The greatest design innovations invariably have a story behind them: the insight that led to a radical new way to solve a problem, the failure that led to a breakthrough, the serendipity where colliding forces led to a profound creative leap. Today, at the opening of the Industrial Design Society of America’s annual meeting in Miami, Ravi Sawhney, founder and CEO of the design firm RKS, will announce the first case studies in the organization’s Catalyst Awards program--four compelling stories of breakthrough design and how they came to be.
This year’s winners include OXO Good Grips, the comfortable, functional kitchen tools that began as one man’s attempt to design comfortable tools for his arthritic wife; Whirlpool’s audacious pledge to be number one in its industry in innovation; Black & Decker’s Dustbuster, which created a whole new mass-market category; and Apple’s iPod-iTunes-iPhone system that completely upended the music industry.
The Catalyst program, which for years recognized design-driven companies for their financial performance, last year was revised to showcase design’s power to effect positive change in the world. “These insightful examples of design’s power to drive results and effect positive change will serve to capture design’s legacy and inspire design’s future,” says Sawhney.
“There are about 50,000 industrial designers in the U.S., and nearly four million business professionals who can benefit from hearing our stories,” adds Sawhney. “The Catalyst Case Studies are our best stories…our greatest hits.”
Over the past year, a panel of business, design and academic experts evaluated submissions that detailed design’s best thinking in this area. To encourage participation, submissions required no entry fee, and the person nominating a product or project did not need to have any involvement with it.
The studies will form a knowledge bank of best practices and creative strategies that will be available to anyone with an interest in how some of the great design breakthroughs of our time evolved.
The cases will be available for download as PDFs and MP3s, for a small charge, from the IDSA Web site.
Despite the eco-friendly cardboard centerpieces, the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria, with its velvet draperies and glittering chandeliers was an uncomfortably swanky venue for the annual AIGA Design Legends gala in a year when the ripples from the financial mayhem on Wall St. had wreaked such economic turmoil throughout the industry
So AIGA president Debbie Millman, in a little black dress and long white gloves, addressed the issue straight up: "The guy who created my fabulous up-do asked me, 'Do people really have events like these anymore? In this economy?'"
Noting that the room had been booked long before last fall's market meltdown, Millman acknowledged the unease the space created, given the general state of the economy. "Not to be a buzzkill," she said, "but 86% of industries said they had cut back over the past year, the most in 42 years. Every state has reported upticks in unemployment." So, she asked, "Should we celebrate designers in this economy?"
You didn't have to be a "Squawkbox" forecaster to guess the answer. Citing a variety of examples of design innovation from past downturns, from Cyrus McCormick's mechanical reaper in the 1870s to Apple's iPod introduction in 2001, Millman affirmed that not only could the assembled crowd of designers eat their filet mignon without dissonance, but with pride: "We can't shirk our responsibility," she said. "Designers have the ability to make the world a better place. The world now offers opportunities and designers must respond."
Naturally, the remarkably upbeat crowd roared their approval as they tucked into their artfully arranged shrimp and artichoke appetizers.
Indeed, the mood in the room was decidedly merry, with a number of designers confiding little bits of good news between courses. Joe Duffy said business was picking up after a bleak six months, and he'd soon have killer news on a project with Coke. Brian Collins hinted about an upcoming award. Event co-chair (and FC expert blogger) Ken Carbone threatened to dance into the wee hours at the after party. And David Rockwell said he'd been flat out opening the new Disney Family Museum, and working hard on the launch of the new Ames Hotel for Morgans Hotel Group, then dashed off to tuck his kids in bed.
The rest of the evening featured a long and appealingly-produced celebration of the year's honorees, from corporate achievers to AIGA fellows, designers who have made significant contributions to the field in their own communities.
Jet Blue, introduced by Rockwell, was lauded for allowing its customers to feel "frugal and indulgent at the same time." Julie Gilhart, fashion designer at Barney's, introduced corporate winner Patagonia, and confessed to a huge crush on company founder Yvon Chouinard. She further demonstrated her affection by wearing a Patagonia trench coat with Balenciaga shorts and Manolo Blahnik heels. Noting that she was heading off to a Fashion Week party directly from the gala, she said, "There are times when I'm sitting watching the fashion shows on the runways when I have to fight the desire to run away and be a 'dirt bag hippie' like Yvon says he was."
But the big winners were the AIGA medalists, the organization's highest achievers. This year, the group honored three giants in the graphic design field: Pablo Ferro, the Cuban-born designer who created the opening credits for films ranging from Dr. Strangelove to Midnight Cowboy; Doyald Young, master of logotypes for John Deere, Charles Krug, and Shu Uemura, among others; and Carin Goldberg, who's designed books, album covers, and a variety of literary artifacts for nearly every prestigious publisher in the city.
Accepting his award, Ferro, in his trademark red wooly muffler, thanked his adopted land. "I was a kid from Cuba, where I wore no shoes, and came to America at age 12," he said. "Only in America could I go from admiring the Rolling Stones, to working with them. No matter how many times things like that happen, it still surprises me.
Young, 83, was lauded for his profound influence on students at Art Center College of Design, and Goldberg said a 6-week summer trip to Paris had inspired her to forsake her normal New York brittle repartee in her speech for humble, heartfelt gratitude. "Merci beaucoup," she said, clutching her trophy in tears as she left the stage for comfort in the arms of her lifelong friend, and presenter, Paula Scher.
If you have to moderate a panel discussion about sex, Las
Vegas is probably the best place on the planet to do it.So last January, I splashed on a little
Shalimar, hiked up my fishnets, and headed over to a back hall at the giant
Consumer Electronics Show to host a discussion on “Sex and Electronics” with a
couple women from Smart Design, who smartly design female-friendly electronics
products.
That’s no longer a total oxymoron, although much of
what was shown in those vast temples of gadgetry still radiated a Y-chromosomey vibe.
The panel’s stars were Erica Eden and Agnete Enga, two of
the four founders of the “Femme Den,” Smart Design’s small internal cadre of
designers devoted to thinking about the differences between genders and what
that means for product development.
The Femme Den aims to go far beyond the traditional “shrink
it and pink it” strategy that manufacturers often employ when targeting the
female market.Not only has that
approach been offensive to many women, but it misses the larger point: women
have legitimately different physical needs than men, as well as a lower
tolerance for obtuse design than their male counterparts. But they also influence 80% of household purchases, so companies ignore their needs at their peril.
Those very issues led to the Den’s founding. In 2005, Smart
was trying to help Nike figure out why sales of their line of watches were
flagging. The all-male team brought in two female colleagues to see if they
could crack the problem. Turns out women athletes were buying men’s
watches because they wanted the added functionality, and struggling with the
clunky size on their smaller wrists.When Smart redesigned the watches to be both technically advanced and
good looking, sales soared.The Femme Den was born.
The original group included four women and an
honorary guy, Smart Design co-founder Dan Formosa (“Femme Dan”), an
early supporter.Today the group
still numbers four--Eden, Agnete, Yvonne Lin, and Whitney Hopkins (who
replaced Gina Reimann, an original founder). In less than a month,Agnete will move to the company’s Barcelona
office to carry the message to her European colleagues.
In October, Agnete speaksat the Design Management Institute’s annual conference on "Sex
and Sensibility."
We’re so enthusiastic about the quartet's message--and its results--that we awarded them a slot among this year’s Masters of Design. Read
more about them and about how designing products with women in mind has a hidden
benefit for men, in this story by Kate Rockwood.And tune in all week, as they launch our Masters of Design
coverage with a week’s worth of guest blogging.
This morning, at a tony little press briefing at Manhattan's poshest dining spot, Thomas Keller's Per Se at the Time Warner Center, Bose introduced its latest iPod speaker system, the SoundDock10.
Why roll out the short ribs with Bordelaise and heirloom tomato salad for just another consumer electronics introduction?
Because unlike many tech companies, whose newest gizmos are often driven more by marketing considerations than engineering innovations, Bose only rolls out a new product when it's legitimately got something to say.
The last time Bose introduced a docking station was in 2004 (hard to guess how many dozens of iPod iterations we've seen in the interim.) It's still the gold standard for many audiophiles. The new SoundDock 10 was three years in the making, and boasts 11 new patents, as well as a slew of Bose proprietary technology advances too secret to reveal even in patents. This is, Bose execs say, not just a superficial upgrade to satisfy the gadget gurus who flock to CES.
I'm no audiophile, but from what I heard in that sizable (roughly 25 feet wide, 40 feet long) satin-draped room, the sound quality was pretty remarkable. Starting with the dramatic acoustics of a raging thunderstorm, Bose executives ran through a variety of musical pieces, ranging from a fluttery soprano singing Lakme's "Bell Song," to Strauss's "Polka Opus 43" with its crashing explosive ending, to Wynton Marsalis's rumbling "Ghost in the House," to demonstrate the system's three new primary new features: clarity of notes across the musical spectrum, concert hall volume, and the ability to produce deep low notes.
Among the breakthroughs: the proprietary Bose wave guide technology, reduced from 75 inches to 52 inches, folded snake-like in a case that's not much bigger (17 inches wide, 9 inches high, 10 inches deep) than the previous system, that delivers the same sound quality. It's matched with a newly designed woofer, that reportedly delivers four times the efficiency of a conventional woofer.
The wave guide and the woofer are connected by a metal cap that provides magnetic shielding, directs air through the enclosure, and withstands high internal pressure created when the system is played. It was fun to watch the curtains behind the system flutter as volume increased. To keep the system cool, the SoundDock 10's innards are configured to create a "chimney effect," sucking in cool air at the bottom, blowing it out the top.
As might be expected (note posh precincts for launch, above), this system is not for the budget-minded. It goes on sale on Sept. 21 for $599. For an extra $149, buyers who prefer to manage their music while sitting on the sofa using their iPhone or Ipod Touch, can upgrade to a Bluetooth dock, and stream music wirelessly. That interchangeable dock will allow Bose to "future-proof" the system.
At 83, Bose CEO Amar Bose, is still thinking ahead.
I confess, I'm kind of a joke around the office, with my little plastic containers filled with last night's leftovers for lunch. Mock if you must, dear colleagues. But behold my shoe collection! A girl must deploy her diminishing resources wisely.
Which brings me, of course, to the topic of lunchboxes. This week, while most of the world is focused on getting their tykes off to school with the latest Spider-Man or Hello Kitty lunchboxes, I'm enamored of a far more creative line launching next week at ABC's Kid Expo in Las Vegas, the annual trade show for the juvenile products industry.
Designed by Whipsaw, the hot Silicon Valley industrial design firm, the Yubo lunchbox is a super-cool, super-functional box launched by a new company (of which Whipsaw's president and this week's Expert Design blogger Dan Harden
is a partner) called Kinsco.
A year ago, when the economy was tanking, Harden and his team were sitting around talking about designing products that were centered around family values, in the nicest possible way. "We wanted to showcase how design can make life better, easier, and more fulfilling," says Harden.
What's more primal then feeding a child? What's more frustrating than trying to find a way to get that food to school unsquashed, unspoiled, and appealing enough not to be traded for a Ding Dong?
"We took the problem of going mobile with food," Harden
says. "That's a design problem, and nobody was doing it right."
It was a dilemma the Whipsaw team was eager to embrace; despite being in San Jose, they were all delighted to do something, frankly, that didn't involve
electronics.
The boxes they created feature modular BPA-free interior
containers (plus icepack) that snap together in various configurations like Legos. There are
choose-your-own, or design-your-own faceplates, and options for
accessorizing, from "personality tags" to water bottles. Or, you can upload a photo and create a truly personal box. Fittingly, the
company's motto is "Play With Your Food."
The real beauty of the product, however, is that it
addresses a problem that designers have lately been wrestling with in our
post-consumption economy: how to make things that are functional and durable,
but can continue to delight, even after many years.
The Yubo may be the first lunchbox for
a lifetime, one that can begin its odyssey bedecked with dinosaurs, firetrucks
or fairy princesses, then morph into a feisty skater or martial arts design for
those critical middle school years, then garb itself in a faceplate of Shepard
Fairey's Andre the Giant or a Kings of Leon CD cover for the post-drink box
crowd.
Sitting here, surrounded by
grubby Rubbermaid, I could be tempted to jettison my recycled grocery bags and pony up for one. Just save me a seat at the cool kids' table.
About a year ago, Dan Harden, the president and chief designer of Whipsaw the Silicon Valley industrial design
and product development firm, stopped by the Fast Company offices bearing an
armload of products that were as eclectic as they were fascinating. A baby
bottle shaped like, well, Mom. A
crank-up field radio in juicy orange. A shiny little silver box that purported to be a computer but was as
sexy as a jewelbox.
Many went on to win Best of Show in various prestigious
design competitions, from IDEA to Red Dot to CES to the Medical Design
Excellence Awards, and they earned Whipsaw inclusion in our own round-up of the country's top design firms in last year's Masters of Design issue. The idea that these products all came out of the same 25-person shop
boggled the mind.
This year, Harden says, the range of design challenges
keeping the Whipsaw crew up at night is no less diverse. The company's ion chromatography
machine for Dionex is a cutting edge lab tool for identifying unknown materials
-- think: the toxic soup of particles surrounding the World Trade Center site.It' s now the number one such machine
in the world, and the scientists who use it, Harden says, are "giddy" with
delight at its ease of use and intuitive design.
On the other end of the spectrum, there's Whipsaw's latest
product, a super-cool, super-functional lunch box for a new company (of which Harden
is a partner) called Kinsco. The
Yubo lunchbox, which will debut at the ABC Show in Las Vegas next week, is
designed to transform that nasty ritualof opening your grungy, crumb-stuck container, only to find your banana
squashed against your PB&J. Yuck!
Harden's been one of the industry's most prolific and heralded designers in the business, with 150 patents and over 100 design awards in his trophy case. Several of his creations are in the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, the Pasadena Museum of CA Art, and the Cooper Hewitt. Prior to founding Whipsaw in 1999, Harden was president of frogdesign. Early in his career, he workd with design master George Nelson.
As with other design shops, Harden acknowledges his team has
had to work twice as hard for the same revenues this year. But he's not
complaining. "You have to be just as creative in how you run your business as
in how you design," he says. A
survivor's creed if ever I heard one.
I’m feeling particularly inspired today. The words are flowing. And I’m feeling at one with the planet and my fellow man. It could be that late summer tranquility that comes with knowing the October design issue is finally out the door. Or it could be my underwear.
Under my Calvins, I’m test-driving a pair of PACT gutchies (my granny’s Eastern European term for what I shouldn’t let the boys get into…). PACT, a company whose official roll-out begins today (see www.wearPACT.com), is an underwear company with a purpose: founders donate 10 percent of each sale to nonprofit organizations that work to create social and environmental change. Hence, their motto: Change Starts With Your Underwear. Inaugural partners include 826 National, ForestEthics and Oceana.
Various artists and designers have created patterns to reflect each organization’s mission. I’m wearing a pair of word-strewn panties, which will, presumably, support Dave Eggers’s writing and tutoring centers at 826 National. The company is the brainchild of two UC Berkeley, Haas Business School grad, Jeff Denby, who’s the company CCO, and Jason Kibbey, the company CEO. They met during a b-school business plan competition, that happened to be judged by fuseproject founder Yves Behar. Behar was so taken with the idea, he suggested fuseproject join the effort as design shop and equity partner.
“The whole supply chain is designed to be sustainable,” Denby said during a recent meeting in New York. That means all the processes involved in the garments’ manufacturing take place within a 100-mile radius of the factory in Turkey, from growing the organic cotton to packaging the final product. Indeed, even the product’s packaging is environmentally sensitive. It comes (this is an online business, so goods must be shipped) in a green enveloped, which Kibbey insures me is compostable within 45 days.
While starting a new company at the tail end of a recession may seem a little risky, the three (Behar included) feel that underwear may be the garment that will lead us out of the slough of (economic) despond. No less a brainiac than Alan Greenspan says you can tell when the recession is ending when men start buying skivvies again. Of course, he also said that, left alone, investment bankers, mortgage brokers and other shnooks would effectively police themselves. But never mind.
The idea is an appealing one, although the price point for all this undie-mania reflects a more robust economy than the one still hovering over many of us Frugal Fannies. At $20 for a thong, or $28 for a pair of boxers, PACT’s prices are a lot more than you’d pay at Macy’s for the 3-for $21 Jockey for Ladies sale.
Still, Jockey isn’t promising to save the oceans, the forests, and the semi-illiterate young. When it comes to underwear, Sheryl Crow has the last word: “A change will do you good.”
Several years ago, I moderated a panel at a design conference in Dubai. Among the panelists was a guy from Boeing, who dazzled the crowd with a slide show of the interior of the 787 Dreamliner. It was a view into an aviation experience that could make you forget what a nightmare travel has become: spacious, bright, with big windows, and a cabin that glowed. It made you want to grab your passport and go.
We all know that the Dreamliner has been riddled with structural problems, putting its debut on hold. So that delicious interior experience is still all pie, no sky. But I think of it every time I board some dismal, spine-destroying bus-with-wings. Some day!
Turns out, the designers behind that vision of aviation's future (as well as the bulk of Boeing's portfolio) mostly hail from Teague, one of the powerhouse design firms of the Pacific Northwest for the past 80 years. And the man at the helm is John Barratt, an exceedingly well-traveled Brit, who's done stints in Paris, Hong Kong, Eindhoven, and New York, before settling in Seattle as Teague's President and CEO.
During his five years at Philips Design, he worked under the passionate and poetic Stefano Marzano, eventually heading the strategic design team for Philip's telecommunications projects.
At Teague, Barratt has tried to shape the culture by focusing on three principles: 1) Creativity Always Wins; 2) Allow the Best to do Their Best; 3) Hardware has to be Humble.
"My job is to create conditions that will attract the best, and an organizational structure that will allow them to do their best work," he says. "There's a tendency in the creative world to have designers overburdened by things that aren't where they add most value. I try to make sure that doesn't happen." As for the third piece: "Hardware is on a second tier to content or the experience," he says. A radical idea for a company that also counts HP, Microsoft, Panasonic and Samsung among its clients.
Area firms are increasingly coming to Teague for thought leadership. For Microsoft, Teague produced a variety of thought-provoking pieces for internal consumption to help executives envision the future. For Boeing, Teague developed an innovation curriculum to help the organization apply a design process to problem solving.
"I see my role as infusing a few strands of Barratt DNA into the macro Teague DNA, rather than turning it upside down and shaking it," he says.
If you want to get to know designer Laura Guido-Clark, you might start by tooling around her Web site. Slide your cursor, even to a mundane link--"Contact," say--and suddenly you've drawn a cool and sinuous patterned coral line on a warm gray background. It inspires many reactions: Gee, I like that combination of colors. I should try that coral sweater I bought at Uniqlo with that gray skirt in the back of the closet. Or, Wow! This is fun! Forget working! Let's just doodle!
Wait a little longer and it all just....disappears. What's up with that?
The site is very Laura. It's about surfaces--Guido-Clark's particular area of expertise. It's about color, an area in which clients as diverse as Mattel, Sonicare, The Gap, and the mighty Pantone itself have used her services. And it's about humor, a gift that Laura says inspires her, and one that she has in abundance.
Guido-Clark's Berkeley, California design studio specializes in the "skins" of consumer products, ranging from textiles to automobiles, electronics, and household appliances. Steelcase, Apple, Toyota, FLOR, Godiva, IDEO, Design Within Reach, and Godiva are among the names on her extensive client list.
To get to the heart of a problem, Guido-Clark employs a process she calls "Climatology." It's part crystal ball, part pattern recognition, part psychotherapy, part hard core corporate strategy. It's goal is to forecast the weather so that clients can respond accordingly.
Last May, Guido-Clark designed the "Imagineered Workspace" for the party celebrating Fast Company's Most Creative People. To say this was a challenging job would be like saying the Boston Marathon is a pleasant trot. There were multiple pieces of furniture, from disparate manufacturers to integrate. The job had to be done from 3,000 miles away, without ever seeing the venue. It had to be set up and deconstructed in the space of 24 hours. And it had to look GREAT.
Laura's installation was both imaginative and functional. You can take a look, right here. Not only did she manage to hit all the goals, but she delivered some astonishing pieces of her own design, particularly a dramatic, wall-size Ethics Compass that every CEO should have hanging on his office wall.
Check it out in the video below.
Here are some of Guido-Clark Design's most compelling designs:
LGC Design worked with Kodak's industrial design team to develop a color language and finishes for many of their digital products, including the new Zi8 pocket camcorder.
Working with FLOR since its inception, LGC Design has designed seasonal collections, as well as directing color, materials and patterns for the brand. It's helped FLOR expand beyond its contract roots to reach a new residential consumer market.
"Simply Real" is a series of eco-fabrics that LGC Design did for Pallas Textiles.
LGC Design selected showroom materials and finishes to communicate the essence of Steelcase's new brand, Coalesse.
A European journalist at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) this morning asked filmmaker Tim Burton, "What was it like growing up in Burbank, California?"
"Have you ever seen Dante's 'Inferno?'" he shot back.
Actually, he said, the monotonous suburb was a boon to a kid with a fertile imagination: "It had no weather, no seasons, no culture. You had to make it up."
What he made up is an astonishing body of work: Edward Scissorhands, Beetljuice, Mars Attacks!, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and, soon, the much anticipated Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
Burton fans, then, will be in their glory this fall when MOMA launches the first major retrospective of Burton’s work--more than 700 drawings, paintings, storyboards, puppets, costumes, and cinematic ephemera. Some 550 pieces are from his own private collection, and thus have never been seen before.
The show will include screenings of film snippets, some from Burton’s years as an amateur--like the weird (OK, a redundant word when discussing Burton’s work) Doctor of Doom, a spoof of old time horror movies, featuring Burton himself in a starring role.
The show opens November 22 and runs through April 26, 2010. The museum will also screen Burton’s entire cinematic oeuvre--14 feature films--during the course of the show. Additionally, MOMA will feature a series of films that inspired Burton, grouped under the title "The Lurid Beauty of Monsters." They include Frankenstien, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Pit and the Pendulum, and Nosferatu.
Burton seemed a little awe-struck to be the center of attention in such an arty august venue, particularly given his background. "I didn’t grow up in a museum culture," he said. "The Hollywood Wax Museum was my first exposure to a museum."
All the more surreal, then, was MOMA director Glenn Lowry’s introduction, in which he called Burton "among the foremost auteur voices of his time," and compared his body of work to Andy Warhol's.
I asked Burton: What would your mother make of such a comparison? "She’d say, 'Who was Warhol?'"
The greatest design innovations invariably have a story behind them: the insight that led to a radical new way to solve a problem, the failure that led to a breakthrough, the serendipity where colliding forces led to a profound creative leap. Today, at the opening of the Industrial Design Society of America’s annual meeting in Miami, Ravi Sawhney, founder and CEO of the design firm RKS, will announce the first case studies in the organization’s Catalyst Awards program--four compelling stories of breakthrough design and how they came to be.
The Catalyst program, which for years recognized design-driven companies for their financial performance, last year was revised to showcase design’s power to effect positive change in the world. “These insightful examples of design’s power to drive results and effect positive change will serve to capture design’s legacy and inspire design’s future,” says Sawhney. 
Despite the eco-friendly cardboard centerpieces, the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria, with its velvet draperies and glittering chandeliers was an uncomfortably swanky venue for the annual 
You didn't have to be a "Squawkbox" forecaster to guess the answer. Citing a variety of examples of design innovation from past downturns, from Cyrus McCormick's mechanical reaper in the 1870s to Apple's iPod introduction in 2001, Millman affirmed that not only could the assembled crowd of designers eat their filet mignon without dissonance, but with pride: "We can't shirk our responsibility," she said. "Designers have the ability to make the world a better place. The world now offers opportunities and designers must respond."
The rest of the evening featured a long and appealingly-produced celebration of the year's honorees, from corporate achievers to AIGA fellows, designers who have made significant contributions to the field in their own communities. 
Accepting his award,
This morning, at a tony little press briefing at Manhattan's poshest dining spot, Thomas Keller's 
I'm no audiophile, but from what I heard in that sizable (roughly 25 feet wide, 40 feet long) satin-draped room, the sound quality was pretty remarkable. Starting with the dramatic acoustics of a raging thunderstorm, Bose executives ran through a variety of musical pieces, ranging from a fluttery soprano singing Lakme's "Bell Song," to Strauss's "Polka Opus 43" with its crashing explosive ending, to Wynton Marsalis's rumbling "Ghost in the House," to demonstrate the system's three new primary new features: clarity of notes across the musical spectrum, concert hall volume, and the ability to produce deep low notes.
Many went on to win Best of Show in various prestigious
design competitions, from IDEA to Red Dot to CES to the Medical Design
Excellence Awards, and they earned Whipsaw inclusion in our own round-up of the country's 
Various artists and designers have created patterns to reflect each organization’s mission. I’m wearing a pair of word-strewn panties, which will, presumably, support Dave Eggers’s writing and tutoring centers at 826 National. The company is the brainchild of two UC Berkeley, Haas Business School grad, Jeff Denby, who’s the company CCO, and Jason Kibbey, the company CEO. They met during a b-school business plan competition, that happened to be judged by 
While starting a new company at the tail end of a recession may seem a little risky, the three (Behar included) feel that underwear may be the garment that will lead us out of the slough of (economic) despond. No less a brainiac than 
We all know that the Dreamliner has been riddled with structural 
The site is very Laura. It's about surfaces--Guido-Clark's particular area of expertise. It's about color, an area in which clients as diverse as Mattel, Sonicare, The Gap, and the mighty Pantone itself have used her services. And it's about humor, a gift that Laura says 
A European journalist at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (
Burton fans, then, will be in their glory this fall when MOMA launches the first major retrospective of Burton’s work--more than 700 drawings, paintings, storyboards, puppets, costumes, and cinematic ephemera. Some 550 pieces are from his own private collection, and thus have never been seen before. 
Burton seemed a little awe-struck to be the center of attention in such an arty august venue, particularly given his background. "I didn’t grow up in a museum culture," he said. "The Hollywood Wax Museum was my first exposure to a museum."
