I am the CEO of Whipsaw, an Industrial Design and Engineering consulting firm in the heart of Silicon Valley.
At Whipsaw, I am a hands-on designer and direct the strategic and conceptual direction of most client accounts. Throughout my career, I have designed hundreds of highly successful products ranging from baby bottles to supercomputers.
Fast Company magazine selected me as one of “The 100 Most Creative People in Business 2014”, calling me “design’s secret weapon”. I have won over 200 design awards, and have been granted over 250 design and utility patents. My work is in the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Chicago Athenaeum, and the Pasadena Museum of California Art. I was inducted into the World Technology Network in 2013, which honors those individuals that are doing “the most innovative work of the greatest likely long term significance”.
Prior to cofounding Whipsaw, I was the President of Frogdesign where I designed many notable products and led the company for ten years. Before joining Frogdesign, I was a lead designer at Henry Dreyfuss Associates. In the early eighties I interned with design master George Nelson, as well as at Hewlett Packard and Richardson Smith (later became Fitch). I graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Architecture and Art in 1982.
My work is a visage of life - I let the experience of a problem drive me because design to me is a dynamic encounter between objects and emotions. I love art, craft, psychology and technology and these elements always show up in my work. I revel in the creative process and passion applied to a great solution hunt is my fuel, and I believe “if the wind doesn’t blow the grass doesn’t stir”. Design for design’s sake is fun but I am more interested in creating meaningful design that touches lives - the more the better.
I am a born inveterate consultant and I love the business of Design because it‘s a discipline of communication and narrative where people and ideas intertwine. To me simplicity is sublime, but I think we humans also need a hook or something special to draw us in and enthrall us, making us feel alive.
We are an award-winning Industrial Design and Engineering consulting firm located in San Jose and San Francisco, CA.
