Product Design

[music playing] HARVEY MOSCOT: I think cool product design, to me, is something that is timeless, something that's not of the moment, things that I will like in the future as much as I like now.

YVES BEHAR: What design does, at its best, in my opinion, is to accelerate the adoption of new ideas.

PETER SCHMITT: We've reached a point in time now, where we have access to these disruptive technologies that could revolutionize design.

HARVEY MOSCOT: Good design transcends trends.

We stick to real simple designs.

As a fourth generation business almost 100 years old, we didn't deviate from the core design principles.

I mean, it has to be well engineered.

The shapes are critically important.

They're complementary to most face shapes.

The angles of the frames are not harsh.

They're soft.

Good construction, true hinges, not just rivets that look nice aesthetically but that are functional as well.

These are all little nuances that just improve the fit of the frame.

And they blend in better with one's anatomy.

We've always attracted celebrities, but we don't get caught up on that.

People are people.

We're proud that we've never changed how we approach things.

We always view them as timeless designs.

Glasses were originally a utilitarian device.

It's something that has evolved naturally but necessarily.

I think the timelessness of great product, great design will endure.

YVES BEHAR: People are looking much more at every element of a company, a company's output, the responsibility in the carbon footprint or the toxicity, the modes of production, and the sort of social aspect of how something is made or how something is built.

$100 laptop was a technically genius idea, to give away laptops for children at a very, very low cost, at the cost of production, being $100.

My role was to design something that could contain those technical innovations.

I could also really connect with the children and then could also be really sort of manufactured successful.

The essential element is to have people in mind.

You know, the aesthetics, the style, isn't what drives me.

What drives me is the core idea, and then I apply a design sense to that core idea.

The Department of Health called us up for a project called the New York City Condom.

So we redesigned the brand to be about New York.

It's a black condom.

It's got a strong, heavy font logo on it.

It's not hiding.

It's not trying to be discreet.

It's trying to say, I'm your New York City Condom.

Pick me up.

By unifying through one identity at every socioeconomic part of the scale, I think you create the kind of universality, the kind of ease around something that could have been a huge issue and suddenly became not a huge issue.

These condoms are AIDS prevention and pregnancy prevention devices.

Every one of these systems needs to be redesigned and rethought.

We're not going to be able to do it, unless somebody puts examples of socialization or products that continue to evolve.

Those ideas are really important to me, and the only thing something different will ever happen is that if it's driven by passion.

PETER SCHMITT: I have the feeling all the constraints and drivers of the whole field of industrial design-- it's not something that's participatory or democratic.

I would wish there would be more influence for you as the end consumer.

I think 3D printing and digital manufacturing has an opportunity to break open constraints that we are used to.

And there is going to be a product design experience for the end user in the future.

3D printing is basically a big soup of resin, of liquid, that can be cured with a laser, with lights.

We chop down a volume into layers.

And it's basically like desktop printing.

Desktop printers put one layer of ink onto one sheet of paper.

3D printer does that multiple times and then stacks the layers.

You can make awesome things, things that are not possible to make in any other manufacturing method.

One project I did like two years ago was a grandfather clock with a weight and a pendulum.

And it comes out of a 3D printer, and it's completely done.

I mean, the gears are functional.

I'm trying to improve it in many ways.

So what I've been trying to do with the original machine approach is to use a piece of software, to use some tools, that contain the knowledge about functional parts, so that you don't have to know.

Like, let's say you have a child-- their toy just broke, for example-- a little electric car your child can drive around with.

The software would start spreading out four wheels, a little steering mechanism, electric motor, on one of the wheels, or on two of the wheels.

You just interact with it on a level that doesn't require all of the expert knowledge of mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering, or robotics.

It's almost like a natural right, I would say, for peoples, to be able to not just consume, but have more influence on it.

I'd love to see that option of digital revolution enabling us to express ourselves through the means of making, or manufacturing, our own goods.

YVES BEHAR: The biggest opportunities for design to continue to make a difference is going to be about sustainability examples that actually work, that actually are transformative, that are done at a huge scale.

PETER SCHMITT: To me it's always, the question is what's the ideal mix between pre-decided constraints on something and my ability to still shape the product and its experience.

HARVEY MOSCOT: We adhere to the designs that have been proven.

There will always be a blazer.

There will always be a white t-shirt.

You could say the same thing about these simple design items that are just here forever.

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