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July 2007
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"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

-Walt Disney

(click image for BritBench)

Innovation through Design Thinking
Not so long ago, Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, recounts that designers belonged to a "priesthood." Given an assignment, a designer would disappear into a back room, "bring the result out under a black sheet and present it to the client." Brown and his colleagues at IDEO, the company that brought us the first Apple Macintosh mouse, couldn't have traveled farther from this notion.

At IDEO, a "design thinker" must not only be intensely collaborative, but "empathic, as well as have a craft to making things real in the world." Since design flavors virtually all of our experiences, from products to services to spaces, a design thinker must explore a "landscape of innovation" that has to do with people, their needs, technology and business. Brown dips into three central "buckets" in the process of creating a new design: inspiration, ideation and implementation.

Design thinkers must set out like anthropologists or psychologists, investigating how people experience the world emotionally and cognitively. While designing a new hospital, IDEO staff stretched out on a gurney to see what the emergency room experience felt like. "You see 20 minutes of ceiling tiles," says Brown, and realize the "most important thing is telling people what's going on." In a completely different venue, IDEO visited a NASCAR pit crew to come up with a more effective design for operating theaters.

After inspiration comes "building to think:" often a hundred prototypes created quickly, both to test the design and to create stakeholders in the process. Says Brown, "So many good ideas fail to make it out to market because they couldn't navigate through the system." IDEO counts on storytelling to develop and express its ideas, and to buy key players into the concept. Finally, IDEO relies on constantly refreshing its sources of inspiration by bringing in bold thinkers to campus, and increasingly, focusing on socially oriented design problems.

Sit back and stretch your mind with the 57-minute Tim Brown video, "Innovation through Design Thinking"!
HBF is Bias when it comes to Gold!
Bias occasional tables fuse simplicity with sophistication, exemplified by the precisely detailed brushed nickel metal base. Bias epitomizes the sleek, timeless aesthetic found in all the pieces of the John Hutton Collection for HBF; these are among the final works of this renowned furnishings designer.

Bias square tops feature a beveled edge and are available in three sizes. Top materials are available in either HBF Ligno-Grain veneer, solid surface materials or back painted glass. Bias received a Best of NeoCon 2007 Gold Award.
Joseph Noble Textiles newest Collection
Building on the continued success of the Joseph Noble Technology Leather series, three new products expand their offering in the Summer 2007 Collection. Brilliant, Quilted & Strength offer superior wear resistance, exceeding 100,000 double rubs Wyzenbeek. Pure Linen, Pure Silk and Pure Wool are "green" fabrics - the ultimate renewables!

Be the first to receive the newest Joseph Noble 2007 Summer Collection by registering here.

For the entire Collection, visit the online showroom to see Atmosphere, Brilliant, Nirvana, Pure Linen, Pure Silk, Pure Wool, Quilted and Strength.
Innovation Self-Assessment Test
Innovation is sometimes a difficult concept to understand and implement. One site's understanding of it as a business process comprising the elements of inspire, create and connect has proved to be appreciated as a model.

So, how well do you manage the process of innovation? Fill out a very simple self-assessment test comprising 30 statements and see!

All the best,

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Bill Meyer
Contract Specialities, Inc. (CSI)

phone: 954-389-1295

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