From Black & Decker and BMW to Yamaha andNike- 50 products selected from the winners of the Industrial Design Excellence Awards are deconstructed. Fifty designers describe the chase for the perfect design. Experience the process firsthand: crazy ideas, napkin sketches, tough assignments, and out-of-the- blue inspiration. Find out how streamlined, palm-size, simple, and techno products came together--whether computer, compact-disk holder, clothespin, or kayak. Here are the latest products and the design heat that went into their creation. This is the story behind the design.

 The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) had compelling reasons to partner with Rockport Publishers on this book: It meets a growing, real, and broad hunger for information and inspiration on industrial design.

 Recently, industrial design has emerged as a profession that fascinates people of all ages. This interest is fed by business magazines, fashion magazines, nationally noted newspapers and talk shows, along with museum exhibits and even advertising.The outcome of industrial design--the product--has become an icon for the reemergence of the U.S. economy. Discovering that the product is not an accident or only the offspring of marketing or engineering is fresh air to people just beginning to understand that their purchases are about more than money and function--they are about culture and lifestyle and experience.

 For the profession of industrial design, this book feeds a vital longing and real need. With no textbook, students and educators need case studies on which to base the experiential, highly kinetic, exploration-based form of learning that prevails. Professionals need a source of inspiration and insight to fuel their quest for innovation, for true functionality. How better to learn how to blend and balance function with aesthetics, usability with business constraints, ecological responsibility with appeal?

 But where to start? How could we select the fifty designs we wanted to capture? Feeling that we needed an objective basis for selecting these designs, we turned to the Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) winners of the past few years. The annual IDEA competition is sponsored by Business Week magazine and IDSA to honor designs that achieve precisely those goals: innovation, benefit to user, benefit to business, ecological responsibility, and appropriate aesthetics. Unlike previous reports on IDEA winners, each of these stories is crafted by a writer based on interviews and information, focusing on the early conceptualization and decisions about what the product should be and do and how it should be presented.

 The resulting book, rich in visual appeal, provides compelling insight into one of the new decade"s most intriguing professions.We hope you find in these stories a source of wonder and knowledge. Especially, we hope that this book opens doors for you,whether you are an attorney, a nurse, a politician, a homemaker,a teacher, or a designer.

Introduction

Resolve System for Herman Miller

Olive 1:1, Inc.

Steelcase Leap Chair

Icleo

OXO Good Grips Bottle Stopper/Opener

Refac/Human Factors

Target Toaster

Michael Graves & Associates

OrangeX OJex Manual Citrus luicer

Smart Design LLC

Quick"N Easy Food Processor

Anderson Design

Ekco Clip"n Stay

Ancona 2, Inc.

Orca Mini Stapler

Ecco Design, Inc

The Royal-Olivetti ASF Paper Shredder

Staubitz Design Associates

MOUSETM Sander

Black & Decker

The HeadBlade

The HeadBlade Co.

Flexible Footwear

Design Central

NIKETM Triax Running Watches

Astro Studios

SnoWalkers

Bleck Design Group

Sportscope Flex-Fit Bicycle Helmet

Design Workshop, Biokinetics Ltd.

TR5 Stationary Bike

Strategix I.D., Inc.

Hobie Mirage Kayak

Hobie Cat Company

Sea-Doo

Bombardier Recreation Division

Xootr Scooter

Lunar Design

BMW K 1200 LT

BMW Design Team Motorbike

"Scorpio 270"

Design Continuum Italia

viewMaster Discovery ChannelTM Viewer

Fisher-Price, Inc.

Worm Light

Hauser, inc.

Logitech Wingman Formula Force

IDEO

Rocket eBook

Palo Alto Products International (now Flextronics)

NewVision TV

Philips Design

ANT-500 Digital Antenna

Thomson Consumer Electronics

Motorola iiooo Wireless Communicator

Motorola Inc.

Infinity Prelude MTS Loudspeaker

Ashcraft Design

Benwin "Executive" Speakers

RKS Design, Inc.

KSM32 Studio Microphone

Cesaroni Design

DeWalt Worksite Radio/Charger

Altitude, Inc.

Yamaha Compact Silent Electric CeUo-SVC 200

Yamaha Corp. of America and Japan

NEC Zl Personal Computer

Hauser

SmartGlas Flat Panel Display System

Product Insight, Inc.

Stowaway Portable Keyboard

Pentagram Design, Inc.

IntelliMouse Explorer

Microsoft Corp.

BanditTM

Speck Product Design

"C" Shell Compact Disc Holder

Design Edge

Hot Plug SCA Hard-Drive Tray

Compaq Computer Corporation

CS 2000

Symbol Technologies, Inc.

Virtual Ink mimio

Fitch

Eclipse Gasoline Dispenser

Herbst Lazar Bell, Inc.

IR2080 Fleet Air Impact Wrench

Ingersoll-Rand

SC4ooo Series Sit-Down Counterbalanced Electric Lift Truck

Crown Equipment Corporation, Design Central, Ergonomic Systems Design, Inc,

HiSonic Head Gear

Designology, Inc.

Signa OpenSpeed MRI

GE Medical Systems

NeuroMetrix NC-statTM

Product Genesis

Mixing Station & Syringe Components

Coleman Product Design

The BD Intima II Catheter

BD Medical Design

Directory

Credits