{{Short description|American industrial design company}} {{Infobox company | logo = File:Smart_Design_Logo.png | logo_size = 200px | traded_as = | industry = Design firm, industrial design, interaction design, branding | founded = {{sda|1980}} | founder = Davin Stowell | location_city = New York City | location_country = United States | area_served = Worldwide | key_people = Davin Stowell, Richard Whitehall, Tucker Fort | type = Private | website = {{url|https://smartdesignworldwide.com}} }}
'''Smart Design''' is a design consultancy based in New York City.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Smart Design - About|url=https://smartdesignworldwide.com/about/|access-date=2021-10-17|website=Smart Design|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017040808/https://smartdesignworldwide.com/about/|url-status=live}}</ref> Smart was founded in 1980 by industrial designers Davin Stowell, Tom Dair, Tucker Viemeister, and Tamara Thomsen, with Stowell as CEO.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2011-03-28|title=Davin Stowell|url=https://www.idsa.org/members/davin-stowell|access-date=2021-10-17|website=Industrial Designers Society of America – IDSA|language=en|archive-date=2019-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308225802/http://www.idsa.org/members/davin-stowell|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-08-29|title=Interview with Davin Stowell, founder of Smart Design|url=https://www.designboom.com/design/interview-with-designer-davin-stowell-founder-of-smart-design-08-20-2014/|access-date=2021-10-17|website=designboom|language=en|archive-date=2017-06-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170613081416/http://www.designboom.com/design/interview-with-designer-davin-stowell-founder-of-smart-design-08-20-2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-01-18|title=Tucker Viemeister American Product Designer|url=https://encyclopedia.design/2021/01/18/tucker-viemeister-american-product-designer/|access-date=2021-10-17|website=Encyclopedia of Design|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017044515/https://encyclopedia.design/2021/01/18/tucker-viemeister-american-product-designer/|url-status=live}}</ref> The firm has been a prominent presence in the design industry since the late 1980s, as design competency increasingly came to be seen as "key to industrial competitiveness".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meikle|first=Jeffrey L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0wZREAAAQBAJ|title=Design in the USA (Oxford History of Art)|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-151802-7|pages=187|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Nussbaum|first=Bruce|date=11 April 1988|title=Smart Design: Quality is the New Style|pages=102–168|work=Business Week}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Giles|first1=David|last2=Maldonado|first2=Cristina|last3=Aaron|first3=Susanna|last4=Candu|first4=Lucia|last5=Dolan|first5=Seamus|last6=Mason|first6=Kevin|date=2011|title=Growth by Design: Snapshots of NYC'S Design Fields |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep14848.5|journal=Center for an Urban Future|pages=14–22|jstor=resrep14848}}</ref>
In addition to its NYC headquarters, the company has at various times had offices in San Francisco, Barcelona, and London, and has worked with clients including HP, Johnson & Johnson, Gillette, BBVA, PepsiCo's Gatorade, and Pyrex.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Smart Design – Clients|url=https://smartdesignworldwide.com/clients/|access-date=2021-10-17|website=Smart Design|language=en-US|archive-date=2021-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017040806/https://smartdesignworldwide.com/clients/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Green|first=Penelope|date=2010-11-03|title=Erica Eden of Smart Design on Pyrex|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/garden/04pyrex.html|access-date=2022-01-16|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 2012, the company worked with the City's Taxi and Limousine Commission to redesign NYC's iconic taxis as part of a collaboration with Nissan titled the Taxi of Tomorrow,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Taxi of Tomorrow|url=http://designtrust.org/programs/taxi-tomorrow/|access-date=2022-01-17|website=Design Trust for Public Space}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Grossman|first=Andrew|date=2011-05-03|title=New York's New Taxi Will Be a Nissan|language=en-US|work=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-METROB-13131|access-date=2022-01-17|issn=0099-9660}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Blint-Welsh|first=Tyler|date=2018-06-12|title=It Was Billed as the 'Taxi of Tomorrow.' Tomorrow Didn't Last Long|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/nyregion/nissan-taxi-requirement-reversed.html|access-date=2022-01-17|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and also developed the now ubiquitous logo and decals found on the city's yellow taxis and green boro taxis.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dunlap|first=David W.|date=2012-08-22|title=In the City, 'T' Stands for Taxi|url=https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/taxis-lose-their-axi/|access-date=2022-01-17|website=City Room|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Johnston|first=Garth|date=2012-08-23|title=New Taxi Design Will Kill Last Vestige Of Checkered Cabs|url=https://gothamist.com/|access-date=2022-01-17|website=Gothamist|language=en}}</ref>
The firm is best known for its design of the original Oxo Good Grips line in 1989, and longstanding relationship with Oxo, which continues to this day.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Molotch|first=Harvey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v_yTAgAAQBAJ|title=Where Stuff Comes From: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers and Many Other Things Come To Be As They Are|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-94635-7|pages=37, 42, 215|language=en}}</ref> The Good Grips potato peeler, the first in what would become a large range, was designed with OXO founder Sam Faber's wife Betsy in mind, who suffered from Arthritis.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Smart Design, New York. Good Grips Peeler. 1989 {{!}} MoMA|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/3758|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423132541/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/3758|archive-date=2021-04-23|access-date=2021-10-17|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Kanbar|first=Maurice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EeD0mCXFyO0C&pg=PA23|title=Secrets from an Inventor's Notebook|date=2001|publisher=Council Oak Books|isbn=978-1-57178-099-7|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Good Grips Prototype For A Peeler Handle|url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18790833/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017043618/https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18790833/|archive-date=2021-10-17|access-date=2021-10-17|website=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum|language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Wilson|first=Mark|date=2018-09-24|title=The untold story of the vegetable peeler that changed the world|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90239156/the-untold-story-of-the-vegetable-peeler-that-changed-the-world|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726033920/https://www.fastcompany.com/90239156/the-untold-story-of-the-vegetable-peeler-that-changed-the-world|archive-date=2021-07-26|access-date=2021-10-17|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=King|first1=Simon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FptCwAAQBAJ|title=Understanding Industrial Design: Principles for UX and Interaction Design|last2=Chang|first2=Kuen|date=2016|publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc.|isbn=978-1-4919-2036-7|language=en}}</ref> The Good Grips range of products is often cited as an archetypal example of an approach to industrial design involving user-centered prototyping and iteration, and where considerations of human factors and accessibility make a product better for all users.<ref>{{Cite web|title=OXO International – Case – Harvard Business School|url=https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=22667|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203220625/https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=22667|archive-date=2021-02-03|access-date=2021-10-17|website=www.hbs.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Baisya|first1=Rajat K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dNjDwAAQBAJ|title=Aesthetics in Marketing|last2=Das|first2=G. Ganesh|date=2008|publisher=Sage Publishing India|isbn=978-93-5280-096-4|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Good Grips Prototype For A Peeler|url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18790837/|access-date=2022-01-16|website=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum|language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=POV|title=Freedom Machines {{!}} POV {{!}} PBS|url=http://archive.pov.org/freedommachines|access-date=2022-01-17|website=POV {{!}} American Documentary Inc.|language=en-US}}</ref> The Good Grips line is represented in the permanent collections of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and New York's Museum of Modern Art.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Nicholls|first=Walter|date=1999-10-27|title=Getting a Grip|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/1999/10/27/getting-a-grip/740ab61f-07bf-41db-b05b-a2d83449bc93/|access-date=2022-01-16|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>
In 2010, the company won the National Design Award for product design from the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-09-05|title=2010 National Design Award Winners {{!}} Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum|url=https://www.cooperhewitt.org/national-design-awards/2010-national-design-awards-winners/|access-date=2022-01-16|website=www.cooperhewitt.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
Smart Design helped popularize design thinking alongside other major design firms. Smart design helped shift design thinking into the mainstream business world by facilitating co-creation and participatory design. Design thinking is commonly visualized as an iterative series of five major stages. <ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |date=2011 |editor-last=Meinel |editor-first=Christoph |editor2-last=Leifer |editor2-first=Larry |editor3-last=Plattner |editor3-first=Hasso |title=Design Thinking |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-13757-0?error=cookies_not_supported&code=445f8320-834b-4b1f-9587-56a2704e968b |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-13757-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> While the stages are simple enough, the adaptive expertise required to choose the right inflection points and appropriate next stage is a high-order intellectual activity that requires practice and is learnable. <ref name=":0" /> Design thinking asserts that individuals and teams have the ability to build their innovative capacity through various tools and methods, no matter their predispositions to creativity and innovation. <ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=2015 |editor-last=Plattner |editor-first=Hasso |editor2-last=Meinel |editor2-first=Christoph |editor3-last=Leifer |editor3-first=Larry |title=Design Thinking Research |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-06823-7?error=cookies_not_supported&code=461fc852-d4ca-4d7d-b281-810d7aa1f3f1 |journal=Understanding Innovation |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-06823-7 |issn=2197-5752|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The contexts of design thinking attempt to alter the design process towards more innovative ideas. <ref name=":1" /> Design thinking is too often misconstrued as an impervious remedy for corporate ill. <ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Design Thinking isn’t Design. Time to shift gears. |url=https://smartdesignworldwide.com/ideas/design-thinking-isnt-design/ |access-date=2026-04-10 |website=Smart Design |language=en-US}}</ref> But Smart design believes that to realize the full value of design, we need to break out of the rigid status quo and embrace rapid, iterative cycles. <ref name=":2" />
== References == {{Reflist|2}}
Category:Industrial design firms Category:Design companies of the United States Category:Companies based in New York City