I am writing this article as an enthusiastic user of innovative design research tools and methods, with no claim to have invented any of them. I have had the privilege to know many of the pioneers in design research, including Niels Diffrient, FIDSA, Rick Robinson, John Cain, IDSA, Steve Wilcox, FIDSA, Paul Rothstein, John Rheinfrank and Bill Moggridge, FIDSA and have embraced and adapted many of their methods to use in my practice and teaching. I differentiate the industrial-strength methods of Wilcox, Robinson and others, which are usually applied to very complex problems, from what I am talking about here. Part of my interest has been on designer-friendly research methods that get the designer out of the studio and into the world to observe how people interact with things in real life. Read full article (PDF)

Images: Jason A. Knowles, Fentress Architects

The Horizon Light at the reception desk at the Walker Art Center

We were in the process of updating the museum’s main ticketing desks, searching for a contemporary lamp that would fit into our facility-wide lighting plan to switch from incandescent and fluorescent sources to LED. The Horizon Light supplements our existing lighting sources, which are a combination of artificial and day lighting, and allows our staff to control the amount of light on their work surface, directing the light to where they need it. I needed a fixture that would fulfill these needs and fit into the overall aesthetic and design of a contemporary art museum. The Horizon Light’s innovative flat-panel LED creates a luminous, even plane of light and the minimalist armature articulates fluidly and naturally. Unlike the first generation of LED task lights, Horizon is a rare combination of an elegant, simple, and clear design that works.

Michael McCoy and Peter Stathis’ Horizon Light won a coveted IDSA Gold Award at the 2012 awards presentation. Horizon Light IDSA Gold Award (PDF)

Michael McCoy will speak about designing with a new lighting technology.

Michael McCoy is the first recipient, with Katherine McCoy, of the Smithsonian’s Design Minds National Design Award for, in the words of the museum “affecting a paradigm shift in the design profession”.

His new Humanscale Horizon Light (designed with Peter Stathis) has won over 20 international design awards including the Red Dot Award and the IDSA Gold Award and is in the permanent design collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, The Denver Art Museum and the Kirkland Museum. McCoy is the former Director of 3D Design for the influential Cranbrook Academy of Art.

WED. OCT 24, 2012 @ 7:00pm TIVOLI 640 : THE TOWER
Tivoli Center 900 Auraria Pkwy, Denver, CO, 80204
Limited Seating

RSVP no later than Oct. 16th to: belworld@mac.com

REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED BETWEEN 6:30 & 7:00
$10.00 cash only entrance fee. IDSA members free

download pdf poster

photo courtesy Mark Woolcott Photography

The Humanscale Horizon Light event was a big success with over 90 people in attendance, and we attracted many of the top architects in the area. Thanks to everyone who helped put this together.

NEW YORK — Humanscale’s Horizon, designed by Peter Stathis and Michael McCoy, adds to its increasingly long list of accolades with the prestigious International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) at the highest (Gold) level from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).

“We could not be more thrilled with Horizon’s success,” said Pooja Vig, director of lighting at Humanscale. “All the awards Horizon has won, and especially this latest honor from IDSA, are evidence that other key players in the industry are recognizing Horizon for what we’ve always seen it to be—uniform, ergonomic light in the most beautiful, user-friendly design possible.”

As one of the most celebrated and coveted honors in the design community, the annual IDEA has been promoting business and public understanding about the societal impact of industrial design excellence since 1980. This year, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners were selected for each of 17 industry segments, with Horizon prevailing as a Gold winner in the Office and Productivity segment.

This honor from IDSA marks the 20th award that Horizon has won. Just last month, Horizon also received appliance DESIGN’s Excellence in Design award at the highest (Gold) level. Horizon’s extensive, ever-growing list of other awards includes a Red Dot Award for Product Design, a Gold IDA Award and an IIDEX/NeoCon Canada Innovation Award, among many others.

Following the conclusion of the annual IDSA International Conference in Boston, Mass., IDEA 2012 winners will be honored at a ceremony and gala on August 18, 2012. The winning products will be housed in The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Mich., and will appear in the IDEA 2012 online image gallery, as well as in the fall Yearbook issue of Innovation magazine. The winners will also be highlighted by a number of IDEA’s media partners.

CONTACT
Karen Brooking
212-353-1383
Karen@BDEonline.biz

NEW YORK, June 28, 2012 — The Humanscale Horizon Light, designed by Michael McCoy and Peter Stathis, has been accepted into the permanent collection of two of the world’s most esteemed museums—The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum—making a total of five museums nationally which feature the task light in their collections.

Stathis and McCoy have spoken directly to the inspiration behind this first use of Thin Film LED Technology™ in an innovative task light, saying, “Our goal in designing Horizon was to achieve an ultra-thin, luminous plane of light—made possible through years of research—and celebrate it by floating it above the desktop in a package of material and aesthetic efficiency.”

In addition to MoMA and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, Horizon was acquired by the Denver Art Museum and Kirkland Museum in Denver for their respective collections. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has also prominently displayed Horizon on their new lobby reception desks. These honors from all five museums mark additional notoriety in Horizon’s extensive, ever-growing list of accolades and accreditations, which also includes a Red Dot Award for Product Design, a 2012 IHA Innovation Award, a Gold IDEA Award, an Interior Design Best of Year Award and an IIDEX/NeoCon Canada Innovation Award, among many others.

CONTACT
Karen Brooking
212-353-1383
Karen@BDEonline.biz