Amy recently celebrated her 10th anniversary with Beyond Design and was promoted to Vice President of the company! She manages our client communications and excels as the bridge between the design team and client objectives. She has played a key role on the BDI team since 2003 and has worked across a wide variety of industries with a number of clients, including Remington, Waterpik, US Foods, LG Electronics, Sunbeam, Mr. Coffee, Heathrow Scientific and Cobra Electronics.

Amy holds a BA in Business Communications from the University of St. Thomas in her home state of Minnesota. She is very much looking forward to this new role. Congratulations, Amy!

Solving a problem through design research, brainstorming, and, ultimately, coming up with a big idea that incorporates design, manufacturing considerations, and marketing plans (and, later, getting to manufacture and sell one selected design) is unheard of for the majority of 8th grade students. Add the fact that they pitch their ideas and plans to real entrepreneurs, educators, and business owners and it’s something very few students have the opportunity to do in K-12 schools today.

For the past four months, our team has been working alongside Northwestern University student mentors to teach an 8th grade class at Nettelhorst School (a K-8 Chicago public school) about the product development process. The program, dig-8 (which stands for Discover, Innovate, and Grow), is part of the Science and Entrepreneurship Exchange’s (SEE) pilot program.

dig-8 launches in the 8th grade class at Nettelhorst School in Chicago

With a focus on experiential learning in entrepreneurship and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), SEE’s approach incorporates unique real-world startup, engineering, and design projects into existing curriculum in grades 1 – 8 (dig-1 through dig-8), engaging students with expert mentors and collaborators from universities (Northwestern University is a founding partner) and businesses. Dig-8, the capstone of SEE, is designed to teach young students about new product development and entrepreneurship in a relevant, engaging, and unique way.

As part of the program, the 8th grade students complete design research, both field and online, to better understand their target market and competition.

The Magic Innovators discuss their ideas during a beginning session of dig-8.

Lucky 7, one of the dig-8 teams, works on their persona board with mentor TJ Kim (Beyond Design).

At the end of each session, each team presents the work they completed to the entire class. The Cre8ors are shown here presenting their persona board to the other teams.

Cellebella presents their persona at the end of the “Persona Development” session of dig-8.

In dig-8, the entire class is divided into eight different groups and each team is given a mentor from either Beyond Design or Northwestern University (some have both) who coach them through each step and encourage them to be creative thinkers and problem solvers.

Andrea Fraga, a NU mentor, reviews the features/benefits of her team’s design before beginning the sketching session at Beyond Design’s studio.

Trevis Kurz, a designer at Beyond Design, walks his team through their “Big Idea” session.

Jessie Mumgaard (Beyond Design), who helped coordinate and design the program, discusses underlays with students before beginning their mock-up session.

“The mentoring that students received along the way increased their level of confidence because someone was there to listen and coach them through the problem solving component when they had the concept, but not necessarily the technical language, at first.” – John Nieciak, 8th Grade Language Arts Teacher

Each team created a home, work, or school organization product that is designed for their persona (which they discovered through their research and selected as a team). The products ranged from a “handy hanger” intended for people with small living spaces, to a contemporary tree design and caterpillar-type storage system that grows with the user.

The students came up with over 600 concept sketches on post-it notes for various means of organizing their persona’s belongings. During SEE/dig-8, students learn to turn off their fear of getting the wrong answer, and learn the power of constructive failure.

Innovate This presents their big idea to the class. The dig-8 program encourages creative thinking and teaches important presentation and communication skills.

Sanjeet Das, a mentor from NU, and his team work on creating their big idea.

Each student had the opportunity to use a Cintiq during their field trip to Beyond Design.

Michael Prince, President of Beyond Design, teaches the students about flat patterns during the mock-up creation session at Beyond Design.

A student from team “The Unknown” presents their big idea to the rest of the class.

Jung Chei, a designer at Beyond Design, works with students during the brainstorming session of dig-8.

Teams were introduced to the “4 P’s” of marketing and asked to develop a marketing plan for their product.

Geoff Trukenbrod, former CFO for the Obama campaign, tells his story about success and failure to the 8th grade class. Bringing in well-known business leaders and entrepreneurs to tell their stories and how they relate to dig-8 is a key aspect of the program.

Each team presented their designs in front of a panel of judges and the panelists chose one design that the 8th grade class would move forward with as one large team. The class will now focus on building their startup around the chosen product, which is a small elephant hook intended for babies and small children (shown in the photos below). The process will include a focus on marketing, personal sales, and production, with the hopes of starting a Kickstarter campaign intended to support this program in Chicago Public Schools.

Each team presented their product idea to a panel of judges.

The Haterpillar concept is presented above.

The panel was made up of well-known Chicago entrepreneurs, financiers, and educators.

The panelists were given the opportunity to walk around after the presentations and ask the students questions regarding their design (prior to voting).

The Cre8ors are the team behind the Elephant Hook design. They were coached by their mentors Trevis Kurz (Beyond Design) and Ruizhi Liu (Northwestern University).

The Elephant Hook was chosen to move forward for the 8th grade class. The class will now focus on building their startup around this product.

Dig-8 teaches students important problem solving, presentation, and cognitive skills, as well as research methods, sales strategies, critical analysis, and manufacturing techniques. In addition, it encourages creative thinking, collaboration, team building, and leadership.

“Observing the students’ presentations today was powerful. The students have come a long way. Each talked about a complicated process in a genuine way and generated specific language. The students engaged in creative endeavors as problem solvers. This is a high level of functioning. All throughout the process the students consistently worked collaboratively and met the challenge at each level of the process in order to reach a goal. I think that has a lot to do with empowering their voice, know-how and understanding themselves and others as co-learners.” – John Nieciak, 8th Grade Language Arts Teacher

The students join together before heading to the auditorium for their presentations.

One of the most important lessons of SEE and dig-8 is to teach students constructive failure, as that it what leads you to ultimate success. One of our panelists, Gavin Campbell (a successful entrepreneur and founder of Steelbridge Capital) said it best, “The lessons in losing are as important as the winning lessons. We all failed plenty of times before we got it right, and it was the losses that taught us to be winners—you study the winners and how they got there, and figure out what you did wrong so you can get it right the next time. The only time you really lose is when you become afraid of losing, because once you are there, you no longer take risks and are no longer an entrepreneur.”

The goal of the Science and Entrepreneurship Exchange (SEE) is to increase Chicago-area (and, secondarily, national desire) among private companies, parents and educators to actively improve product development/manufacturing education in the elementary/middle school space. SEE hopes to inspire and educate Chicago students to become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, innovators and engineers, through inspirational and practical hands-on business and product development experiences.

For more information on the program, please check out SEE’s blog (the website is currently in progress). The video below describes the dig-8 program in greater detail and introduces you to some of the students and key people who made it happen.

If you’d like more information, or want to know how you can get involved, please contact Jessie Mumgaard here. Keep checking back for more specific information on each session of dig-8, which will be posted in the coming weeks.

For more on the story, you can check out an article titled Design Thinking Can Change Education.

Their team, X-Machina, finished with a winning 5-3 record and came in 39th in their division of 100. Over 400 teams and 12,000 students from around the world participated in the event and the Lane Team created quite a buzz with their autonomous mode accuracy and defensive strategies.

Due to the success of this Rookie team, Lane Tech is starting two FLL (FIRST Lego League) teams next year. The FLL teams will be coached and mentored entirely by the students in Lane’s FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) programs. FIRST Robotics is an organization founded in 1989 that encourages young people to participate in mentor-based robotics competitions that spark interest in engineering and technology.

In addition, their GEMS club (Girls in Engineering, Math and Science) has expressed interest in starting their own all-girls FTC team. This will bring the total number of teams in the Lane Tech Robotics program to six. As stated on X-Machina’s website, “FIRST’s many levels of competitive programs foster valuable life skills including communication, leadership, gracious professionalism and self-confidence.”

We are proud to support this team and hope the students had an invaluable learning experience throughout this process. Congratulations!

President Obama congratulating Anthony Halmon at White House Science Fair (photo from theroot.com)

Anthony represented The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) at the White House Science Fair, an organization whose “mission is to provide programs that inspire young people from low-income communities to stay in school, to recognize business opportunities and to plan for successful futures.”

With the help of NFTE, he developed a business plan in 2012 around his product idea, the Thermofier. The Thermofier is a pacifier with a built-in thermometer that aims to ease the woes of parents by providing them constant monitoring of their child’s temperature when ill.

In order to provide a more compelling story, Anthony wanted a visual of his idea. TJ Kim, Beyond Design’s Director of New Product Development, and Mike Beltran, Northwestern University Mechanical Engineering professor, offered to help Anthony fulfill his dream. TJ provided renderings for Anthony and Mike Beltran produced a 3D prototype using Northwestern University’s prototyping lab. This allowed Anthony to not only tell people about his product at the White House Science Fair, but to also show people what he envisions for the look and functionality of his design.

A visual of Anthony's Thermofier (created by TJ Kim with direction from Anthony)

Description of how the Thermofier works (created by TJ Kim with direction from Anthony)

Anthony’s story is pretty amazing and we can’t thank TJ Kim and Mike Beltran enough for their help in making his dream come to life. He will begin his studies in general engineering this fall at Cornell University. You can read more about Anthony and his journey to the White House here.

You can also check out the video below on Anthony from MSNBC.

It was an exciting weekend for one of our past interns, Alisa Rantanen, who received the IDSA Merit Award at the University of Notre Dame. The projects she showed in her presentation were completed between her sophomore and senior years, and ranged from a simple final project (FulFill) to her senior thesis (Amber). The poster she used also includes her IHA Student Competition entry (ReServe) and a corporate sponsored project (Stratus).

Alisa receiving her award

Alisa Rantanen's IDSA Poster of Work

“My work runs the spectrum from manufacturable to conceptual, and I’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to explore both approaches to design,” says Alisa. You can view Alisa’s portfolio here.

We look forward to the IDSA International Conference that will be held in Chicago in August!

Michael Prince, President, Beyond Design, Inc.

Fast Company featured an article, 3 Ways to Make Wearable Tech Actually Wearable, in which the author highlights some key building blocks to achieve this: Make it Beautiful, Make it Peripheral, and Make it Meaningful.

Photo from fastcodesign.com

Core77 also featured an article, Where On the Body is Wearable Technology Going? Plus, a Stylus That Stows On Your Wrist, where they talked about one of the more recent new products in this area (that isn’t fitness-based) from a Hong Kong company called Aeglo that has designed a stylus that turns into a slap bracelet. The product, called Flaxus, was a success on Kickstarter as of last week. We’re not sure how often we would use a product like this, but it would come in handy during cold Chicago winters when you don’t want to take your gloves off to use your touchscreen phone. You can check out their Kickstarter page here to learn a little more about the product.

Photo from kickstarter.com (Flaxus project)

Wearable technology brings a lot of innovation to the consumer electronics industry and there is no doubt we will be seeing a lot more glasses, watches, fitness gadgets, jewelry, and technology-embedded clothing in the coming years. In addition to these products, it will be interesting to see where else wearable technology is incorporated in product design.

To cap off the evening, there was a humorous guessing game (coined the “Mouth Off” competition) where images of somewhat obscure student designs’ were projected onto a screen and participants had to come up with their own interpretation of the products’ function. The participant with the loudest round of applause was named the winner. It was a very entertaining game that stretched the creativity of all participants.

We were impressed with the talent level of the graduating seniors and a big congrats goes out to all of them on their upcoming graduation! Marlen Promann, from Purdue University, was nice enough to share some photos from the event with us (all photos in this post are taken by her). Thanks to all those who had a chance to stop by!

Any students interested in web design, videography, engineering, sports, etc. would be a great match for this team. It’s like a small business – both cross-curricular and interdisciplinary. You can check out more info on the program here.

You can also check out our past blog posts for more details on the process the students’ went through to get to this point: Lane Tech Robotics Team Prepares for Robotics Challenge and Lane Tech Robotics Team Unveils Robot.

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If you’re interested in scheduling a studio tour, please email us here.

Periscopic, a “socially conscious information visualization” company that promises to “do good with data” was founded in 2004 by Kim Rees and Dino Citraro, who both saw a need for data visualization.

The State of the Polar Bear infographic designed by Periscopic (photo from fastcodesign.com).

However, back when the company began, very few people understood why it was necessary. “We were seeing more interest in large databases, but there was a lag in the sense-making part of it,” Rees says. “If you store a lot of data it does you no good unless you can understand it.”

“Ten years later, this is still the core problem driving data visualization. Our ability to sense and record information has vastly outpaced our capacity to understand it. From GPS to Facebook likes, we’re likely talking about trillions of new data points recorded, somewhere, every day. So the issue remains—these 1s and 0s are useless to us unless we can begin to synthesize them into actionable policy.”

U.S. Gun Murders in 2010 designed by Periscopic (photo from fastcodesign.com).

In the article on Fast Company, What’s the Secret to Great Infographics?, Periscopic offers three key secrets to designing great infographics:

1. You Have to Sell What They’ve Never Seen
2. The Gimmick is Transparency
3. Hand the Brain Back to the View

One of the most fascinating infographics Periscopic recently released relates to the U.S. Gun Deaths in 2013, as well as in 2010. It puts a new perspective on gun violence that just hearing a statistic wouldn’t provide. You can check out that infographic hereand read more on their secrets to great infographics here.

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Note: All quotes in this post are from the article on Fast Company’s website: What’s the Secret to Great Infographics?.

Photo from fastcodesign.com

New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) partnered with design firm Control Group to create a system of touch-screen kiosks that features all sorts of real-time information you might need to navigate the city via subway, including delays, outages, transfers, countdown to train arrivals, neighborhood maps, etc. The system will eventually replace subway maps and is being launched in 90 locations around the city this year.

After reading about the system, the most impressive aspect seems to be its one-tap navigation system. You simply tap your intended destination and the map will draw your route. Each system is a 47-inch touch screen with a waterproof enclosure to make it possible to clean regularly. The devices will also offer Wi-Fi, video cameras, and mics to enable even more data collection.

Photos from fastcodesign.com

“We can’t provide Internet for everybody,” says Control Group Partner Colin O’Donnell, “but we can allow interactivity on the platform.”

You can read more about the new system on Fast Company’s site here.

Image from The Verge

As an old Sony fan as a boy, I have tried my best to support the company over the years by purchasing their dying TV’s, PlayStation (along with the games), and even a Sony Xperia smartphone that it seems very few people own these days. Few companies have survived more troubled times than Sony. However, from the recent stock market readings, Sony may still have a chance to come back to life again.

The announcement of the new PlayStation 4 coming out this holiday season and their mobile phone gaining shares (although still overshadowed by top dogs such as Apple and Samsung); they may still have a chance. However, there are still reasons to believe that Sony does not know how to survive in this tough industry.

Sony’s CEO Kazuo Hirai believes that “Sony should target customers willing to pay more and won’t get sucked into a price war with cheap and cheerful Chinese players” (from Sony Will Come Back from the Dead). After watching their recent Xperia commercial (which you can view at the end of this post), it makes me think that they are still stuck in the good ‘ol days. While the nostalgia is what keeps many people coming back, Sony needs to realize that they are not the Apple of the 90’s when people would buy their products regardless of the price tag. It will be interesting to see how the company is positioned at the end of the year and what new products are showcased in 2013 to keep them in the game.

Written by: Jung Chei, Industrial Designer, Beyond Design, Inc.

Creating a new product or service is an exciting and challenging time that is necessary for any business to not only survive, but also grow in today’s economy. For those companies that do not have an internal product development team, it is important to realize the impact NPD (New Product Development) can have on your business and reasons you may want to outsource your design work. Whether you need help with styling, design for manufacturing (DFM), user interaction, or developing a concept from the ground up, a product development firm can get involved at any point and lead the process.

Discovering how to grow your business with help from outside professionals can offer increased efficiency and greater success. The reasons below (in no particular order) can help you realize if investing in an outside product development firm is the right strategic fit for your company.

1. You have limited internal resources. It may not make sense for your company to maintain a full-time design team. You may be a start-up with a new product idea or a company that has a complete engineering department, but is lacking in the design aspect. Either way, if you’re not producing new products or services very often then outsourcing is the way to go.

2. You have an overload of work. Every business, both large and small, has those moments when there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to get everything accomplished. Many times, you need help undertaking new projects that don’t warrant hiring another full-time employee. In these cases, it can be best to take some pressure off of your employees and rely on an outside source for assistance.

3. You want a fresh perspective. Often times, when you are part of one company for so long, you become engrossed in the culture and politics and lose track of what it is your company really needs. An outside perspective will provide new insights and can introduce new design paradigms to help your business evolve.

4. Gives you an opportunity to leverage multi-disciplinary expertise. Many product development firms offer full-service capabilities – whether it’s research, strategy, industrial design, engineering, branding, or UI/UX. You will be exposed to experts in the field who understand your business requirements. In addition, they are up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry and know what your brand needs in order to stand out from the competition.

5. Reduces time-to-market. Experienced product design firms are skilled at getting concepts to market in the most efficient and timely manner. They can apply their knowledge of similar projects and technologies to enhance productivity and overcome obstacles they might have faced (and learned from) in the past.

6. Saves money. Outsourcing is a cost-effective method if you take into consideration all expenses involved in maintaining the necessary capabilities within your company, including employee salary, benefits, overhead, risk, etc. In almost all cases, it is less expensive to outsource design than to build an internal product development team.

7. Design firms help reduce stress by taking full control of the project timeline. It can be hard to fully commit resources to product development projects. You may start a program and have something unexpected come up in another department that delays the entire process. Outsourcing design means that the design consultancy is in charge of managing the project timeline, the resources, and the deliverables with a set deadline.

8. Capitalize on state-of-the-art technology. Most design consultancies today use state-of-the-art technology that helps speed up the development process. In addition, they have access to the latest design programs and manufacturing equipment that help bring your product to life in the most lucrative and efficient way.

9. You want more presence in a specific location. Your company may be in Boston and you want to enter a different market, such as Chicago. In this case, a Chicago design firm might best know how to design for consumers in and around the Midwest. Likewise, if you are from another country and want to enter the U.S. market, outsourcing your design to a firm in the same geographic location as where you hope to penetrate the market would be ideal.

10. Allows you to focus on other areas of your business with growth potential. Hiring an outside firm to take charge of your product or service design requires periodic meetings or conference calls, but it also frees up time for you to focus on other aspects of your business with growth potential, such as marketing or sales.

What are your plans for growth in 2013? New products, whether in the form of new services, new applications, or entirely new experiences, are an essential component of business success. Developing a thorough product development program is the first step toward realizing your design solution. Using the right professionals to develop an innovative solution will enable you to position your product for success.

If you’re interested in discussing your product development needs, please contact us here. You can also download a PDF of the article below.

Written by: Michael Prince, President, Beyond Design, Inc.

Michael Prince and Jody Libman, owner of Trianon Development, worked with a new group of DTC students this quarter (see last quarter’s project here) to create a more sanitary way to open public restroom doors.

The class was divided into four teams and last Saturday, March 16th, each team presented their final project at the Winter 2013 Design Expo at the Ford Motor Company Engineering and Design Center. We were extremely impressed with each team’s hard work and dedication and the outcomes were fantastic!

To read more about the students’ up-front work check out our previous post: Evaluating Prototypes with Northwestern DTC Students.

FOR THE BAKER
We liked Progressive’s International Crafty Cookie Kit. It’s a compact, versatile and fun too that is perfect for bakers who want unlimited design possibilities (the product comes six switchable patterned heads). You can learn more about the product here.

NOSTALGIC REDESIGN
Aladdin played with a cultural icon pretty successfully with their insulated Mason tumbler. Rather than a glass jar, the reinvention is BPA-free with a steel lid and straw. The image below is from WBEZ/Louisa Chu.

FOR THE BEER LOVERS
Corksicle, a small company that last year invented a wine chilling device that became one of the hottest items of 2012 (it was “favorited” by Good Morning America, Oprah and Martha Stewart), came out with a new product this year – the Chillsner. The Chillsner is the first and only in-bottle beer chiller that is designed to keep your beer cold from “the first sip to the last.” This would make a great gift and would definitely come in handy at summer barbeques or other outdoor events.

(the above photos from www.pickypickyme.com)

The Brew Demon stood out because its form and function is more true to the modern craft brew craze than an old-world barrel. It is a 2-gallon conical fermenting system that allows you to brew beer like the pros, but in smaller batches. You can brew 2 gallons of beer for about $75.00 for the equipment and first batch – any additional batches are $13.00.

COLLAPSIBLE KITCHEN GADGETS
Infusion Living introduced new designs with the slogan “Think flat…differently.” The space-saving designs include a bread/fruit bowl, colander, and three twistable stacking bowls. Learn more about the company and products here.

SPATULAS, SPATULAS, SPATULAS
We really liked these spatulas from Le Creuset and Farberware. Le Creuset’s Spatula Spoon is currently on the market (shown here in their new color from last year, Marseille Blue) and it has a great mix of color and materials. Farberware, on the other hand, stood out because they implemented the “Keep Calm and Bake On” quote on their spatulas – something we have never seen on a spatula before.

A LITTLE COLOR MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE
There seems to be an evolving trend toward using color as an accent to create a dynamic visual effect. Savora, a line of culinary tools and gadgets from Lifetime Brands, had very elegant and sleek designs with simple curves. They added a pop of color to each product which really made their brand stand out.

Oreck’s Magnesium Vacuum Cleaner was visually appealing due to its handle design, use of materials, and bright blue accent color. When we lifted it, it was extremely lightweight and would be perfect for anyone who needs a mobile upright around the household.

Nespresso’s booth always catches our eye with their sharp designs and use of colors. The style of this machine, the Nespresso Maestria, reminded us of the KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

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To read more about the 2013 International Home + Housewares Show, check out our other posts at:

Color Fills the Halls of the International Home + Housewares Show 2013

Young Design Talent Recognized Through Housewares Show Competition

You can also download a PDF of some more highlights from the show, including information on color trends, robotic technology, home comfort, use of natural materials, and SodaStream, below.

• Difficult to dimension logically
• Prone to lumpiness
• Can flip/invert 180° to the entity to which they are constrained tangent.
• Doesn’t maintain smoothness after modification, even if there are no mid-curve control points.
• Mid -curve control points (when required) require complex dimensioning schemes.

Since most engineers prefer the simplest, most straightforward method of building their models, they have often opposed the use of splines in CAD models (“Couldn’t you just use an arc instead? It would make things a lot easier…”). Designers, while frustrated with the difficulties of splines themselves, have been willing tolerate them in order to fine-tune the aesthetics. The addition of conics in SolidWorks 2013 should be a welcome addition to both designers and engineers for the following reasons:

• Easier to dimension (a single “rho” value locks in the desired curvature)
• Naturally smooth and elegant curves can be maintained with a rho value near .5
• Can be constrained tangent to outside entities
• Robust

The image below compares a conic (top) with spline (bottom) and how they each react to dimensional changes.

Both curves are constrained tangent to vertical (left) and horizontal (right). The initial conic curve (in blue) had its right end-point dimensioned 2” off its ground plane. A corresponding spline was sketched (and fully constrained) over a mirrored reference of the above conic, creating a smooth, nearly-identical mirrored curve. However, once the 2” value is modified, the advantage of the conic is apparent—it maintains it smoothness at every dimension, while the spline starts to lose it. Conics allow a designer to dial in the right curvature and have the confidence to pass the CAD downstream to an engineer without much concern about degradation in aesthetics due to overall dimensional changes.

For more information on conics, check out the SolidWorks blog: Rho, Rho, Rho Your Boat: Conics in SolidWorks 2013.

Written by: Chris Kulujian, Manager of Product Development

StoreBound’s Dash line of Chef Series blenders.

Farberware’s booth featured cutting boards, cutlery, dinnerware, etc. in a variety of bold, bright colors and patterns.

Joseph Joseph never fails to amaze us with their unique and intuitive designs that feature a range of accent colors that really pop.

We love the colors and texture on Bodum’s line of coffee, tea, tabletop, and kitchen products.

Escali Digital Scales are a great size, with a large digital display, and enough color options to please anyone.

Anchor Hocking added fresh, bright colors to their line of baking dishes.

KitchenAid’s booth is always impressive with the wide selection of color options for their Stand Mixers. This year they introduced their newest colors, Canopy Green and Cranberry (photo on the left is from thekitchn.com). We love the green!

We thought these were a great idea for kids (or even those adults who have yet to learn how to use chop sticks!). Not only do they feature fun characters, but the choice of colors really makes them stand out.

No surprise here – Pantone’s booth was full of color. From mugs, water jugs, and food containers to kitchen utensils, serving trays, and home/office products. ROOM Copenhagen has really expanded since first launching in 2010.

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Check back next week for more updates from the show and a brief recap of the trends and new products seen at the International Home + Housewares Show 2013.

In 2010, Trevis Kurz (a designer at Beyond Design), won first place for his smoke alarm that is accessible with a broomstick (to learn more about the design, click here). With this being the 20th year of the competition, Trevis was recently interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about the competition and its impact on students.

Trevis Kurz at the Housewares Show in 2010 (photo from thelantern.com)

“When you’re a student and first go there, you’re really not ready for the exposure you’re going to get,” said Trevis Kurz, who as a student at Ohio State University won first place in 2010 with a smoke alarm that is accessible with a broomstick, eliminating the need to get on a ladder to change batteries. “You create these products and renderings, but you’re really never on stage. Then you’re standing there and 50,000 people are walking by asking, ‘Who’s making it? Do you have the patent?’ From the student’s perspective going into a job hunt, it’s awesome.”
– Trevis Kurz

More information on the six winners from this year’s competition can be found here. To read the full Chicago Tribune article, click here.

Jim Kendall presenting from Whirlpool.

The Whirlpool 2020 is a futuristic technology integration that will allow easy management and control over all your kitchen appliances, while also saving plenty of energy.

The two concepts are named FirePlace and the FreshConnect refrigerator. The FirePlace is a concept dining table, which will activate on both cooling and heating modes, depending on the items placed on it. The FreshConnect is a customizable, portable refrigerator that isn’t your typical fridge. The “fridge” comes as battery-powered units that can change temperature and humidity settings on the fly. They can be customized to contents like meats, fruits, or frozen food. The idea is to encourage fresh eating and provide streamlined access to a network of food suppliers. You can check out the video for the FreshConnect below.

The event had a great turnout and it provided an opportunity to network with students, designers, and other business professionals. Special thanks to IDSA-Chicago, Whirlpool, and the UIC Innovation Center staff for helping to make this event possible. Thanks to all those who attended!

SolidWorks, makers of the CAD software we use most often, has come out with a set of iOS apps which allow us to see our 3D creations on Apple devices using their viewer standard called eDrawings. The eDrawings alone is a neat trick which allows us to free discussions of our work from our desks, but, in addition, a bonus they have cleverly added to the app is Augmented Reality. This essentially plops your work down right front of you at the precise scale so you can get a real feel for its size in the wild. The one catch is that it does require a QR code, which the app can email you so you can print it out. You can read more about it here and see an example of how the app works below.

Holding an exploded assembly in the palm of my hand.

The exploded view with a nickel for scale.

The QR code underneath.

The view from an iPhone.

Written by: Mark Eyman, Senior Product Design Engineer

Michael Prince, IDSA

Photo from fastcodesign.com

Mike Friton has designed Nike footwear for 30 years and helped start the Innovation Kitchen at Nike. The purpose of the Innovation Kitchen, as the name implies, is to come up with new ideas for footwear, gadgets, apparel, etc. This video gives a bit of background on Mark Friton and the importance of looking beyond your niche and exploring things outside what a typical designer or engineer would. It’s a really inspirational video from someone who knows just what it takes to be an innovator.

“I think it’s a natural process that’s within us all. Something about curiosity that drives us toward it. Without innovation, I think we’d all become extinct.” – Mike Friton

You can check out the video below, and read the full story on Fast Company’s site here.

Attendees will include Housewares Show attendees and design enthusiasts, surrounding area design students, Chicago design professionals and many more. We hope you can join us!

Directions and parking for the Innovation Center can be found here.

IDSA-Chicago and Beyond Design co-host the 2013 Housewares Show Innovation Mixer with guest speakers from Whirlpool.

Photo from techcrunch.com

Google’s Project Glass is moving closer to completion and they’ve released a new video to show us just how far they’ve come. The video shows Google Glass’ UI in real world situations, from action adventures (much like Go Pro cameras would take) to memory-making POV footage, hands-free photography, and real-time sharing (among other things).

At this point, Google has yet to announce when the units will be available to the mass market. Based on this video, we can only imagine how many people will want a pair when the time comes. For more details, visit Fast Company’s website.

Lane Tech Robotics Team Sponsors

The organization behind the program, FIRST Robotics, was founded in 1989 and gives students the opportunity to experience engineering first hand. The teams were thrown into a real-world engineering experience under complex rules, limited resources, and strict time constraints. They were challenged to design, build, program, and test an industrial grade robot that can accomplish prescribed tasks specific to the competition.

Lane Tech Robot (left) and the robot shooting frisbees through a goal (right)

The 2012/2013 school year is the first time that Robotics has been offered as a competition. After logging over 150 hours of build time, the team presented Sir Lifts a Lot to an audience of over 50 people. The robot was developed to shoot Frisbees and aimed the Frisbees at a goal that was created by the team. You can check out the video of the robot below. It was really impressive to see in person and know that this young group of students worked together to make it possible.

Lane Tech’s FTC teams came in 2nd at the Chicago Area Qualifying Event and will compete in the Midwest Regional Competition at UIC on April 6th. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events played on fields the size of a basketball half-court, and are the product of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines and deadlines.

Lane Tech Robotics Team (photo from Robotics Team Facebook page)

You can view additional videos showing the team’s progress and what they learned here, as well as check out XMachina’s website for more information on the program and how to get involved.

Photo from www.psfk.com

Yesterday, Adidas announced their new Boost Technology for running shoes. The foam material is “a revolutionary cushioning technology which provides the highest energy return in the running industry.”

The new material promises higher energy returns than anything currently on the market without compromising the comfort of cushioning.

“Based on a groundbreaking development process created by adidas partner BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, solid granular material (TPU) is literally blown up and turned into thousands of small energy capsules which make up the footwear’s distinctive midsole. With their unique cell structure, these capsules store and unleash energy more efficiently in every stride.”

If you want a little more “bounce” in your run, you might want to try these out. They’ll be available end of this month. Check out the video below, and read the full story here.

The students were asked to design a mechanism (non-electric) that will open public restroom doors without the use of your hands, but this semester the concept does not have to be retrofitted to an existing door. The idea behind the project is to help prevent the spread of illnesses by not having to touch a door handle that so many others have already touched. It is a partial solution to the much larger issue of germ transfer in public establishments.

The class is divided into four teams and yesterday one representative from each team visited our studio to present their initial prototypes and get feedback from Michael and Jody. The students started with initial field research and watched how people enter and exit the dorm bathrooms. They noticed behaviors such as people using their elbows, a paper towel, or the sleeve of their shirt rather than their hand to open the door.

The teams presented concepts that included magnets, levers, pulleys, pedals, and a push-to-open mechanism that works much like a cupboard door. They were interesting concepts and a lot of feedback was given on their ideas. The students have five more weeks of class and will develop a full-scale prototype with what they believe is their best idea before the end of the program. You can view some of their mock-ups below.

DTC students reviewing their work with Michael and Jody

Uses a type of bar to extend across door to open/close it.

Incorporates a lever at the top of the door.

Incorporates a lever to open/close the door.

This idea involves a pedal with a cable attached to it that uses a change in direction of the cable to increase the tension that can be exerted by the pedal on the door that it is attached to

Uses magnetic strips in the door frame that attract one another and slide down to repel.

This prototype also incorporates magnets.

Michael Prince and Jody Libman giving feedback on prototypes.

We look forward to seeing how their ideas improve and change in the coming weeks (and we’ll be sure to share those on here). To learn more about the DTC program, click here.

Photo from fastcompany.com (Typographic sculpture by Serial Cut)

Fast Company recently released their list of the 50 most innovative companies of 2013. This list spans from recognized companies like Nike (who is #1) and Amazon (#2) to companies who focus on social media, healthcare technology, and new apps that change the way we travel. While Facebook and Twitter have been looked at as two of the most innovative companies in years past, they were left off of this list this year. This is an indication of how many more companies are innovating to seek a competitive edge in today’s economy.

You can read about all 50 companies, and why they were chosen, here.

Image is from a clip in the Connecting video

It’s amazing how quickly things change with the advancement in technology and a greater understanding of what humans want and need.

Connecting is a short documentary by Bassett & Partners and Microsoft that explores how we, as humans, along with our devices have (and will continue) to change as everything becomes more connected in the coming years. The video features interviews with designers from Method, Frog, Bing, Kicker Studio, and Nokia (among others). While they all have different backgrounds, it seems for the most part, that they are all on the same page when it comes to the future of interaction design.

Raphael Grignanai, Director of UX at Method, pointed out just how fast technology has changed the way we live and interact in today’s world. As he said, we went from zero mobile phones in the late 80’s to over 5 billion earlier this year.

“The way it has changed our behavior, it can be enabling and also disrupting. For these things to change our lives for the better or enable us to do things we couldn’t do before they have to be done in a way that feels natural and feels like a conversation.” -Jennifer Bove, Co-Founder, Managing Director, Kicker Studio

Today, users want a natural experience with their device that is more about the content and less about using a screen or an application.

“Interaction design five or six years ago meant solving and thinking through choreography, information and feedback, and interfaces around a product. The big step was thinking about being something contained in some of those things to now thinking about it as something that exists across them.”
- Robert Fabricant, VP of Creative, Frog Design

Design is changing rapidly and this video provides insights from some key people in the industry about the coming era of interactive design. It’s definitely worth watching and will leave you wondering when we will begin to see some of the changes that are mentioned. You can read the article here and watch the full video below.

Photo from wot.motortrend.com

One of the first things you notice when you see the new Corvette is all of the vents, scoops, and air dams placed strategically around the vehicle. Although they look great, their main function is to manipulate the airflow around the car in order to increase performance in various ways. For example, the vents in the hood allow hot air to escape the engine bay reducing under-hood temperatures while also reducing front-end lift, which makes the car more planted at higher speeds. The front brakes have their own dedicated ducting to keep air circulating over them to control temperatures, reduce brake fade, and improve overall stopping performance. Moving to the rear of the car, you will find more intake vents on the rear quarter panels. These openings route air over coolers for the transmission and differential to keep internal fluid temperature down for reliability reasons. The air escapes through vents and ports near the tail lamps and lower fascia.

To develop the new Corvette, engineers at Chevrolet used the latest in computer simulation software, and using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), were able to go through multiple design iterations optimizing aerodynamic features of the car before moving on to the wind tunnel testing. Knowing how the air flows around and through a vehicle’s ducting can be a challenging task, but thanks to CFD you can accurately predict fluid flow characteristics such as air speed, temperatures, pressures, and where turbulence is likely to occur. CFD simulation can be implemented in other areas of the vehicle as well. Chevrolet engineers spent over 6 million hours running analysis of the combustion system resulting in increases in torque, power, and fuel economy over the previous engine.

Photo from www.chevrolet.com/new-2014-corvette

Being able to run these simulations before having to actually build anything is a great resource for engineers and designers, as well as a great way to reduce the iterative process of inventing new products. You can read more about the 2014 Corvette Stingray here.

Written by: Bryson Stewart, Mechanical Engineer, Beyond Design

Photo from macrumors.com

Keeping with an ongoing trend, Android solidified its global smart phone dominance versus iOS in the fourth quarter and for all of 2012, according to Strategy Analytics.

During the fourth quarter, iOS share fell to 22% from 23.6% a year earlier. Meanwhile, Android rose to 70.1% from 51.3%. For all of 2012, iOS nudged up to 19.4% from 19% a share, while Android reached 68.4%, up from 48.7%. (Statistics from betanews.com)

Below are the some predections/rumors that Apple’s iOS will regain the market share for 2013 (some of these can be found here.

1. Low-Cost iPhone: Ealier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported the Apple is preparing to release a cheaper version of the iPhone. The move would allow Apple to penetrate emerging markets where cheaper handsets are more prevalent.

2. iPhone 5S: Expected to be launched in June, the follow up to the iPhone 5 will feature multiple color options and be available in two different sizes.

3. iPhone Math: There’s also speculation that Apple is developing a new-larger screen smartphone which could be released in 2014. The new phone is trying to compete directly with Samsung Galaxy which features a larger 4.8-inch screen display (however, according to one of our recent blog posts, this is only a rumor).

4. What is the next big innovative product from Apple? I hope it’s not just the premium priced iPad (128gb instead of 64gb) that launched last week. If you remember when Apple released the first iPad, it was 2001 and there aren’t many changes to the new one.

5. The next new ‘Wow’ product in Apples pipeline, possibly an iTV.

There are millions of Apple and Android lovers out there, so we will see how these predictions/rumors play out in the upcoming year. You can check out the smart phone market share for Q4 in 2011 and 2012 below. To read more on this story, click here.

Chart from betanews.com (Android Stomps All Over iOS)

Written by: Sean Kim, Manager of Industrial Design, Beyond Design

Photo from miveu.com

Today, more and more people are capturing images and video with their smartphones as opposed to digital cameras or camcorders. The Miveu, which we mentioned in a post about CES last month, utilizes this aspect of consumer behavior and provides a less expensive alternative to the typical action camera.

The Miveu is a wearable POV camera and outdoor activity sports case for the iPhone 4, 4S, and 5 (they recently launched one to fit point-and-shoots, too). It is constructed with high-impact resistant materials to withstand rough conditions. You simply snap your iPhone into the case, strap it on, and you’re good to go. The chest mount allows a more natural, yet dynamic, perspective than mounting the camera to a helmet or arm. The design also gives easy access for interacting with your iPhone and incorporates an adjustable ball joint that lets you aim the lens up, down, left, or right.

Photo from miveu.com

Photo from miveu.com

The Miveu gives you the ability to edit and review video on the spot right after you shoot, as well as upload your video to social media networks instantly. You may not have as high quality video as more expensive POV cameras, but the Miveu is definitely convenient and a lot less expensive (only $79!). You can read more about it here.

In the chart you’ll see that Industrial Design overlaps with UI, UX, Architecture, and Human Factors. However, this isn’t to say that this is all that encapsulates ID. More than likely, there are a number of road maps for the entire UX design industry, but this one helps show (and explain) why it’s so hard to define a good UX. You can view the original diagram here. Feel free to check out the short article from Fast Company on the Disciplines of UX Design here.

Photo from fastcodesign.com

Photo from webdesignerdepot.com

You may have heard rumors that the next iPhone will have a larger screen, however, the latest comment from Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook hinted that the next-generation iPhone will not be any bigger. He believes the iPhone 5 has the “right” screen size.

“It [the iPhone5] also provides a larger screen size without sacrificing the one-handed ease of use. We put a lot of thinking into screen size and we believe we have picked the right one.” – Tim Cook (from abcnews.go.com)

One platform for developers means better control of the apps or programs that run on the device. This leads to better performance compared to Windows or Android where it has to accommodate a number of variables (screen size, CPU, GPU, etc.).

Jobs may have used the theory of one hand control for the reason of the 3.5 inch screen (and Cook continues to use it for the iPhone5 4” screen). Behind the curtain, what it really means is Apple wants a single platform for developers to work on to maintain maximum optimization. You can read the full article here.

Written by: Jung Chei, Industrial Designer, Beyond Design, Inc.

In addition to the SEE program, Beyond Design, in collaboration with Northwestern students and Nettelhorst teachers and volunteers, will be implementing the first ever New Product Development (NPD) program at Nettelhorst. The program, called dig-8, which stands for Discover, Innovate, and Grow, is designed to teach children about new product development and entrepreneurship in a relevant, engaging, and unique way. The goal is to educate young students and show them how to take their ideas and turn them into viable product solutions that can be marketed and sold to consumers. The program kicks off next Thursday in the 8th grade class and we can’t wait to see the creativity level of the students!

Students and their teacher check out a 3D printer (photo from dnainfo.com)

Fifth graders at Nettlehorst talk to professionals at Beyond Design about their ideas for a pencil holder. (photo from dnainfo.com)

The group is divided into teams and includes a Specialty team, Programming team, Electronics team, and a Drive Train team. These past two weeks, the Specialty team mapped out the structure of the robot, finalized the dimensions for the shooter, and made a parts list for the climbing mechanism. The Programming Team collaborated with the Electronics Team to get the motors running, and experimented with the axis camera to determine how they will use it to target. The Drive Train Team succeeded in mounting the motors on the chassis to complete some preliminary testing. Sounds like a busy two weeks!

We’re looking forward to seeing the final design. You can check out some photos of the team at work below.

TV’s are Bigger, Smarter, and Brighter with 4K Technology
While 3D TV’s may have been a big hit at last year’s show, this year it was all about 4K (aka “ultra HD”) technology. Samsung, Sony, Sharp and other manufacturers unveiled bigger screens with “ultra high definition” four times sharper than traditional HD. Perhaps one of the most notable introductions at the show was Samsung’s 110” Ultra HD television that looks more like a piece of furniture than a TV. The TV isn’t just impressive in terms of size, but it features a frame that extends above and below the boundaries of the screen, making it look like a giant easel. Sharp also showed off an updated version of the 8K TV prototype it unveiled last year.

Samsung 110” 4K TV (left) and Samsung's Curved OLED TV (right)

In addition, LG promoted their OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology again this year. Both Samsung and LG, using this technology, introduced curved OLED TV’s. The curved screen is intended to give viewers a more realistic and grand experience, similar to that of going to an IMAX movie theater.

Home Automation
Home automation is becoming less expensive and easier to use compared to years past. Rather than having to invest in a “connected” home, you can add devices to your home environment that connect via WiFi and are controlled by your Smartphone or computer. Companies like LG, Ingersoll Rand, and Belkin showed us innovative ways for controlling lighting, security cameras, door locks, HVAC systems, shades, video surveillance, and a number of other functions in your home from anywhere in the world.

NexiaTM Home Intelligence, a brand of Ingersoll Rand, showcased a bigger and better-than-ever home automation system featuring an array of compatible products and technologies that gives homeowners control of their home’s safety from wherever they are.

NexiaTM Home Intelligence

Year of the Gadget Start-Up
With the rise of Kickstarter and other crowd-funding sources, it’s more obtainable than ever to bring a concept to life. The Pebble watch made a big impression at the show when it debuted the final version of its smartwatch, which connects to your smartphone wirelessly to show you messages, calendar notifications, and control music.

Urban Home Phone

Another product we liked was from Urban Hello. Smartphones have replaced most home phones in the past few years and Urban Hello is trying to bring landlines back with a sleeker and more intuitive design. The phone is designed for the modern household with a 360° loudspeaker and smart hands-free switching system. It breaks the traditional aesthetics of landline phones and features two OLED screens on both the top and bottom to display the name and number of the person calling. The Home Phone is currently on Kickstarter and received a CES Best of Innovations Award in the Home Appliances category.

Attention on 3D Printers
3D printing was all the craze in 2012 with the introduction of MakerBot and a number of other at-home 3D printers. This year, another 3D printer making some noise at the show was 3D Systems CubeX. The CubeX can print objects in up to three different colors. It also features faster printing, an upgradable system, and more material selections.

Large scale 3D models from MakerBot

Considering the level of consumer interest, as well as the ever-growing field of 3D printer manufacturers, it may not be long before this technology becomes mainstream.

Audio Gets More Portable
Last year was a huge year for audio products and companies and this year was no different. Bluetooth portable speakers were everywhere at the show. While Beats Pill (from Beats by Dre) and Jambox have already established themselves as leaders in this market, there were plenty of other companies making a statement. We especially liked Samsung’s portable speakers for their sleek and modern design. The speakers pair seamlessly with Android smartphones and tablets.

Celebrity-endorsed or inspired headphones once again flooded the show floor of CES. This trend arguably started with Beats by Dre and has spread to a number of different musicians and athletes hoping to get it on the movement.

Samsung (left) and Polaroid (right) Bluetooth Portable Speakers

In-Car Technology
There was a big automotive presence at the show with companies like Lexus, Ford, and Audi showcasing their newest electric and connected cars. Audi’s booth was the most impressive, and while it was one of the largest, they only featured three cars inside, including the Audi R-18 e-ton Quattro hybrid race car. Audi’s overnight racer features a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) that works by recovering kinetic energy created during the braking process, which in turn stores that energy and allows it to be used at a later time. It’s a very fancy hybrid.

Audi R-18 e-ton Quattro

Advances in technology have left car manufacturers with exciting new options to provide utility and efficiency to drivers. Eventually, we’ll most likely see cloud-based apps that work on your car just like they work on your smartphone.

iPhone Accessories Dominate Show Floor
Though Apple doesn’t have an official presence at CES (and hasn’t for years), iPhone accessories dominated the show floor. There was a never-ending supply of cases, covers, Bluetooth keyboards, and charging stations for iPhones and iPads.

There were quite a few virtual keyboards for smartphones, but our favorite accessory was Celluon’s Magic Cube – a projection keyboard for mobile devices. It’s small and light enough to be carried around and because it uses Bluetooth, setting it up is really simple.

Magic Cube

Another product that caught our eye was the Miveu, a wearable POV camera and outdoor activity sports case for iPhone 4 and 4S. The Miveu features a wide-angle lens and offers a convenient and inexpensive way for you to record POV video on the phone you already own.

Miveu Wearable POV camera

The Home of the Future
Whirlpool showcased an all new ‘6 Sense Live’ concept at CES. It is a futuristic technology integration that will allow easy management and control over all your kitchen appliances, while also saving plenty of energy. They are referring to their concept as “Whirlpool 2020”.

Whirlpool’s ‘6 Sense Live’ concept: ‘The Fireplace’ (left) and FreshConnect fridge (right)

One of our favorite concepts they presented was “The Fireplace”. The Fireplace is a concept dining table, which will activate on both cooling and heating modes, depending on the items placed on it. Above the surface is a standard stove hood, which also provides customizable mood lighting depending on the user’s preferences.

They also had a concept on display called the FreshConnect refrigerator. While we are not sure of the details, it appears that the idea is to keep different types of food fresh for the maximum amount of time, based on the unique humidity and temperature requirements of each.

The “connected future” depicted at CES included a number of devices and gadgets that can be controlled, monitored, or synced from a smartphone or computer. It’s quite possible that the smartphone will one day be a universal remote for our lives – connecting our car, home, TV’s, fitness activity, and just about every other aspect of our lives. Smartphone integration, as well as touch and gesture UI’s, allow for some very innovative ideas for future design opportunities in 2013.




Want a PDF of the above? Click the link below to download.

ChargePoint Stations at CES 2013

We saw a lot of innovative product solutions last week at CES and have mentioned quite a few in our posts over the last week or so. Over the next couple of days, we will be highlighting some products and services in more detail that might be worth checking out.

One company that caught our eye, ChargePoint, plays a big role in the EV industry. ChargePoint is the largest online network of independently owned charging stations operating in more than 14 countries. They manufacture ChargePoint Networked Charging systems for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The system provides EV drivers the ability to search for ChargePoint-enabled charging stations, get directions to charging stations, see if a station is in use or not, check pricing, reserve a station, and receive charging notifications.

The cloud based solution is the world’s first fully open charging services network that supports charging stations from multiple manufacturers and works with all EV’s. This is an extremely valuable system for the many EV owners in the world. To learn more, check out their website here.

Feel free to download our highlights from the show in greater detail at the end of this post!

Samsung’s Transparent TV gives you an incredible display quality. This technology would be great in museums to create exciting, interactive displays.

Sharp showed off an updated version of the 8K TV prototype it unveiled last year.

Displair, a Russian Company, showcased a water-based monitor that projects an image over fog. It responds to hand movements via an infrared camera and is really speedy. It allows you to play games and is compatible with Android and Windows-7 based computers. This was really cool to watch. The product is geared toward the corporate world for use in presentations because of its hefty price tag.

Cobra’s booth featured the CXT545 walkie talkies that our team designed.

LG is bringing the dressing room to your own home. It’s an interesting concept where a customer will be able to see themselves wearing different clothes on screen (and make a lot less of a mess in their room!).

If you’re an EV driver you are probably already familiar with ChargePoint, the largest EV charging network in the world. They recently introduced their New Electric Vehicle Charging Station Mobile app that allows users to find information on all EV charging stations installed in the U.S. (and not just those placed by ChargePoint).

3D printer companies had a big showing at CES. MakerBot shows their printing capabilities through low, medium, and high resolution apples that were created using their machines.

3DSystems also made some noise at the show with their CubeX printer. The CubeX can print objects in up to three different colors. It also features faster printing, an upgradable system, and more material selections.

Polaroid’s instant printing camera using ZINK® technology.

Acoustic Research's portable Bluetooth speaker featured a range of colors to choose from.

Polaroid featured some colorful portable Bluetooth speakers as well.

Even though Apple wasn’t at the show, iPhone and iPad accessories dominated the show floor.

Natural wood is being incorporated in a lot of electronics.

Out of all the automotive booths, Audi’s was our favorite. We loved the simplicity and openness it provided.

Huawai was one Chinese company who had a big presence at the show. However, their products looked like a knock-off of Apple.

TCL, another Chinese company that had a big presence, incorporates a lot of texture in their products (a computer monitor is shown above).

Sony’s booth was pretty impressive with all of the TV’s that surrounded it.

Surfpillow Hitech is a shapeable laptop pillow in polyester. The top and bottom of the laptop pillow have anti-slip surface bumps.

And, of course, we had to include photos of a few members of our team at the show!

Check out our free recap with other new products and trends below.

Photo from boommovement.com

Portable Bluetooth speakers are EVERYWHERE at CES 2013. We showed a photo of Samsung’s speakers in yesterday’s post (see it here) and wanted to also highlight BOOM Movement’s Urchin. BOOM is an audio line from the people behind Polk Audio targeted at the active user who wants their products to keep up with their lifestyle.

We were able to get a sneak peek at the BOOM Urchin at the show, but the product won’t hit the market until early February. The Urchin is said to be shock and water resistant with a tagline “Ready for Anything™ (RFA).” It has a removable silicone skin that is available in a number of different colors so you can customize it to your liking. The Urchin also has a carbineer, a suction cup, a screw mount, or it can be used with the optional bike mount or strap attachment. It really is R4A – backpack, shower, the car, a hiking adventure, or bike ride.

The Urchin has a built-in microphone that turns it into a hands-free speaker for any Bluetooth phone. The product will sell for $150 when it is released next month. Definitely something we might have to check out! You can read more about the product here.

Check out our full recap with new trends and products at CES 2013 below.

If 55-inch and 65-inch TV’s aren’t big enough for you, check out Samsung’s oversized S9000. It’s a monster at 110 inches. You can see more images of the TV here.

Samsung S9000

Nearly everyone has a Bluetooth speaker at the show. The one’s shown below are from Samsung. We really like the clean design.

Bluetooth speakers from Samsung.

Samsung displayed the world’s first curved OLED TV at CES on Tuesday. This might be foreshadowing their plans for future smartphones. The curved screen is intended to give viewers a more realistic and grand experience, similar to that of going to an IMAX movie theater.

Samsung Curved OLED TV

This Sony TV allows you to connect your phone to it wirelessly and enjoy your apps on the big screen. So many products are incorporating Smartphones with their designs.

Sony

Do you want to draw on your TV with a gigantic pen? Panasonic’s new smart TVs will allow you to do just that, as well as add tiles with channels, calendars, and internet pages. The new Panasonic TVs will recognize users using a built-in camera, switching the home screen depending on whoever is watching it.

Panasonic Smart TV

Samsung’s transparent 3D TV is shown below. This might be useful in museums to create exciting, interactive displays that combine real objects with 3D imaging.

Samsung's Transparent TV

We really like Intel’s booth and whoevers idea it was to build a tree of Ultrabooks. Very cool. The computers can be controlled by the person standing below.

Intel's Booth at CES 2013

Leading up to CES, there were several Chinese companies mentioned on various online sites to watch out for. Out of the companies mentioned, TCL (a Chinese multinational electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong, China) has the strongest and loudest presence at the show.

TCL Corporation's Booth

Download our full recap with new trends and products from CES 2013 below.

Images from ltrobotics.wix.com

In the Spring of 2013, one of Lane Tech’s Robotics Teams will be entering the FIRST Robotics Challenge as a rookie team and we are proud to be a sponsor. At Beyond Design, we understand the value of technology and engineering as well as education and collaboration. Lane Tech makes it possible for young students to better understand the opportunities that await them in the technological fields after graduation and this program allows them to gain real-world engineering experience and develop valuable life skills that can be applied to any career.

FIRST Robotics is an organization that allows students in the United States and across the world to experience engineering first hand with the support of teachers, mentors, professional engineers, and community members. FRC Teams are thrown into a real-world engineering experience under complex rules, limited resources, and strict time constraints. Teams are challenged to design, build, program, and test an industrial grade robot that can accomplish prescribed tasks specific to the FRC Competition. Being involved with a FIRST Robotics team is an experience unlike any other, and students who are active in FIRST programs not only develop valuable life skills that can be applied in any career, but they also inspire innovation and leadership among their peers and community.

You can check out a video describing the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition Game below, as well as the Lane Tech team’s website here. We look forward to seeing the future robot the team creates!

When I was visiting family and friends in London late last year, I had the opportunity to see and hold the torch in person. A neighbor of mine, Joanne, has worked for years with children who are severely disabled. As a result, the parents of these children nominated her to LOCOG (London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) to run with the flame. Each runner had to be nominated, approved, and have a captivating story in order to get this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A few thousand torches were made and the runners had an option to purchase one. Nike purchased Joanne’s torch for her to show their thanks for all of her charitable work with disabled children.

Mickey McCann, an Industrial Designer at Beyond Design, holding the 2012 Olympic torch.

To see it in person was quite amazing. From an aesthetic point of view it really is a beautifully sculptured and crafted object. The layers of perforated metal fold back to create a layered effect, and from a manufacturing perspective, it is really remarkable how they did this. It had a nice and satisfying weight to it as well.

The tradition of lighting an Olympic Flame comes from the ancient Greeks. The thought that this individual flame was started from the sun, using a concave mirror, and focused on a beam of light to a narrow point in Olympia, Greece is pretty amazing. This flame traveled over 12,800 miles on a plane (which is never allowed), and was passed through thousands of people, many famous and honorable. It culminated in the opening of the 2012 London Games and lit a beautifully symbolic cauldron. The flame has come to symbolize “the light of spirit, knowledge, and life” and it was truly an honor to see it in person.

You can check out the video below to see the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the 2012 London Olympics.

Written by: Mickey McCann, Industrial Designer at Beyond Design