Pillar Product Design, Seattle WA

MTN Approach article in Outside Magazine

2011-10-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

MTN Approach featured #1 innovative product in Outside magazine 2012 Radical Design Award. Stoked production product to hit the market soon. The bindings and straps on this system were developed by Pillar Product Design Seattle, WA

Moving very rapid with Black Rapid

2011-09-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

Pillar Product Design has been working directly with Black Rapid for over a 3 months now to benchmark new designs and develop innovative and ergo friendly camera / strap component and accessories. Black Rapid only uses the best of the best with the design, materials and construction. They do a ton of field testing as well as lab testing before any product sees the light of day. The Pillar Product Design team is very excited to be working in conjunction with the Black Rapid team.

New Pillar Product Design web site on deck.

2011-09-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Pillar Product Design team has been working diligently with Horse Power Design developing our new web site. The site should be up and running in about 1 to 2 weeks. We have added a bunch of new projects as well as features for our clients to better interface with us. We also took a long look at making it easier to navigate and search the site for information. Every month we will be spotlight a client on our front page with a video feed. Here is a peek at our new face.

MTN approach final finishing touches

2011-05-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

MTN Approach testingAt Pillar Product Design we are so excited for Cory Smith to be growing MTN Approach line of product. In the true spirit of product innovation, Cory is learning and understanding the energy and persistence needed to effectively launch an innovative product to market. He has spent incredible time and resources testing and re-testing his product continually trying to increase the over-all quality, functionality and value of his product. A big cheers to his efforts on making this a spectacular and innovative product.

Growing the Pillar Product Design team!

2011-05-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

Pillar Product Design is bringing on a new talented individual on the 20th of this month. He is a recent graduate from San Francisco School of Arts. His experience includes industrial design, concept development, 3D modelling and new product development. Dan has a strong background in audio, electronics and action sports. We are very excited that he will be joining our small team and his skill sets and experience will be a great addition to the services that Pillar Product Design offers. Dan will be working closely with Tyler on up and coming projects.

vintage old school snowboards SIA 2011

2011-04-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

So I was looking through some old digital pics and came across some skull candy booth pictures. Boards of the past. I used to own some of these boards and was blown away what some of these old sticks are worth. It was a blast I was checking out some of the Barfoot boards and who was hanging out was Chuck Barfoot. I had the chance to make turns with Chuck back in the late 80's in Tahoe. He frequently hit Boreal and Donner Ski Pass. back in the day Chuck had a big ol Red beard that was like 2 feet long. Now he is a well aged man who has the same spirit he did 30 years ago. It was a blast that Skull Candy set-up this wonderful collection of snowboard history. I think I am going to pull out My PJ5 and mega-flex boots and make some turns this weekend.

Bugatti product design inspiration

2011-04-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

At Pillar Product Design we do a fair amount of product and over-all random research in the early stages of the product development cycle. I am always looking for random examples of how designs marry materials, color, textures, shapes and forms together into a design and a product that is time-less. I basically geek out on this stuff and really love to see creative who can really push the edge of where form meets practical design and functionality. When I come across a design that is minimalistic but fuses multiple functions, materials to meet a given form and performance, It shows that the product that has gone thru the complete design process and has been modified over an over until you have only the essence. This stripped down core is beautiful and well worth the resources, energy and effort.

Ipad2 in the house

2011-04-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

The Ipad2 is wonderful piece of electronics. I recently had sometime to play with one and the larger work area is really enjoyable especially for Internet surfing and picture viewing. Watching movies is pretty good as well. I had a difficult time typing, but maybe it is just me learning to type on a flat touch sensitive surface. I really like the glass they are using, it seems to be very durable and doesn't scratch as easy as the previous model. Plus it is now at the somewhat affordable cost starting at or around $499. At Pillar Design I have been getting surge of folks wanting to create external devices around this new release. There seems to be a large interest in making this units more ergonomically friendly and easier to use and pack. It is really fun to work with folks that believe in continuous product improvements.

DGA Zipbuds on the Ellen show

2011-03-11T09:30:00.000-08:00

DGA Zipbuds marketing machine in action shown on the Ellen Show. Check it out!

http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2011/01/win_an_ipod_nano_with_zipbuds_earphones_0104.php

Pillar Product Design LLC

Pillar Product Design working with HO Hyperlite team on new projects

2011-03-11T09:26:00.000-08:00

Pillar Product Design is working with the HO Hyperlite team to develop some new products. Can't tell you anything about what we are doing, but what ever it is, you know it is going to be fun. HO has lead the industry in innovation and performance for the wake and ski industry for years. High performance and innovative products is the core of HO and Pillar Design. They have survived thru tough times and flourished in good economies. Pillar is excited about the opportunity of working with such a world class proven business.

MTN Approach Ski

2011-01-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

Pillar Product Design team in Seattle, WA recently had the opportunity to work with Cory Smith form BC Garage on a new back country ski product. This innovative product of folding skis and collapsible binding mechanism is truly and innovative concept to minimizing your mass and volume on your back county expeditions. Each ski folds up into 2 small packages that can easily be placed in a regular size back pack. Some of the innovative features include: folding tip and tail section on the skis, light weight, super strong adjustable low profile binding mechanism, innovative ankle strap placement so that strap pull out of the way when loading boot into binding, adjustable elevator risers so that user can maintain same angle no matter how steep it gets, built in skins into the ski. This project was a lot of fun and the Pillar Team really enjoyed working with Cory on this project. It is innovative people and ideas like this that push the market and technology forward. The MTN Approach package will be premiered at SIA this year in Denver and we are all excited about how this new product will be received into the back country market. Check out the attached Vimeo video of the final product.

Lotus Revolutions at AEE

2011-01-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

Lotus Revolutions and Seattle WA based Pillar Product Design recently had the premier release of the new product Lotus Revolutions at AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo) In Vegas this last week. This is a unique and discreet product for adult novelty Markets. This mature discreet high-end product is getting a lot of interest and momentum in the adult novelty markets. It is being recognized as a high-end item that is setting the look, feel and quality of this market. The Pillar Product team and Lotus Revolution group spent a considerable amount of time and energy focusing on industrial design, ergonomics and including the user in the feedback loop. The unit design and mechanics stand out from many other products in this market mainly for the reliability user adjust ability and it's unique motor and drive system that has forced feedback system which maintains a consistent rate and speed for the attachments. No matter how hard the end user applies forces to the attachments, this product maintains its course and supplies the necessary power for perfection. Pillar created 4 working sales and marketing sample prototypes for the AEE show. We gained and incredible amount of interest from personal interviews from G4 network as well as AVN. Production of this new product will be happening over the next 6 to 9 months. We are all excited about the production release of this product and it ability to compete with other products in this high-end line.

Pillar Product Design at CES 2011

2011-01-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

The Seattle, WA based design firm Pillar Product Design has spent the last week at CES (consumer electronics show). CES is an amazing show that over 160K attendants over 4 days in the Las Vegas. The Pillar Team came across some interesting and innovative products and designs. Some of the highlights included the improvements to 3D TV and LED and LCD flat screen technology. This technology is getting more affordable better quality and less energy usage in most cases. The 3D TV without glasses was really fairly good. as compared to the prototype technology shown at last years show. The problem with 3D TV one is that the depth just is not there yet. The other issue as soon as you start moving off center from the 3D screen in front of you the 3Dquality becomes fuzzy and 3D reduces drastically. But it is the future and if this 3D technology to every going to make it into main stream it will need to be without glasses.

The second technology we found interesting was by Fulton Innovation. They have developed a wireless power system for smart grid electric vehicle charging stations. They boast a system that is more efficient, cost effective and safer than the traditional electric cord connection to charge your EV. The system is simplistic and they are making excellent end-roads into retrofitting their system into the current smart grid system. Wireless power means no broken unsafe cords, highly efficient power transfer and in-expensive adapters retrofit to any EV out on the market.

The third impressive technology by Intel was called "Bringing Your Games To Life". This technology is based on shape movement and pattern recognizing camera. This technology can be used on any flat surface. A portable camera faces on the surface in which you will be interfacing with. In this particular application the user would bring out a train or a truck or an airplane and the camera would recognize these key shapes and would bring up a list of projected unique icons for each shape. The user than with their hands moving across the flat surface create railroad tracks, roads or run ways in any direction shape or size. You can also pick up trees, houses, and other unique feature icons and pick and place onto the flat surface. Basically creating your own custom game board or game. The application far exceeds just gaming in application. The interface and ability to use your hands as tools and controls with in a digital format is very interesting and innovative.

From the audio product design front I was really impressed with Beats by Dr. Dre and 50 cent line of products. There gear looked polished and the line looked well thought out. Monster Cable has licensed with TRON and has some really futuristic designs. And of course the WESC line looked solid. Great color, textures and over-all capturing the 70's and 80's pre / post punk style.

After feeling like I climbed Mount Everest walking this huge and diverse trade show, I think next year I am going to pack my skate shoes.

Developing New Bicycle Components

2010-11-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

Pillar Product Design has a long history working on road bike and mountain bike components. The team has worked with amazing bike companies like Girvin, Noleen and K2 Bikes.

We are currently are working on a new design for components used on commuter and travel bikes for a local outfit. It is exciting to be back working and developing bike components. If we are riding or designing bikes components, It truly is a passion for the Pillar team.

Some of the main challenges we face with the current project in the product development cycle an ability to create a system that works with standard established components in the bike industry. The bike market used to be extremely specialized and some of that still holds true to date. But the fact is as it relates to bike components there are specific dimensions that hold true and affect 95% of the bike products on the market. The more universal you can make the components the easier is it will be accepted at retail. Specific and custom system often are lost at market UN-less there is a massive benefit to jump ship and switch to a completely unique stand alone system.

World Release of Zipbuds Tangle Free Audio Earbuds System

2010-11-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

Pillar Product Design worked directly with DGA to develop the Zipbuds product. We started with an idea and a napkin sketch idea and took it from there. We spent almost 4 to 6 months developing this idea and another 6 months product testing and working out the production bugs. This amount of sweat equity and effort is worth it once you see the final finished product. We are excited to see how this new product will be received by the audio market. DGA has done an excellent job on viral marketing in the high-end audio markets. They have excellent distribution and have spent wisely in the over-all development of this product. It has been and honor to work with this small team to develop this amazing product. Check out the video of this product it is both brilliant and hilarious.

Check out the video of the product on vimeo: Zipbuds

Proof of concept to rapid prototypes

2010-11-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

The proof is in the pudding. At Pillar Product Design we stand out from many other product design studios for the the fact that we back what we design and submit to our clients. With over 85% of our clients that are looking for product design, prototype and production assistance services we are often faced with the challenges of proving the concept and making physical units functional, cost effective and manufacturable. We pride our selves for our ability to address and take responsibility for the manufacturability, materials, production cost constraints up front early in the product development process, before our clients make the big spend on physical samples or production tooling. Of course during the early stages of the development process(brain storming stage) we may come up with ideas that may or may not fit into the mold of manufacturing or cost constraints. We often will take 15 to 20 ideas and filter down to 3 to 5 main concepts. Like many phases of the project, we like the client to be deeply involved in this part of the particular process. It is key that we make decisions based off of a solid foundation. It is our goal to evaluate, research and explore the options and new technology that relates to a particular idea or concept. We use a process known as product mapping that allows us to filter down concepts and ideas into there basic essential pieces, parts and characteristics.

Once we have a clear direction on a product's shape and function, we then will build Solid Works 3D CAD models to gain and understanding of how the parts interact and interface with each other and how the individual component work as a complete assembly. We investigate production process and materials to determine how these parts will be made. At this point in time we usually with have a rapid prototype built before we start to dig deep into the details of each piece. This allows to gain an understanding of scale proportions, ergonomics and functionality.

This process goes back and forth until the assembly meets the necessary requirements set. Pending complexity this can be a 3 to 5 week process or 1 week process. It is so critical that a complete understanding of the environment, load path and requirements are determined and understood. Also it is key that once the physical sample is built that a complete set of testing is followed up to quantify if the product is meeting the necessary requirements.

JP Enterprises

2010-10-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

Seattle based new development business JP Enterprises has asked Pillar Product Design to develop a unique ergonomically friendly and practical blue tooth system that will offer the end user a compact, comfortable light weight sleek and stylish alternative. Blue Tooth Technology is growing at rapid pace in the communication industry. Processing chips are becoming smaller and more efficient with power usage. The un-comfortable, heavy , poor sound quality will soon be a thing of the past. The Pillar Product team is focused and working diligently to re-invent this amazing interface in wireless communication. We are excited that JP enterprises has asked us to work on this venture.

Photon Manufacturing Home of Laser Fantasy

2010-10-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

Pillar Product Design has been working with Bothell based Electronics guru Alex Hay who owns Photon Manufacturing. His modest shop and lab is one of the premier high-end laser builders in North America. Pillar Product Design has had the amazing opportunity to work with Alex on the Lotus Revolution project with required his expertise in chip programming design and construction. His amazing team truly brought to the table the necessary expertise to miniaturize the chip design and optimize the functionality and performance of the product. Together with compact efficient electronics and world class design and ID we have an amazing prototype and future product. www.photonmanufacturing.com

Chuggington trains project back from the rapid prototype house

2010-10-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

The complex 3D models that Pillar Product Design recently created for a local client just came back from the rapid prototype house. The client was very excited at the results and attention to detail as well as the results of Pillar's 3D CAD and advanced surfacing work. These samples will now go to Disney Licensing for review and final buy-off. We built these complex models straight from the Disney / Pixar Style guide. The client requested the scale and we built the project from this information.
Fun stuff for sure.

Lotus Revolution concept, design, prototypes to production

2010-10-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

Pillar Product Design has been working with Lotus Revolution on a new high-end discreet product that is a thing of both beauty and complexity. We are in the early stages of producing the first off prototypes to qualify the design. The goal is to get buy-off on the product then we can look at producing a pilot production run for marketing and sales samples. The amount of engineering resources and prep has been incredible so we can insure a smooth transition into production.

Thus far we have had an amazing and talented team working on this project. From world class industrial design and concept development to 3D CAD engineering and advanced surfacing. We contracted and hired a part time electrical engineer to develop for us a compact efficient electronics with complex PCB board design. The result is a world class product that will be hitting the market in the next 3 to 5 months. Lotus Revolution selected the Pillar Product Design studio for this project due to our experience and expertise bringing multi- tiered complex product such as this to market. There has been a considerable amount of sweat equity,effort and thought put into this new product. Both Pillar Product Design and Lotus Revolution will be excited to promote and release this product to market. At Pillar we are a team both with clients and the contracted expertise that we bring in-house. Sorry we can't show or talk about the details of the product just yet, but stay tuned.

commutapult

2010-10-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

This is the most brilliant and hilarious presentation that I have seen in a while. Lots of wonderful industrial design and illustration works by Mark Selander. I had the opportunity to hang out with mark at Flying Fish for dinner one night and he is an amazing and creative individual. His concept art, design and illustration work is super detailed and very engaging. So who's on board for the commutapult? This look way more fun than boring a tunnel thru downtown.

http://www.commutapult.org/
www.machineandhumans.com

found a bug with Solid Works 2010

2010-09-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

For 90% of my product design, I use Solid Works 2010 at Pillar Product Design. It is an amazing software 3D CAD package that I have been using for nearly 10+ years. They radically changed the layout about every 5 years to keep things interesting. I recently needed to scale a 3D assembly and output an .stl file for a prototype for a client. Solid Works would not allow me to do this with-out going thru a long and confusing process. If it was not for the quality assistance of the Hawkridge technical help, I would have been spinning my wheels for sometime. I guess the annual maintenance fee is worth something.

So this is the bug that I discovered, and I hope that this blog will assist other users in the future. So if you want to scale and output and assembly file to an .stl this is the steps:
1) open the assembly file.
2) save it as a .prt file, give it a unique name so you don't modify your original.
3) check the geometry to save check boxes at the bottom and check all components
4) Save file.
5) Close assembly
6) Open .prt file
7) hit the scale icon or insert, feature, scale
8) Open the solid bodies folder
9) highlight all the solid bodies to be scaled
10) add your scale factor
11) select scale around origin
12) hit the green check
13) file save as .stl

It sounds like this has been an issue for Solidworks for sometime and they are supposedly fixing this bug and making a simpler work around for 2011. At least that is what the technical support guy communicated to me.

Gearing up for the ski season

2010-09-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

Since we basically had one of the most weakest summer that I can remember, I have decided to move on to the snowboard and ski season. I just ordered my season pass last week and now I am looking into purchasing a new avalanche beacon. As you may or may not know there are a lot if options out there. I have decided to go with the BCA tracker DTS beacon and transceiver. I am replacing my baby blue 1990's ortovox transceiver that only worked on 3 channels. The BCA is a well know fairly high quality brand. It is interesting that you can buy and transceiver like the Ortovox for around $40 to 50 used or the BCA for $250 to 400.

I guess my take on it is what is your life worth if you get buried or covered up in an avalanche or tree well? When be buried, minutes count it best to have a tool that can find and locate individuals quickly. I plan on doing a lot of BC this year( at least every Saturday) in the Alpine Lake Wilderness area. Lots of amazing access to fairly large peaks via snow shoeing & sleds. I have been spotting peaks and access to them on my dirt bike all summer. When going into the back country if it is at a ski resort or the real deal I always carry my beacon to save my bacon. Normally, if I am riding with friends their is at least one other individual wearing a peep. Over the years I found the best things is really looking at the snow conditions, slope and always have an exit strategy. Also brushing up and not getting rusty on you peep skills ever few months is also good practice. Even with all this you can still find yourself in a bad position.

Now it is time to strengthen the core, do some Broga and get some of those un-comfortable back breaking crunchers in.

Top Ten Reason for Product Release Failure

2010-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Pillar Product Design recently attended the local PDMA (product development management association) seminar on Mercer Island, WA earlier this week. It was presented by 2 very talented individuals who have a large and extensive back ground in developing products for fortune 100 corporations like IBM, Boeing, Motorola.

An interesting statistic that I pulled from the meeting was that in the US alone corporations spend over 260 billion in developing new products. On average a large size corporation will have roughly 3000 unique ideas on an annual basis. Of that 3000 ideas 100 will be explored. Of that 100 ideas explored 10 products will be fully developed. Of the 10 products fully developed 2 products will make it to the actual market. This filtration really pushes the innovation envelop to make sure that the product is actually an improvement and has a definite value proposition.

The 10 causes for in-effective launches for products are as followed:
1) build a better mouse trap. Does your product stand out from other products?
2) value and value proposition not understood by both the developer and the end consumer.
3) Product escape. Product idea is released to the public early before the designated launch.
4) Poor messaging or product positioning.
5) Weak product management. UN-realistic delivery goals and profit expectations.
6) Didn't understand the market.
7) Not a whole product. Missed opportunities to delivery a fully thought out product.
8) Weak different from other similar product already on the market. Did not test against real world competition.
9) Poor or weak product distribution channels.
10) Didn't listen to end customers. Biased early product development focus group flaws.

Pillar Product Design business spot light with West Seattle Junction Association

2010-09-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Pillar Product Design recently was interviewed by the West Seattle Junction Association and will be on their very popular web site for the next 4 weeks. This is a wonderful opportunity for locall Junction based Wests Seattle businesses to let the greater Seattle area know about their business, who they are and the services they provide. Having the Pillar Design studio in downtown West Seattle has really been an amazing opportunity. There is a wonderful sense of community on our little island across the bridge. Down town West Seattle has it's own pace and energy. I often think of it as much slower paced than the rest of the city of Seattle. It is somewhere in-between not as slow paced as Vashon, but not as fast as Bell Town or Wallingford, Fremont ect.

The details of the interview can be viewed at www.wsjunction.org

http://wsjunction.org/