Session Title:
Manufacturing the 21st Century
MICHAEL D’AMATO

The Fluid Ribbon Chair is both a furniture prototype and model of the new manufacturing in microcosm. It is a design story about the future of work. Beautifully designed and engineered, the key to the chair’s success is the designer's connection to his own passion, talent and service to others. The landscape of work has radically shifted and will soon center on this intersection of nurturing passion, exercising innate talents and focusing on serving others. New business models have emerged that embrace technology while inspiring the important connection between what people do, what people love to do and what people need. This talk will feature historical precedents and present an action plan to implement new models of manufacturing in the 21st century.

Session Title:
Turning Designers into Design Entrepreneurs
DEBERA JOHNSON

Design programs teach us how to use our visual talent to create innovative products. We use design research, form development and analysis, but we spend little time thinking about how designers relate to the business world. This session will use case studies of three incubator startups to chart the transition from designer to design entrepreneur and turn design thinking on its head by proposing the five elements of “business thinking” for designers.

Session Title:
Business Growth through Multi-Sensory Brand Language
MATHIEU TURPAULT

One opportunity that's ripe for entrepreneurial leadership is the true integration of digital user interface design with traditional industrial design. It's still the exception to the rule where these disciplines aren't silo'd within companies and design consultancies.

Thanks to technical advances, we're now able to create multi-sensory product experiences for more and more products. While VBL (Visual Brand Language) has been an effective design tool, today it really should be thought of as MSBL (Multi-Sensory Brand Language), encompassing audible sound signatures and haptic feedback, in addition to visual and tactile modalities.

From consumer, to medical, to commercial, users expect more from new products. MSBL opportunities lie in integrating technology to improve the experience and foster fierce brand loyalty. Learn about a process for aligning the UI and ID disciplines early in the product development process, what skill-sets are necessary and how companies can integrate the UI/MSBL functions with product design to yield more compelling and competitive products.