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Robert Brunner

Owner / Partner, Ammunition Group
San Francisco, CA

Robert Brunner’s career as an industrial designer tied deeply with the evolution of the high technology industry itself. The son of a development pioneer of the first hard disk drives built at IBM, the San Jose native pursued a lifelong fascination for high tech products as a designer after graduating in industrial design from San Jose University in 1981. His work has spawned numerous brand-defining designs during the past two decades. He founded Lunar Design in 1984 after working as a designer and project manager at several Silicon Valley companies. He subsequently went on to become director of industrial design at Apple Computer in 1989, where he provided design and direction for notable product lines such as the Apple II, Macintosh, the original Macintosh PowerBook and Newton. In 1996, he became partner in the San Francisco office of Pentagram, one of the world’s most influential design firms, leading a team of industrial designers, interaction designers, CAD specialists and model makers, working with numerous Fortune 500 companies including Dell, Nike and Hewlett Packard on strategic brand consulting and industrial design programs. In 2006, alongside his tenure as a Pentagram partner, Brunner launched Fuego, a new concept in outdoor grilling, in partnership with Alex Siow, founder of Zephyr Ventilation. As Fuego’s chief industrial designer, Brunner is re-defining the rituals of outdoor cooking by embracing high levels of industrial design and new technology. Robert left Pentagram in 2007 to found Ammunition, a product design, brand and interactive development consultancy based in San Francisco. He leads his company as founder and creative director, focusing on communicating strategic innovation through product design, brand and surrounding experience. Robert’s work has been widely published in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. His product designs have won many prestigious IDEA Awards as well as being recognized in numerous other prestigious design and industry awards and reviews. Robert Brunner's work is also included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Modern Art San Francisco permanent design collection. Robert also has taught advanced product design at Stanford University

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Consumers Behaving Badly: Is Design to Blame? Uncivilized behavior is on the rise in our culture and it might be all design's fault. Posted Thu Jun 11, 2009

How to Put Design in the Driver’s Seat Companies often come to us wanting to understand the secret to becoming "design-driven." Here it is. Posted Wed Jun 10, 2009

iCopycats: Apple Does Not Equal Good Design Now that I have your attention with that bit of blasphemy in the title, let me explain. Posted Tue Jun 9, 2009

Design Is Too Important to Be Left to the Thinkers Recently, at a conference reception (think wine and cubes of cheese), a well-known and influential member of the academic community said to me: "Design strategy is far too important to be left to designers." What a pile of crap, I think. I am pissed, but in a moment of cowardice, I sip my wine, chew my pepper jack, and slink off to lighter conversation. If only I were able to channel Clint Eastwood at will. Posted Mon Jun 8, 2009

History

Member for

2 years 35 weeks