In the above video, our lead industrial designer, Patrick Murphy, demonstrates his techniques for concept sketching on an iPad. Using the Wacom Bamboo Paper app, Patrick creates a drool-worthy sketch of a bicycle flashlight, intended to be mounted on the handlebars. Most of Patrick's portfolio of client industrial design sketches have been achieved using this technique as he finds the speed and flexibility of the digital tools help him get more ideas out on... bamboo paper.
Contact us before you attempt to use a Sharpie on your tablet.
Perhaps the most wildly innovative design in NewDealDesign’s Sling portfolio came with the 2010 release of the Slingbox 700u – a fully-capable Slingbox device developed solely for media provider distribution. The 700u marked the smallest Slingbox yet. The internals required a space barely larger than a pad of Post-It notes, only with the added complication of heat management capacity of a much larger vented box. NewDealDesign solved the issue with a different tactic – the chipset required a giant heat sink regardless of the form factor, so the team decided to make the form factor a giant heat sink!
The result is a true piece of shelf jewelry, reminiscent of missile grid fins and fine latticework, a marriage of extravagant ornament and the technological future. Surrounding the core is a thin outer band, the space in between laced with even thinner sets of interwoven fins of varying height – all composed in a single die-cast aluminum piece the size of a checkbook. An ultimate expression of form and function, the design brought home the bacon in 2010, sweeping several design and tech awards, including an IDEA "best in show." The design borrows nothing from its predecessor models beyond a penchant for interesting patterns, instead forging an identity entirely unique and intrinsic to itself. Such a divergence is often a dangerous deed for a brand with an established visual language, but the 700u has perhaps conjured more interest than any Slingbox yet, despite its lack of availability as an aftermarket product.
The 700u was a design anomaly. Unorthodox, yet surprisingly effective, the 700u was surely an isolated incident in the design evolution at Sling? Nope! It was three years before Sling released another product, but when they did, NewDeal had done something even more surprising than the 700u departure. They again designed a Slingbox with no connection to their established VBL, and they did it with a pair of simultaneously-released models in October 2012. The Slingbox 350 and 500 are the newest and current faces of SlingMedia, and they look more like different species than siblings.
The company touts the 350 as the "most affordable Slingbox yet," but unlike many entry-level offerings, its design wasn't watered down to boost the appeal of products further up the totem pole. The matte black rectangular box is covered on all sides by glossy diamond indentations, starting small and shallow at the back and increasing in depth as the pattern moves forward, gradually corrupting the flat surfaces until only a crystalline texture exist. Like pavé diamonds, the effect of light hitting the unit is mesmerizing.
The high-end 500 model by contrast has only smooth surfaces. It is essentially an extrusion of the same rounded right triangle, only the shape flips direction from one side to the other, creating a somewhat amorphous top surface with two defined peaks at opposing corners. The design effect is that of a simple shape grabbed at either end and twisted to form the final product. A glossy, wrapped band caps the right side of the otherwise uninterrupted shell, and perforated end caps deliver the only subtle throwback to Slingboxes past.
The duo is quite different on the outside, but they actually share a very important trait - the same trait that drove the design of the 700u--thermodynamics. The radical aluminum lattice of the 700u dissipates heat conductively from its core. The 350 and 500 dissipate heat convectively, each in its own neat way. Each faceted divot in the 350 actually contains a missing face - amounting to hundreds of tiny holes in the casing that dissipate the hot air within. On the glossy black case, the holes are practically invisible, requiring close inspection to recognize their existence. As NewDeal president Gadi Amit puts it, "It's an optics trick hidden in plain sight."
The 500 also sheds degrees in a unique way. The opposing twin peaks on its morphed upper surface are the highest points on the form. The hot air within rises, flows along the inside of the case, and exits at the openings on either end. So effective is the heat management in both models that they require no active cooling (fans), and are completely silent as a result –making each model a better playmate with home audio.
The design lineage of the Sling product family is not without its critics – it most certainly breaks the rule of compromising one's own VBL and risking the loss of brand equity. But Sling is now under the influence of a new VBL, one that’s actually defined by its own evolution—vivid progression—and I believe it's a good one. Regardless of the righteousness of their design decisions, it’s hard to criticize Sling and NewDeal as they've sold like a bazillion Slingboxes (unofficial figures).
As a designer, I really hope that NewDeal continues making each new iteration of the same product a statement in and of itself. Perhaps this vivid progression will persuade others to follow suit, ushering in a new era where VBLs and product families are seen as design crutches. With nothing to hide behind, each design would be considered and crafted to a higher level to embody its own being, instead of adhering to the strict aesthetic code of its predecessors. Whether or not this happens, one thing is certain—in throwing all of its inhibitions to the wind and all of its trust in the hands of NewDealDesign, SlingMedia has built a powerful empire of beautiful slinging devices, and my own vision is a lot better off for it.
"If there is a simple, easy principle that binds everything I have done together, it is my interest in people and their relationship to things."—Bill Moggridge
Bill Moggridge passed away on this past September, leaving many of us in the global design community saddened at the loss of not only a great designer, but a great person. He also leaves us with his monumental legacy achieved on two continents, in multiple areas of design—doing it, teaching it, and serving as one of its principal champions over the course of four decades. His influence will live on for at least as many to come.
When we think of industrial design, we tend to think about objects. Objects are, after all, what we shape from our designs. As designers, we envision, sketch, sculpt, CAD, prototype, look at, discard, re-envision, make, drool over, and implement . . . objects. The design process can be so robust at times that it seems that there is little space for thinking about anything but the object. Thus, we often find ourselves, as designers, consumed by objects.
From the German Bauhaus school, whose curriculum and alumni are attributed with founding the modernist approach to product design, to Raymond Loewy, whose career and notoriety catapulted industrial design into the media spotlight, practically all industrial design in the last century has shared a somewhat common, object-centered goal: design something aesthetically pleasing and mechanically functional that can be produced in sufficient quantity to meet market demand. Industrial design’s ideal is thus expressed in an object as the harmony of form, function, and pragmatism. This ideal has been the foundation for thousands of successful products throughout the last century.
However, design must keep pace with and react to the rapid evolution of technology available that integrates with products. And no more rapid an evolution in history took place than the boom of computing—in the workplace, but especially in the home—during the last quarter-century. The computer’s presence in our everyday lives, both obvious and not, is absolutely immense. But unlike virtually all products that came before it, the computer required an entirely different kind of interaction with its users. The computer wasn’t used in a physical sense, it was used mentally—channeling, altering, and delivering information. Suddenly, computers demanded a new design paradigm, a real divergence from the “just make it fashionable and manufacturable” pragmatic mantra. Early computers were notoriously difficult to interact with, and Bill Moggridge, who was involved with the design of some of the earliest consumer computers, certainly took notice.
After graduating from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London in 1965, Moggridge set about a career that took design on unforeseen paths of greatness. He went about steadily rejecting the sandy foundation of pragmatic design by showing us that objects are not the center of the design universe—people are. Bill Moggridge wasn’t just a designer who understood the notion of human-centered innovation—he was the man who brought the entire concept to fruition.
You can see Moggridge’s steady hand of evolving achievement on everything from hospital equipment to space heaters and ultimately the personal computer.
Writing about the life and career of Bill Moggridge from an industrial designer’s viewpoint is actually a bit tricky. He was indeed an industrial designer, one of the best; and although I’d love to claim him as a shining example of “one of our own,” it would be just a little inappropriate. And only because Bill Moggridge transcended any normal terms you could place on a designer—it’s sort of like saying, “Yeah, that’s Michael Jordan, the basketball player.”
Moggridge is transcendent, not just for pioneering a human-centered approach in design, but also for pioneering interaction design. Thus his influence hit new levels, since most of the recent notable advancements in the design field have come from the realm of interaction design. Many can credit Moggridge as the John the Baptist of computing, since he designed the form factor for the Grid Compass personal computer—a forerunner species to the Apple Macintosh and others. He realized that the most important parts of these devices were those that connected the user to the software, thus defining the user experience for the device.
Bill Moggridge, too, was the ultimate collaborator. He understood that other people’s ideas, coming from both industry experts and consumers, were just as important in the design process as his own, and that the combination and synthesis of all of these ideas are what gives design its magic. With diverse ideas and complex teams behind every design, Moggridge saw that the shared process is far more powerful than the individual mind. This consideration during the design process identified emotional and psychological connections that people had, or could potentially have, with products. He never left design simply limited to the aesthetic.
Bill Moggridge gave us so much, and for so much we are grateful in the design community. He gave us our vision and our perspective, a brash new pursuit of our technical abilities, and, at his very core, our inspiration fueled by constant collaboration—two of the bedrock values designers hold dear. He saw himself as a guy who lived his life in phases, as a designer, team leader/design manager, and communicator/storyteller. He lived design, and he championed it—as an everyday practice and as a phenomenon of human achievement. And he did this for me.
For a recent Tangents interview, I sat down with Trig’s video and photography wunderkind, Cristina Fletes-Boutte, to discuss multiple aspects of her work. During the course of the interview, she touched upon an inspiring subject, the notion that her work could help people reach deeper connections with the products and services of Trig’s customers.
All of us at Trig view these deeper connections as foundational to the success of our company’s branding efforts for clients. Cristina’s observation made me think to ask different members of our team to take a look not at our own work, but to think about the great work that other agencies are doing to promote brands in new and different ways. The answers I got to these questions were not only reflective of the diverse talent we have at our disposal, but of the really cool ways that the least complacent megabrands are using to stand out in a crowded, noisy marketplace.
My favorite branding effort from recent months is the commercial shot by Procter & Gamble for the Olympics, and the way they connected athletes and their mothers—the same women who washed years and years’ worth of sweaty, dirty laundry. In these spots, the moms now have the privilege of watching their kids triumph at the Games.
The commercials are awesome, in the way that they place little kids—of elementary school age—in roles normally reserved for adult athletes. It’s visually startling to see 10-year-olds with intense, competitive “game faces” on while readying themselves for Olympic events ranging from powerlifting to track and field to swimming. When we see the moms in the stands cheering them on, we realize, as the tagline soon tells us, that in their mothers’ eyes, the Olympians will always be kids. There’s a real genius to this, as the moms are the ones who, in most families, select P&G’s household products that range from toothpaste to batteries. The commercials obviously honor those customer moms directly, and they make those of us who love our own moms recall them fondly.
I think these spots transcend the normal “our detergent cleans better than your detergent” ads—the ones where they wash one clothing article with Tide and another with “Brand X.” While I know these comparison spots serve a real purpose, it’s the ones like the Olympic spots that really aspire to those deeper connections. This aspirational aspect of the work really seeks to bring out the best in people, and I think the brand really resonates as a result.
My favorite brand connection comes from the recent Subaru commercials that depict the life of a family and their dog. The commercial starts with a young man getting a Labrador retrierver puppy, and it shows them going places in his Subaru. Then, the guy gets married, and the dog gets bumped to the back seat in favor of the new woman in their lives. After the couple has a child, the aging dog then moves from the back seat to the cargo area, making way for the baby’s seat. At this point, you can see that the dog has white hairs all over his face, and that he’s looking plaintively at his male companion as if to say, “Hey, don’t forget I’m back here!”
This commercial really hit home for me as a dog lover, and it makes me realize that our family has grown and our dog receives a little less attention and prominence as a result. Our dog has also accumulated a significant amount of white hair in recent years! I think this commercial is supposed to illustrate that your Subaru is always there for you, and the part that I always focus on is the dog and how no matter how the family changes they are always with you and remain loyal.
I think Samsung’s new campaign, dubbed “The Next Big Thing Is Already Here,” is absolutely brilliant. The setting of the commercials is usually some long line of millennials camped outside of an electronics retail establishment. And, although the name is never directly mentioned, everyone well-knows what store it is, and what event is about to take place: the release of Samsung competitor Apple’s latest and greatest iPhone iteration.
Viewers can see a small group of sidewalk squatters giddily discussing their current Apple technology and that of the phone to come, right before they spy a passerby doing something unique and totally awesome with their own smartphone device. The only problem is, it’s not an iPhone!
“What is that!?” they exclaim. “Did you just share a picture by tapping your phones together!?” “Um. . . yeah, this is my Samsung Galaxy S3,” says the guy, exuding utter nonchalance. This guy doesn’t wait in lines for phones, and he doesn’t pine for larger screens or 4G data. He doesn’t worry about connector adapters, and he straight-up doesn’t care, because he doesn’t have to—he just has a great phone without all of the baggage and hype.
He oozes cool. He makes the line squatters question their very allegiance, their fanboy religion, which is now seemingly based on insufficient technology and delayed promises. Another commercial shows a guy sitting IN the iPhone line next to a babbling hipster herd, but he’s holding his Samsung phone. “So, I guess your Samsung didn’t work out for you, huh?” says the v-neck and scarf adorned part-time barista poet, with a smirk (the character portrayal is spot-on). “No, I love my GS3. . . I’m just saving a spot in line for someone.” Well, that someone shows up, and it’s the dude’s parents. HIS PARENTS. We all grow up, but somehow parents are still the antithesis of cool. The commercial drama reflects what, for me, is true in real life—the Apple fad has reached saturation. You’re no longer a member of an edgy cultural subset for having an iPhone, because, well, almost everybody has one—including YOUR PARENTS.
Morgan House, Business Development Associate: Bud Light
I recently watched a documentary called “Beer Wars.” It’s about the marketing war fought among the big American brands—Budweiser, Miller, and Coors. The documentary basically makes the point that the difference in taste among these brands is minimal, so that they really have to establish their market share through advertising and reaching deeper brand connections with beer-drinkers. In one memorable scene, they show avowed “Bud men” and “Coors men” unable to tell the difference among their favorite beers and those of their competitors.
I think the folks at Anheuser Busch have done the best recent job at making this deeper consumer connection. Everybody knows the beer companies spend jillions of dollars trying to connect with football fans, and they’ve done a great job with their recent ads centered on superstitious fans.
Every sport has folks who find themselves driven by a myriad of superstitions. In a new Bud Light commercial, a bunch of guys in the sands go quiet and turn their beer labels facing the field for a field goal attempt by their team. One of their friends doesn't understand why, and as he questions the ritual, he is told by his buddies to just do it. The kicker makes the field goal, and the fans all acknowledge their role in the successful kick.
And the slogan is awesome—“It’s Only Weird If It Doesn’t Work.” This campaign specifically works because it taps into something so common that lies beneath the surface of the more conventional aspects of being a sports fan. It taps into something that people experience as individuals and together as groups.
Perhaps the biggest gamble I’ve seen in recent times by a sizeable brand is Volkswagen’s Fun Theory campaign. I love it, because it’s quite off-the-wall, and it has seemingly nothing to do with cars.
VW obviously wanted to people to associate its brand with innovation, and to have that innovation tied mentally to driving behaviors that make the world a better place. So they set up this series of public experiments and tied in a digital campaign centered around a website and video series.
While all of the experiments at changing human behavior through fun activity are rather successful, my particular favorite is the “Piano Steps” experiment. In this video, commuters coming off the subway in Stockholm face the common choice of escalator versus stairs to ascend to ground level in the city. Almost no one uses the stairs, even though everyone knows it’s a healthier alternative.
The folks at VW replace the stairs with piano keys—a la Tom Hanks’ 80s movie, Big, and the fun begins. Through the course of the experiment, the steps see a 66% rise in traffic, as most people want to get in on the fun of walking on a giant piano on the way to see the city.
What does all of this say about VW’s cars? Well, nothing directly communicated that I can think of, but this campaign certainly attaches Volkswagen to multiple positive messages aligned with affecting change in human behavior to make the world a better place. And it’s better simply because we all take a few minutes to have fun. If that’s not a deeper connection that almost any brand would want to have with the public, I don’t know a better replacement.
Trig Innovation is pleased to announce the launch of a new set of services aimed at multiple industries—product modeling through sculpting and carving.
Spearheaded by industrial designer Patrick Murphy, the new sculpting and carving services aim to take products and their branding to a new level of realism, escaping the more esoteric impressions made by other services like 3D CAD sculpting and animation. An even greater application of the services is working on behalf of service companies beleaguered by their lack of tangible offerings. Sculpting and carving, particularly through a food medium, elevates the brands of companies delivering intangibles in many unforeseen ways, according to Murphy.
“This new service embodies one of our core values, inspiration,” stated Murphy. My wife, Mandie, and I recently returned from our honeymoon. After posting hundreds of pictures of our trip to San Francisco on Facebook, we purchased some pumpkins in advance of the Halloween holiday.
Tired from our afternoon at the pumpkin patch, we sat down and watched an old YouTube clip of the vintage game show with Love Boat-style cameos, Hollywood Squares. Then, in a fit of inspiration, I just started working on a design of a grid of squares. It was kind of abstract at first, just me playing with geometry a bit, trying to capture the perfect square through repetition in this new medium. Then, lo and behold, after several minutes whiling away with my knife set, I had carved out the Trig Innovation brand mark that I see so often during the day, as well as in my sleep.
The results are magnificent. At Trig, we like to say that we ‘eat our own dog food,’ meaning that we like to test out new ideas on ourselves before rolling out to clients. And our initial reaction to this is that it tastes even better than our dog food.”
Ty Hagler, principal at Trig Innovation, was thrilled with the result. “This says so much about the direction our company is taking to do inspiring work, and I couldn’t be happier with Patrick’s maiden voyage into the world of sculpting. Prior to this effort, Patrick had been limited to the drafting table and computer screen. He’s such an ace with the traditional aspects of industrial design—everything from renderings to 3D CAD modeling—as well as his burgeoning skill set in the world of animation. While clients have been thrilled with his work, both as an individual and collaborating with me on ID projects and Lauren Kvalheim on animation stuff, I had been pushing Patrick to take his game to the next level, really, the next dimension. I think he took me literally on that, and, in this case, I appreciate his literalism. Once again, Patrick is pushing our boat forward.”
For more information on Trig Innovation’s new suite of services in sculpting and carving, contact us on our website. Patrick is eager to sculpt and carve with other food items, including squash, zucchini, and melons of all persuasions.
Trig® Innovation, is a nimble vessel for navigating the possibilities of innovation in product and service development. Based in the Research Triangle, North Carolina region, a global hub for science and technology, the Trig® team packs creative and problem-solving prowess into an exclusive strategy framework to propel innovation in a variety of industries. From home improvement products to medical devices, Trig® is a proven winner in industrial design, ideation, and innovation management. Our company is growing, and how we grow is a direct response to the needs of our clients. With emerging service areas like animation, video production, and brand identity, we are expanding outside of a traditional industrial design framework with a host of offerings that mesh well with our keen understanding of product and service development. Global product and brand teams, as well as inventors and entrepreneurs, know that Trig® Innovation is the right choice for integrated development solutions and interactive marketing services.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 7:00AM ;)
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