Founder and Chief Creative, Michael DiTullo LLC
Michael DiTullo helps companies design iconic products and experiences in almost every industry. Over the past 20 years he has worked with Nike, Google, Motorola, Converse, Chantal Cookware, Timex, CCM Hockey, Hasbro, The San Diego Zoo, Icon, and Honda to bring projects to life. Michael brings deep experience in strategic design leadership, industrial design, brand positioning, design language systems, retail experience, and creative direction to his clients.
DiTullo’s work has garnered numerous awards and been featured in many publications and collections. His book, Analog Dreams, the Sketches of Michael DiTullo, frequently is used as a primer in design schools around the world.
DiTullo is founder and chief creative of Michael DiTullo LLC, a Portland, OR-based boutique design workshop. The practice focuses on industry leading halo projects across autonomous automotive, consumer electronics, luggage, IOT hardware, mobile devices, wearables, toys and conceptual Hollywood entertainment projects. In 2019, DiTullo founded Real Designers Ship as a way to celebrate designers whose work has made it to production.
Turning Old Nikes into a Commercial Architectural Product
Since 1992 the Nike Grind program has been collecting and processing sneakers through drop off sites at all their retail locations. The molded foams and rubbers harvested from these drop offs have been used in many commercial flooring and surfacing products. The shredded textile and leather uppers, called “Nike Fluff,” have never found a commercial application outside of Nike.
This year Kirei, a San Diego based manufacturer of commercial architectural acoustic wall and ceiling products, worked with designer Michael DiTullo, IDSA, to use Nike Fluff in an acoustic baffle engineered to tame the annoying echoes and reverberations associated with large spaces like open offices, large restaurants, auditoriums, and noisy retail environments.
In this session, Michael will walk through the process of designing and developing the product and working with Kirei and Nike to make it a reality.
In this session, you will learn about…
Portland (Oregon) Chapter Chair
Michael DiTullo has designed for mega-companies like Google, Nike, and Honda as well as innovative start-ups. He has been the Design Director at Converse, Creative Director at frog, and Chief Design Officer at Sound United.
Michael is known for his impressive body of work, yet as one of his nominators writes, “his ability to give back is underrated.” He is gracious in giving his time to students and non-profits; served on several design boards and committees, including this year’s IDEA jury; and has contributed to Core77 for nearly two decades.
Michael is praised for his honesty and willingness to promote a healthy dialogue about big issues in ID. His latest initiative #RealDesignersShip is just one example of his ongoing commitment to building a supportive and trusting design community.
Design Language Systems: What Are They and Why Do You Need One?
A Design Language System (DLS) is a document that summarizes all the most important elements of your brand. In this session, Michael will talk about the process he’s used to develop DLS’s for companies like Converse and Polk Audio. He’ll also share some of the techniques that have not worked for him and ways to avoid some of those mistakes.
Transformational Design
Over the past year and a half, DEI Holdings has pursued some major transformations: bringing design in house, building out a studio and a new corporate headquarters, rebranding each of its audio companies and developing design languages and product portfolios for each. In this talk, the company’s chief design officer shares some of the principles that guided this landmark shift and discusses some of the key insights and lessons gleaned along the way.
