Author Archive
Remember when the words “Girl Scouts” meant thin mint cookies and a communication badge for talking with your friends? Fast forward 100 years of scouting, and today Girl Scouts means so much more! In fact, on Sunday March 18th, local Girl Scouts will have the opportunity to earn their innovation and product design badge. We’re thrilled to have been invited to the workshop to help them learn all about it.
The Monona Terrace Convention Center hosts Madison-area Girl Scouts for an afternoon workshop to explore the “who, what and why” of product design. Design Concepts’ staff members Sherry Eckholm, Dave Franchino, Vlada Belozerova and Corin Ludwig will join Heather Sabin, Monona Terrace education and tourism coordinator, and lead 25 girls in a hands-on workshop on the innovation process. We’re looking forward to a great afternoon, and the chance to introduce design to a new generation of innovators.
Our user experience teams continue their travels around the world. In between meetings and interviews, they’ve been challenged to find time to capture snapshots of the head-turning images they’ve seen along the way.
Today’s Design Double Take comes from the team of Sherry Eckholm, senior industrial designer + studio lead, and Dan Sarbacker, design strategist, as they continue their journey moving from Korea to Taiwan.
In Taipei, Sherry met school children excited to meet and greet our team at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
From the street looking up at the Taipei 101 building – 1,474 ft from the ground to the rooftop.
From up above looking down at Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung at night where scooters rule the road.
Several of our design teams are currently working around the globe researching user experiences.. At the end of their busy day, each team has been challenged to find a spare moment – not easy to do on these fast-paced, rigorous trips – and snap a photo of something that makes them do a design double take.
Today’s images are courtesy of Sherry Eckholm, sr. industrial designer + studio lead, and Dan Sarbarcker, design strategist, who are currently working in Seoul, Korea. From everyday life, to the universal appeal of a pop icon to the preparedness that’s the reality of our times, these images made our heads turn.
A sign of our times, or maybe just a sign of superb preparedness. Sherry explains, “These are emergency kit boxes they have all over the subway system, a system that is amazing, by the way. Super clean, easy to get around in, with incredible signage. They’re all about being prepared, and these kits are all throughout the system with escape maps outlined, as well as fire extinguishers and gas masks. Strange and very cool!”
We’re thrilled to have an article featured in the March 2012 Appliance Design magazine.
In addition to being available in the Appliance Design magazine and on their Web site, we’re distributing it here to help you sort through the maze of battery options. We hope the battery chart and application information helps you make a powerful choice that will set your product apart from the competition.
Truth be told, the article just scratches the surface – we have so much more we’d like to share. So please feel free to post a comment or question if you’d like more information tailored to your specific design challenge. Or even if you just want to talk batteries. Let’s face it: alkaline, nickel-cadmium, lithium iron phosphate. We can’t get enough of this stuff.
Read and Download Powerful Choices: Selecting the Right Battery for Product Applications
Our design teams are traveling the world on behalf of our clients gaining insights into user experiences. Over the next eight weeks, six teams will be gathering information on five continents. Teams have been challenged to find a spare moment and take a quick photo along the way of something that makes them do a design double-take. We’ll be sharing our quick snapshots of things that made us turn our heads and notice design – the good, the bad, the beautiful and even the outrageous – in every corner of planet.
Our first trip takes us to Shenyang, China where Stephanie Galligan, design researcher + studio lead, and Rachel DeSmidt, industrial designer + project manager, noticed an interesting design adaptation that might warm a rider’s hands during any Wisconsin winter. Why haven’t we seen this before?
And proving that even the ordinary can be spectacular, lunch options that put a filet-o-fish to shame.
