Where Designers Rule

Electronics maker Bang & Olufsen doesn't ask shoppers what they want. Its faith is in its design gurus

BusinessWeek, November 5, 2007 — Torsten Valeur, one of Bang & Olufsen's top designers, sits in a windowless room in Gumi, South Korea, staring dumbfounded at a group of Samsung Electronics engineers and thinks, "Oh, s---." Valeur is designing a new high-end cell phone for B&O, the Danish company known for its cutting-edge consumer electronics, and Samsung, a partner providing mobile-phone technology. Valeur, here for a routine three-day product-update meeting, has just received terrible news. Without telling him, the Samsung engineers changed the screen on his phone from 2.1 inches to 2 in. Why? Because 2-in. screens are standard, and that's what is in stock. Worse, they've gone ahead and ordered thousands

At Frog, Being Green Isn’t Easy; It’s Essential

Committing to clean design

Fast Company, November 1, 2007 — Looking back, 2007 may well be remembered as the year green went mainstream: Al Gore got an Oscar, Wal-Mart flogged organic jammies, and bottled water went from being a symbol of purity to the beverage equivalent of a pack of Luckies.

Nowhere, perhaps, has the green ethos been embraced more fervently than in the design community, a group that, in the words of Frog Design president and COO Doreen Lorenzo, "inherently wants to do good and change the world."

Where Designers Rule

Electronics maker Bang & Olufsen doesn't ask shoppers what they want. Its faith is in its design gurus

BusinessWeek, October 29, 2007 — Torsten Valeur, one of Bang & Olufsen's top designers, sits in a windowless room in Gumi, South Korea, staring dumbfounded at a group of Samsung Electronics engineers and thinks, "Oh, s---." Valeur is designing a new high-end cell phone for B&O, the Danish company known for its cutting-edge consumer electronics, and Samsung, a partner providing mobile-phone technology.

Streamlining HP

Sam Lucente's business is corporate design. Persuasion is his game.

Fast Company, October 1, 2007 — Why am I meeting with you guys?" It was the spring of 2005, just three weeks into Mark Hurd's tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), and product design was not at the top of his list of priorities. Hurd was consumed with the monumental task of restructuring a company with more than 150,000 employees in 170 countries and making operational efficiency a cornerstone of the tech giant's competitive strategy.

The ponytailed Sam Lucente, who'd become HP's first-ever vice president of design two years earlier, was in the hot seat. He flashed a slide that showed dozens of HP logos, each created by a different team within the company. The next slide was of a single logo, crafted by his corporate design crew, that could be used everywhere. Lucente predicted... continue reading

Return Of The Easy Rider

With U.S. cycling in decline, bike parts giant Shimano steered the industry in a new direction

BusinessWeek, September 17, 2007 — This summer, cyclists in skintight shorts raced through the French countryside in the annual Tour de France. The winner, Alberto Contador, rode to victory on a Trek Madone 6.9 Pro that would cost consumers $8,249.99. Alice Wilkes also bought a Trek bike this summer, but she had a very different experience. Wilkes bought a Trek Lime, which shifts automatically so riders don't have to fuss with gears, stops when cyclists pedal backwards (like in the old days), and has a big, comfy seat. It retails for $589.99

Design It Before You Buy It†

Online 3-D Tool Lets Consumers Tinker With the Product

Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2007 — Companies are always asking consumers to tell them what they want. Now consumers can show them.

That is the idea, at least, behind a new online marketing tool developed by French software maker Dassault Systemes SA and French advertising company Publicis SA. The new so-called 3dswym tool allows consumers to help companies that make everything from yogurt to cars to design their latest products.

Ideas made here

The designers at Nottingham-Spirk take their inventions from scratch pad to store shelves. You probably own a few.

FORTUNE, June 11, 2007 — Nottingham and his partner, John Spirk, run Nottingham-Spirk, the most successful industrial-design firm you've probably never heard of. What they're doing on their frequent Wal-Mart reconnaissance missions, Spirk says, is "looking for what's not there."

To Appeal to Women, Too, Gadgets Go Beyond “Cute” and “Pink”

Women are embracing consumer electronics just as the technologies are reaching out to embrace them.

New York Times, June 7, 2007 — A growing number of women are embracing consumer electronics just as the technologies are reaching out to embrace them. Behind this quiet revolution are engineers and designers who are bringing a more feminine sensibility to products historically shaped by masculine tastes, habits and requirements.

Climb Aboard The Plane Of The Future

At a skunk works in Seattle, Boeing engineers look to Wal Mart, Disney and Starbucks for ideas.

Forbes, June 4, 2007 — At Boeing's Payload Concepts Center north of Seattle, engineers are studying techniques used by Starbucks , Disney , Cirque du Soleil and Wal-Mart for clues to make flying less of a chore.

The Shape of Computers to Come?†

The Latest Products Seek to Explore New Forms, Uses

Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2007 — It's time for computer designers to think outside the box. From Microsoft Corp. to Silicon Valley start-ups, technology companies are introducing computers with fundamentally new forms.