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The 2010 red dot jury has again recognized Smart Design for its committment to improving people’s daily lives through meaningful design and innovative thinking. On July 5th, red dot unveils its online gallery of the latest round of Product Design Award winners. We are happy to be listed amongst our prestigious and inspiring colleagues. Two Smart designs won awards and one has been named a Finalist.

Awards go to:

UCB partnered with OXO and Smart Design to re-invent the age-old syringe. The resulting design is the new Cimzia Prefilled Syringe, the first ever syringe designed for patients with arthritis. The syringe offers more control during the injection process by empowering patients instead of reminding them of their illness, and allows them to exert 48% more force than with a traditional syringe.

The Cardinal Health Endura Performance Apparel Scrubs, winner of a red dot Product Design award, is a line of cost-effective high performance hospital scrubs that we designed as true unisex wear with benefits for women and men alike. A vast improvement on their predecessors, their key innovations include collars that don’t blouse open to over-expose females, a waistline and inseam that adjusts for male and female bodies, angled pockets that prevent spillage, breathable mesh panels for circulation, and adjustable leg lengths.

Finalist honors go to:

The OXO Good Grips Hedge Shears, are comfortable, balanced, and lightweight for increased control and accuracy. They have superior steel blades and durable construction. But most importantly, they allow those with less strength or smaller hands to operate the tool with ease and less strain.

For full details on the red dot Product Design Awards, click here.

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We’re pleased to announce that Smart Design has earned six IDEA awards in the Industrial Designers Society of America’s 2010 competition. Recognized for design excellence, our winning projects can be found nicely profiled online at Fast Company’s new design-focused site, FastCoDesign.com:

IDEA Awards go to:

Aerohive HiveAP 300 Series (Silver)

Cimzia Prefilled Syringe (Silver)

NeatDesk (Silver)

OXO Good Grips 360 LiquiSeal Travel Mug (Silver)

OXO SteeL CorkPull (Bronze)

OXO Good Grips Office Products for Staples (Bronze)

IDEA Finalist honors go to:

Adiri Brand Expression & Packaging
Cimzia Packaging
Ford SmartGauge with EcoGuide (co-honored with IDEO)
HP Scanjet 9000
Powermat Wireless Charging System

Smart Design congratulates all the winners and honorees for such wonderful and inspiring work!

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Meaningful design wins out yet again! Smart has earned coveted two iF Product Design awards for work on projects that solve real problems for people.

The OXO Good Grips Hedge Shears, are comfortable, balanced, and lightweight for increased control and accuracy. They have superior steel blades and durable construction. But most importantly, they allow those with less strength or smaller hands to operate the tool with ease and less strain.

UCB partnered with OXO and Smart Design to re-invent the age-old syringe. The resulting design is the new Cimzia Prefilled Syringe, the first ever syringe designed for patients with arthritis. The syringe offers more control during the injection process by empowering patients instead of reminding them of their illness, and allows them to exert 48% more force than with a traditional syringe.

For full details on the iF Product Design Awards, click here.

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Smart Design is truly delighted to announce that it is the recipient of the nation’s top design honor for 2010 – the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award. Given for the firm’s work in the area of Product Design, the award confirms Smart Design as one of the design industry’s leaders and gives recognition to its 30 years of designing products and services that improve daily life through well-considered design that people love.

Davin Stowell, founder and CEO of Smart Design, explains what it means to win the award. “We’re thrilled to have been recognized by Cooper-Hewitt for our work. What we do is somewhat transparent because it’s for real people in their everyday lives—not ‘celebrity’ design. People always say to us, ‘I have that at my house!’ And they do. In fact, families are now starting to hand down products we’ve designed to their kids, which is particularly pleasing because it speaks to the durability of our work.”

He continues, “Our core values are reflected in our commitment to designing things that resonate with people on a physical and emotional level. It’s a great toothbrush for your kids. A photo printer that makes it easy for you to share memories. Or, a potato peeler that works well for everyone, even if you have arthritis. It’s these every-day moments in people’s lives that we understand really well and that we celebrate through our designs.”

Launched in 2000, the annual National Design Awards honor outstanding contributions from the design world, including product, architecture, fashion, lifetime achievement, and communication design. Nominated by a nationwide community of advisors, National Design Award winners and finalists are selected by a jury of design leaders and educators from across the country. Smart Design was a National Design Award finalist in 2007 and 2009.

For more information, please read Cooper-Hewitt’s full press release and visit the National Design Awards website.

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Join us to celebrate Bay Area design! We’re the last stop (along with our friends at Astro Studios) on Thursday’s Open Studio Night. Doors open at 8:00pm.

Raffle + prizes, beer, snacks, good people... Bring your friends and get a taste of the Smart life, San Francisco-style!

For the full line-up and map, click here.

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For full article, click here.

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Richard Whitehall will join other design and marketing thought leaders, including representatives from method and Patagonia, for a Dwell Strategy + Research sponsored half-day program of insights, inspiration, and practical knowledge designed to help audiences hone an integrated and effective New Affluent marketing strategy. The event will take place on June 25th in Los Angeles and is co-located with Dwell on Design at the LA Convention Center.

Tickets for the New Face of Affluence IDEAS Conference can be purchased online.

From the event’s website:

The New Face of Affluence chronicles the rise of an influential class of wealthy Americans whose changing values are impacting the way we think about work, consumption and daily life. According to recent research, innovation, design, authenticity and sustainability all play important roles in their brand choices and purchasing patterns. Join us on June 25 for the latest research and  hands-on tutorials from successful brands, leading thinkers, and marketing experts who will help you crack the code and reach this influential consumer segment.

A summary of Richard’s talk is as follows:

Ford SmartGauge: Innovation by Design

New Affluents understand that as consumers they play a crucial part in dictating our future. When Smart Design re-envisioned an innovative instrument dashboard for Ford hybrid vehicles, the car company won awards and new customers. With Ford hybrid vehicles sales up by 73% and non-Ford owners accounting for 60% of Fusion Hybrid sales, the company has capitalized on design innovation in a big way. Smart Design works with companies to develop products and services that use design to help encourage sustainable behavior through meaningful, emotional connections with people.

Working with Ford and IDEO to develop SmartGauge, Smart Design designed an entirely new instrument dashboard for Ford’s latest hybrid vehicles that delivers an engaging interaction between car and driver that encourages more responsible driving. In real-time, the dashboard communicates relevant information back to the driver about how their driving is affecting fuel efficiency. This experience has created a new dialogue between car and driver that encourages sustainable driving habits and builds a more transparent brand value for Ford. Is your company ready to profit from design? Get new ideas from Smart Design.

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New York, NY (June 9, 2010) — Smart Design is pleased to announce that the recently designed Cimzia packging system is being honored with a 2010 Medical Design Excellence Gold Award (MDEA) today at the Medical Design and Manufacturing (MD&M) East Conference and Exposition at the Jacob K Javits Convention Center in New York City.

Two unique brands came together to form the groundbreaking Cimzia platform. UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company, partnered with OXO International and their much-loved Good Grips brand to create a new, patient-friendly syringe and packaging system that would help make injections easier for those rheumatoid arthritis patients, especially those with limited dexterity.

OXO, the housewares company known for a dedication to the principles of Universal Design, brought in their longtime design partner, Smart Design to lead the team in designing all the elements of the new Cimzia packaging components (the syringe itself, the packaging, and the accompanying guides.)

Davin Stowell, CEO and founder of Smart Design, explains the approach. "The design team immersed themselves in the world of people who live with RA in order to really understand their experience with limited dexterity. We developed a syringe and packaging components designed specifically for RA patients. We aimed to make patients feel more in control during the process of self-injection, and more empowered, instead of reminding them of their illness."

Cimzia’s friendly packaging not only aims to promote compliance but also to provide a positive, caring user experience. A curved front panel allows fingers to slide under and lift it open. Following three easy steps, the design leads users through a thoughtful and straightforward process. The tray accommodates a wide range of patients’ dexterity limitations when removing the syringe. The information hierarchy is clear and concise with a personal, conversational tone that is human and respectful.

In addition to the MDEA honors, the Cimzia packaging system has won a red dot communication design award in 2009 and an iF Communication Design award for 2010.

The Medical Design Excellence Awards competition is organized and presented by Canon Communications LLC (based in Los Angeles) and is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and advances in the design of medical products. An impartial, multidisciplinary panel of third-party jurors who have expertise in biomedical engineering, human factors, industrial design, medicine, and diagnostics performed a comprehensive review of the entries. The 2010 jury selected 39 winners in 10 medical product categories.

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Media Contact:
Mercedes Coats
Marketing Communications Manager
+1 415 355 6205
mercedes.coats@smartdesignworldwide.com

Notes to editors:

About the Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA)
The Medical Design Excellence Awards competition is organized and presented by Canon Communications LLC (www.cancom.com) and is the only awards program that exclusively recognizes contributions and advances in the design of medical products. Entries are evaluated on the basis of their design and engineering features, including innovative use of materials, user-related functions that improve healthcare delivery and change traditional attitudes or practices, features that provide enhanced benefits to the patient, and the ability of the product development team to overcome design and engineering challenges so that the product meets its clinical objectives.

About Smart Design
Smart Design has been turning insight and innovation into successful consumer experiences for 30 years. Our strategic approach integrates product and brand to ensure winning solutions. Smart Design’s consistent results are delivered by our multi-disciplinary, international staff working in teams across offices in New York, San Francisco, and Barcelona. www.smartdesignworldwide.com

About OXO
Founded in 1990 on the concept of Universal Design, OXO’s mission is to create consumer household products that ease the tasks of everyday life for the widest range of users possible. Since the original 15 items were introduced, the OXO collection has grown to more than 800 strong covering areas for cooking, cleaning, gardening, storing, organizing and lighting. Today OXO Good Grips products are sold in 54 countries and are included in the permanent collections of numerous museums. The company has won more than 100 design and business awards worldwide. OXO is very frequently used as a case study on how a well-executed Universal Design philosophy can be a successful business strategy. OXO is owned by Helen of Troy Limited, a leading designer, producer and global marketer of brand-name personal care and household consumer products. www.oxo.com

About UCB
UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com) is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development and commercialization of innovative medicines with a focus on the fields of central nervous system and immunology disorders. Employing approximately 10,000 people in over 40 countries, UCB generated revenue of EUR 3.6 billion in 2008. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB).

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This Graphics.com article was adapted from Information Design Workbook (Rockport) by Kim Baer. The book is now out in paperback but was originally published in May 2008.

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