Celebrating Black Excellence in February
As a black-owned company--and one of the only black-owned product design consultancies in the US--Black History Month means a lot to us. To honor that, we’ll feature some of the excellent work done by designers of color this month. We’ll also post the much-anticipated final installment of our “White Space, Black Designers Needed” series: an in-depth exploration of the black diaspora in a predominantly white industry. Watch our?design journal,?LinkedIn?or?Medium, for its release.
Looking forward: What to expect in February?
Speck Design’s Best of Behance Series Launch
If you are the type of creative soul that likes to go down design rabbit holes, you are going to love our “Best of?Behance?Series.” Each month we will scour the Adobe site to find the very best design--real and conceptual--to delight our readers. If you want to be entertained, surprised, and inspired by real industry talent, follow along on?Medium?or sign up for our?LinkedIn newsletter.
Looking back: Last month in review??
Health 4.0 Has Caught Up with Industry 4.0 (and needs UX design)
In January, we took a look at the convergence of Industry 4.0 and Health 4.0. What became apparent was these two make excellent bedfellows but need UX design (and designers. In fact, In 2019, Healthcare UX Designer Chris Kiess called healthcare UX “the other UX Design.” Less than four years later--oh, how things have changed--amidst this serendipitous merger of technologies here.
INTERESTING FINDS
?Product Design
It’s not every day you see innovative improvements to an everyday object–like the teacup. But the Slightly Kinder Teacup by Acasso has done just that. A subtle mark on a teacup guides you to where to put the teabag string. Simple. Delightful. Product Design.
The “it girl” of the Speck Design portfolio, Sparkee by innovator Kyla Wilkenson, just launched on Kickstarter. Sure, we might be biased, but who wouldn’t want an absolutely wire-free charging puck with double the battery life, so you never have to “put your phone down to power it up?”?Back it here.
?Product Innovation?
This wooden e-bike by woodworker Evie Bee is crafted from Garnica European plywood and hits all the right notes: style, sustainability, and useability. ???? The plywood frame is lightweight, offers superior strength, and reduces environmental impact.
If humans ever hope to live in outer space, we'll need robots- lots of them. So, we are marking our calendars for Apptronik's reveal pf its newest robot, Apollo, at SXSW next month. Born from a partnership with NASA, it is not specifically intended to be a "space robot,” but a strong preview of what the future might bring.
?What We Are Listening To??
Boyuan Gao and Jahan Mantin—the founders of Project Inkblot–discuss how they see design as an opportunity to bridge the divide and bring people into the conversation about designing products and services that address everyone’s needs, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or religion. They also talk about their definition of intent vs. impact, and how to close the loop on making sure your impact is what you intended.
What We Are Reading??
The?perfect book to lean?into for Black History Month, Sink is a gritty third-person memoir that tells the story of a young black kid?growing up amidst chaos and violence in Philly. With remarkable tenderness and devastating clarity, the author?recounts lessons of toxic masculinity, cycles of violence, and isolation while carving out?moments of virtual joy. It is a must-read book for any fantasy nerd who has ever felt like they didn’t belong and used video games or other virtual worlds to escape reality.
At?Speck Design, we have been creating the future for 25 years, helping our clients build lasting connections with their customers through compelling and innovative product design. We believe the catalyst for effective design is passion, diversity, and partnership. We work with organizations big and small, local and global, start-up and legacy to bring their dreams to life and their vision to market.
Partner
1 年I actually think we are the only Black owned product design firm in the US!
Product Innovator-Future Thinker-President at Speck Design
1 年I am especially proud of our Speck team, this month and beyond!