Contract - September 2010 - (Page 14)

industry License to Design Global A&D firm HOK recently announced its new business, HOK Product Design, an initiative that will encourage HOK designers to create products relating to the firm’s core architecture and interior design business. Through HOK Product Design, firm designers can license their designs for manufacture and sale. The new initiative, led by Susan Grossinger, former director of interiors for HOK Los Angeles, hopes to support products ranging from architectural and interior design to consumer, healthcare, and sustainable items. “The business plan for HOK’s new product design group is centered on the concept of developing innovative product ideas that provide value to our clients and the marketplace and then presenting them to targeted manufacturers who have an interest in producing and distributing them,” says Grossinger. She adds, “Our business goal is to provide the marketplace with something better than what exists today in the sectors where we have deep expertise such as healthcare, sustainability, science and technology, lighting, and strategic planning to name a few.” The new business is off to a great start, with 12 products already in the works and manufacturing partners on board. Products range among healthcare, lighting, urban planning, furniture, finishes, fire and life safety, and sustainability. These include: FRENO Rain Garden, an urban rain garden for stormwater filtration and groundwater recharge by HOK planning and architecture An exectuve lounge collection for Cumberland Furniture (top), the Spectrum Collection for Mannington (above), and FRENO Rain Garden (below) are three products already in the works by HOK Product Design. (Renderings courtesy of HOK.) designers Matt Snelling and Paul Wilhelms; rubber and carpet tile Spectrum Collection for Mannington by HOK Chicago interior designers Tom Polucci and Natalie Banaszak; and an executive lounge group for Cumberland Furniture Designer’s Speak program by HOK Houston interior designer Paul Smead. HOK Product Design is structured as a standalone business within HOK, and it is the first business created under the umbrella of the new HOK Blue Box Ventures. This umbrella firm and Product Design were both developed at HOK’s Blue Ocean Design Charrette in October 2007, attended by more than 180 HOK leaders.—LC 14 contract september 2010 www.contractdesign.com http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - September 2010

Contract - September 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry
Resources
Focus: Eye of the Beholder
Practice: Making Rainmakers
Classic Bach
Created Equal
The New Days of Ore
Barefoot Chic
Keep the Faith
Sources
Designers Rate
Process:_Laser Dissection
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - September 2010