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2ndEdison, Inc., an innovation and product development consultancy, has added a key player to its Product Innovation team.
Rick has joined 2ndEdison as Director of Product Innovation, where he will infuse his entrepreneurial blend of marketing, management and design expertise. Rick joins 2ndEdison from Pentagram Design where he was strategic director for Pentagram's San Francisco office. Prior to Pentagram, Rick was Director of Business Development for Ziba Design, and before that Rick ran his own firm, Peterson Design, an international design and manufacturing company.
"We are thrilled to have landed Rick for this key role," said 2ndEdison's founder and CEO, Chris Bradley. "With more than 20 years of industry experience and a lengthy track record of successes in product innovation and growing businesses, Rick is a perfect fit. Rick will help us extend our reach and achieve our goal of being the preeminent innovation partner for the world's strongest brands."
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Original design complexity and expertise is growing on the Chinese mainland, according to survey results published by Global Sources, Inc., a media company focused on the China market.
The survey, conducted by EE Times-China magazine, found that 62 percent of the survey's 2,153 electronic design engineers devote their time to original work or enhancing designs, indicating that Chinese electronics manufacturers are moving up the supply chain in terms of value-added products.
"You're hard-pressed to find something in Circuit City that doesn't have "Made in China" stamped on it," says Charles Armitage, chief representative for North America at Global Sources. "Increasingly it's becoming designed in China as well."
30 percent of those surveyed by EE Times are producing original designs based on existing products; 16 percent are creating new designs, and another 16 percent are enhancing original designs. Thirty-eight percent said they reference existing foreign or domestic designs in development of products.
There are resource issues however. Thirty-five percent cited budget constraints, 33 percent noted a lack of information on the latest components, and almost one-third cited a shortage of advanced test equipment.
Engineers are variously concentrating reducing production costs, improving performance and reliability
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by Jim Motavalli
In 2002, I saw the extravagant-lookin g Infiniti FX45 concept on the car show circuit. The thing to understand here is that concept cars are designed to be outlandish so they catch the eye of the public and visiting press, generating buzz and excitement. Sometimes they get turned into actual production cars (the Dodge Viper, for instance) but more often head overrules heart and the design is toned down before it reaches the market.
The FX45 went more or less directly from the revolving show stand to the dealer's lot. Reviewer Dan Jedlicka described it as "like a futuristic auto show crossover vehicle come to life" and Woman Motorist purred that vehicles on the Nissan car-based FM platform "seem more akin to slinky sports cars than lumbering SUV hulks."
I say, bollocks! They're making superficial judgments based on looks, like that hapless Jack Nicholson character in Carnal Knowledge . Aside from its fairly sleek surface (which looks particularly gaudy in "liquid copper"), there's nothing at all sporty about the FX45. This is one of the all-time worst SUVs I've ever driven, almost unmanageable in tight parking situations, and with really awful rear vision.
On its huge, chrome-rimmed 20-inch wheels (a $1,600 option!) and with bulging flanks invisible to the driver, it's like trying to maneuver a hippo
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When Sony Corp. President Kunitake Ando showed off the new Walkman meant to counter the assault by Apple's iPod portable music player, he held the prized gadget at the gala event upside down.
That may have been a bad omen.
The iPod is proving a colossal hit on the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant's own turf. The tiny white machine is catching on as a fashion statement and turning into a cultural icon in Japan, much the same way it won a fanatic following in the United States.
Apple Computer Inc. has launched a marketing campaign in Japan with catchy TV ads and billboards painted on Tokyo trains. It opened its first Apple store in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza late last year and is opening another in the city of Osaka this month.
"I only want something I can believe in," says 21-year-old design-school student Hiroyuki Sakurai, who was all smiles after buying an iPod recently at the bustling Apple store. "It's a question of sensibility."
When the colorful and smaller iPod mini went on sale in July, more than 1,000 people waited for the store to open. The waiting list for minis is now several weeks' long.
Although Apple doesn't release regional sales figures, six of the top eight selling music players in Japan are iPod models, according to Gfk Japan, a market research company.
Its white earbuds are so well-
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Whether it's Apple Ipods, Oxo kitchen accessories, Cooper Minis, Ian Schrager hotels, jetBlue airplanes, Prada luxury goods or Michael Graves' mass-market Target products, good design is driving corporate revenues and delivering profits. Design is a critical component of management and commerce, being used to establish corporate identities, develop brands and differentiate products from the competition. In addition to Michael Graves, style-forward designers like Philippe Stark, Karl Lagerfeld and Isaac Mizrahi create both high-end and mass-audience products.
Increasingly, business executives have learned the importance of design literacy in making strategic decisions for their products.
With these corporate executives and non-designers in mind, Design 101(TM) Executive Seminar: An Introduction to the Five Disciplines of Design is an intensive education seminar providing an introduction to the periods, practitioners and principles of the five core design disciplines: architecture, fashion, graphic design, interior design and product design.
"Ultimately, Design 101(TM) participants emerge from the seminar with insights and understanding that will help them stand out from their peers," commented Steve Kroeter, program director of Design 101(TM).
Design 101(TM) will be held Monday, October 18, to Friday, October 22, 200
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