Bird Two While other scooters on the market are designed solely for personal use and, therefore, have a limited street life when ridden by hundreds of users a day, the Bird Two is durable enough for mass rentals while delivering both enhanced safety and a superior ride. The designers approached the design holistically with a focus on safety, rider comfort, and product longevity. The result is an ownable iconic design that, along with its great build quality, establishes a signature for the brand that is recognizable in a crowded market of essentially identical competitors. Designed by Josh Morenstein, Nick Cronan, David Hyun, and Florent Alexandre of Branch Creative for Bird
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VISION-S Prototype The VISION-S Prototype is a glimpse into the future of mobility, encompassing the evolution of safety, comfort, entertainment, and adaptability. Embedded in the car are 33 sensors that detect and recognize people and objects inside and outside and provide highly advanced driving support. The 360 Reality Audio provides a deep and immersive audio experience through speakers built into each seat that encapsulate passengers in sound. The front seats face a panoramic screen on which rich and diverse content can be enjoyed through an intuitive user interface. Designed by Creative Center, Sony Corporation
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virtual event series IDSA presents Design Voices: a recurring series of short form virtual design events that bring together top design leaders to present, discuss, and debate current trends and/or specific practice areas. Each hour-long webinar offers an in-depth discussion and presentations from industry experts, followed by a moderated Q&A where attendees can post questions and interact with the presenters. Topics will be pulled from a variety of sources including IDSA’s Special Interest Sections, in-the-moment design trends, and subjects requested by our community. The goal is to create a regular forum for discourse that provides a rich well-spring of ideas and inspiration for participants. Design Voices are FREE for IDSA members!
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A U T O M O T I V E & T R ANSPO R T ATION
1. EV CONCEPTS Powersports (snowmobiles, personal watercraft, side-by-sides, ATVs, and motorbikes) have evolved a lot over the decades with one major barrier: there are very few reliable high-performance models that use anything other than combustion engines. It is one of the last industries to consider electrification because of the difficulty of recharging in remote areas, where these products are usually used. Although still in the early stages of exploration, the six EV Concepts were designed to provide a glimpse into what alternative energy sources could hold for the future of the powersports industry. Designed by BRP Design & Innovation Team 2. HYUNDAI 45 The Hyundai 45 concept sets new standards for the upcoming electric vehicle era. It shifts the idea of a vehicle as an object for mobility to one that offers a comfortable room-like interior. All interior elements deviate from typical automotive interiors to create a living space consisting of furniture, blinds, and mood lighting. The roominess is achieved by placing the battery flat in the lower part of the vehicle. The exterior design is a departure also. Rather than a traditional square-shaped construction, all unnecessary elements were minimized and a diamond shape was used in which the glass and the door merge into a single surface. Designed by Hyundai Design Center for Hyundai Motor Company
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BR A N D I NG
Forge Ahead
STRUTTING DOWN THE RUNWAY “The transformation of typography into life-like models parading down the catwalk is a
novel way to build an identity for Shenzhen Fashion Week. In particular, the creative use
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of the typography in the motion graphics really stood out for the judges.
—Adam Brodsley
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he annual Shenzhen Fashion Week attracts brands and designers from 20 countries and regions, such as the United States, Britain, Japan, Italy, and South Korea. It is sponsored by the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government and is jointly organized by the Shenzhen Garment Industry Association and IMG Group. To promote and build the Shenzhen Fashion Week brand, SenseTeam developed a comprehensive visual management system that covered print, video, website, and environmental design. The visual management system compiled and consolidated information, unified the main tones and styles, and managed a series of materials to faithfully present the brand strategy and personalities. The design approach was not limited by traditional forms of visual identification. The resulting overall tone capitalized on the soul of Shenzhen as a young, stylish international city at the forefront of fashion in China. A central element of the initiative is the font SenseTeam designed. The 26 letters, numbers, and commonly used punctuation marks are tall, slender, elegant, and beautiful—
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just like a model. The font set was applied throughout the image system, most notably in the logo. The visual language adopted the dynamic motion of a catwalk—a fundamental element of a fashion show—for the logo to convey the essence and attitude of fashion. The logo, comprised of the acronym for Shenzhen Fashion Week, SZFW, conveys the energy and rhythm of a catwalk, encapsulating the atmosphere of a fashion show. After creating the font, SenseTeam translated SZFW into an artistic skeleton to signify that people are at the heart of fashion. The “S” and “Z” became the arms and the “F” and “W” the legs of a model who is stepping to the beat, reinforcing the slogan “Fashion Forges Ahead.” When used in interactive media, the SZFW expresses the attitude of fashion in a dynamic way through epitomizing the central element of a fashion show: models strutting down a walkway. Designed by SenseTeam for Shenzhen Fashion Week
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BR A N D I NG
The Serif Visual Identity System This visual identity system for the Serif was designed to communicate the beautifully crafted furniture-like quality of the TV and to appeal to millennials. In addition to above-the-line media frequently used by existing TV brands, online channels, digital media, and promotional events familiar to millennials were employed. Through this approach, the branding demonstrated how the Serif can be incorporated into any space and help consumers embrace the Serif as a part of their lifestyle. In short, the visual identity system goes beyond a mere TV branding tool to inspire consumers to realize how the product can be more joyfully explored and blend into diverse lifestyles. Designed by Taeho Kim, John Taegyu Kim, Jongyun Shin, Hyezin Park, and Adam Burgess of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
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B R A N D I NG
The Sero Visual Identity System Every first of its kind is met with public doubt about what it is and whether it is truly needed. The Sero, the world’s first rotatable TV, was also in this position, having to convince consumers of the need for a vertically oriented display. It also needed to appeal to millennials, the Sero’s target group, who are confident about what they like and dislike, are willing to embrace change, and are not hesitant to spend in order to satisfy their personal preferences. To capture the eyes and minds of these consumers, the bold visual strategy and language helps them understand this unfamiliar form factor. Designed by Junhyeok Jang, John Taegyu Kim, Taeho Kim, Areum Lee, and Jongyun Shin of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
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C H I L D R E N’S PR ODUCTS
DidaCubes DidaCubes were designed to make learning to program easier and more fun for kids. Through various programmable smart electronics designed to support K–12 STEAM education, they nurture creativity, imagination, and scientific knowledge among children aged 6 to 18. DidaCubes use colorful shells made from food-grade silica gel to categorize the different functional modules. The modules can be interconnected to make a powerful electronic network, and kids can easily build real-life prototypes by combining the functional modules and papercrafts, or even everyday materials. DidaCubes were designed to optimize manufacturing costs to make it affordable to global K–12 users in need. Designed by Jiye Shen, Junyao Li, Xiaoting Wu, and Beixian Xu of Shenzhen IU+ Design Co., Ltd. for Shenzhen ZhiTongLeHui Technology Co., Ltd.
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Yoto Player The Yoto Player is a smart speaker for kids that lets them listen to stories, music, the radio, and podcasts. It delivers audio in a way that puts children in control of the content using physical cards. The aim was to open up a world of audio that fires children’s imaginations and relieves some of the anxiety that parents have about screen time. Designed from the ground up for children, it is deliberately not toy-like and appeals to older kids and parents as well. The physical cards used for playback promote tactile play and fine motor development. Designed by Jon Marshall, Harc Lee, and Yemima Lorberbaum of Pentagram with Ben Drury, Filip Denker, Tom Ballhatchet, and Ben Calicott of Yoto for Yoto
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C H I L D R E N’S PR ODUCTS
SKIPHOP SIT-TO-STEP HIGH CHAIR Although highchairs are a necessary item for early childhood mealtime, their window of usefulness has always been slim. The Skiphop Sit-to-Step High Chair is a fully featured highchair designed to grow with a child. It starts as a chair for feeding children as young as 3 months and later converts to a step stool, allowing kids to participate in kitchen activities with adults. The multifunctional nature of the highchair doubles its lifespan, providing an extra benefit to parents looking to invest in products that can be used for years and shared for decades. The stool can even support the weight of many adults. Designed by Scott Wilson, Matt Puhalla, Jillian Tackaberry, Gary Paulsen, and Kyle Buzzard of MINIMAL Inc. for Skiphop
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C O M M E R CI AL & I NDUST R I A L
Hyundai Vest Exoskeleton (VEX)
UPLIFT
“This exoskeleton makes use of sound ergonomics and simple analog
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functionality, which makes it a believable solution for large-scale deployment. —Jesse Menayan
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n recent years, interest in exoskeleton technology has increased in the manufacturing industry as the average age of the workplace has creeped up and with it the potential for musculoskeletal disorders. The Vest Exoskeleton (VEX) is an arm-assisting robot that allows workers to lift their arms safely and efficiently for extended periods of time, preventing injuries and long-term harm. Through its multi-axis structure that simulates the human shoulder joint, VEX enables natural arm movement, a comfortable fit, and a full range of motion. According to the International Federation of Robotics, the wearable robotics industry is growing 14% annually, a rate that is accelerating. In 2017, 126,000 robots were supplied to the auto sector, representing 33% of all commercial robots. By 2021, approximately 630,000 commercial robots are anticipated to be sold worldwide, with the greatest demand coming from the automotive sector. VEX is targeted at production-line workers who spend long hours working in overhead environments, such as bolting the underside of vehicles, fitting brake tubes, and attaching exhausts. The development of the VEX included a pilot program in two Hyundai Motor Group plants in the United States. The trial was widely successful in assisting
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workers and boosting productivity. Both plants have incorporated VEX systems in their production lines. Through extensive mechanical engineering, VEX was created to operate without electricity or batteries, which makes it truly sustainable and efficient. VEX was designed for all users. It is easy to wear and adjust according to the operator’s body structure. Wear it like a backpack: place your arms through the shoulder straps and fasten the chest and waist buckles. The back is adjustable in length by up to 7 inches to fit a variety of body sizes, while the degree of force assistance can be adjusted over six levels. Although it is worn close to the body, its curved form and soft contact points make it practical for daily use. The close fit was also intended to prevent accidental contact with external devices to minimize the likelihood of damage. At a surprising 5.5 pounds, VEX weighs 22–42% less than competing products. The use of the haptic gray and neon-lime was done to convey its ultralight weight. Designed by Hyundai Design Center x Robotic Lab for Hyundai Motor Group
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CO M M ER CI AL & I NDUST R I A L
Leica BLK2GO, the first wireless handheld laser scanner
ONE-STOP SHOP
“This thing looks like it came from outer space. I love it!” —Mitch Heinrich
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rchitects, engineers, contractors, film producers, or anyone who needs to build a physical space or scout a location often have to make multiple visits to a site to accurately capture its size and dimensions. That process involves expensive and heavy equipment operated by a team. It can also be disruptive to the normal operations of the location when it must be roped off while the survey is being conducted. With the Leica BLK2GO wireless handheld imaging laser scanner, a single user can capture an environment, including the structures and objects in it, simply by walking around holding the device. Once a location is scanned, the BLK2GO takes the dimensions and turns them into accurate and colorized 3D point clouds that form a complete dataset. The data is easily displayed on the companion iPhone app, giving a 2D top view and a 3D point cloud rendering in real time. The captured data can be easily exported for registration and processing and for sharing with others. Other useful features include a multicolored light that gives feedback on the status of the scans, the quality of the data, and the battery life. It can also capture single HDR images with the detail camera. Users can photograph specific objects or imagery by pressing the button once while scanning, rather than relying on additional equipment. The final form of the design is built so users can easily pick it up, carry it, turn it on, and maneuver it while they’re
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capturing a space. Since it’s lightweight and features onebutton functionality, it’s easy to master. Unlike other handheld or mobile laser scanners that use SLAM technology, the BLK2GO does not require any external equipment, such as a backpack, tripod, or wires/connections, making it much faster and easier to use. It is also able to adapt to different lighting conditions, both indoors and outdoors. From an environmental perspective, the product’s small, lightweight form factor creates a compelling alternative to cumbersome and less efficient products. This impacts the manufacturing process and the end-user experience. Because it reduces the need to have a full team scan and measure a space, the BLK2GO cuts down on travel expenses. While scanning a location, the live 2D and 3D feedback on the companion iPhone app ensures that the user captures all data needed the first time, eliminating the hassle of follow-up visits. Companies don’t need to maintain an inventory of devices either since with its compact form factor it is easy to carry, transport, and ship, including transferring among different teams. With the Leica BLK2GO, instead of relying on a third party to perform scanning work, companies and professionals can scan for themselves and own the reality-capture process from start to finish. Designed by Dr. Burkhard Boeckem of Hexagon and Matthias Weiser of Leica Geosystems
INNOVATION FALL 2020
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Cisco Meraki MV Security Cameras MV is a line of four enterprise video security cameras for use in offices, schools, and retail stores. They are ceiling- or wall-mounted and can be used both indoors and out. MV cameras have onboard video processing and storage, which eliminate network latency, record constantly, and analyze video content without sending it to the cloud or a server. Public cameras are becoming ubiquitous, but they are often poorly designed and intimidating. The objective behind the MV line was to offer more elegance and friendliness. The fine bowl form filled with a continuous glossy lens cover inside instantly differentiates and invigorates the Cisco Meraki brand. Designed by Dan Harden, Akifusa Nakazawa, and Ari Turgel of Whipsaw, Inc. for Cisco - Meraki and Nick Abalos, Peter Gleason, Nick Kawamoto, Jennifer Ouk, Kevin Park, Juan Rubi, Ian Snyder, and Morgan Teachworth of Cisco - Meraki
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Google Trekker Trekker is Google’s new mapping device for documenting some of the greatest places on Earth. It produces photographs and interactive maps of anyplace on the planet automobiles cannot access, such as nature trails, world wonders, museums, and dense city centers. The all-in-one backpack includes a 360-degree camera array that creates perfect images of its surroundings, two positioning lidars for mapping terrain, a computer with heat-sink cooling, and two hot-swap batteries. Through volunteers and individuals who are paid, Trekker is documenting every corner of the Earth so we can all learn more about this incredible planet of ours. Designed by Dan Harden, IDSA, Elliot Ortiz, and Britt Jensen of Whipsaw, Inc. for Google
INNOVATION FALL 2020
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Phantom Espresso It started with a question: How are Starbucks baristas and customers able to connect over coffee when the front-bar positioning and large size of espresso machines obscure the baristas and espresso craft? By moving the espresso engine below the counter and incorporating bottom-fill espresso glasses, the Phantom Espresso opens up the bar and, as if by magic, presents delicious, swirling coffee and smooth crema right before customers’ eyes. Initially developed and tested as a prototype in 2017, the Starbucks engineering and industrial design teams partnered closely with long-term supplier Thermoplan of Switzerland to commercialize the Phantom, which recently debuted in all the SoDo Starbucks Reserve stores. Designed by Starbucks Industrial Design, Starbucks Global Equipment Development, and Thermoplan AG for Starbucks ReserveŽ
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1. APX NEXT P25 ALL BAND SMART RADIO WITH XV REMOTE SPEAKER MICROPHONE The APX NEXT brings advanced usability and performance to two-way public-safety radios. It combines a touch screen and intelligent voice interfaces with mission-critical performance to ensure a communications lifeline for emergency responders. Police officers are no longer vehiclebound as the information traditionally found in large mobile data terminals can now be delivered to this compact, portable device. Its LTE back up and intelligent voice query provide uninterrupted information flow. Cloudbased provisioning and update cycles reduce servicing downtime from months to minutes. Additional capabilities, such as video, data analytics, and AI applications, can be added as needs evolve. Designed by Motorola Solutions Innovation Design and Engineering Development Teams 2. BOSE VIDEOBAR VB1 The Bose Videobar VB1 brings ease of use and Bose audio quality to conferencing and huddle spaces. Inside the razor-thin package, the VB1 features an auto-framing 4K UHD camera, 5x zoom, six beam-steering microphones, and an all-in-one USB connection. Flexibility is the norm in today’s office. The VB1 technology is designed so everyone stays more connected and engaged, heard and understood, and focused on the things that matter, even when the most important person in the meeting is not even in the room. Whether it’s a quick morning check-in or a fullafternoon workshop, the VB1 helps all meeting attendees huddle up, see more, hear more, and work better. Designed by Jeanette Numbers, IDSA, Seunghyuk Scott Noh, IDSA, Rance Pritchard, and Dan Grove of Loft Design and Rich Carbone of Bose Corporation 3. DCI TERATRAK R1 The DCI TeraTrak R1 is a real-time terrain-mapping tool for horizontal directional drilling. It provides accurate and continuous topography data and the location of utilities and waypoints at all stages of the drilling process, which previously required expensive survey methods. Used in conjunction with the TeraTrak app, the R1 visualizes underground hazards and the precise elevation and distance measurements along the drill path. It streamlines the planning for job site boring, making it more accurate, efficient, cost effective, and accessible. As the ground is becoming increasingly crowded with utilities, the TeraTrak R1 makes it far less likely that the drill crew will run into underground hazards. Designed by Digital Control Inc. and Tactile Design Teams
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4. M12 FUEL™ 3/8” AND 1/2” DIGITAL TORQUE WRENCHES W/ ONE-KEY™ The M12 FUEL Digital Torque Wrenches were designed to automate repetitive tasks and improve safety and efficiency on the job site. Many torque wrenches have a built-in gauge to help the user manually optimize the torque for specific fasteners and applications. The M12 FUEL torque wrench is motorized and automated. The user sets the required torque on the built-in screen or the ONE-KEY app and pulls the trigger. The tool then cranks the fastener to the set torque range. Now within the optimal range, the user manually turns the fastener while the tool provides haptic, visual, and aural feedback to guide them to the perfect torque setting. Designed by Adam Carter for Milwaukee Tool
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FUJIFILM PROJECTOR Z5000
THROWING OFF CONVENTION
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emand for impressive visual displays is on the rise, from projection mapping at festivals and events to displays in art galleries and museums. And increasingly offices, commercial facilities, hotels, and historic buildings are looking to create more sophisticated visual content. Versatility is becoming an important factor when selecting a projector, in addition to typical considerations such as brightness and resolution. The Z5000 projector supports creators and venue managers in overcoming challenges that would be costly, time-consuming, or even impossible to surmount with a conventional projector. The Z5000 is equipped with a folded two-axial rotatable lens that allows for unobtrusive large-screen projection onto a wall, ceiling, or floor. Shifting between portrait and landscape mode is done by simply rotating the lens. The lens shift range is the largest achieved by an ultra-shortthrow projector, 82% vertically and 32% horizontally. This allows for projection in areas where size constraints would have previously made this impossible and gives creators the opportunity to make maximum use of available space. The Z5000 represents an evolution in what can be expected from projection technology, providing enhanced, seamless experiences for viewers and creating new possibilities for creators through its elegant design and advanced capabilities. The exterior of the Z5000 has a sleek, stylish look to match the wide variety of professional and creative environments in which projectors are employed. It was designed to be aesthetically pleasing from any perspective. The radiator opening features perforated metal with darkened internal components to create a clean external appearance
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and prevent visible internal hardware from affecting the look of the product. Reducing the size of the two-axis lens section and optimizing the internal configuration of the main unit allowed for a thin, compact body. The result: a more elegant design that opens up a wider range of possibilities regarding the installation location. In keeping with the overall aesthetic, a dark metallic color with a low gloss was selected for the finish in order to allow the body to both fit with a variety of surrounding environments and give a refined look as a standalone unit. In terms of function, the color and shape of the rotating lens section was differentiated from that of the main case to give the user an immediate visual indication of the movable parts. This has the dual benefit of emphasizing the projector’s unique capability and providing a more intuitive user experience when setting up the unit. Much more than being a simple means of conveying information, the Z5000 aids in the visualization and creation of immersive and interactive spaces. On a cultural level, it opens up a vast array of possibilities for creators of visual content that grows in tandem with constant advances in production technology. This provides artists with the opportunity and inspiration to experiment with new, immersive forms of artistic expression to captivate visitors at shows and exhibitions. In addition, as institutions such as museums implement more multimedia elements into their exhibitions, this projector is a powerful new means to engage with audiences and convey information about history and culture in an exciting, memorable way. Designed by Koji Yoshida and Kunihiko Tanaka of FUJIFILM Corporation
“A noteworthy execution of reducing scale while improving performance.” —Jesse Menayan
INNOVATION FALL 2020
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FUJINON TECHNO STABI TS-X 1440
RUGGED AND RELIABLE
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he TS-X 1440 is the latest iteration in a series of advanced binoculars from Fujinon that have long been the choice of professionals in fields like defense and law enforcement where accuracy is of paramount importance and failure is not an option. The TS-X 1440 features a revised design that brings these advanced capabilities to the general public in order to meet the needs of a variety of leisure pursuits, from astronomy to whale watching. As a tool for professionals in a variety of fields, the Fujinon binocular series has a proven track record as the choice for professionals. Its unique image stabilization capabilities have allowed for precision in areas where performance and reliability are essential, such as defense and research. It has demonstrated these capabilities on land, at sea, in the air, and even during space missions facilitating both security and the advancement of science in a variety of fields. In response to an increasing need from the general public, including use in land-based environments such as safari parks, the potential reach of Fujinon’s proprietary vibration correction technology has broadened considerably. Moving from the sole preserve of professionals to a product designed for the general public, the TS-X 1440 expands the opportunities available to a wider section of society. At the center of the TS-X 1440 is the advanced vibration correction technology that compensates for the
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movement of both the binoculars and the area where the user is standing, for example when riding on a boat or in a helicopter. The weight accrued as a result of this technology was an important factor in incorporating ease of use into the product’s aesthetic. The symmetrical design is covered with slip-resistant rubber to allow users to establish a firm hold even with wet hands or gloves, regardless of hand size. This is further facilitated by the rounded shapes of the grips themselves. By allowing users to firmly grip the binoculars with both hands, the design provides enhanced comfort and facilitates greater freedom of movement during use. Improved functionality was another key consideration in the design process. The position of the diopter rings and buttons was optimized to allow users to operate the binoculars without having to look at the controls. The power button and vibration control buttons were given different textures and sizes to prevent errors. In addition to giving the product an instantly recognizable silhouette, the rounded, integrated design of the body provides effective impact resistance and allows the unit to float if dropped into water. These features help to combat the rigors of challenging outdoor environments, allowing professionals and hobbyists alike to use the TS-X 1440 with confidence and peace of mind. Designed by Hiroyuki Sakai of FUJIFILM Corporation
“Wonderful to see industrial design be applied on a typology rarely seen or considered these days that is heavily dominated by the IoT and the mobile phone category.”
—Amina Horozić
INNOVATION FALL 2020
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Sonos Amp
A RIVER OF SOUND
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hree trends are transforming the home audio market: the rise in paid streaming services, the rise of voice assistant speakers, and the rise of the smart home. The emergence of wireless audio represents a sizable opportunity for install professionals, who are primed to accelerate their businesses as consumers move to adopt these trends. The Sonos Amp home sound system was designed to capitalize on this opportunity. In developing Amp, Sonos relied on its work with professional installers (including audio/visual integrators, security technicians, home builders, landscape designers, and electricians) to help the design team understand the needs of both the installers and the homeowners. The Sonos Amp is a powerful and versatile home audio hub that powers traditional wired speakers with sound from nearly any source and fully integrates the speakers into Sonos’ easy-to-use wireless home sound system. Amp gives customers the versatility to play streaming content on speakers throughout their home, connect to their TV through HDMI Arc, or plug into any audio device, including a turntable to power their vinyl collection. With more power at 125 watts per channel, the Sonos Amp is twice as powerful as the original Connect:Amp. Amp can power up to four speakers, including the most demanding. Amp’s thoughtfully designed and versatile hardware was built to power the Sonos software platform. This platform makes it easy for customers to incorporate Amp into integrated smart home set-ups, including smart lighting and centralized control systems. It is also AirPlay 2 compatible,
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meaning a customer can easily play music and other audio from any iOS device wirelessly through Amp. And when wirelessly connected to a Google Assistant or Alexa-enabled device, Amp can easily be controlled with voice commands. Listening to feedback from professional installers, the Sonos design team redesigned Amp to fit within any home environment, whether wall mounted, tucked under furniture, or on display in a room. Its final form was heavily influenced by the way customers use amplifiers. It is also a compact and elegant solution for in-rack AV installations. The proportions and dimensions ensure professional installers can fit Amp seamlessly into an AV rack, allowing two to sit side-by-side on one shelf. It features a black design that complements other AV technology. For customers placing Amp in their living room, its aesthetics communicate its connection to music and sound, using the highly recognizable combination of the square and circle to evoke its musicality. For consistency across the product portfolio, all sides of the product were treated the same, which is evident when looking at the bottom of Amp, which has a pattern that allows for ventilation, as well as the circular opening at the top. The back of Amp was designed with binding posts that sit closer to the product and are made from highly conductive metal, allowing for easy setup. All other connections are recessed to allow a clean and stable connection to cables. On the front, the user interface is accessible even when two Sonos Amps are stacked on top of each other. Designed by Sonos Design Team
“Simply timeless and effortless while making a quiet statement and presence.”
—Amina Horozić
INNOVATION FALL 2020
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Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K was designed specifically for indie filmmakers and TV and web broadcasters. At $2,495, it offers the image quality needed for seamless integration into Hollywood workflows indistinguishable from cameras costing five times as much. The extra resolution inherent in 6K allows handheld footage to be reframed and stabilized without affecting image quality. The EF lens mount accommodates larger photographic lenses for shallower depth of field and engaging cinematic images with defocused backgrounds. Its carbon-fiber-composite body has the strength and rigidity of die-cast steel at half the weight and cost with refined ergonomics for secure one-handed shooting. Designed by Blackmagic Industrial Design Team
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HoloLens 2 The HoloLens 2 is a pair of mixed reality smart glasses. At its core, the HoloLens 2 is a human-centered device. This means that the technology melts away—there’s no barrier between you and the device—and you instinctively know how to use it. It makes mixed reality feel like a true merging of the digital and physical worlds. When combined with apps and solutions, the HoloLens 2 helps people across a business to learn, communicate, and collaborate more effectively. The HoloLens 2 is the culmination of breakthroughs in hardware design, artificial intelligence, and mixed reality designed to lead industry into the future. Designed by Microsoft Device Design Team
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Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit The Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit unlocks the potential of the Xbox Adaptive Controller with a powerful set of tools. It is a unified hub for devices that makes gaming more accessible to those with limited mobility. At its core, it is a base station with basic functionality: two large A and B buttons and a slightly oversized home, menu, and info buttons and D-pad. To truly unlock its potential, the user needs to connect other buttons, joysticks, or additional input devices to its many ports. This insight led the Logitech G team to develop an assortment of buttons that connect to these ports, turning it into a powerful controller for gamers facing a wide variety of physical challenges. Designed by Logitech Europe S.A.
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Q950TS, QLED 8K The Q950TS QLED television is the flagship model of Samsung’s 8K product line. It employs an infinity screen in which the bezel has been done away with for a full immersion viewing experience that eliminates the boundary between the screen and its surroundings. The surround sound system is housed in a flat 15-millimeter plate that envelops the viewer from all directions even without a separate sound bar. The stand is small but sturdy and sports a simple design that accentuates the masterpiece quality of the TV, while the wall-mount option allows the TV to be placed flush against the wall with the barest of gaps. Designed by SeungHo Lee, Jaewook Yoo, Jangho Kim, and Jeewon Kim of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
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1. GALAXY FOLD The Galaxy Fold imbues people’s mobile lives with foldable experiences. This smartphone features flexible display technology and enhanced portability with a screen large enough to accommodate different media. The folding mechanism ensures a seamless transition between the folded and unfolded modes. The cover display on the facade enables users to quickly and conveniently navigate through their phone when folded, then seamlessly transition to the large display when unfolded. The hinge naturally disappears into the body, enabling an uninterrupted full display experience. The device’s dimensions and curves are exquisitely aligned to ensure a smooth and comfortable user experience at every moment. Designed by KangMoon Kim, JunHo Jin, WonKyu Sung, YoonYoung Kim, and HanGil Song of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 2. GOOGLE NEST HUB MAX At first glance the Google Nest Hub Max appears to be a digital photo frame. The genie inside the bottle is the built-in Nest camera. The Nest Hub Max was designed to help you stay connected to those important to you through video calls and video messages. It features symphonyquality stereo sound and a generous 10-inch display. With the display floating above the surface, the device projects a clear visual hierarchy, which helps make it more understandable and familiar. The design is unobtrusive and versatile, fitting in among home objects like picture frames without calling undue attention to the technology. Designed by Google Hardware Design 3. HOOP Hoop is a family of AI-enabled home-monitoring cameras designed to keep families informed and connected. Using facial recognition, Hoop learns to identify household members from their profile photos and gets smarter from regularly seeing them. Hoop’s notification settings allow users to dictate what they want to be notified about and when. Gone are interruptions because a leaf floated past a window. Teach Hoop your family routines to receive important reminders as they are needed. No more having to worry about forgetting to take out the recycling. Hoop also provides all the standard safety features homeowners have come to expect from home security cameras with motion alerts, sound alerts, and more. Designed by Josh Morenstein, Nick Cronan, Scott Ross, and David Hyun of Branch Creative for C+A Global 4. HP Chromebook 11 G8 Education Edition The Chromebook 11 G8 was designed to withstand students and school days. It can survive a fall off a desk, a splash from a soda, or a tugged power cord. At the same, it is versatile and adaptable to encourage unique, personalized learning styles. It works all the ways students learn: by typing, touching, capturing, writing, and drawing. The computer flips into four modes—laptop, stand, tent, and tablet—and has multimedia tools that let students record, broadcast, and chat with the user-facing camera. And they can see what they’re recording on screen and capture photos for projects with the optional world-facing 5MP camera. Designed by HP Design + Native
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5. HP Neverstop Laser MFP Printers with TRK Replacing laser toner means disposing of cartridges and introducing plastic, toner residue, and metal waste into the environment. End-user replacement of laser toner is challenging because of the difficulty in transferring the toner powder safely and cleanly to a printer’s reservoir. The HP Neverstop Laser Printers have solved these problems by creating a new user experience for printers and their printer toner refill mechanism. The printers feature rapid-reload toner tanks that are easy for customers and good for the environment. With the toner reload kit, customers can refill the Neverstop Laser Printer toner tanks in seconds, economically and conveniently. Designed by HP Global Experience Design Team 6. Human Headphones Human Headphones are band-less on-ear headphones in which an intuitive user interface, fashion, and comfort merge to redefine the mobile music experience. Its iconic lightweight, low-profile design was designed to appeal to all music lovers on-the-go. The headphones fit on over 90% of adults, a feat that required 700 3D prints. All buttons were eliminated in favor of capacitive touch technology. With simple finger gestures, listeners can execute multiple playback controls. By launching the mobile app while traveling or in meetings, users can access translations in 11 languages. They can also snap the two earphones together to create a portable Bluetooth speaker. Designed by Nonfiction, Maestro PD, and Human Inc. 7. Inclusive IoT Inclusive IoT collects and processes sounds and delivers information to hearing-impaired users. It consists of an AI speaker, input devices mounted with a microphone, and output devices. It can recognize beeping sounds from household devices, like the washer, and notify users. Rather than simply delivering the sounds themselves, it conveys their message. It converts music into light and color and helps hearingimpaired users experience the rhythms and emotions expressed in the music. The device projects a unique response to each prerecorded voice so users can recognize the voices of their friends and family members. Designed by Shinjae Jung, Jueun Lee, Chunkyung Moon, and Kwanhee Lee of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 8. Kodak ‘Smile’ Family of Instant Print Digital Cameras and Printers The Kodak Smile family of cameras and printers allows users to capture and print their photos instantly and on-the-go using Z-ink technology. The biggest challenge in their development was to create a unique and memorable experience. The instant print camera market is overcrowded, and Kodak has less brand recognition among millennial consumers. Therefore, the design language of the Smile products straddles a product experience that references traditional photography while still being fresh, modern, and engaging, inviting a new audience into the Kodak family. While leveraging traditional camera form factors, the designers created unique interactions that make the products fun to pick up and use. Designed by Josh Morenstein, Nick Cronan, David Hyun, and Florent Alexandre of Branch Creative for C+A Global
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9. Logitech VR Ink Stylus The Logitech VR Ink Stylus helps to unleash creativity and collaboration in augmented and virtual reality. It was designed to work seamlessly with Steam VR tracked headsets. It builds on the muscle memory and skills people already have to unlock the power of spatial computing and releases creators from the limitations of 2D screens. By leveraging the natural precision of the familiar pencil grip with a pressure sensitive tip, it combines 2D surface sketching and writing with full-scale 3D interaction. With VR Ink, you can get to work on a 2D physical surface and continue your creative flow uninterrupted in the 3D space, combining the best of both worlds. Designed by Logitech Europe S.A. 10. VAVA 4K Ultra Short Throw Laser Projector The VAVA 4K Ultra Short Throw Laser Projector solves the pain points associated with traditional long-throw home theater projectors. Traditional long-throw projectors require a painful installation process, while the VAVA sits against the wall, reducing clutter and installation hurdles. Since VAVA projects the light against the wall, rather than it having to travel across the room, a much brighter picture is produced. This makes daytime viewing with ambient lighting possible, which is not possible with traditional projectors. The integrated Harmon Kardon sound bar with 60 watts of power is roughly five times more powerful than the speakers in a standard TV. Designed by Wai Lim of Y Studios, Caijin Sun of Sunvalleytek International Inc., and Allen Fung of VAVA
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D E S I G N S TR AT E G Y
1. Falck Global Innovation Strategy – Saving and improving even more lives In October 2019, Falck completed a financial turnaround. The time was ripe to look toward the future, but with a world full of healthcare challenges, the question was, where to start? Falck developed an innovation strategy comprised of a company-wide innovation purpose and a methodology for running human-centered design projects. The strategy was informed by rigorous ethnographic patient research, expert interviews, and analysis of Falck’s existing business. It allows Falck to be intentional about selecting projects that will have the greatest impact for the people it serves, as well as it makes sound business sense. At the heart of the strategy is one innovation purpose and four solutions spaces. The purpose, exploring ways to save and improve even more lives, gives a clear mandate. The solutions spaces are strategic focus areas that will enable Falck to prioritize innovation activities over time. Designed by Eilidh Dickson and Anna Hellmer of Falck Global Innovation 2. Hunterlab Photospectrometers This three-product family of laboratory photospectometers represents a bold new direction for Hunterlab products. Introducing a set of new and notable key brand attributes, overarching design principles, and signature design elements has brought harmony to the products despite their unique form factors and end-user functions. The new visual brand language is approachable in the lab, is easy to use and maintain, and celebrates the cutting-edge technology contained within. Hand-fabricated one-at-a-time solutions from previous generations have now been replaced by thoughtful, well-engineered mass manufacturable parts. This opened the door to innovations like motorized automatic height adjustment, spill-proof internals, and satisfying magnetic closures while also reducing the overall part count. Designed by David Bulfin, Paul Rockwell, and Monty Montague of BOLTGROUP along with Michael Scardina, Tod Kerr, and Michal Haring of Hunterlab
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MI Rearview Mirror System The MI Rearview Mirror System is an intelligent vehicle monitoring system and driving assistant incorporated into a rearview mirror. It providing users with a safe and pleasant driving experience. The inconvenience and complexity of a product directly affects the user experience; therefore, the MI Rearview Mirror System was designed to be simple and convenient. Users interact with it through voice commands. They can query information, play music, get directions, and make calls—all without having to toggle through a menu or push buttons. With the MI Rearview Mirror System, users need only focus on driving. Designed by An Ran and Xie Yan of MIoT UED Team of Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd.
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SentiAR SentiAR is a 3D augmented reality platform that projects real-time holographic images of a patient’s anatomy. Driven by a head-mounted display, SentiAR transforms both the patient’s and clinician’s experience with electrophysiology interventional procedures. The SentiAR system is used as an adjunct product to assist the clinician in the visualization of the heart anatomy during cardiac mapping and ablation procedures. The holographic visualization that appears to be floating over the patient is fully controllable through hands-free gaze-controlled operation by the clinician. SentiAR increases the rate of success of cardiac ablation procedures and transforms the user experience in surgical environments. Designed by HS Design (HSD) in collaboration with SentiAR, Inc.
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National Industrial Design Day An annual celebration on March 5
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DI G I T A L I NT E R ACT I O N
1. AIRSTAR BANK Airstar Bank, one of the first virtual banks approved to operate in Hong Kong, needed to develop an instantaneous, secure 24/7 mobile banking experience. The app-based solution includes advanced risk management that leverages big data technology to make its financial services accessible to more people, minimize user fees, and provide a personalized and compelling user experience. Included in the target user group were lower-income earners and those underserved by banking services, making it easier for them to get support for their financial needs. Focus was put on expressing a strong visual identity for the brand and providing users a simple and clean interface that reduces their cognitive burden. Designed by Yu Cheng, Xu Zhang, Haixi Luo, Yuanmin Guo, and Lin Li of Virtual Bank Product Center of Xiaomi Finance for Airstar Bank Limited
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2. Fitbit Inspire HR UX The Fitbit Inspire HR packs customers’ favorite features into a compact, efficient form factor with personal daily stats, notifications, and dead simple exercise goals. The sensors in the Fitbit Inspire HR provide real-time feedback of step count, heart rate, calories burned, active minutes, distance traveled, and sleep stages. All this data is just one swipe away from the clock face. Text messages, chat messages, and calendar reminders are displayed in crisp, simple pop-ups. Whether it be a calorie goal on a run, a distance goal on a bike ride, or a time goal while swimming, the Fitbit Inspire HR helps users set goals and achieve them. Designed by Fitbit User Experience Team 3. Mintit UX : Used Mobile Phone Upcycling Service Design UX/UII The Mintit user interface uses artificial intelligence to help people upcycle their mobile phone through a kiosk installed at malls in South Korea. Traditionally, selling a used mobile phone has been a challenging experience due to disagreements between the buyer and seller over the phone’s condition and value. With the help of Mintit’s AI and the remote dialogue user interface, users can easily check their phone’s condition, evaluate the buyback price, and instantly sell their phone at the kiosk. Since Mintit’s launch, more than 20,000 phones have been collected and recycled each month. Designed by Inition Inc. for SK Networks Co. Ltd.
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E NV I R O NME NT S
Museum of Literature Ireland
A HOME FOR STORIES
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ituated on St Stephen’s Green in University College Dublin’s historic Newman House, the new Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) opened to the public in September 2019. The product of a groundbreaking partnership between University College Dublin and the National Library of Ireland, MoLI celebrates Irish language and literature, providing a sweeping overview of the country’s literary tradition and exploring how such a small island has produced so many of the world’s literary giants. Globally significant artifacts such as the first copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses are displayed alongside innovative media installations that bring the sights and sounds of Ireland and Irish literature to life—from the windswept hills and oral traditions of the Irish countryside to the streets of Dublin and contemporary Irish slang. MoLI aims to be an inclusive space, welcoming everyone from Irish literary experts to those with only a passing knowledge of Joyce. Each floor of MoLI is designed to appeal to audiences with different interests, exploring the Irish literary tradition through the perspective of three timeless themes: place, voice and inspiration. On each floor, the exhibition design enables a different type of experience, creating a compelling, multilayered visitor journey. On the ground floor, interactive and sensory environments reveal the links between literature and place in Ireland, whereas on the first floor visitors wander freely through rotating exhibitions illustrating the breadth of Irish literary voices past, present, and future. The final level is dedicated to the writing process, what inspires Irish authors to write and how they go about doing so. Here, visitors learn through doing,
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writing their own literature and contributing to the future of Irish writing. At the heart of MoLI is the Riverrun of Language, a multisensory generative installation that immerses visitors in the sounds of Irish language through cutting-edge media design. Visitors’ movements trigger sound showers of spoken Irish literature and folklore, adding to the density of words in the river of language on the walls. Throughout the rest of the museum, visitors are similarly encouraged to become more than passive consumers of words: reading books surrounded by object displays, listening to an author read their newest work, or even writing their own. The culmination of these participatory designs is a new kind of museum, a dynamic incubation space where contemporary and future writers are placed at the heart of the creative process. Newman House’s heritage status necessitated a lighttouch approach to the three-dimensional exhibition elements to respect the historic fabric of the building. Closely informed by recommendations from the conservation architects, MoLI’s exhibition design sits apart from the building’s walls, ceiling, and floor. To enable the first floor to be used for many activities, all installations are wireframes and shelves. The second floor is formulated as a more classic exhibition space in order to provide conservation-grade displays for MoLI’s most rare documents. Designed by Phillip Tefft, Mirko Cerami, Helen Schulte, James Ward, and Sinead Foley of Ralph Appelbaum Associates for the National Library of Ireland and University College Dublin
“The jury admired the museum’s efforts to find fresh ways to engage people and
preserve the rich cultural value of lrish literature. … Makes me want to visit if only in
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hopes of finally understanding Finnegans Wake.
—Adam Brodsley
E N V I RO NME NT S
de Youngsters Studio The de Young Museum’s education gallery, the de Youngsters Studio, is an interactive environment that connects children to creativity and learning in a physical and experiential way. The dynamic and visual permanent spaces use touch displays, projection tracking, and augmented reality as tools for children to explore five core artistic concepts: color, composition, shape and form, texture, and sculpture. The design of the de Youngsters Studio emphasizes these fundamental principles in a participatory fashion while connecting the children and their caregivers to the art housed within the museum. Designed by Yves BÊhar, Liam Adelman, Wei Chengyuan, Gustav Renby, Anthony DeCosta, and Hardy Chambliss of fuseproject
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lululemon Lincoln Park From fitness to fuel, mindfulness to connection, personal development to personal growth, lululemon Lincoln Park focuses on the whole human. It is a community space designed for human interaction and growth. The design team approached this store’s design with one intention: to be a physical space for the sweatlife philosophy and practice lululemon and its guests have lived by for 20 years: When we sweat, grow, and connect, we ignite our community and ourselves. The result is a playground for everyone wanting to get more out of life, to get curious, to get sweaty, to get still, to get fueled, to get connected. Designed by James Geier, IDSA, and Lauren Ditka, IIDA, of 555 International and Lisa Ewing of lululemon
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1. Endangered Animals Graphic Archives People who are not interested in environmental or animal issues tend to think that only commonly known animals, such as penguins and polar bears, are endangered. The goal of the Endangered Animals Graphic Archives is to get people to care about the environment and animals by using vivid models of the various endangered animals classified according to the crisis level. Through this project, people can learn about endangered animals and educate themselves and children about the importance of protecting animals and the environment. Designed and illustrated by Namsung Kim and illustrated by Insil Lee
2. Playcore Sensory Car Wash For children with sensory processing disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, the playground can be full of challenges. But with thoughtful design, it can be an oasis of invigorating stimulation and therapeutic relief. The Sensory Car Wash invites children of all abilities to play together in an engaging, nonlinear way. A variety of soft, squeezable, and floppy sculptural forms hang in rows, tunnels, and arrays to create full-body fun. Some children find relief hugging, swinging, or swaying with the soft, colorful forms. Others love to run crashing through the shapes and colors for a stimulating but safe experience. Designed by Matt Green, Kurt Rampton, IDSA, and Monty Montague, IDSA, of BOLTGROUP and Tom Norquist and Steven Dupree of Playcore for Playcore Inc.
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F U R NI T U R E & L I G HTI NG
Jya Cordless LED Desk Lamp The Jya Cordless LED Desk Lamp features a minimalist geometric shape with a sandblasted aluminum shell. It can project light both near and far with a variety of different intensities. The light is easily controlled with the touch button on the top. With a compact form and cordless design, Jya can be used anywhere you need light. The battery provides at least four hours of light. Designed by Tie Liu, Liang Huang, Liangliang Yao, Jiuping Yu, and Dong Chen of Jya Smart Home (Tianjin) Limited
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MBASSADOR
IDSA Ambassadors support our society and help advance the profession of industrial design through thought leadership and advocacy. IDSA Ambassadors represent the very best of our industry and are leaders within their respective fields. These organizations are patrons of IDSA help support our year-round delivery of programming. Through the generosity of our Ambassadors, we are able to provide access to industrial design information and resources to a global audience with a high level of quality and authority.
In return, IDSA Ambassadors frequently contribute to IDSA content and their stories can be found across all of IDSA’s media channels, including: INNOVATION magazine, at conferences and events, social media, email blasts to thousands of readers, and our website. Learn more at idsa.org/ambassadors
F U RNI T U R E & L I G HTI NG
Glint Hero Lighting Fixture Glint Hero was designed to point light in any direction while the fixture itself remains stationary. It has a row of 10 fixed LEDs that shine up into a corresponding row of 10 tiny movable reflectors. A joystick moves the row of reflectors along the x- and y-axes. As the row of reflectors moves relative to the fixed row of LEDs below it, the angle of light changes dramatically. Since the fixture never needs to move to aim light, multiple units can be perfectly aligned to one another for a clean contemporary look, instead of messy track lights aimed in many directions. Designed by Dan Harden, IDSA, Cole Derby, Carlos Terminel, Yale Shaw, and Cheng-Fu Hsieh of Whipsaw, Inc. for Glint Photonics
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Miranda O3 Pulldown Kitchen Faucet
THE POWER OF CHEMISTRY MEETS THE FINESSE OF DESIGN “Ozone generation within the home is a significant technology breakthrough, and packaging it inside a nonpolarizing aesthetic will allow for widespread
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adoption and safety.
—Jesse Menayan
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ith the Miranda O3 Pulldown Kitchen Faucet, homeowners can have their own in-house disinfecting system. Its ozone-tech-plus sensor system brings a new level of hygiene to families. Clean and healthy starts here. The Miranda O3 harnesses the power of ozone, a safe antimicrobial disinfectant, to turn water into a powerful sanitizer. It kills 99% of E. coli from produce, gets rid of salmonella on chicken, and sanitizes workstations. It also eliminates 75% of chemical and nonsynthetic pesticides from vegetables and fruits. The FDA has approved of the use of ozonated water as a food disinfectant. Press and hold the key on the bottom of the faucet for three seconds. A green LED flashes when the ozonated water has been activated. Then simply wash your hands, food, or kitchenwares for few seconds to sanitize them.
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No harsh chemicals are needed. It is safe for you and the environment because the only byproduct is pure oxygen. The Miranda O3 works by transforming oxygen into ozone and injecting it into the water. Ozone is nature’s safe antimicrobial disinfectant, leaving no residue and reducing the amount of soap and other cleansers added to the environment. Its graceful vase-like curves and soft, flowing lines epitomize the modern kitchen. The high-arc spout and pullout spray head make washing items easy, whether large or small, delicate or tough. With it sleek, elegant form and artful technology, the Miranda O3 defines the shape and function of things to come. Designed by Caiyun Huang, Jianan Ji, Zhenguang Wu, and Zhengtie Yu for Bravat
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Triple Care Dishwasher
INCOGNITO
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he Triple Care Dishwasher is more than just a dishwasher. It does triple duty by washing, drying, and storing your dishes once they are clean. Designed to look like a cabinet, it adds a professional and luxurious feel to your countertop. Through the large glass front you can check on your dishes without having to open the door, while the half-mirror finish keeps the contents discretely out of view, leaving your kitchen free of visual clutter. Typical dishwashers use a rotor that moves in a circular fashion, creating a dead zone where dishes are not fully cleaned. Triple Care features a wide-moving rotor in which one rotor is placed on top of the other to make sure all dishes receive a thorough washing. The key to this technology is how the direction and speed are controlled, changing the range of motion from circular to rectangular. Its dual hot-air technology combined with the auto door open and close function discharges residual steam and smells at the end of the cycle, enabling faster, more complete drying. The door automatically opens just a crack to dispel the steam and closes itself back up again to prevent dishes from getting dirty again. The UV sterilization and ventilation functions run periodically to keep the dishes clean so you can leave them in the dishwasher as long as you like. For households with infants, the Triple Care Dishwasher
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not only washes but sterilizes baby bottles. The sterilization function removes 99.999% of harmful bacterial using water heated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit, which provides the same effect as boiling the bottles. The bottle zone function ensures that the insides of each bottle, which can be hard to reach, are perfectly cleaned. Using a dishwasher conserves water compared to washing dishes by hands. When handwashing, a large amount of water (25-40 gallons) is wasted as water is kept running. The Triple Care Dishwasher uses minimal water, 2.3 gallons, by recirculating it, running it through a filter to remove impurities and foreign substances. Not only is the water filtered but the air is too. An air filter at the bottom of the dishwasher prevents clean dishes being decontaminated by fine dust and particles while drying. Other thoughtful, considered features include the safety lighting at the bottom of the door to prevent accidental exposure to hot temperatures during the wash cycle: red means hot, blue means safe. The handleless design uses touch-on technology to smoothly open the door with the simple touch of the button. And its modern aesthetic banishes all notions of a the dishwasher as an obtrusive white machine. Designed by Dongju Shin, Jongyoon Yu, and Jongsoo Kim of SK magic
“A product that is highly functional, convenient to use,
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and visually pleasing while residing on the kitchen countertop.
—Lou Lenzi, FIDSA
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Bottle Bath Bottle Bath was designed with one goal in mind: to help make parenting life easier. Time with a newborn is precious, and it should be spent cultivating relationships, rather than fretting over baby bottles. Bottle Bath is a three-in-one device that washes, sterilizes, and dries baby bottles and related accessories with a single touch of a button. Parents no longer have to hand wash bottles, sterilize them, and let them air-dry in three separate processes. Bottle Bath does all three in a single process—in less than an hour. Designed by STUCK Design, Orca Creation, and Bottle Bath
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milkpress The milkpress is a filter and bottle system for making oat milk, almond milk, and other plant-based milks at home. It was designed to encourage regular daily use, eliminate cartons and plastic bottles from the waste stream, and start conversations about sustainability, all while maintaining aesthetic integrity. Making plant-based milk is traditionally a messy process requiring unsanitary hand contact with the liquid or other methods that produce gritty results. The milkpress solves these issues with ease of setup, ease of clean-up, filtering, compact storage, and pulp reuse. This plastic-free product enables a steady supply of delicious, smooth “milk� that tastes store-bought. Designed by Duncan Burns, Yuki Sugiyama, and Jananda Hill of Type Inc. and HARIO for ModernMilk Co.
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Fellow Ode Brew Grinder When grinders try to tackle both brewed coffee and espresso, they become a master of none. In stark contrast, the Ode home grinder was designed solely to perfect your daily brewed coffee—pour-over, French press, cold brew, and more—while also performing above the competition in cleanliness and quietness. By reimagining what a grinder can be, the designers packed in some pretty impressive features to elevate your morning routine. With 64-millimeter professional-grade flat burrs, 31 grind settings, and a unique single-dose load bin for maximum bean freshness, Ode brings the café experience into your kitchen at a fraction of the cost. Designed by Nick Cronan, Josh Morenstein, Florent Alexandre, and John Stagaman of Branch Creative for Fellow
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HO M E
1. COWAY ICON AIR PURIFIER The health effects of air pollution remain a public health concern worldwide. Coway’s Icon Air Purifier was designed to bring wellness, address preventative health, and support healthy-minded individuals by helping to control the air quality in homes, tight spaces, and places with debris and poor air circulation. The Icon boasts a design-forward solution to an otherwise mainly utilitarian product. Any medical and health-conscious users can feature this device in their home without feeling like it should be hidden. The air purifier also provides Wi-Fi connectivity for more usability and functionality, as well as allowing users to control the air purifier from a smartphone. Designed by Yves Béhar, Valentin Sollier, Matt Pempkowski, Jaehoon Jung, William Stuart, and the Coway Design Designed by Yves Béhar, Valentin Sollier, Matt Pempkowski, Jaehoon Jung, William Stuart, Hyun- Joo Song (Coway Design Center), Mi Kyung Kim (Coway Design Center), Jong Ho Choi (Coway Design Center), Suki Lee (Coway Design Center), Gahee Kim (Coway Design Center) 2. Electrolytic sterilizer (WCE-200) When we want to disinfect a surface, we usually reach for a chemical cleaner. The WCE-200 Electrolytic sterilizer transforms tap water into a powerful and safe way to sanitize, deodorize, and clean. Forget having to worry about the safety of the ingredients in your cleaning products or how they may damage surfaces, including your skin. Just refill your WCE-200 with water from your tap and spray away. Spray it on your table, cutting board, bathroom, couch, and toys. The electrolytic water generated by the WCE-200 can eliminate 99.99% of bacteria and viruses on surfaces. You can also use it to eliminate odors, even on your pet. Designed by Seungwoo Yu and Joonghee Kim of Wonbong Co., Ltd.
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3. GROHE SmartControl Kitchen The SmartControl Kitchen collection reimagines the kitchen faucet experience with new valve technology that transforms the user experience. The faucets offer intuitive operation by pushing and turning. To start the water flow, simply push the button at the faucet’s outlet, or use your elbow or wrist when both hands are full or unclean. For precise water flow, turn the ProGrip button right or left, from the economical eco setting to the powerful jet spray. Regulate the temperature with the mixing valve on the faucet’s body. Designed by Grohe In-house Design Team 4. High-end foldable baseboard electric heater This high-end foldable baseboard electric heater features a dual-spindlemotion mechanism designed to achieve any combination of angles from 0 to 180, making sure you stay warm no matter where you are sitting. In addition to warming your space in winter and on rainy days, it can also be used as a clothes dryer. Following the notion of simplifying complexity, its appearance is simple and elegant. Yet its use of materials suggests a high-end product, breaking away from the impression of electric heaters as cheap and clumsy. Designed by Ke Mou, Sha Li, Luan Qin, Jingjing Wang, and Qijian Yang of Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai
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5. Illumiknobi Illumiknobi is a battery-powered door knob with an internal motion sensor that casts a beautifully illuminated pattern as you approach. Upon detecting your movement, Illumiknobi gently becomes brighter, helping you to navigate the darkened space while leaving others undisturbed. Door knobs are typically purely functional and boring; you don’t think twice when using one—which is what makes Illumiknobi so different. It offers a techno-functional solution designed for simplicity and beauty, which encourages forward thinking about how something commonplace can become innovative and solve everyday problems. Designed by Aida Watson of Pin & Tumbler Studio at Allegion 6. Infinite Line Built-in Oven package The Infinite Line offers a series of built-in ovens with a variety of cook features. The Dual Cook oven has independently controlled upper and lower cooking zones. Dual Cook Steam offers the option to choose between convection or steam cooking in the lower zone. Meanwhile, the Microwave Combi oven combines microwave technology with standard convection, delivering faster cooking results. The ovens can be stacked or arranged horizontally to create the most aesthetically pleasing kitchen grid for a given environment. They feature modern premium styling, including a new glass material called satin that is intended to beautifully offset matte-colored kitchen cabinetry. Designed by Hwanwoong Choi, Hyunsoo Kim, Bokyeong Lee, Hyojin Yoon, and Taehyoung Cho of RELVĀOKELLERMANN for Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 7. Ivy Pour-Over The Ivy Pour-Over system is the first piece of Starbucks-designed store equipment to be offered as merchandise. The intent behind the Ivy Pour-Over was to distill the pour-over experience to the purest relationship of the cone, the cup, and the coffee that flows between them. By suspending the cone above the cup from the top edge rather than the bottom, the eye is drawn to the perfect stream of coffee flowing into the cup below. Ivy’s metal cone helps maintain an even temperature, which ensures consistent beverage quality. Other features that make Ivy a pleasure to use are the drip tray plate, which mitigates splashing, and a size that sits perfectly on an Acaia scale. Designed by Starbucks Industrial Design, Starbucks Global Equipment Development, and PMI Worldwide for Starbucks Reserve® 8. Midea Wall-Mounted Mini Washing Machine As interest in health and hygiene increases, so has the desire to separate your laundry before washing. A mini washing machine is ideal for this trend because it washes small loads of laundry quickly and without wasting water or electricity. The Midea wall-mounted mini washing machine features a clean and compact design gentle enough for your most delicate and cherished items, such as baby clothes and undergarments. Because it is hung on the wall at eye level, loading and unloading are easy. Designed by Wuxi Little Swan Electric Co., Ltd.
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9. SMART 360 Air Purifier Series The SMART 360 is an air purifier for home use that reflects soft minimalism and a user-oriented design. Anyone can use the product easily and conveniently with the intuitive user interface design. The combination of a two-tone color scheme with metal creates a luxurious sensibility that harmonizes with various interior environments. Through the internal IoT chip, users can conveniently use and manage the product with a smartphone anytime, anywhere. The filter is monitored with RFID technology, which informs the user when it is time for the filter to be replaced, a simple task that takes only 20 seconds. Designed by Ilhyun Kwon, Moonsun Kang, Jieun Oh, Jueun Kim, and Hyundae Kim of MIRO Corp. 10. Sunshine Series Human Body Induction Light The Sunshine Series Human Body Induction Lights provide a range of practical light solutions for your home that are simple to install, have a long battery life, and can be used in a variety of ways. The aisle light is fixed to any wall using the magnetic 3M adhesive backing. When in PIR mode, the light will only turn on in a dark environment and when it detects the presence of a human body. This allows the battery to last up to 150 days before recharging. It also has a manual switch that disables the PIR mode. Other lights in the series include the entrance light, closet light, and mirror light. Designed by Shenzhen Times Technology Co., Ltd. for Baseus 11. Urbanity+ Shower Column The Urbanity+ Shower Column takes your showering experience to a new height of convenience, comfort, and style. Turn the water on/off directly with the simple push of a button, and precisely adjust the water temperature and volume with a turn of the dial. The multifunctional overhead soaker offers you satisfying full body coverage with a water column that envelops your body in a warm hug of water. The control box serves as a handy shelf. Its textured surface and sandblasted glass top have a pleasant tactile feeling, a nice change from the usual jolt of cold metal. Designed by Kohler Design Studio
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WellBeings CBD Nano Mist Inhaler The WellBeings CBD Nano Mist Inhaler is a combustion-free CBD delivery device. The pocketable, user-centered form factor delivers a precise dose that allows up to eight times more bioavailability than standard CBD. The result is a highly effective nonburning delivery method with near-immediate absorption, onset, and effect. The design of the WellBeings Nano Mist Inhaler naturally supports people’s mental and physical health in a more comfortable, effective, targeted way and eliminates the social stigma with which inhalers are often associated. Without being overly clinical, the product creates a sense of legitimacy and trust. Designed by Scott Wilson, Matt Puhalla, Keith Alsberg, Matteo Iavcioli, Vera Chan, Greg Ettenson, and Gary Paulsen of MINIMAL Inc. Design for Loop Labs
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Surface Earbuds Surface Earbuds feature an ultra-comfortable design, intuitive touch and voice controls, screen-free access to Office 365, immersive sound for music and calls, and an all-day battery. The earbuds are secured in place with two points of contact in the ear, leaving you free to run, jump, and twist and turn. Yet the fit doesn’t occlude the ear, allowing you to stay connected to the world around you with both your eyes and ears. The touch sensor lets you control the earbuds through simple swipe gestures. Swipe up or down to change the volume, swipe forward or back to change the song, double tap to play or pause, and press and hold to access the assistant. Designed by Microsoft Design Team
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REAL Immersive System
A RECOVERY GAME
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he US spends an estimated $34 billion per year on stroke treatment, rehabilitation, and lost productivity. Patients who engage in rehabilitation with more intensity and frequency over a longer period of time tend to have better outcomes. However, the CDC reports that less than a third of discharged stroke patients receive any rehab, and of those who do, frequency of use is low despite clear evidence that it’s effective. Studies show that virtual reality (VR) could be a valuable tool to help rewire neural pathways. The REAL Immersive System uses immersive virtual reality to deliver upper extremity rehabilitation exercises for adults who have symptoms related to a stroke or a neurodegenerative disease. REAL is radically different from other rehab technologies because of its versatility and mobility and its use of VR and gamification. It can be used at a patient’s bedside, in a therapy gym, or at a mobile health location. Its components are a VR headset and sensors worn by the patient and a tablet with an app that allows the clinician to administer and monitor the therapy session. Upon powering on the device, the patient is immediately immersed in VR, engaging in visual challenges guided by their therapist. As the patient moves, they will see their avatar moving like it is their own body, which encourages development of new neural pathways. Using the tablet, the therapist can see what the patient sees, choose different activities, adjust activity parameters, and monitor the patient’s experience. Highly accurate electromagnetic sensors were used rather than the typical optical sensors, which require line-ofsight tracking. Electromagnetic tracking allows the therapist to be wherever they need to be around their patient without
disrupting position tracking, creating a more stable and consistent user experience. The design team addressed many technical challenges. The tracking sensors require a sensing coil and battery to be placed inside a compact package that attaches to the body in an ergonomic, comfortable fashion. The organic form of the sensors was created to mimic the curves of the human body with a little valley in the center to hold the band securely and provide necessary separation of the components. Sensors are attached with soft neoprene bands designed to be easy for the therapist to place on the patient. The headset design focused on achieving a wellbalanced weight distribution around the head to make it more comfortable. Any type of physical rehabilitation is difficult. That’s especially true when recovering from a brain injury. Progress is typically slow, and it’s easy to become discouraged and depressed. The REAL Immersive System makes therapy sessions fun. There are awards for achievement and progression between levels, as well as the Happy Valley environment, which was designed to tap into the basic human need to help others. In Happy Valley, the patient is in control. They help vegetables grow, place birds in back in their nests, build houses—immersed in a world where they can see their avatar (which the brain processes as an extension of their body) making a difference. This gamification makes it easier for patients to stay committed to their rehab plan, making all the difference in their recovery. Designed by Katie Broughton, Matt Bettman, Chris Strahm, and Rachel Wallace of Delve and Real Immersive System Development Team for Penumbra
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“The therapeutic use of the REAL Immersive System does not feel forced,
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but rather like VR was invented for this application.
—Jesse Menayan
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AliveCor KardiaMobile 6L AliveCor KardiaMobile 6L is a compact, noninvasive ECG machine that puts arrhythmia detection into the hands of physicians and patient’s anywhere. It delivers a six-axis view into the heart—impressive for a mobile ECG device. Its deep-learning neural networks combined with an AI-enabled platform help patients and clinicians detect atrial fibrillation, the most common arrhythmia that also has a highly elevated risk of stroke. Traditional multi-lead ECGs require in-clinic devices that are cumbersome. With the KardiaMobile 6L, operation is simple, requiring no stickers, no bulky devices, and no invasive procedures. Simply hold the device with your thumbs and left leg. Designed by Nichole Rouillac, IDSA, Jon Lau, and Robin Hubbard of level design sf and Simon Prakash and Lauren Meleney of AliveCor for AliveCor
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1. Ceribell Rapid Response EEG The Ceribell Rapid Response EEG is a portable electroencephalogram for use in hospitals to quickly monitor brain activity and detect dangerous subconscious seizures. Traditional EEG machines are large, expensive, and difficult to use. Ceribell is compact and lightweight, comprised of a headband and controller. This portability means that Ceribell can be used within minutes of a patient’s arrival at a hospital. In addition to its portability, Ceribell’s biggest benefit is that it turns electronic brain wave signals into sound patterns so that any nurse or caregiver can instantly hear when a seizure is happening, instead of waiting for a neurologist to decode the signals. Designed by Dan Harden, IDSA, and Cole Derby of Whipsaw, Inc. for Ceribell 2. Cuddly Bird Cuddly Bird is a double-stimulating progressive vibrator that creates a closed-loop experience for women from foreplay to orgasm. It was designed for the sex-toy newbie. In Asian culture, women often play a passive role during sex. Most of them are too shy to discover their sexual preferences in order to feel sexual satisfaction. The intention of Cuddly Bird is to encourage Asian women, especially Chinese women, to discover and develop their sexual preferences and set them free from traditional bounds. Designed by Yujie Chen, Fengming Chen, Shaolong Chen, Ching-Lang Chen, and Siting Lin of inDare Design Strategy Limited for Courage & Wisdom, Shenzhen Youxing Technology Co., Ltd.
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3. DR. BEI Portable Water Flosser F3 The DR. BEI Portable Water Flosser F3 lets you floss wherever you are. It can be shrunk to the size of a mobile phone and carried with you. The F3 achieves this compact footprint by ingeniously integrating the water tank with the flosser. When it’s time to floss, simply slide the tank and the flosser components apart. Remove the nozzle from its storage spot and affix it atop the device. Fill the tank with water. The one-touch button on the side offers three cleaning modes. When not in use, the F3 is at home on the countertop, looking like an elegant bottle of perfume. Designed by Zhou Ying, Zheng Jinpeng, Qiao Hongtao, and Liu Ying Xi of Wuxi Qinghe Xiaobei Technology Co., Ltd. 4. eXciteOSA Around 40% of men and 24% of women suffer from snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. eXciteOSA treats one of the root causes of snoring: over-relaxation of the tongue. It uses low-intensity electrical pulses to train the tongue muscles. eXciteOSA does not need to be worn at night, meaning treatment can be performed where and when convenient, greatly increasing compliance and efficacy. It only needs to be used daily for 20 minutes for six weeks to be effective. The device consists of a mouthpiece, a main unit, and an associated app. eXciteOSA adjusts the treatment plan according to the speed of improvement. Designed by PDR for Signifier Medical Technologies Ltd.
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C9
A FUTURE-PROOF OFFICE
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oo often in today’s open office the individual and the small team are lost in a sea of sameness. People are placed in identical workstations with no barriers or personal affordances—taking away part of their humanity in the process. Each person is unique, with unique responsibilities and needs, and as such, their workstation should be unique. But how? It is impractical to design a bespoke solution for each person. Furthermore, there are conflicting needs that must be addressed: privacy versus openness, focused individual work versus collaboration. These were the questions that drove every design decision in the C9 furniture system. To imagine a new workstation system, the design team studied enclosure, openness, and the way they influence personal well-being. To find a solution, they went off the grid. C9 departs from the restrictions of traditional linear planning, freeing space, improving sight lines, and helping people flow more organically. C9 was created with innovations in heightadjustable desking; flexible power, voice, and data delivery; and a collection of thoughtfully curated accessories and storage elements. All these components support one another to create an environment that matches the needs of the modern office worker. The backbone of the system is the rail. It invisibly manages power, voice, and data delivery from floor cores, wall outlets, and ceiling drops. However, the true innovation is the articulated joint that connects each rail segment to the next. This joint allows a full 180 degrees of rotation, enabling a rail segment to flex from 90 degrees in one direction to 90 degrees in the other. This flexibility frees designers to create novel layouts tailored to the specific needs of a given individual and team.
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When it comes to height-adjustable desks, the C- and T-leg rule supreme. These desks take advantage of massproduced lifting columns and over the past decade have become a commodity. The C9 desk breaks away from the pack, perching on four impossibly slim height-adjustable legs. Like a ballerina, it rises and falls, gliding from position to position on a delicate point. The C9 pendant storage and the C9 cart and garage offer flexible storage that complement any workstation. The pendant storage, which mounts to the frame of the desk, provides the perfect space for the tools the user interacts with the most. The C9 cart and garage are part locker, part mobile ped, and part space divider. Together these two components provide a storage solution perfectly tailored to the modern office worker. Beyond storage, the cart can be used as a screen to define personal space and create privacy without isolating the user. The C9 system is rounded out by the series of accessories: shelves, planters, tables, lighting, and privacy screens. Each accessory can be mounted anywhere along the rail segment, multiple accessories can be attached to a single segment, and accessories can span segments. This empowers the designer to create an office landscape that better balances everyone’s needs. No one knows what the office of the future will look like, but with the C9 system you don’t have to. It was designed to adapt as a company evolves. It can respond to changing teams, changing demographics, and changing density— equipping offices for whatever the future holds. Designed by Ethan Pearl (in-house designer) and Morten Nikolajsen (MOHONI Studio) for Watson Furniture Group
“The C9 system provides a welcome break from linear desk planning, offering
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more organic options that can adapt to varied architectural, spatial, and user needs.
—Jesse Menayan
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Scotch™ Clip & Twist Tape Dispenser Welcome to the Clip & Twist, a new type of tape dispenser. It can go anywhere, clip to anything, and quickly transform any area into a space for projects. With the increase in open and remote workspaces, desks are shrinking, creating the need for a more compact tape dispenser that can be stored off the top of the desk. The lightweight design offers excellent portability, while the clip functionality allows the dispenser to be mounted on a variety of surfaces. The dual-axis cutting arm delivers ultimate adjustability. Regardless of the surface it is clipped to, the arm can be adjusted to accommodate easy one-handed dispensing. Designed by 3M Design + 3M Scotch™ Team
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1. Haworth Digital Knits While knitting has been practiced for centuries, Haworth has applied the latest knitting technology, often found in the fashion industry, to office furniture and interiors. Embodying domestic warmth with high levels of performance and comfort, Haworth’s Digital Knits will give designers ultimate freedom to realize creative visions in client spaces. Applying digital knitting to furniture will shift the paradigm of specification, removing constraints and allowing designers to custom curate solutions for any client’s culture and brand. Debuting this innovation are knitted backs for Haworth’s three premium task chairs: Very, Zody, and Fern. Designed by Haworth Design Studio for Haworth, Inc. 2. LG LED Bloc (LSAA), LG MAGNIT (LSAB) The LSAA/LSAB Series of LED signs feature wireless data transfer and cable-less power docking. The series is particularly suited to building ultra-high-definition screens (4K/8K). The LED units can be composed and tailored into boundless creative forms from flat to curved planes and expanded to infinite sizes with no bezels. It allows both wall-mounting and free-standing installations to suit a variety of environments and purposes. The slim design with a thickness of only 44.9 millimeters maximizes the use of space. With the wireless transmission technology, no cables are needed between units; they simply link together with their magnetic sides. Designed by Yong Ho Lee, Jung Yeon Hwang, He-Won Kihl, and Chan Woo Park of LG Electronics
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Instant Barbecue While an inexpensive grill may be easy on the pocket, assembling it can be a long and fretful process with its box of parts. The Instant Barbecue has reinvented the inexpensive grill with only seven parts, taking just 90 seconds to assemble or dismantle it. Users can easily set the grill on any flat surface using the lateral legs. It features a special edge to prevent sausages from rolling off and is also easier to clean thanks to its curved shape. The cover even serves multiple purposes: protection for the tank, a plate for the grill, and a way to blow air on the embers. Designed by Ludovic Diallo, Cyril Mathieu, Marc Salagnac, Jérôme Bourgon, and Philippe Vahé of CARREFOUR
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redminut portable drinking bottle The redminut portable drinking bottle for dogs combines a water reservoir with a drinking trough for ultimate portability. Simply flip open the trough 180 degrees and dispense the water by rotating the cover and pressing the button. The water is released in a controlled manner. Thanks to the compact, leakproof, foldable design, you can take the redminut with you on your travels near and far, always able to quench your dog’s thirst. Designed by Chen Wei Tao and Guan Da Ming of Fo Shan Square Industrial Design Co., Ltd. for Square Intelligent & Technology Co., Ltd.
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Samsung Upcycling Solution for TV Packaging The Upcycling Solution is an environmentally friendly all-in-one toolkit for creatively upcycling packaging material that might otherwise be thrown away. It begins when you scan the QR code on the side of the box, which launches a microsite containing assembly instructions. Choose from a small table, a magazine rack, or a house for your pet. The corrugated cardboard box is covered in a dot matrix design. Simply connect the dots with a pencil according to the assembly instructions and cut out the design you traced. Then it’s time to start building. In just few minutes, you’ll have a truly unique item for your home. Designed by Soohyun Whang, Daehee Yoon, and Sungdo Son of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
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Zero - Economy meal tray The Zero - Economy meal tray is a concept product that aims to reduce the amount of plastic waste created by meal service on passenger flights. Each element of the lightweight tray is composed of edible, biodegradable, and/or commercially compostable materials. Made from a range of materials including algae, bamboo, and coffee grounds, the Zero economy meal tray encourages suppliers and airlines to rethink meal service in a more eco-friendly manner. The tray was also designed to raise awareness of the amount of waste generated onboard passenger flights and to encourage consumers to change their behavior. Designed by PriestmanGoode
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1. Mountain tea - Song Tea is not just a drink; it holds a prominent position in Chinese culture. Gift giving is also an important part of Chinese culture. When friends meet, they exchange unique gifts. The packaging for Song Mountain Tea was created with these traditions in mind. The pure black outer box is quiet and unassuming; but as soon as you lift the lid, the experience becomes surprising and delightful. The abstract paintings of flying cranes, mountains, and the moon create a composition that is an homage to the tradition of Chinese landscape painting. Color is also used to differentiate the three concentrations of the tea. Designed by Shaobin Lin of Linshaobin Design Shenzhen, Yanpeng Chen of Yanpeng Photo, and Kopy Tan of Guangzhou Zifang Enterprise for Song Chinese Cuisine 2. MTN DEW A Can Has No Name A strong cross section of dedicated fans love both Mountain Dew and Game of Thrones. Before any official partnership, fans were already drawing parallels between the two. In anticipation of the show’s final season, HBO challenged both fans and the brand with the question, What would you do for the Throne?” The inspiration for the design of A Can Has No Name came from the reinterpretation of key elements from Game of Thrones. In homage to the Faceless Men, Mountain Dew gave up its iconic neon green “face” to reveal a stark-white brand-less can. When warm, the can appears nameless, but once chilled, its reveals Arya’s kill list. Designed by PepsiCo Design and Innovation
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1. Bewith-Lenovo Homecare Chronic Disease Management System The Homecare Chronic Disease Management System was designed to help chronic patients perform comprehensive disease management while at home. It consists of a series of noninvasive data harvesting IoT devices, a mobile self-management app for patients, and a patient datamanagement platform for providers, all supported by an AI database platform. With the integration of these service elements, the system better connects the patient and the healthcare provider to enhance the patient’s quality of life and reduce financial inefficiencies. Designed by Lenovo (Shenzhen) Electric Co., Ltd.
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S O C I A L I M PACT DE SI G N
Music: Not Impossible Music: Not Impossible is a wearable vibro-tactile vest that enables deaf and hearing fans to experience concerts together by translating music into tactile vibrations. It consists of a vest, two wristlets, and two anklets with a total of 24 actuators linked to different instruments and sounds that distribute vibrations all over the body. When a drummer hits a bass drum, actuators in the anklets vibrate. The snare drum causes the wristlets to vibrate, and as vocals get louder, vibrations across the tops of the shoulders grow stronger. Wearers may adjust the intensity of the vibrations, which are visually represented via customizable color LED lights. Designed by Bresslergroup, Cinco Design, and Avnet for Not Impossible Labs
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S O CI A L I MPACT DE SI G N
1. ATLAS | Community-based telehealth for local veterans Working closely with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), this community-driven co-creation process brought together key VA leadership, clinicians, veterans, and business partners to gather the deep insights needed to design an enhanced VA telehealth experience. The resulting solution optimizes technology, software, and services to improve veterans’ experience in accessing and adopting telehealth as an adequate and reliable complement to in-office care. The project reimagined how to best deliver clinical care at a distance to make it more convenient for veterans in remote communities to access the high-quality care they are entitled to. Designed by Philips Experience Design Team for Philips 2. ElectionGuard Voting Machine The ElectionGuard voting system combines the flexibility and clarity of touch-screen technology with the reliability of printed paper. Voters mark their ballot on a touch screen, print their ballot to verify their choices, and take it to an election official, who scans the printed ballot, which is saved for a paper trail. Hardwired to the system, the printer is covered with a slip-on shroud that obscures, controls, and prevents opportunities for monkey business. It’s all open sourced, so any vendor or manufacturer can use or modify any part or all of the system. Designed by Tucker Viemeister of Viemeister Industries; Ed Wood, Israel Fuentes, and Jean-Pierre Mutti of Radii; and Whitney Quesenbery of Center for Civic Design
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Awake RÄVIK
ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE SURFING
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he Awake RÄVIK is an electric surfboard designed for novice surfers and hardened extreme sports enthusiasts alike. It offers the emotional satisfaction of a clean, efficient electric vehicle in a world dominated by gasoline-powered competitors. The iconic contrast in shape, color, and materials together with the unique driveline puts it in a class all its own, among powered surfboards and even among other recreational vehicles. RÄVIK is propelled through any water and over waves with unparalleled efficiency. Designed for both performance and beauty, the materials are matched and placed for the ultimate user experience and functionality: traction where needed, glide where wanted. The intentionally designed deck pad shape and texture provide traction whether lying or standing on the board. By maximizing the “clear space” where the deck pad exposes the carbon fiber body, users with or without wetsuits can more easily maneuver on and around the board without sticking. The hull shape provides novice users and experts with a thrilling operating experience that is immediately achievable yet infinitely developable. The throttle comes with its own induction charger and was designed for maximized control and precision while freely rising from lying to a standing position. It goes from 0 to 30 mph in 4 seconds, with a top speed of 35 mph. The Awake app allows the rider to choose a power setting that best matches their skill level for optimal safety.
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The interchangeable battery pack delivers a mixed riding time of around 40 minutes and is easily exchanged with a fully charged battery pack for virtually endless riding. Watertight seals together with the water the user rides on eliminate the need for any internal coolants, which minimizes maintenance. RÄVIK offers safety features such as temperature monitoring and automatic system shutdown if the board should be turned upside down. The magnetically triggered power key (with a dead man’s grip function) ensures that the board can’t speed off on its own without the rider. RÄVIK is a perfect example of how cutting-edge technology can gently meet nature. Most motorized surfboards have gasoline engines. That inevitably means gas, oil, and exhaust polluting the environment and you. When riding RÄVIK, you do not have to breathe in fumes or float in water among gasoline and oil. Compared to gas-powered alternatives, with RÄVIK noise pollution is the almost non-existent. Even the board’s warning label highlights the importance of knowing and respecting the environment and the wildlife encountered while on the board. As the motorized surfboard market grows, RÄVIK is bringing a sense of social responsibility to this segment. Designed by Brendon Vermillion, Jesper Randrup, Philip Werner, Jordan Spack, and Benjamin Alexander of Ride Awake AB
“This is a product that simply looked like a lot of fun—one that most jurors wanted to try. The use of electric motors across all manner of vehicles and industries is leading
to new types of products, and it’s particularly nice that the Awake RÄVIK keeps the fun
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while reducing noise and water pollution.
—Jonah Becker. IDSA
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Tonal Strength Training System
FITTER FASTER
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he Tonal Strength Training System has reinvented the workout, replacing an entire gym’s worth of equipment with a simple device that elegantly hangs on the wall like a flat screen TV. It uses an electromagnetic resistance engine controlled by smart software and machine learning to provide a dynamically changing, smooth, and precise resistive force. Conventional strength training equipment uses heavy weights or pneumatics for resistance, which has limited efficacy because of the static dead weight and the extreme weight and bulkiness of the machines. Tonal realized that it was possible to have a software-controlled electric motor provide resistance instead of dead weight. This was the eureka moment that started it all. With Tonal, every workout is possible, from standing lat pulldowns to low squats and everything in-between, because of the three-axis arm-shuttling design. The pair of independently moving arms pivot out on vertical columns and move up or down. Sensors control the weight resistance and respond to you automatically. If you’re struggling to complete a rep, the machine will automatically spot you. Tonal is more effective because its digitally controlled resistance motor is able to pull back harder, adjusting the muscle concentric contractions (shortening muscle) force separately from the muscle eccentric contraction (lengthening muscle) force. Eccentric force offers most gain. In other words, you get buff faster. Every detail on Tonal was designed for intuitive and
delightful use. Arm adjustment details are sized, shaped, and placed for ease of operation and flush to prevent clothing snags. The handles have a simple push button on each end to increase or decrease resistance, and there’s a quick latch for fast removal and replacement with a bar or other type of handle. The 23-inch touch display presents all controls front and center in a beautiful graphical interface. Through the display, Tonal presents interactive video workouts, including live on-demand personalized coaching, valuable exercise instruction, encouragement, and social engagement. It is a portal to a universe of training programs. Tonal’s technological innovations translate into its iconic architecture. The materials and finishes are highly aesthetic: black glass front, anodized aluminum arms, exposed aluminum machined columns. Tonal’s slim wallmounted form allows it to fit into any environment, even those not dedicated to fitness. When not in use, the arms tuck neatly behind it and the whole thing transforms into a simple black slab like a TV hanging on the wall. It’s always there to remind you to work out without being an ugly contraption. Tonal has elevated the strength training experience into the modern digital age similar to how the iPod elevated the music experience. Goodbye, gym membership. Goodbye, spare room cluttered with unused equipment. And hello, a fitter, better you. Designed by Dan Harden, IDSA, Cole Derby, Elliot Ortiz, Ari Turgel, and Zack Stephanchick of Whipsaw, Inc. for Tonal
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“This represents a well-resolved integration of human factors requirements, a content
experience, and substantial mechanical challenges into a home strength-training solution
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that requires a very minimal footprint.
—Jonah Becker, IDSA
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Tempo The Tempo home gym combines a 3D motion-capture system with access to real-time personalized weight training. It also includes competition-grade weights stored discreetly in a furniture-like unit that blends into the home environment. Tempo’s fitness classes are coached by world-class trainers. Through the advanced AI, Tempo’s coaches are notified in real-time when you make a mistake, enabling them to provide precise guidance on when to straighten your back, pin your elbows, or sit deeper in your squat. The 3D sensing technology captures bodies of any size in any kind of clothing, pairing the data down to 25 essential joints and barbell/dumbbell movements. Designed by Nichole Rouillac, IDSA, Jon Lau, and Robin Hubbard of level design sf and Moawia Eldeeb and Joshua Augustin at Tempo
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S P O R T S , LE I SUR E & R E CR E ATION
1. GMX7 X1-PRO The X1-PRO is an aquatic resistance training system that offers several advances in competitive swim training. A compact anodized shuttle mechanism creates bi-directional resistance ranging from free movement to immobility. Resistance levels can be adjusted by the turn of a dial, located on one end of the device. Athletes connect the line to each end of the pool via the existing lane line hooks, clip on the swim belt, and start training. It can be set up in any pool quickly and easily. The X1-PRO is compact enough to fit inside a backpack, is easy to use, and offers real-time stroke correction to deliver maximum training results. Designed by Rob Brady, Erik Holmen, Joel Chartier, and Jason Viera of ROBRADY design for GMX7 2. Theragun G3 Series Theragun’s G3 Series is the company’s third generation of professionalgrade portable treatment devices. Engineered to treat sore lactic-acidfilled muscles and other muscle-related conditions, the pro line has been used by professional athletes, chiropractors, and physical therapists around the world to help speed recovery. This third-generation lineup was designed with the broader understanding that percussive therapy can benefit everyone. Whether seeking pain relief, an improved fitness regimen, or general wellness, the G3 product line has the versatility to suit the full spectrum of needs on a professional or personal level. Designed by Scott Wilson, Matt Puhalla, Jillian Tackaberry, Ish Adams, and Gary Paulsen of MINIMAL Inc. and Theragun Team
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Cairer – An AI directed therapy tool to support dementia carers
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s many as 700,000 people in the UK care for someone with dementia, a number that is rapidly rising as the aging population increases. This silent army of family and friends spends 1.3 billion hours a year providing care. This takes an enormous toll on their emotional health and well-being. Couple that with the barriers to seeking and getting mental health support. Studies show that 40% of dementia caregivers are unable to leave their home in order to get help, and 60% of those seeking support experience feelings of guilt. Even once someone is ready to get help, there can be up to a one-year wait for therapy. Antidepressants can have side effects too. There is no substitute for seeing a therapist in person, but a new mental health tool is needed for sufferers for whom face-to-face therapy is unreachable or highly impractical. Cairer addresses these issues. The system delivers personalized depression and anxiety therapy to dementia caregivers where current healthcare can’t. The drug-free system combines two depression/anxiety-relieving therapy techniques, cognitive behavioral therapy and the Emotional Freedom Technique, that the caregiver selfadministers with guidance. The process starts with the caregiver downloading the app to initiate monitoring of their well-being. When the AI detects a baseline decline in well-being through interaction with the app, Cairer is automatically dispatched to help. Through regular use, the app identifies topics of distress through text-based interaction. Therapy is administered for an identified issue via six Bluetooth micro-vibrating tappers. These reproduce the anxiety-relieving effects of
the Emotional Freedom Technique, also known as needless acupuncture, administered through tappers placed on the facial meridian points. The tappers and cradle both feature a design language that communicates modesty and care. Using the facial tappers will initially be intimidating to some, so the interaction was designed to be simple and intuitive. The self-explanatory form of the tappers is based on that of a suction pad, with the app guiding the user on their placement. The pastel color scheme generates an unassuming appearance that is more common in consumer electronics than medical devices, thereby delivering a more relaxed aesthetic to downplay its medical role. The base of the cradle and the interaction points on the tappers consist of a rougher textured plastic to provide grip. The tappers are induction charged while stored in the protective case. The lid of the cradle is a translucent plastic to enable charging lights to be seen while keeping the contents out of view. Cairer offers several notable benefits for dementia caregivers: The reduction or elimination of depression and anxiety. No lengthy wait to receive treatment. Treatment available where ever and whenever it is convenient and needed. Therapy is available well before the caregiver suffers from a burnout. It can also be used as a sleep aid to provide worry free sleep; dementia caregivers commonly experience sleep deprivation from anxiety brought on by their caring duties. Cairer not only benefits the caregiver but also improves the quality of care they are able to give to the dementia sufferer. Designed by Oliver Evans of Northumbria University
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“Stimulating therapeutic self-care made accessible
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and intuitive for dementia caregivers.
—Lea Kobeli
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Dart Electric Rideshare Bike
FOR A STYLISH, SWEATFREE URBAN COMMUTE
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he bicycle ride-share market is focused on getting from point A to point B and seldom prioritizes the rider’s experience along the journey. In contrast, the Dart electric ride-share bike provides a performance-oriented alternative to the lethargic and clumsy rental competition. The design focuses on improved bike performance, versatile riding characteristics, exciting aesthetics, and streamlined user interactions. While current bike-share services fulfill basic transportation needs, they fail to capture a large portion of urban commuters. Research shows that this is due to the nature of cruiser bikes, which are designed for comfort on flat grounds but not for hills or dynamic urban topography. Of people who own their own bicycles, only 30% ride a cruiser. Yet 100% of ride-share bikes are cruisers. Additionally, the appearance of ride-share bikes is less than desirable. Clearly, there is a disconnect between the bikes people want and those they are forced to rent. Dart closes this gap. It brings the aesthetic of a rideshare bike closer to that of a performance bike while maintaining the universal accessibility of a mid-rise frame. With it, you can easily conquer your commute, errands, or a night out at your favorite restaurant. The pivoting handlebar toggles between two angles so riders can adapt it to the city’s terrain or their preferred riding style. Choose the upright position to comfortably pedal upright over flat ground and a forward tilt to dominate hills where typical
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cruiser ride-share bikes would struggle. The electric motor further extends that advantage, providing an extra power boost to speed over difficult conditions and arrive free of sweat. The design and proportion of the bike also inspire confidence and make the user feel stylish. Dart features a black frame juxtaposed with a neon green battery and lock hub. Neon green and black evoke associations with athleticism, racing, and performance. The designers capitalized on these perceptions to create a design that entices people to get on the bike and dart around. The neon green also highlights important interactive touchpoints, such as the phone holder and the shift levers, as well as key technology features besides the battery, such as the electric motor and the piston in the handlebar mechanism. In contrast, the lock pin is black, allowing riders to easily distinguish it from the other features. Dart was designed to encourage users to incorporate cycling into their life, free of the worry of being perceived as endorsing an undesirable product. With more active utilization of the Dart bike-share service, users could save money and time from driving in traffic and live a healthier, exercise-centric life. Designed by Victoria Chiang, Francis Lin, Nico Hitson, and Kevin Shankwiler of Georgia Institute of Technology
“What stood out in this project was how comprehensive it is. Everything was considered, from the visual brand language to the process of locking the bike
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and the architecture of the store.
—Mitch Heinrich
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HanDo
FREEDOM
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hildren in need of a below-elbow prosthesis face many challenges. A prosthesis is expensive, in part because demand is low; the number of children with a below-elbow amputation is small. Moreover, many inexpensive products in the market are actually nonfunctional prostheses that serve only a cosmetic purpose. In interviews with elementary school teachers and physiotherapists, it was discovered that the cognition and coordination of children with below-elbow amputations can be affected as they develop. Furthermore, many families cannot afford the expense associated with having to frequently replace the prosthesis as their child grows. The intention behind HanDo was to give back to society by serving vulnerable families in developing countries. Many impoverished families and people who live in environments with insufficient medical resources cannot provide children with training at an age suitable for wearing prostheses. This disrupts the growth process and has irreversible consequences on limb development and learning conditions. HanDo was created to address these issues. In developing HanDo, the design team aimed to make children’s functional prostheses more accessible to more people by reducing the financial burden through enabling local replacement of components. HanDo uses a modular design approach in which outdated parts are replaced as the child grows, extending the life of prosthesis. In addition, the protheses are manufactured using 3D printing, reducing the cost compared to traditionally manufactured devices. HanDo was also designed to be more adaptable. Whereas traditional prostheses offer only a single function and can only be used in limited situations, HanDo offers two types of prostheses: the Daily Functional Arm, which helps
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children with their performance in school, and the Sports Entertainment Arm, which is used for sports activities and exercise. Users of HanDo can purchase accessories, such as the dining kit, the paperweight kit, and the rope skipping kit, to adapt the device to their own needs. In this way, child amputees have more freedom to explore, grow, and develop. The design is suitable for all children regardless of age and gender. The color schemes—white and blue for the Daily Functional Arm and white and orange for the Sports Entertainment Arm—give HanDo a warmth and friendliness not found with traditional medical devices. Its smooth, soft shape lends an approachability, increasing children’s willingness to use it. The design team also reworked how prostheses are sold by using augmented reality via an app. The app’s augmented reality fitting function helps parents and their child choose and customize the prosthesis together. The app uses screenshots and video recordings to show children what they will look like when wearing the prosthesis, which can provide a comforting and reassuring experience. After customizing their prosthesis, the child visits the designated prosthetist to obtain exact measurements, which are sent directly to the HanDo team for manufacturing. Delivered along with HanDo is a learning kit to assist children in adjusting to their prothesis and incorporating it into their daily life like a best friend. Designed by Zheng Feng-Jia, Peng Kai-Jung, Li Hsuan-Yen, and Kok Wei Ming of HanDo for Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
“In contrast to toned-down rationalist prostheses, HanDo’s colorful
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and biomorphic modular design is an alluring solution for children’s needs.
—Gerard Furbershaw, IDSA
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Core Patient Care System Core is a digital health record system where patients can manage their health information in a private, secure, and confidential space. It is composed of an insurance card, access hubs, and a universal patient portal. Access hubs are placed at every department in a hospital where patients interact with their care team. When a patient goes to a doctor’s appointment, they scan their insurance card or phone at an access hub, which acts as a trigger to release health record information into their universal patient portal. Patients are also able to document their treatment journey. Designed by Jesse Palma, IDSA, of Purdue University
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CYCLONE CATCHER In the summer and fall in Southeast Asia typhoons bring heavy rainfall and strong winds. The CYCLONE CATCHER was designed to turn the fierce wind and water into energy. Generally, small wind turbines can’t withstand the strong wind speeds caused by typhoons and are often damaged or destroyed. The CYCLONE CATCHER is composed of a triangular outer wall for stability with a hydroelectric power system and a wind power system. The wind power system contains a generator, an accelerator, and an emergency deceleration device to produce power during a typhoon. The Hydroelectric power system, with its generators, water tanks, and pumps, uses the water collected during typhoons to produce power during calm weather. Designed by Chih-Ting Yeh and Lang-Wen Ma of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
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Growth multifunctional buggy This modular wooden stroller was designed to evolve with a child’s needs. It can be configured as a baby carrier, walker, push bike, scooter, or bicycle. It was designed for children between the age of 1 and 4. The driving motivations behind the design were to improve production efficiency through a modular design, save families money with a versatile multipurpose design, reduce the consumption of environmental resources by using a renewable material, and increase human-product interaction. Designed by Haitao Shi, Rongxiu Cen, Xinlin Xiao, Xudong Yang, Ping Bai, and Yaguo Tan of Guangdong Industry Technical College
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Hushh A high proportion of autistic children suffer from sensory disfunction, particularly hypersensitivity to sounds. Many normal sounds, for instance, from machines and crowded environments, are intolerable to them, causing panic and distress. Hushh is a set of ear muffs designed to calm autistic children when they are overwhelmed by noise, especially in public. When a child panics, press the ear muffs tightly around their ears. Music originating from nature plays automatically, triggered by the infrared ray detector, gradually calming the child. Hushh can also be used as a toy when hanging around the child’s neck when not in use. The smooth, bouncy surface and embossed texture make Hushh fun to touch and play with Designed by Tianhe Zhang of Jiangnan University
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Illusory Material: transform material experience in everyday products Imagine designing everyday products with impossible materials that only exist in the digital world. Imagine a future where designers can manipulate the color, texture, and reflectivity of materials across time and different viewing angles. Imagine that the future of color creation is not based on layers of chemical paints but a combination of 3D-printed optical lenses and simple color blocks. These are just some of the possibilities capable with Illusory Material. It uses computation power with the most advanced 3D printing technology in the world—multi-material voxel printing—to allow designers to play with CMF or even material properties that have never existed before. Designed by Jiani Zeng, S/IDSA, and Honghao Deng of MIT and advised by Axel Kilian of MIT Architecture and Stefanie Mueller of MIT CSAIL for Stratasys
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INCUBE Internally displaced persons camps in Nigeria currently house over 500,000 babies. Premature births and hypothermia-related incidents are claiming many lives as temperatures drop at night and medical services cannot get there in time. INCUBE is a low-cost temperature-controlled incubator. It consists of a cardboard cot and a bag filled with hot water that heats a beeswax pouch, which regulates the temperature of the cot. The pouch can be quickly heated using equipment readily available at the camps (as simple as a pot filled with water over a fire) and provides enough warmth to keep the baby alive until medical assistance becomes available Designed by Aditya Kujal Walia of Northumbria University
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Shine LA Shine LA is a public health initiative designed to get Angelenos healthy and create lasting behavior change. Conducted by Cedars-Sinai and partnering with the LA Rec and Parks Department, Shine LA leverages the rich content of public programming to create an integrated system to get Los Angeles moving in preparation for the 2028 Olympics and beyond. The Shine LA app provides easy access to a network of classes and events put on by LA Rec and Parks and other family-oriented partners. The Ready, Set, Shine! marketing campaign will get citizens excited to get moving with environmental play spaces located throughout the city and rewards booklets. Designed by Sophia Rowland, Wenyuan Xu, Camilla Golestaneh, Brian Ostroff, Robin Vane, and Jordan Riggins of ArtCenter College of Design
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TÂł Monster - a set of hand training teaching aids TÂł Monster is a set of teaching aids for developing fine motor skills that combines light and sound effects. Each monster is designed to focus on a different muscle group in the hand to address different training purposes. The associated app tracks the data generated by playing with the different monsters so that clinicians can monitor progress and adjust the training. To make the game more interesting and interactive, a rich and lively interface along with stories and pictures was created. This also encourages parents to play with their child, enhancing parent-child interaction while training at home. Designed by Yu-Ling Tseng, Wen-Hsuan Chao, Han-Chin Liu, and Ying-Chieh Wang of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
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Visual Land With the rapid development of technology, children’s concentration has gradually declined. Visual Land was developed to use children’s free time at home to improve their ability to focus, overcoming the shortcomings of current treatment methods. It incorporates eye-scanning technology with games to train children while keeping them engaged. The training content of the games are divided into three categories: graphic identification, numerical calculation, and language learning. The training data is also provided to parents to help them understand the progress of their child. In addition, via cloud transmission, the therapist can review the current training achievements and adjust the training scheme accordingly. Designed by Yi-Jie Chu, Yang-Chen Hsieh, Jia-Hong Wang, and Pei-Yi Wu of Visual Land for Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
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1. Crop Protector The Crop Protector prevents seedlings from being damaged by Pomacea canaliculata, a freshwater snail that feeds on water crops like rice, lotus, and water chestnuts. The outer shell is made from straw fiber, which stabilizes the roots and prevents the seedlings from being knocked over in strong winds. Rice bran and tea seed meal are added to the top to reduce damage from the snail. The straw fiber, rice bran, and tea seed meal are rich in nutrients and decompose in the soil, serving as an organic fertilizer to help the seedlings grow. Since the Crop Protector is completely biodegradable, the seedlings can be transplanted directly into the ground while still inside the vessel. Designed by Chieh-An Chung, Chang-Yu Lung, and Zi-Shan Zhang and advised by Prof. Kai-Chu Li of Ming Chi University of Technology 2. Equality Leg The Equality Leg is a leg prosthesis with a low-cost and easy-to-use design. It consists of knee and ankle parts and uses composite elastic materials to simplify the precise and complex joints of ordinary prostheses, thereby ensuring that the basic movement needs of users can be met while the cost is greatly reduced. It was designed to give people back their freedom by making it possible for them to walk again and earn a living—and feel hope for the future. Designed by Haimo Bao, Yiru Wang, Yikui Quan, and Yingyu Wang of School of Design, Dalian Minzu University and Bin Xu of Tangshan Shangjiu Industrial Design Center (Tangshan Kun Kiln Ceramic Co., Ltd.) 3. Hanzi’s Secret Chinese is an incredible language with beautiful character shapes and stories behind it. But to children, it can be hard to learn. Hanzi’s Secret is an iPad app designed to help children learn Chinese in a new, fun way in which each Chinese character appears as a cute cartoon image. When children draw strokes following the instructions, they learn the meaning behind the character. After learning a group of character radicals, which are the building blocks for creating a lot more characters, children can apply the method of word formation to quickly understand more characters. Over 40 animations in the app make learning Chinese characters easy and exciting. Designed by Bo Liu, Xiaofang Li, Zhao Liu, Zhuolin Gu, and Weiwei Ma of BiBoBox Studio for Shanghai Jiao Tong University
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4. Healing Buddies Healing Buddies is an evolution of the therapeutic practices taking place at Coaniquem, a pediatric burn clinic in South America. Young children begin their healing journey by being introduced to their Healing Buddy doll so they can start to form a bond. Each Healing Buddy is personalized to the child to build a unique, intimate friendship. The relationship with their doll should lead to compliance with their therapy and ease some of the anxieties and fears over treatment. Each doll is made of hypoallergenic poly fill with buttons at the end of each limb for weight and sound. Fabrics vary based on the textures and roughness required for each child’s therapy. Designed by Cosme Cruz in affiliation with Designmatters for ArtCenter College of Design and Coaniquem Foundation
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5. Logi ULTRA The Logi ULTRA project explored the future of Logitech keyboards over the next decade. The Logi ULTRA was designed to not only replace but also enhance the function and user experience of keyboards through ultra-haptics feedback and a color e-ink touch screen. This customized digital keyboard greatly broadens the direction of Logitech’s businessto-digital products. It can meet the demands of professionals in different fields, even for people from different cultures and language backgrounds. With the e-ink touch screen, the Logi ULTRA can switch easily from a German keyboard in Munich to a Japanese keyboard in Tokyo, for instance. Designed by Shuai Li and Tillmann Philipp Schrempf of Umeü Institute of Design for Logitech 6. Play Together Play Together is a swing that enhances interaction between parents and children, letting them swing together. It cleverly utilizes the principle of bevel gear transmission and bearing-assisted rotation. Tightening the switch (push the middle bevel gear up) allows two independent swings to move in opposite directions at the same time with the same amplitude. Parents can drive their child while swinging. Loosen the switch (pull the middle bevel gear down) to restore the swing to a stand-alone state. With Play together, parents can swing with their child, increasing the emotional connection between the two. Designed by Yang Haojing of Beijing Institute of Technology and Wang Xinyue of Nanjing University of Science and Technology 7. RElieve: Emergency Toilet Designed for Disaster Camps In the aftermath of a disaster, such as an earthquake or a landslide, it usually takes three to four days before large toilet arrays can be delivered. Three days without proper toilets is dangerous enough to cause plenty of water-borne diseases. RElieve is a portable toilet system designed for disaster camps. Made of waxed cardboard, it is lightweight and waterresistant and packs flat. It is intended as a temporary, low-cost solution. Users simply place a plastic bag onto the seat before using the toilet; afterward, they dispose the used bag into a community collection bin. Designed by Yanzhi Lai 8. Rescue dog companion-2 When an earthquake, fire, avalanche, or other disaster occurs, search and rescue dogs play an irreplaceable role in rescue operations. But when rescues dogs are tethered to people, their mobility is limited, hampering the speed at which they are naturally able to search for survivors. The Rescue dog companion-2 greatly improves the search efficiency of rescue dogs and enhances the communication between rescue dogs and workers. Through this wearable intelligent device, rescue dogs can search independently. When a dog finds a survivor, it barks and the rescue team automatically receives positioning information and a rescue route. Designed by Di Fang, Xiaoqi Ma, Rongfeng Zhang,Yuhang Tang, and Heqi Wang of Liuxuefei Studio for Dalian Minzu University
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9. Santa’s Giftbox This project was inspired by the surprise of opening presents from Santa. For children, unwrapping a gift is full of joy and excitement. With Santa’s Giftbox, a playground is packed into a box that when opened creates a special play experience for children. Each playground “gift box” contains two unit boxes, and each unit box is composed of five functional blocks. The functional blocks are directly transported to the designated location and can be used as soon as they are opened. Each functional block can fuse with other blocks while maintaining their own characteristics. Designed by Yiyang Xu, Ruiwen Wu, and Chih-Ting Yeh of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology 10. symbio: intelligent, natural and comfortable exoskeleton for walking rehabilitation symbio is an exoskeleton for use in walking rehabilitation. Its aesthetics and engineering were designed to foster a natural gait and a fit that looks and feels more like putting on sportswear rather than a bulky, intimidating machine. Inspired by the human body’s flesh and bones, symbio has a layered structure of soft fabric that starts closest to body with kevlar and carbon fiber layers on top that become progressively more rigid toward the exoskeletal limbs. Symbio’s hip joints and mounting system for the motors and limbs allow for natural movement at the core. The symbiotic machine-learning-enabled processor controls the motors and provides the right amount of force in the right place at the right time. Designed by Brandon Comer of ArtCenter College of Design 11. T.E.A.R. Mask Tear gas, a chemical weapon prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925 after its use in World War I, is now the most commonly used riot-control device throughout the world. In the last two decades, tear gas use has grown at an alarming rate and has been grossly misused in countries such as Israel, Venezuela, Brazil, China, and, most recently, Hong Kong. The T.E.A.R. Mask protects civilians’ right to protest by giving them easy, quick access to protective gear. This pocket-sized anti-tear-gas respirator protects the eyes, nose, and mouth—as well as human rights. It is compact enough to fit in a pocket or purse. Designed by Ian Annis, Claudia Hasenfang, Alexander Munro, and Cole Powell of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies 12. Tatami Table: Inspiring connection in a small space The Tatami Table is a Japanese-inspired Danish-designed coffee table that promotes connection. People working from home often lack personal interaction, which is crucial for mental health. Therefore, it is important that they connect with others no matter the size of their space. The Tatami Table features four seats disguised as drawers for a compact footprint. When pulled out, the seats encourage a seating method that opens up your body, improves your posture, and increases the flow of oxygen. With the Tatami Table, you no longer need a big dining room set to invite friends and family over for dinner. Simply pull out a drawer, have a seat, and connect. Designed by Jacob McMullen of JEMc Design for San Jose State University
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AUTOMOTIVE & TRANSPORTATION 1. e-NIMF Airless Tire The e-NIMF Airless Tire envisions the tire of the future. No more air pressure checks, no more flat tires, and no more blow outs—a lot less to worry about when driving your car. Designed by Changjung Park, Chulwoo Kwark, Soonwook Hwang, Byeonghyun Jo, and Soomin Kim of KUMHO TIRE Co.
3. Persuasive Electric Vehicle The Persuasive Electric Vehicle is a last-mile tricycle-style mobility concept designed to solve urban mobility challenges. It combines the agility of a bicycle and the comfort of an electric vehicle. Designed by MIT Media Lab Science Group, Michael Lozano, Dustin Garrett, and Yukihiro Kajita of DENSO International America Inc. Creative Design for DENSO Corp.
2. e-TOPs Hybrid Tire The e-TOPs Hybrid Tire explores the tire of the future by maximizing the advantages of pneumatic and airless tires while minimizing their disadvantages. Designed by Changjung Park, Chulwoo Kwark, Soonwook Hwang, Byeonghyun Jo, and Soomin Kim of KUMHO TIRE Co.
BRANDING 4. ACRO The brand renewal for ACRO, a luxury apartment developer, centered the brand identity around “The Only One,” positioning company as Korea’s best provider of high-end living. Designed by Hyemi Moon, Jungeol Bae, Sumi Oh, Yongno Yoon, and Dongha Kim of QUESERSER, NAMED, Atelier DonGha for DAELIM Industrial Co., Ltd.
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5. From Xoy For the rebranding of From Xoy, a skincare product line, designers used a unique illustrated design and a letter motif to make it more approachable and introduce a new ingredient, echinacea, to customers. Designed by HOHOHO for MANIFEST CHILDREN’S PRODUCTS 6. 59S Portable Mini Sterilizer The 59S Portable Mini Sterilizer sanitizes pacifiers, bottle nipples, and more in under a minute. It safely eliminates over 99% of bacteria and viruses using only UV light. No chemicals, heat, or water needed! Designed by Yi Tang and Dehua Liu for 59S and Simon Kang, Thomas Birkert, and Jackson Yip of Munchkin, Inc.
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7. REX R542 Smart Baby Car Seat The REX R542 Smart Baby Car Seat, for children 20–80 pounds (approximately 9 months to 12 years old), features a wrap-around cockpit in the shape of bird’s nest for optimum protection. Designed by VOLPl Studio Babyfirst Design Team 8. Stokke® Clikk™ Highchair The Clikk Highchair is an easy-to-assemble reconfigurable highchair designed to grow with the child. It can be used from 6 to 36 months, from infant to toddler. Designed by Stokke Design Team and Astro Studios Design Team for Stokke
9. Toss Disposable Diaper Pail The Toss Disposable Diaper Pail features odortrapping panels and a resealable lid to contain odors and wetness. The fold-flat design makes it perfect for travel too. Designed by Yena Lee, Matt Saxton, Yvonne Chan, Kevin Johnson, Edward Kwok, and Weeky Wong of Munchkin, Inc
11. CBA Linear highbay Designed for industrial settings, CBA is a linear highbay light with an adjustable beam angle. It offers a narrow, medium, and general mode. The brightness and color temperature can also be adjusted. Designed by Kevin Lin, Celine Chen, Lyna Bai, and Icy Liao of LEEDARSON Lighting Team
COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL 10. AutoMarker The AutoMarker laser marking system provides customized laser marking solutions for application in diverse material types, object shapes, and environments. Designed by Kim Jaeyeon, Kim Donghwan, Song Sunkyoung, Shin Sookjeong, and Cho Dohyun of Autonics Design Team for Autonics Corp.
12. FLAVIA® CREATION 600 The Lavazza FLAVIA CREATION 600 is a versatile brewing system for offices and conference rooms that offers both hot and cold beverages to keep teams happy, hydrated, and productive. Designed by Lavazza Professional and THRIVE
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13. Industrial Outdoor Evaporative Cooling System - Vector Climate The Vector industrial outdoor climate system uses only water to create a cool and comfortable environment. It uses a Piezoelectric system to vaporize the water to destroy 99% of all foreign material. Designed by Larry Canipe and Ray Vivar of Cleva Technologies Boca Raton, FL, and David Surridge of Centro Inc, North Carolina 14. KUKA KR 210 Quantec-2 The KR 210 Quantec-2 is an industrial robot developed for precise high-speed applications like spot welding, assembly, and packaging. It can move to its target point with an accuracy of ±0.0024 inches within seconds Designed by Mario Selic, Selic Industriedesign, and Günther Merk, Benjamin Kuhl, Leander Eisenwinter and Johannes Schwenk, KUKA AG
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15. Lenovo ThinkReality A6 The ThinkReality A6 is an augmented reality headset that allows professionals to interact with digital content safely, comfortably, and hands free. Designed by Lenovo Experience Design Group and User Experience Design for DHL, AirBus 16. Milwaukee M18™ Brushless Threaded Rod Cutter The M18 Brushless Threaded Rod Cutter cuts the most common threaded rod sizes on the job site, including coarse 1/4-inch, 3/8-inch, and 1/2-inch mild steel to 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch stainless steel. Designed by Vincent Ng, Mun Lung, George Yu, Siu Kwong, and Paul Rosseto of Techtronic Design Asia, Milwaukee Tool for Milwaukee Tool
17. MOVINCOOL Portable Air Conditioner The MOVINCOOL Portable Air Conditioner is still designed for emergency situations—when the AC goes out in a hospital, for instance—but now features an upgraded, modern design with Wi-Fi connectivity. Designed by Michael Lozano, Michael Gouth, Dustin Garrett, Sugie Suzuki, and Yukihiro Kajita of DENSO International America Inc. Creative Design 18. NEWTON The Newton electronic shelf label system automates the creation of electronic labels, providing pricing and product information while making shopping more convenient and interactive. Designed by Oscar Hyun-hun Cho, DT Lim and Chloe Mideum Choi of SOLUM
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19. NOWA Series Electronic Shelf Labels The NOWA Series Electronic Shelf Labels can display information such as the brand story, name, and price in lieu of traditional paper labels. They are battery powered and wirelessly controlled by a central system. Designed by Linjiang Wang, Xiaofei Zhang, Peixuan Liu, and Zongdi Zheng of Hanshow Techonology 20. Proxy Mobile Reader Wherever you use a keycard to gain access—a work facility, hotel room, or gym—you can use your mobile device instead with the Proxy Mobile Reader. The facility manager simply grants you access over the cloud. Designed by Fred Bould, IDSA, Jeremy Wolf, and Bernardo Bajana of Bould Design for Proxy
21. RIDGID 18v 6 Mode High Torque Impact Wrench The RIDGID High Torque Impact Wrench is compact, lightweight, and cordless, delivering 450 foot-pounds of torque to power through the most demanding applications. Designed by Leon Yoong, Kuo Liang, Thomas Wong, Kam Kee, Samantha Ho, Yan Hei, Glasgow Shane, and Sarah Shao Ping of Techtronic design 22. SFL series Safety Light Curtain The SFL series Safety Light Curtain is installed at the entrance of a hazardous zone to protect workers from industrial accidents. Its status can be monitored from any position, regardless of the distance or angle. Designed by Kim Donghwan, Song Sunkyoung, Kim Jaeyeon, and Cho Dohyun of Autonics Design Team
23. Siegmund Height Adjustable Rotating Table Mobile The Siegmund Height Adjustable Rotating Table Mobile is a novelty in the field of welding tables. With its spindle, it can be rotated while welding and adjusted in height by 14.6 inches. Designed by Mario Selic of Selic Industriedesign and Siegmund Design Team for Bernd Siegmund GmbH 24. Smart Vision Camera The Smart Vision Camera both captures and processes images. Its optimized design is ideal for a smart factory, increasing productivity and space efficiency at a cost-effective price point. Designed by Song Sunkyoung, Kim Donghwan, Kim Jaeyeon, Lee Seunghan, and Shin Sookjeong of Autonics Design Team for Autonics Corp.
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25. Toshiba System 7 Self-Checkout The System 7 Self-Checkout system allows retailers to customize their in-store experience, improve operational efficiencies, and protect their investment as front-end requirements continue to evolve. Designed by Brad M. Johnson and Seth Teeples of Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions
27. WeChat Pay P1 WeChat Pay P1 is a smart device for checkouts that can serve as a stand-alone device or be integrated into existing point-of-sale systems, taking merchants’ digital business capabilities to a whole new level. Designed by WeChat Pay of Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
26. WeChat Pay M1 The WeChat Pay P1 is a smart device for checkouts that can serve as a stand-alone device or be integrated into existing point-of-sale systems, taking merchants’ digital business capabilities to a whole new level. Designed by WeChat Pay of Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY 28. Chips~chips The design inspiration for the Chips~chips Android TV box came from the potato chips eaten while watching TV, creating a friendly and evocative form and an emotional connection between product and user. Designed by Li Haopeng (design lead), Wang Guangyu, Yu Lu, Li Minyang, and Li Huanxi of Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
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29. Daikin One+ Smart Thermostat With the Daikin One+ Smart Thermostat, homeowners can do everything from a quick temperature adjustment to scheduling, monitoring indoor air quality, and controlling multiple zones. Designed by Bould Design for Daikin 30. Hydration Platform The Hydration Platform is a connected ecosystem that lets you customize your drinking water (water flavor, temperature, and carbonation level), set daily hydration goals, and track your progress. Designed by PepsiCo Design and Innovation
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31. Lyve Drive Modular System The Lyve Drive is a modular data storage system built for the future of the data sphere. It provides seamless enterprise solutions for data creation points, transport, and cloud storage. Designed by Jordan Nollman (CEO & Principal - Sprout Studios), Matthew Bettencourt (Director of Industrial Design - Sprout Studios), and Rich Orsini (Lead Industrial Designer - Sprout Studios) for Seagate Technologies 32. M3_Black Box for Motorcycle M3 is a high-def black box system for motorcycles with a compact form factor. It provides waterproof and dustproof performance optimized for extreme weather conditions. Designed by Lee Yong, Lee SengHo and Choi Eunho of THINKWARE
33. RICOH THETA Z1 The THETA Z1 camera produces 360-degree images with stunning resolution and clarity. The images are so real that when viewing them you feel as if you are really there. Designed by Tomohiko Sasaki, Toshiya Inaba, Takeshi Matsushita, and Toshihiko Kawa of Ricoh Company, Ltd. 34. Roku Audio The Roku Audio line includes wireless speakers, a wireless subwoofer, and a smart soundbar. Paired with a Roku TV, they deliver superior audio to enhance the streaming experience. Designed by Bould Design for Roku
35. True Wireless ANC In-Ear Headphones The True Wireless ANC In-Ear Headphones combine active noise cancellation with a hybrid acoustic dual-driver design (a dynamic driver and balanced armature). Designed by Sun Xin and William Shi-Chen Xu of Tiinlab Inc. 36. WD_Black Gaming Hard Drives The WD_Black line of digital storage devices was designed for desktop, laptop, and/or console gamers who want faster access to their digital content collections or are simply running short of digital storage space. Designed by Western Digital Design Team and Astro Studios Design Team
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37. X-T30 The X-T30 lightweight camera is equipped with the same sensor, processor, and eight-direction levers as its high-end counterpart in a package that is affordable for hobbyists or as a second camera for professionals. Designed by Masazumi Imai and Takeharu Omata of FUJIFILM Corporation 38. Z3000 The Z3000 dash cam for vehicles enables simultaneous playback of footage being recorded while driving, helping identify the cause of an accident using the recorded images and GPS data. Designed by Lee Hyunju, Lee Sengho, and Choi Eunho of THINKWARE
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CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY 39. ZEISS C-UVPROTECT Screening Tablet The ZEISS C-UVPROTECT tablet is a handheld device that analyzes whether a person’s corrective lenses are adequately protecting them from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Designed by Robert Spirito, David Cohen with ZEISS, Patrick Murphy, and Ty Hagler of Trig DESIGN STRATEGY 40. You Got This: Pampered Chef Strategic Design Language This strategic design language system was developed to tie together Pampered Chef’s diverse portfolio of over 400 products in a way that embodies the company’s core principles. Designed by Michael Mastroianni, Chloe Condon, Alan Lebowitz, and Chris Cunningham of Michael DiTullo LLC for Pampered Chef
DIGITAL INTERACTION 41. NAVER DATACENTER GAK Brand Site Renewal The website for the Naver Datacenter was redesigned around the concept of “the visionary archive” so users can understand the meaning and value of data in their lives. Designed by Im Taesoo, Choi Hyungwoo, Kim Jisoo, Choi Yesol, and Kim Jinwook of newtype imageworks for NAVER DATACENTER GAK 42. NIRO Max NIRO Max is a robot designed to assist airport passengers with check-in, ticket return, flight info, and other inquiries and patrol airports as security officer. The SLAM technology enables it to walk freely and charge itself autonomously. Designed by Fan Yang, Shiyan Li, Daiyan Liu, Hongtao Zhang, and Bingkang Luo of Beijing Baidu Netcom Science and Technology Co., Ltd. for Baidu Corp.
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ENVIRONMENTS 43. JJ Lounge The JJ Lounge for Jeju Air is the first lounge for a low-cost carrier in Korea. The space was designed to offer a new experience of travel to enhance customer loyalty and convenience. Designed by INNOCEAN WORLDWIDE, DESIGN M4, MMPX for JEJU AIR FURNITURE & LIGHTING 44. Evie Tealight The Evie Tealight was designed to illuminate Glassybaby’s handmade votives with the calming effects and beauty of a real candle where open flames are unsafe or not allowed. Designed by Eli Hooper and Bryan Cabatic of Product Creation Studio for Illumocity on behalf of Glassybaby
HOME 45. “Z” Multi-functional foldable Oven The “Z” Multi-functional foldable Oven features the shape and functionality of a standard oven with a design that can fold to accommodate different cooking scenarios and kitchen spaces. Designed by Peng Qixuan, Kang Junmuck, Kim Woonhyoung, and Kim Soyoung of Midea kitchen appliances industrial design platform 46. 3.6V Straight Electric Screwdriver The design of the 3.6V Straight Electric Screwdriver created a balance between a minimalistic appearance and appropriate functionality to redefine home tools in the China market. Designed by Shanghai HOTO Technology Co., Ltd.
47. AP-1019D (Icon) The AP-1019 is an air purifier designed for the millennial generation who enjoy decorating their homes. It uses a furniture motif to present a warm image rather than a mechanical look. Designed by Hyunjoo Song, Kim Mikyung, Choi JongHo, Lee Sulki, Kim Gahee, and Han Seo Ree of COWAY CO., LTD. 48. AP-1220B The AP-1220B is an air purifier designed for small spaces of 40 square meters. The front vent purifies and circulates air efficiently, even in small spaces. Designed by Hyunjoo Song, Park Eung Kyu, Choi Jong Ho, and Shin Su Min of COWAY CO., LTD.
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49. APMS-1020A The APMS-1020A is a combined air purifier and humidifier focused on ease of use and convenience. The unit is easily cleaned and blends harmoniously into its environment, adding comfort to people’s lives. Designed by Hyunjoo Song, Kim Mi Kyung, Lee Sul Ki, and Kim Ga Hee of COWAY CO., LTD. 50. Buydeem 8-Series Water Dispenser The Buydeem 8-Series Water Dispenser delivers boiling water in 3 seconds. It also dispenses unheated water and has a self-cleaning function that removes scale build-up caused by long-term use. Designed by Wenjin Zhong of Buydeem Technology Co., LTD
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51. CARTRIDGE (AP-1019C) This economical cartridge air purifier was designed for small spaces of 33 square meters. The filters easily detach for convenient cleaning or replacement. Designed by Hyunjoo Song, Miyeon Kyung, and Jeongeun Park of COWAY CO., LTD. 52. CHP-8300R The CHP-8300R reverse osmosis water filter was designed to be shown off. It features a compact size and a built-in look with straight lines, colors, and materials that harmonize with the kitchen. Designed by Hyunjoo Song, Jin Kyu Seo, and Bo Seong Seo of COWAY CO., LTD.
53. Cockroach White House (Cockroach Trap) The Cockroach White House is a low-cost cockroach trap. It is assembled from a single piece of paper, lures cockroaches with bait placed in the center and traps them with the adhesive base. Designed by Yin Wei and Wang Zhiyao of Zimi Corporation 54. Compact Water purifier (CHP-6200N, CHP-6201N, CP-6201N) This direct-flow water filtration device was tailored to Malaysian lifestyles, providing a reliable water solution by optimizing an 8-inch filter system for Malaysian water quality. Designed by Hyunjoo Song, Kyoung Hwa Maeng, and Jiae Eum of COWAY CO., LTD.
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55. Concealed Air Conditioner The Concealed Air Conditioner was designed to be installed in a closet. The front air vent adjusts the temperature in the room while the bottom air vent dries the clothes inside the closet. Designed by Deng Qizhuo, Li Liang, Yi Dongchang, Wang Haowei, Wang Ling, and Gu Tangtang of Ningbo AUX Electric Co., Ltd. 56. Eureka Polaris-D8 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner The Polaris-D8 Central Dust Collecting Station takes your cleaning experience to a new level. It automatically empties the dustbin more than 30 times, and you can interact with it via voice commands. Designed by Tengteng Du, Pei Cao, Zhaohua Lyu, and Hang Lee of Midea vacuum cleaner design team
57. Euro5 Newtro Modern | The innovative way to design clean and unique bathroom The Euro5 Newtro Modern offers an efficient way to design and install bathrooms. The center point is the large PVC panels that make cleaning easier and reduce construction time to one day. Designed by Ahyeon Lim, Soyoung Park, Eunsook Lee, Miran Shin, and Haein Seo of Bath design for Hanssem Corp. 58. EVE Air-Conditioner The EVE Air-Conditioner uses convergent extrusion air-flow technology to concentrate the direction of the air supply. With the smart camera, it can deliver cool air directly to people and objects. Designed by Yu Wei, Li Baoyu, Jia Qifan, Zhang Jinghong, and Gu Tangtang of Ningbo AUX Electric Co., Ltd. Industrial Design Center
59. Folding Air Conditioner The Folding Air Conditioner simulates the motion of opening a book with foldable and expandable modules. The two modules work independently to adjust the temperature and flow of the air. Designed by Liang Caideng, Li Liang, Yi Dongchang, Long Teng, and Gu Tangtang of Ningbo AUX Electric Co., Ltd. 60. IMOU TP2/Ranger2 camera The IMOU camera is capable of capturing real-time images at home as well as distinguishing between humans and objects. Its tilt and pan features can view every corner of your home. Designed by Wenjuan Liu, Li Chen, and Qua Zhang of HANGZHOU HUACHENG Network Technology Co., Ltd.
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61. Lift Downdraft Lift is a space-efficient downdraft, available in 30and 36-inch widths, that rises to the occasion with the touch of a button. Its minimal profile discreetly hides behind the cooktop or range. Designed by Luke Siow of Zephyr in-house design team 62. Melitta Senz V With the Melitta Senz V smart pour-over coffeemaker, gourmet coffee drinkers can ensure the precise weight of the coffee, amount of water, brewing time, water temperature, coffee extraction, and ultimately the taste. Designed by LDA Design Team for Melitta
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63. Mi Handheld Vacuum Cleaner The Mi Handheld Vacuum Cleaner strikes a balance between powerful functionality and a compact size. It offers 100 airwatt suction and avoids suction decline with cyclone-separation technology. Designed by Industrial Design Team of Mi Ecosystem (Li Ningning, Dou Wenbo) of Xiaomi Inc.
65. Protector air purifier The Protector air purifier was design specifically for bedrooms. It runs quietly, as low as 18 decibels, for a comfortable sleeping environment. It is also equipped with ultrasound to eliminate mites. Designed by Yu Wei, Men Li Kangping, Ms Li Baoyu, Men Li Liang, Men Gu Tangtang of Ningbo AUX Electric Co., Ltd. Industrial Design Center
64. Midea D8v2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner The Midea D8v2 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner makes cleaning more professional, smarter, and more comprehensive. It uses visual recognition and laser radar to identify obstacles and navigate intelligently. Designed by Zhaohua Lyu, Pei Cao, Tengteng Du, and Hang Lee of Midea vacuum cleaner design team
66. Reve Water Purifier Kohler Reve is a purification device that provides fast filtration for drinking water. It dispenses purified water at a generous 2L/min—double the flow of most similar devices. Designed by Tsungyu Lu, Yujue Wu and Harvey Ding of Kohler Design Studio - Shanghai
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67. S1-Pro Steam Oven The S1-Pro Steam Oven offers powerful steam and grill functions in a design that is secure, easy to clean, and easy to operate. The large window lets you track the progress of your food. Designed by Gao Song, Hou Bangbin, Yuan Jinjiang, of Midea kitchen appliances industrial design platform 68. Smart Water Purifier The Smart Water Purifier was developed for the Indian market. It uses DIY filter replacement and smart app control technology and removes 99.9% pollutants in the water. Designed by Keliang Xun, Weiwei Chen, Qing Li, Ruijiang Wang of Xiaomi Inc. and Yibo Gao of Foshan Viomi Electrical Technology
69. SwitchBot Curtain The SwitchBot Curtain is a smart home robot that motorizes your existing rod and rail curtain. Installation is quick and easy, only 30 seconds, and requires no screws, nuts, or bolts. Designed by Jiye Shen, Xiaoting Wu, Junyao Li and Beixian Xu of Shenzhen IU+ Design Co. Ltd. for WOAN TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) CO., LTD
71. Tineco Moda one The Tineco Moda one is a smart hair dryer that solves consumers’ constant struggle with wanting to dry their hair quickly without causing damage and achieving a stylish look each and every time. Designed by He Wujia, Yuan Siyuan, Li Cancan, and Yu Xuan of Tineco Intelligent Technology
70. Tineco FLOOR ONE The Tineco cordless wet-dry vacuum for hard floors detects dirt, vacuums, and washes for the deepest clean with auto-optimized suction power, water flow, and brush roll. Designed by Wujia He, Xiangyu Yang, and Xuan Yu of Tineco Intelligent Technology
72. Urbanity Grooming Water Optimizer Kohler Urbanity combines a water softener and filter to improve your grooming experience and longterm dermal health. The compact, minimalist design perfectly complements Kohler bathroom cabinets. Designed by Tsungyu Lu and Yujue Wu of Kohler Design Studio - Shanghai
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73. Y-SR-20-GX03 The GX03 is a water dispenser designed for Chinese kitchens. Its ultra-thin appearance integrates well into any kitchen, and its white body with gray accents projects the simplicity and elegance of modern life. Designed by Suping Zhong and Shilong Ke of Hangzhou ROBAM Applicances Co., Ltd.
75. Intelligent Temperature-control Hair Dryer This high-speed hair dryer has a brushless motor that rotates at 110,000 rpm to dry hair quickly while the smart temperature-control sensor protects the scalp and hair from uneven heat. Designed by Hao Yu, Nan Jiang and Hongxu Tang of Industrial Design for Dreame Technology
LIFESTYLE & ACCESSORIES 74. EDEC OffGrid Mobile Faraday Bag The EDEC OffGrid Mobile Faraday Bag protects personal devices from EMF, RFID, FM radio, CPS, Cellular, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi signals, safeguarding data and protecting privacy. Designed by Pete Ducato and Marco Vanella of STEL Design for EDEC Digital Forensics
MEDICAL & HEALTH 76. BIOSENSE™ Breath Ketone Monitoring Device The BIOSENSE Breath Ketone Monitoring Device provides real-time ketone readings with clinical-level accuracy so users can monitor, track, and maintain their keto diet and adjust their carbohydrate intake as needed. Designed by Metaphase Design Group and Readout Health
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77. Colgate® Plaqless Pro toothbrush The Colgate Plaqless Pro toothbrush is a smart toothbrush with optic-sensor technology and an app-driven interface for a more thorough brushing experience. Designed by Colgate Design Team and Astro Studios Design Team 78. Flo Flo is a single-use patch that uses a low-cost mobile ultrasound transducer, Bluetooth, mobile data networks, and artificial intelligence to detect the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. Designed by PDR for Cardiff School of Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University
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79. Hair Dryer HL9 The HL9 hair dryer uses a high-speed motor with a unique duct structure to maximize air flow while keeping the wind temperature constant to avoid damaging hair. Designed by Chang Jin and Chang Qu for Hangzhou Rosou Electronic Technology Co., LTD.
81. Opté Skincare System Opté is a precision skincare system that scans your face and applies a serum to cover only the blemishes, eventually fading the area and drastically reducing the overall amount of applied makeup. Designed by P&G Ventures Design Team, Astro Studios Design Team
80. Omnicell XR2 The XR2 is a modular, scalable robotic hospital pharmacy system that automates medication distribution processes and standardizes the practice of medication management to reduce errors. Designed by Omnicell, Inc.
82. Oral-B iO™ The Oral-B iO combines superior clinical performance with modern design and a delightful user experience that elevates the toothbrush from the aesthetics of a tool to a beautiful object that is personal and smart. Designed by Oral-B Design Team for Procter & Gamble Service GmbH
83. Oro Plume The Oro Plume is a lightweight motor-assisted wheelchair designed to make the user look proud and tall. The power-assisted motor functions in proportion to the effort of the user. Designed by Yunwoo Jeong, Jinhee Cha, Kyohwe Goo, Choeun Park, and Wooin Jang of Disegno T9 UNIST for Drone Dom Co., Ltd. 84. Orthopedic robotic navigation and positioning system This orthopedic surgery robot system is composed of a manipulator mainframe, optical tracking system, and main control trolley with a positioning accuracy up to the sub-millimeter. Designed by Wang Yanqing, Zhao Dongge, Chen Dingliang, Ning Zhen, and Zhang Junbo of Beijing ZCO design Co., Ltd. for Beijing TINAVI Medical Technology Co., Ltd.
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85. Robin Healthcare Robin Healthcare is an AI scribe that streamlines the clinical documentation process using voice/ video so doctors can focus on their patients instead of on taking notes. Designed by Hatch Duo, LLC for Robin Healthcare 86. Vial Based Pen Injector The Vial Based Pen Injector delivers drugs from a vial. It reduces the number of steps needed to prepare a dose while reducing the risk of needle-stick injuries and improving dose accuracy. Designed by Crux Product Design Ltd. for F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG
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OFFICE & ACCESSORIES 87. 360-degree anti-breakage buffering mechanical pencil This mechanical pencil features a vertical spring and horizontal elastic rubber ring to stabilize the lead for smooth writing. The Y-shape tip accommodates different writing styles and surfaces. Designed by LiLi, Jian Kang, and Yue Zhu of Shanghai M&G Stationery INC. 88. bizhub C360i series (including bizhub C300i/C250i) The bizhub C360i series of color multifunctional printers helps streamline people’s workflow. They offer high quality and performance, network connectivity, and simple operation for any user. Designed by Masakazu Nagano, Hiroko Hirano, Ayane Iida, Yusuke Ikeda of Human Experience Design Center for Konica Minolta, Inc. and Sabotage Design Ltd.
89. D-series The D-series suite of office furniture offers a new approach to co-working that is faster and more informal while providing the privacy people expect now and then. Designed by Sunon Design Team and Favaretto&Parters for Zhejiang Sunon Furniture Manufacture Co., Ltd. 90. F.A.T10 Series The F.A.T10 folding table can be configured to accommodate different situations such as meetings, one-on-one collaborations, and training sessions. Designed by Haesung Ban and Young Jin Lee of Bestuhl Co., Ltd.
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91. Workplace Hub Workplace Hub integrates the management of multifunctional printers, servers, and IT systems and increases the efficiency of people’s workstyle and the business’s operations. Designed by Masakazu Nagano, Yu Iritani, Masumi Ikeda of Human Experience Design Center for Konica Minolta, Inc. and Sabotage Design Ltd. OUTDOOR & GARDEN 92. NITECORE 21700 Intelligent Battery System The 21700 Intelligent Battery System is an innovative power solution consisting of the NITECORE 21700 i Series Battery, the ML21 Magnetic Light, the MC21 Magnetic Charger, and the MPB21 Magnetic Power Bank. Designed by Siman Lee, June Lai, Zhong Shicong, Li Jianfeng, and Wang Xi of SYSMAX Innovations Co., Ltd.
93. RYOBI 18V ONE+ Garden Pruning Saw With the RYOBI 18V ONE+ Garden Pruning Saw you can prune branches up to 65 millimeters thick. The ergonomic design makes it comfortable and easy to use with one hand. Designed by Frankie Lam Kwok Fan and Carter Wong of Techtronic Design
95. Eargo Neo Packaging The Eargo Neo packaging is a compact box assembly that presents the Eargo hearing aids and charger, quick-start guide, and accessories in a logical, well-considered way. Designed by Fred Bould, IDSA, Jeremy Wolf, and Tristan Cannan of Bould Design for Eargo
PACKAGING 94. ASTALIFT series The packaging of ASTALIFT, an anti-aging skincare line, was designed to unify with the contents, the red antioxidant ingredient astaxanthin, using a transparent red container with a mirror finish inside. Designed by Kazuhisa Horikiri, General Manager, Design center, FUJIFILM Corporation, Makoto Okad, Miku Kasai, Design center, FUJIFILM Corporation, Hisakazu Shimizu, S&O Design Inc.
96. Fanwu Tea Office The outer packaging for the Fanwu Tea Office box conveys the concept of a letter and ritual, suggesting an envelope with a stamp and postmark, while the illustration inside uses images of animals to express the four seasons. Designed by Wen Liu, Shuanglong Wang, and Weijie Kang of Shenzhen Oracle Creative Design Co., Ltd. for Diguan Brand Management (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd
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97. Mi Kids Sonic Electric Toothbrush The packaging for the Mi Kids Sonic Electric Toothbrush, featuring cartoon elements and children’s illustrations, was designed to be a game, giving children an eye-catching interactive experience. Designed by Lu Chen, Weijie Jiang, Yan Ni, and Zhizhuang Song of Xiaomi Inc.
99. T-House Time Inspired by the simple, colorful forms of tangrams, the designers transformed the tea box into a plaything, evoking the idea of a colorful life. Designed by Wen Liu, Min Zhu, and Weijie Kang of Shenzhen Oracle Creative Design Co., Ltd. for Diguan Brand Management (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
101. Winner project - Galaxy Fold package To launch the Galaxy Fold, Samsung sent the device, along with an RSVP, invitation, and special package, to more than 100 social media influencers around the world who then shared their reviews with consumers. Designed by HOHOHO, Samsung and Cheil
98. Mi Quad Driver In-Ear Headphone Instead of showing an image of the product, the packaging design for the Mi Quad Driver In-Ear Headphone embeds the product into a nautilus shell to highlight the sound quality of the headphones. Designed by Lu Chen, Weijie Jiang, Yan Ni, and Zhizhuang Song of Xiaomi Inc.
100. U-Therapy The packaging for the U-Therapy line of health and hygiene products (a headache pill and cup, a roll of bandages, body fat test strips, and eco tissue) is focused on the common interests of humans and the Earth. Designed by Sung Ho Nam of COSMO-SLOTH
SERVICE DESIGN 102. Mintit UX: Used Mobile Phone Upcycling Service Design UX/UI The Mintit user interface uses artificial intelligence to help people upcycle their mobile phone through kiosks installed in malls throughout South Korea. To date over 20,000 phones have been recycled each month. Designed by Inition Inc. for SK Networks Co. Ltd.
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103. UX beyond Energy Efficiency The SmartThings Energy energy-monitoring service directly controls Samsung’s home appliances to reduce energy consumption. It also encourages appliance owners to act more environmentally. Designed by Minjung Sohn, Jinyoung Lee, Jongho Kim, Hyewon Lee, and Sahnghee Bahn of Samsung Electronics
SPORTS, LEISURE & RECREATION 105. Chopper by ChopFit The Chopper is a custom fitness product that evokes a traditional axe with a weighted head and an ergonomic handle to enable comfortable swinging motions that are natural to the human body. Designed by Deepak Selvaraj of Produktworks Design for ChopFit
STUDENT DESIGNS 107. Apollin Smart Dental Delivery Apollin is a smart dental delivery system designed to provide an optimal working space for all dentists, ensuring that it is pleasant, ergonomic, adaptable, safe, and sustaining of the dentist’s health. Designed by Sunghyun Lee of University of Bridgeport
SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGN 104. Yulindog Yulindog is a piece of sculpture made from 230 dog bones collected from dog-meat restaurants, markets, and stalls. It was created to advocate for canceling the Dog Eating Festival held in Yulin, China. Designed by Danny Li, Minglei Miao, Yu Gao, Yiqiang Liang, and Yini Ma of Mcgarrybowen Shanghai for Honeycare
106. Zephyr Vest The Zephyr running vest was thoughtfully engineered to keep you cool and sweat free so you can run longer. It increases ventilation and absorbs less sweat to keep you cool and dry. Designed by Jenna Kim for CamelBak
108. Ayama Ayama is an emotional healthcare device that helps people with workplace or social anxiety to meditate. It guides users through rhythmic breathing by expanding and contracting in their hands. Designed by Wenxi Qi of Rochester Institute of Technology and Hengbo Zhang of University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
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109. Sayvor Sayvor is an easy-to-clean nested smart cookware set designed to seamlessly transition with you throughout each step of the cooking process (prep, cook, eat, store). Designed by Jordan Christensen, Keith Dandridge, Diamond Greer, Emily Hoffmann, and Aren Thompson of Northwestern University
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110. Trilight The Trilight was designed for small apartments. The lamp can be adapted to the activity at hand, such as reading, eating, or watching movies, to create the optimum environment for the moment. Designed by Tianning Zhao for ArtCenter College of Design
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111. Word Up Up Word Up Up is a puzzle to help children learn English. Through rich illustrated pictures and easy operation, children can search and interact with word elements and learn while having fun. Designed by Xiaofang Li, Bo Liu, Zhao Liu, Zhuolin Gu, Weiwei Ma, and Zhao Liu of BiBoBox for Shanghai Jiao Tong University
I D E A 2 0 2 0 I NDE X OF WI NNE R S
FIRM
PRODUCT
3M Design
Scotch™ Clip & Twist Tape Dispenser
AWARD PAGE
Silver
128
555 International
lululemon Lincoln Park
Silver
105
Allegion (c/o Schlage Lock Company LLC)
Illumiknobi
Bronze
118
ArtCenter College of Design
Healing Buddies
Bronze
159
i’mnot - music instruments for non-musicians
Curator’s Choice
58
i’mnot - music instruments for non-musicians
Gold
58
Shine LA
Silver
156
symbio: intelligent, natural and comfortable exoskeleton for walking rehabilitation
Bronze
161
Beijing Institute of Technology
Play Together
Bronze
160
Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K
BOLTGROUP
Silver
90
Hunterlab Photospectrometers
Bronze
97
Playcore Sensory Car Wash
Bronze
106
Branch Creative
Bird Two
Silver
64
Fellow Ode Brew Grinder
Silver
116
Hoop
Bronze
94
Kodak ‘Smile’ Family of Instant Print Digital Cameras and Printers
Bronze
95
Bravat
Miranda O3 Pulldown Kitchen Faucet
Gold
110
Bresslergroup
Music: Not Impossible
Silver
135
BRP
EV Concepts
CARREFOUR
Instant Barbecue
Dalian Minzu University
Rescue dog companion-2
Delve
REAL Immersive System
Elroy Air
Elroy Air Chaparral
Gold
62
Falck
Falck Global Innovation Strategy – Saving and improving even more lives
Bronze
97
Fitbit
Fitbit Inspire HR UX
Bronze
100
FUJIFILM CORPORATION
FUJINON TECHNO STABI TS-X 1440
Gold
86
FUJIFILM PROJECTOR Z5000
Gold
84
fuseproject
de Youngsters Studio
Silver
104
Coway Icon Air Purifier
Bronze
117
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dart Electric Rideshare Bike
Gold
146
Google Inc
Google Nest Hub Max
Bronze
94
GREE ELECTRIC APPLIANCES.INC.OF ZHUHAI
High-end foldable baseboard electric heater
Bronze
117
Grohe AG
GROHE SmartControl Kitchen
Bronze
117
Guangdong Industry Technical College
Growth multifunctional buggy
Silver
152
Haworth, Inc.
Haworth Digital Knits
Bronze
129
Hillrom
Welch Allyn RetinaVue 700 Imager
HP Inc.
Bronze
66
Silver
130
Bronze
160
Gold
122
Silver
60
HP Chromebook 11 G8 Education Edition
Bronze
94
HP Neverstop Laser MFP Printers with TRK
Bronze
95
HS Design, Inc.
SentiAR
Hyundai Design North America
Silver
99
Cuddly Bird
Bronze
125
Hyundai 45
Bronze
66
Hyundai Vest Exoskeleton (VEX)
Inition Inc.
Mintit UX : Used Mobile Phone Upcycling Service Design UX/UII
IU+Design
DidaCubes
Gold
76
Bronze
100
Silver
72
INNOVATION FALL 2020
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I D E A 2 0 2 0 I NDE X OF WI NN ERS
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FIRM
PRODUCT
Jiangnan University
Hushh
Silver
153
Jya Smart Home (tianjin) Limted
Jya Cordless LED Desk Lamp
Silver
107
Kohler
Urbanity+ Shower Column
Bronze
119
Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon
Leica BLK2GO, the first wireless handheld laser scanner
Lenovo (Shenzhen) LTD.Co
Bewith-Lenovo Homecare Chronic Disease Management System
level design sf LG Electronics
LG LED Bloc (LSAA), LG MAGNIT (LSAB)
Bronze
129
Linshaobin Design
Mountain tea - Song
Bronze
134
Loft Design
Bose Videobar VB1
Bronze
83
Logitech Europe S.A.
Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit
Silver
92
Logitech VR Ink Stylus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Illusory Material: transform material experience in everyday products
Microsoft
HoloLens 2
Silver
91
Surface Earbuds
Bronze
121
Milwaukee Tool
M12 FUEL™ 3/8” and 1/2” Digital Torque Wrenches w/ ONE-KEY™
Bronze
83
Ming Chi University of Technology
Crop Protector
Bronze
159
MINIMAL Inc.
Skiphop Sit-to-Step High Chair
Bronze
74
Theragun G3 Series
Bronze
143
WellBeings CBD Nano Mist Inhaler
Silver
120
MIRO Corporation
SMART 360 Air Purifier Series
Bronze
119
Motorola Solutions
APX NEXT P25 All Band Smart Radio with XV Remote Speaker Microphone
Bronze
83
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
CYCLONE CATCHER
Silver
151
Santa’s Giftbox
Bronze
161
Nonfiction
Human Headphones
Bronze
95
Northumbria University
Cairer – An AI directed therapy tool to support dementia carers
Gold
144
INCUBE
Parsons School of Design
RElieve: Emergency Toilet Designed for Disaster Camps
Bronze
PDR
eXciteOSA
Bronze 125
Pentagram
Yoto Player
Silver
73
PepsiCo Design & Innovation
MTN DEW A Can Has No Name
Bronze
134
Phiilips Experience Design
ATLAS | Community-based telehealth for local veterans
Bronze
137
PriestmanGoode
Zero - Economy meal tray
Silver
133
Purdue University
Core Patient Care System
Silver
150
Ralph Appelbaum Associates
Museum of Literature Ireland
Gold
102
Ride Awake AB
Awake RÄVIK
Gold
138
ROBRADY design
GMX7 X1-PRO
Bronze
143
Samsung
BESPOKE Family Hub UX
Gold
54
BESPOKE Refrigerator
Silver
54
BESPOKE Refrigerator & Family Hub UX
Best in Show
54
Galaxy Fold
Bronze
94
Inclusive IoT
Bronze
95
Infinite Line Built-in Oven package
Bronze
118
Q950TS, QLED 8K
Silver
93
Samsung Upcycling Solution for TV Packaging
Silver
132
The Serif Visual Identity System
Silver
70
The Sero Visual Identity System
Bronze
71
IDSA.ORG
AWARD PAGE
Gold
78
Bronze
134
AliveCor KardiaMobile 6L
Silver
124
Tempo
Silver 142
Bronze
96
Silver
154
Silver 155 160
FIRM
PRODUCT
AWARD PAGE
San Jose State University
Tatami Table: Inspiring connection in a small space
Bronze
161
School of Design, Dalian Minzu University
Equality Leg
Bronze
159
SenseTeam
Forge Ahead
Gold
68
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Hanzi’s Secret
Bronze
159
Shenzhen Times Innovation Technology Co.,LTD
Sunshine Series Human Body Induction Light
Bronze
119
SK magic
Triple Care Dishwasher
Gold
112
Sonos Inc.
Sonos Amp
Gold
88
Sony Corporation
VISION-S Prototype
Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
HanDo
Silver
65
Gold
148
T³ Monster - a set of hand training teaching aids
Silver
157
Visual Land
Silver
158
Square industrial design Co., Ltd
redminut portable drinking bottle
Silver
131
Starbucks
Phantom Espresso
Silver
82
Ivy Pour-Over
Bronze
118
STUCK Design Pte. Ltd.
Bottle Bath
Silver
114
Sungsil Hwarang
Endangered Animals Graphic Archives
Bronze
106
Tactile
DCI TeraTrak R1
Bronze
83
TEAMS Design
Easy, Affordable Vision Screening for Developing Countries
Jury Chair Award
56
Easy, Affordable Vision Screening for Developing Countries
Gold
56
Easy, Affordable Vision Screening for Developing Countries
Silver
56
Type Inc.
milkpress
Silver
115
Umeå Institute of Design
Logi ULTRA
Bronze
160
VAVA
VAVA 4K Ultra Short Throw Laser Projector
Bronze
96
VIEMEISTER INDUSTRIES
ElectionGuard Voting Machine
Bronze
137
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies
T.E.A.R. Mask
Bronze
161
Watson Furniture Group
C9
Gold
126
Whipsaw, Inc.
Ceribell Rapid Response EEG
Bronze
125
Cisco Meraki MV Security Cameras
Glint Hero Lighting Fixture
Google Trekker
Silver
81
Tonal Strength Training System
Gold
140
WONBONG Co., Ltd.
Electrolytic sterilizer (WCE-200)
Bronze
117
Wuxi Little Swan Electric Co., Ltd.
Midea Wall-Mounted Mini Washing Machine
Bronze
118
Wuxi Qinghe Xiaobei Technology Co., Ltd.
DR. BEI Portable Water Flosser F3
Bronze
125
Xiaomi Finance
Airstar Bank
Bronze
100
Xiaomi Mobile Software Co.,Ltd
MI Rearview Mirror System
Silver
98
Silver
80
Bronze
109
INNOVATION FALL 2020
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A F I N A L T HO UG HT
THE NECESSITY OF SELF-EDUCATION
I
n our last article, “An Opportunity for Change,” we discussed how academia can shift to meet the demands of the design industry today and painted a picture of the ideal design educator. Yet that is only half of the equation. Education is as much give as it is take; namely, education is the sum of the effort of the student and the professor. Education, especially in the field of industrial design, is not defined just by what occurs in the classroom but also by what the student does with that knowledge outside of it. A design student needs to be an autodidact. An autowhat, now? This fancy Greek term literally means self (auto) teacher (didact). It describes someone who seeks out knowledge and skills on their own, informally, and, at its most extreme, without the careful guidance of a teacher. In fact, several infamous designers throughout history are classified as autodidacts who had no formal training at all: Frank Lloyd Wright, Jacques Fresco, Raymond Loewy, and Mies van der Rohe, to name a few. Fantastic. Several old white men taught themselves a hundred years ago, but how does that apply to me at a time when employers won’t even hire interns without a master’s degree? The beauty of autodidacticism is that it applies to everyone, whether a full-time student or a high school dropout. Think of it not as a method, but a mood. A mood to engage in self-learning, a mood of natural curiosity, a mood that asks “what if?” Autodidacticism is the counter to being spoon-fed information. It’s the equivalent of taking the spoon with your own hands and trying every soup in the kitchen. It’s about using your coursework as a springboard for your own self-education. Sustainability sounds cool to you, but your professors only scratch the surface? Great, open a book on it and learn more yourself. Like cars, but don’t have an automotive program at your school? Go on YouTube and watch a few tutorials on drawing cars. In the information age, it has never been easier and more accessible to be an autodidact. Students like to complain. Actually, they love it. We receive comments akin to “my professors are so out of touch and haven’t designed since the ’90s.” Tough spot,
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kid. The professors we had hadn’t designed since the ’80s! Maybe your professor is out of touch, but what’s even more out of touch is your attitude. Your professor’s role is to introduce you to concepts. Your role is to take a deeper dive into them. You have four years (or sometimes five) to create a portfolio that will get you hired. Do not waste a second in self-pity. Instead, direct that energy to learning what you feel you’re missing out on. If you feel you’re lacking in a skill set—and we are not mincing words here—literally get up and teach yourself that skill set. “But I don’t have time with other classes and my job.” Lame excuse. In the time it took you to say that, a 14-year-old just learned surface modeling. Make the time, adjust priorities. Designer Michael DiTullo, IDSA, on recounting his education experience, stated he had a dilemma in trying to juggle two sponsored projects and three liberal arts courses in a semester. When confronting his professor about the lack of hours in the day to handle both projects along with English class, his professor responded with, “Do you want to be a designer or an English major?” Armed with this question, DiTullo went to his liberal arts professors and flatly asked to do the bare minimum required to pass. Today, we recognize DiTullo as a highly successful designer (who also speaks, reads, and writes English just fine!). In design, grades don’t matter; your work does. No employer is going to care about your 3.98 GPA in studio courses or your C in English. What they care about is your ability to enter their company and contribute to the work they do. Employers like self-starters. If you say you started a project because you’re passionate about the subject, rather than “it was assigned to us,” you will already have their attention. If you feel your education is suffering, whether by virtue of the institution you study at or because of a pandemic, or even both, then take your education into your own hands. Nobody is responsible or to blame for your design skills, or lack thereof, except for yourself. —Hector Silva and Dominic Montante hello@advdes.org; dom@montante.design
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE! 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of IDSA’s International Design Excellence Awards. A program that endures because thousands of designers and business leaders around the world believe in its value, provenance, and prestige. IDEA winners are some of the world’s most successful and significant products ever created. They change people’s lives, create new industries, and ignite imaginations.