T he atter to match products with their users ergotiorues is headng to a range in shape and color The severe co.d baxard white lock most asso ciated with Dieter Rams and the Braun products he ha de gned for decades are being gored by predict that are roler and frendar The use of g'or one uraged by the Memphis School JM Is "arga big comchack Ta dem Computers beads a muscular back rache that sal back and postg ke Darth Vader But the ache approach ok for to Nonstop TV corputers proved to bear award-wther Gone were the har edges r Correr and ndustra finishes Instead, there were our ded edges and soft coors It Cover Story THE APPLE 2C: few over jumped ship such as Robert 1 Plach who left Herman Miller irc. an office furniture con pany, in 1980 to become managing director of product design for Datch exctronics Kiant Phils In the US, design was unappreciated Whit recertly say-ban The US had st sight of the fact that modern, product design was born in the US Design became styling and cosmetics instead of fundamentais Things began o change in the late 1970s and early 1980s The burst of entrepreneurship that spawned the high tech *lers of Silicor. Varev and Boston's Route 12 was grated by a new generation of product driven CEOs. In a replay of the 16 they teamed up with a new genera uor of brilliant designers. The most famous dio is Steven P Jobs and Hartmut Essinger Ap ple Computer Inc and frogdesign Inc gage DAVID KELLEY DESIGN 105) The two are now working or Jobs Next computer Together, these young entrepreneurs and designers are creating original products be Cause they dor t have a trador. dong things in a particular way. says Lex Bally At the leading edge of the revolution in Arier sean des are a dozet or so studios centered m Calforma and the Boston New York area Many of thers with as David Keley Design T Pao Alto CW Pry Designworks 6102 San Franco and RichardsonSmith in Worthing ton, Ohio and Boston reflect the integration of style and funtion With stats of 10 to 30 peo p.e, they design the entire product, from the way it is put together atud ma fact, red o outside appearance Design teams invoke mar keting and manufacturing experts right from the start Get every body to be same room rght at the beginning. says Keley The independent design stad os usually work with a caent company's des department but increasing they are doing entire design, ro jec's where the in house grip by assed "Companies have been turned by large stats" says Baily who designed the Merlm Robot for American Cimex Trey've aged and compa nies are getting designs from the last decade In Europe and Japan, for example, that place as well established Desgn is a strategic weap on for bus S. says Philips Ranch *1! integrated into the heart of management Adds Anne Mare Berrette secretary general at salo The French sk manufacturing company Product design and ergo.coms have been key words at Salomor for nearly two decades That wasn't true in the S Five years ago in America de T was a last minute cosmetic Job says Herbert Pfeifer of frogdesign It was low bodpet ow quality and ow-rerest" Things are beginning to change More and more it companies Ich as Black & Decker Wang NCP. 1. Corring and others des s are playing a pivotal role. And there are promis ing signs that Americar nufacturers are Fe'ing to develop once again, a distincty Amen can design atvie The Italia is create products that are evorful flashy and fun The Germans GRAY EXPECTATIONS: A NEW FORCE IN DESIGN T ry this. Play tennis till your muscles ache. Put on gloves with a couple of fingers sewn together Then don sun glasses with scratched lenses. Now, go into the kitchen and make yourself a bowl of soup. It won't be easy But as designer Pa tricia A. Moore knows, that's what life is like for people with arthritis and cataracts. For Moore, understanding the handicaps of age is no idle pastime. She believes that the field of designing products to meet the needs of an aging population is poised to explode. By 2020 almost one third of the US popula tion will be 55 or older. Most will be entering a period of physical decline, with brittle bones and diminished strength and senses. Already. Moore's New Jersey studio has devised a variety of products for the elderly-for example, mammography machines that are more comfortable and less intimidating to older women, containers that are childproof but not seniorproof. Right now she's helping a team from Procter & Gamble Co. promote a new "snap-top" hd for Tide laundry detergent. Moore, now 35, was a newly minted junior its elderly with poor design This insensitivity emerged ir Lowy's shop too Wher. Moore suggested to clients that they make refriger ators that opened with foot pedas they looked at me as a bleeding heart hera MAJOR CHANGE. Now, however I see s 4 jor charge People are begin ng to worry about the quality of life issues in design, she says Indeed Arthur Anderson general manager of Wheaton. Mencal Technologies, a division of privately held New Jersey packag ing firm Wheator. Industries has, hired Moore to help design a new ane of prescrip tion dispensers with clocks that remmd the elderly when its time to take their medicine. There's a great socis: need to address & market that's growing larger and grayer An derson says And r of fers trenerd as commer Cra! potertia Other companies are beginning to realize that doors can have latches in stead of knobs, labels can have big print and household stapies can come in easy-to-open packages General Motors Corp, for one Fas directed designers to tinker slightly with cars tradition any bought by oder coms mers On the agenda for Oldsmbles are gger buttons better visual displays and sin pier operating in fruto's member of Raymond NEW TIDEI LESS DAUNTING TO THE AGED Ignored by store clerks unable to open Moore s quick to port out that not al! products designed with the age in mind beneht only the infirm. Most people she notes. would welcome a detergent box that's a brze to oper Ard as the 4 mographies stift upward such features will be the right stuff for a huge ares of tucts Says Mo re only slightly torgue in chick It s hard ' unagine the pace activists of the late is standing for a setup pouch they can ope ti by han o Hamon in San Francisc |