Category Archives: Industrial Design

As consultants who specialize in new technology, a lot of our work is under NDA, so every once in a while, we do a project just for ourselves, to strut. (Last year it was the Kicker Conference Phone.) This time, we wanted to design a product for the home and we focused on an activity many of us enjoy: tea drinking.

Filed in Concept Projects, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Projects in Process | Comments (10)

The Language of Things: Understanding the World of Desirable Objects by Deyan Sudjic, director of Design Museum in London, is a curious, interesting book. It looks at the world of objects through several lenses: language, archetypes, luxury, fashion, and art. Some of these (language, archetypes) I found more interesting than others (fashion), but it has some smart ideas about the objects that surround us, and how we should design them.

Filed in Book Reviews, Industrial Design, Inspiration | Comments (0)

My hometown San Francisco is probably one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Tourism accounts for a substantial portion of the city’s revenue, and I have to believe the city’s aesthetics have a lot to do with why people come here. Imagine my surprise, then, on a beautiful day yesterday, to discover this is what the city seems to be installing as red light cameras.

Filed in Industrial Design, Interactive Environments | Comments (6)

I read with some interest Carla Diana’s Core77 report on this year’s CHI conference. (It’s always better to get a summary of CHi than to actually go.) Buried in the article is this line: “Industrial design is the new interface design” was the mantra of the week.

Filed in Industrial Design, Interaction Design | Comments (2)

Like everyone else who enjoyed the typography documentary Helvetica, I’ve long been anticipating Gary Hustwit’s second design-related film Objectified, which premiered Saturday at SXSW. Objectified focuses on industrial design — the every-day objects we covet and the people who design them. It explores the meaning of design, the relationship between the designer and designed object, [...]

Filed in Industrial Design, Interaction Design | Comments (2)

One of the great things about working at a company with both interaction and industrial designers is that when collaboratively designing a device, you have better control over where bits of its functionality are located: in the hardware or the software. At Kicker, we call the activity of figuring out where a feature “lives” Functional Cartography.

Filed in Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Product Design 2.0, Touchscreens | Comments (0)

Yes, we’ve been in business for months now, but we’re finally getting around to our launch party. But we’re not just having one event, we’re having THREE.

Filed in Events, Industrial Design, Kicker, Product Design 2.0 | Comments (0)

Industrial designers are taught to stay on top of design trends. When the first charcoal PC came out it didn’t take long for most computer makers to go from beige to black. But the practice of borrowing design cues seems to be increasing to the point where a careful observer could probably tell the year a product was introduced just by its design. This year especially it seems that companies have taken that idea to a whole new level. Not only are companies mimicking design cues, but some are stealing design language and even an entire brand.

Filed in Industrial Design, Product Strategy | Comments (1)

Most of us have seen the cars (often SUVs) with cameras placed on their back, looking behind them, so that drivers can easier park. These are great. What would also be helpful are small cameras on the tips of the front of cars, pointing left and right.

Filed in Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Product Concepts | Comments (0)

On December 9, 1968, 40 years ago today, Doug Engelbart unleashed The Mother of All Demos onto an unsuspecting world.

Filed in Industrial Design, Inspiration, Interaction Design | Comments (0)