Intelligent, multi-functional furniture that responds to a real consumer need!!

Taking up the least possible amount of space, this thoughtful, multi-functional furniture elegantly and fluidly moves from one function into another with the lightest touch. Working together, it takes a furniture designer, mechanical engineer, and a hardware company from one to two years to develop each piece. While the development process is expensive and time-consuming, this is the kind of product innovation desperately needed by the home furnishings industry as well as the automotive and other consumer products industries if we as a society are to remain competitive in the world marketplace. Gimmicks and slick branding campaigns that are not backed up by fantastic products will not sell anymore.

If we are to stop competing on lowest (imported) price and rebuild our economy and workforce, for the sake of our future, I truly hope America’s business leaders agree that the investment is worth it.

Watch a video of this remarkable furniture, posted by Core77 on Youtube, Resource Furniture: Italian-Designed Space Saving Furniture here.

Read the Core77 post here

Size Does Matter

If one believes that one of the main goals of design is to create products that will sell, then design won’t always be about what’s most beautiful – sometimes it’s small, practical details that give the item it’s sales advantage. One of my biggest design lessons occurred at Omni Products International, a manufacturer and supplier of outdoor and patio furniture. We had created a fabulous design that we thought would be perfect for a major mass market chain. The company president agreed it was great, but told me to have it made half an inch smaller. Intrigued, I asked him why, what effect could such a small change have? By making it just a half inch smaller the box would fit onto the store’s shelves and in the shopping carts, so anyone who wanted to buy it could just take it themselves – without having to hunt down a store employee to see if any product was available somewhere in the back storage area and then carry it to the checkout and on to the customer’s car!! How many sales are lost because an employee can’t be found, the item can’t be located in the stocking area, or it took so long to find it the customer became impatient and walked away?

Nowadays it’s common practice to design packaging to fit shelving and get the most product into the least amount of space, but at the time this was truly innovative. Where else can small design tweaks make a big difference?

The Difference Between a Boss and a Leader

From NRF Smart Brief – “The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says ‘I’; the leader says ‘we.’ The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says ‘go’; the leader says ‘let’s go!’”
H. Gordon Selfridge, American-British retail magnate

Words to lead by!!

Liquid Glass Could Revolutionize How We Live, From Surgery to Home Furnishings

A simple nontoxic liquid glass spray could be one of the most important products to emerge from the field of nanotechnology. Composed of almost pure silicon dioxide, liquid glass forms a highly flexible invisible barrier that repels water, dirt and bacteria, and is resistant to heat, acids and UV radiation, and yet remains ‘breathable’.

500 times thinner than human hair, liquid glass can be applied to almost any surface and is virtually undetectable. Expensive fabrics could be treated to make them stain resistant. Sprayed onto stone or brick, the liquid glass creates a water-resistant surface that is easier to clean. The stone can still breathe, preventing a buildup of mildew under the nano-coating. Wood sprayed with liquid glass that was buried in a termite mound for nine months remained undamaged.

Tests by food-processing firms in Germany have shown that sterile surfaces treated with liquid glass are just as clean and free of microbial contamination after being washed in hot water as untreated surfaces cleaned with strong bleach, and the anti microbial effect lasted many months. While bacteria landing on the glass surface are not killed, they cannot divide and replicate easily, providing a natural, long-lasting antibacterial property.  A year-long trial of the spray in a British hospital also produced “very promising” results for a range of applications including coatings for equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures and bandages.

Made from quartz or silica, the most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust, liquid glass is inert, food-safe, and has no known harmful impact on the environment, unlike many of the domestic and industrial cleaning products its use could help to reduce. The “easy-clean” properties could lead to drastic cuts in the amount of potentially toxic cleaning agents used in factories, offices, schools, hospitals and the home, as well as in the amount of time and money spent scrubbing surfaces.

Agricultural companies are also interested in liquid glass as a treatment against fungal attack on plants and seeds. Vineyards are testing it against a common grape fungus and wine makers are interested in using the product to prevent “corking”. Tests have also shown that seeds sprayed with the liquid glass germinate and grow faster than untreated seeds.

Nanopool, a family-owned German company holds patent rights to the technology and is already talking to British firms and the NHS about using the product for a diverse range of applications, from coating designer handbags to spraying the nose cones of high-speed trains. Since it is available in both water-based and alcohol-based solutions, liquid glass can be used in the oven, in bathrooms, on tiles, and almost every other surface in the home, and one spray is said to last a year. It will be available in DIY stores in Britain soon, with prices starting at around $8 US.

2010-2012 Design Trends and Influences Update

Here is an update to the design trends I’ve written about before. 

Increasingly it is the EMOTIONAL VALUE of a product that drives the sale. People care about how products give meaning to their lives. They don’t want a purchase to make them feel they settled for a cheaper product.

HIGH QUALITY BUT EASY TO MAINTAIN is important, and the longer a product lasts the more ENVIRONMENTAL it is.

TEXTURE that makes you want to touch the object, is huge. In fashion we are seeing lots of ruffles, pleats, feathers, and other luxurious and elegant three-dimensional fabric treatments, and this is starting to cross over into furnishings, especially in decorative pillows and accessories.

METALLIC SHEEN woven directly into the fabric adds an elegant, luxurious quality.

GLAMOUR, BRIGHT COLORS AND FLORALS are replacing the subdued palettes and design motifs of the recession. Still, subtle, soothing and calm designs that are luxurious are in, while bling, glitter, and ostentatious product are out.

GRAY is a principal color. Neutrals — oatmeal, warm mineral colors, taupes and grays — are dominant, sparked with accents of color, especially in big-ticket items like sofas. The contrast of gray and wood is a significant direction. GRAY WITH METALLICS, including gun metals and silvers, is another strong trend that’s very elegant.

PURPLE — amethysts, magentas, berries – is the hot accent color. Other colors that contrast beautifully with purple are CITRON, ORANGE, YELLOW-GREENS, AND PISTACHIO, which is incoming for 2011.

On wood, we’re seeing RAW FINISHES that show the clarity of the wood and emphasize the grain. Other finishing techniques being used on wood include STAINING, LIMING, BLEMISHING, AND DRY, WIRE-BRUSHING. Finishes you can see through let you see the quality of the construction, that it is a solid wood. Two-stain finishes and combinations of different woods look fresh after the predominance of medium brown furniture.

MULTICULTURAL INFLUENCES mixed together continue. Style does not have to be from only one country or historic period. Eclectic design is more personalized and expressive.

FURNITURE IS GETTING SMALLER, becoming more realistic and practical in scale and size.

Value – The Emotional Worth of a Product

In today’s new economy, consumers need to justify every purchase, carefully weighing the value of the product and what it will deliver against it’s price. Consumers will spend more if they feel they are getting great value, which includes the emotional interaction they perceive they will have once they own the item. This is especially critical for furniture and other big-ticket items.

Roberto Verganti has addressed this issue beautifully in his article in the Harvard Business Review, Cut Costs Without Cutting Meaning.

Excerpting from the article:

In reaction to the Great Recession and the forecasts that consumer demand in the U.S., Europe, and Japan will remain anemic for the foreseeable future, many companies are focusing on stripped-down “value” products. In doing so, they risk making a big mistake: Assuming that consumers in hard times care more about utility and low price and less about the emotional and social dimensions of products.

While people, of course, do care about price, they care even more about how products give meaning to their lives. Even when they are pressed financially, they do not want to feel poor. So the challenge for companies is to cut costs without cutting meaning.

Some other companies are masters at creating products that are good-enough value price-wise, but don’t daily remind their owners that they couldn’t afford to buy more expensive alternatives. For example, people love to buy IKEA furniture because of its modern, clever design, and Swatch watches because they can be used as fashion accessories. They use Skype not only because it provides a free alternative to traditional phone calls but also because its multimedia tools, which include video calls, chats, and file sharing, allow them to stay intimately connected with friends in faraway places.

In these hard times, remember that people still love meaningful things. Do not just design to cost. Design to mean.

The End of Trends?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal declares that fashion trends are “out“. While the article is about apparel, the discussion is applicable for home furnishings as well.

The article starts with a quote from David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group who has been analyzing style trends for 41 years: “There are no more trends. Everything is in style.”

Many observers of fashion agree that trends are no longer the guiding force they once were. Most of us dress with our social groups or professions, rather than in the latest fashion trends, using clothes to broadcast messages about who we are. We dress the way we see ourselves, choosing clothes that flatter our bodies and fit our lifestyles. “The industry is fragmenting, reflecting consumers’ desire to create their own style,” says Marie Driscoll, director of consumer discretionary retail coverage for Standard & Poor’s equity research.

While clothes are less costly than furniture and need replacing more often, I believe we are going through the same progression in the home furnishings industry. People want their homes to reflect their individuality and lifestyle, rather than match the latest look dictated by the “experts”. What does this mean for our industry?

Given the investment and longevity of sofas and case goods, the average consumer wants practical, durable, easy-care, pieces that work with a range of design styles. Furniture should be the solid framework for showcasing highly individual accessories. This doesn’t mean plain, poorly designed, or dowdy! When designing new lines of furniture, we should be thinking about the long-term trends rather than the fashion of the moment. (for my thoughts on long-term trends, please see my July 9 blog post, Key Home Furnishings Trends for 2010 and Beyond.) Leave that to accessories, which can be purchased more frequently to update and customize the home.

Mostly, I believe consumers want reassurance that their choices are smart and fashionable and that everything they have goes together, rather than having us dictate a specific trend direction that will one day be out of style. We can do this by specifically designing products to be adaptable, customizable, and able to coordinate with multiple styles, and by how we merchandise our collections to show this to consumers.

Walmart’s direct imports to grow from <20% to 80%

A new published report says Walmart is going to dramatically increase the amount of direct importing it does, going from less than 20 percent of all goods to as much as 80 percent over the next five years. Here’s a short video by HFN discussing what it means for retailers and vendors alike*.

What do you think this will mean for you or your company? Even if you don’t shop at or sell to Walmart, this will affect you. Will importers downsize due to lost business, cutting more jobs, leading to fewer people able to shop the high end, perpetuating the cycle? Will there be a backlash? Remember those “buy American” ads about textile jobs going overseas? Consumers didn’t really care. What will happen this time?

*Click on the hfnmag.com link at the end of the article. It takes you to the HFN homepage. There is a small video window on the right side that will open. Normally this will be a “welcome to HFN” intro you would see if you go straight to the magazine’s home page, but if you go through the article’s link it should start the Walmart video. If not, hit “refresh”, the two videos alternate. HFN is in the process of setting up a more direct connection.

**Update, Feb. 11:  Here’s a link for another HFN editorial about this.

Design Thinking

In his new book The Design of Business, Dr. Roger Martin explains that the vast majority of companies rely far too heavily on analytical thinking, which merely refines current knowledge, producing small improvements to the status quo. Analytical thinking looks to the past for proof of concept before moving forward. While most companies wish they could come up with the next breakthrough innovation or create an entirely new product category like Facebook, by only practicing analytical thinking they get disappointing results. The vast majority of businesses want “reliability” – clearly defined processes that are easily repeatable and produce the same results. According to Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, to innovate and win, companies need to practice design thinking.

To innovate, companies need to employ more of the characteristics of great design: a deep understanding of the customer or user, creative resolution of opposing goals and tensions, rapid and collaborative prototyping, and continuous modification of ideas and solutions. It means seeing possibility and exploring problems where solutions cannot be found in past experience or proven by data.

Dr. Martin claims businesses need more “validity” – creating the right and best outcomes through more exploration – and less reliance on reliability. Three powerful forces emphasize reliability over validity: the demand for proof of the correctness of a new idea, an aversion to bias, and time/resource constraints. These factors reinforce the bias toward reliability and repeatability over exploration and validity.

Intuitive thinking, or “the art of knowing without reasoning”, is the world of originality and invention. Explaining that neither analysis nor intuition is enough, Martin urges reconciling the two modes of thought, asserting that the most successful businesses will balance analytical mastery and intuitive originality “in a dynamic interplay [he calls] design thinking.”

In 2007 BusinessWeek named Martin one of the ten most influential business professors in the world. an interview with Dr. Martin can be read here.

Trends in Social Media

It’s quite a challenge to stay on top of the explosive growth and continual evolution of social media options for businesses and individuals, and choose the most cost- and time-effective options for your business. A great place to gain an understanding of how your business can utilize what’s happening is Adam Ostrow’s blog on open forum, found here. Adam lucidly explains the merging of social media, mobility, search, and business.

The post highlights several increasingly common abilities. With hundreds of millions of users across “the social web”, one of the biggest developments is the inter-connectivity and cross-posting of accounts between sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and YouTube. Something uploaded to one site can be automatically posted to the others, so when you log in to any one site you can see a stream of recent activities, new status updates, photos and events, from your connections, that were posted on any other site.

Another significant development is mobility, or as Adam calls it, where social media meets location. Facebook has more than 65 million active mobile users, and 20 percent of tweets are streaming in from mobile devices. Location-aware applications allow users to see where their connections are and spontaneously get together. Businesses are starting to use location-aware, or hyperlocal, advertising to reach them when they are just outside your door.

The blog post covers all this and much more with great clarity. Adam is a new-media entrepreneur, consultant and commentator. As editor-in-chief at Mashable, Adam is responsible for the editorial management and direction of one of the most widely read blogs in the world, covering the latest technologies, trends and individuals that are driving the current evolution of the Web.