Pillar Product Design / blog
March 11, 2011 In blog

Pillar Product Design working with HO Hyperlite team on new projects

Pillar Product Design is working with the HO Hyperlite team to develop some new products. Can’t tell you anything about what we are doing, but what ever it is, you know it is going to be fun. HO has lead the industry in innovation and performance for the wake and ski industry for years. High performance and innovative products is the core of HO and Pillar Design.  They have survived thru tough times and flourished in good economies. Pillar is excited about the opportunity of working with such a world class proven business.

Backcountry Product Developed and Engineered by Pillar Product Design
January 13, 2011 In blog

MTN Approach Ski

Pillar Product Design team in Seattle, WA recently had the opportunity to work with Cory Smith form BC Garage on a new back country ski product. This innovative product of folding skis and collapsible binding mechanism is truly and innovative concept to minimizing your mass and volume on your back county expeditions. Each ski folds up into 2 small packages that can easily be placed in a regular size back pack. Some of the innovative features include: folding tip and tail section on the skis, light weight, super strong adjustable low profile binding mechanism, innovative ankle strap placement so that strap pull out of the way when

Lotus Revolutions Product Release by Pillar Product Design
January 13, 2011 In blog

Lotus Revolutions at AEE

Lotus Revolutions and Seattle WA based Pillar Product Design recently had the premier release of the new product Lotus Revolutions at AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo) In Vegas this last week. This is a unique and discreet product for adult novelty Markets. This mature discreet high-end product is getting a lot of interest and momentum in the adult novelty markets. It is being recognized as a high-end item that is setting the look, feel and  quality of this market. The Pillar Product team and Lotus Revolution group spent a considerable amount of time and energy focusing on industrial design, ergonomics and including the user in the

Pillar Product Design at CES 2011
January 8, 2011 In blog

Pillar Product Design at CES 2011

The Seattle, WA based design firm  Pillar Product Design has spent the last week at CES (consumer electronics show). CES is an amazing show that over 160K attendants over 4 days in the Las Vegas. The Pillar Team came across some interesting and innovative products and designs. Some of the highlights included the improvements to 3D TV and LED and LCD flat screen technology. This technology is getting more affordable better quality and less energy usage in most cases. The 3D TV without glasses was really fairly good. as compared to the prototype technology shown at last years show. The problem with 3D TV one is that the depth

November 29, 2010 In blog

Developing New Bicycle Components

Pillar Product Design has a long history working on road bike and mountain bike components. The team has worked with amazing bike companies like Girvin, Noleen and K2 Bikes. We are currently are working on a new design for components used on commuter and travel bikes for a local outfit. It is exciting to be back working and developing bike components. If we are riding or designing bikes components, It truly is a passion for the Pillar team. Some of the main challenges we face with the current project in the product development cycle an ability to create a system that works with standard established

Zipbuds tangle Free Earbuds by Pillar Product Design
November 9, 2010 In blog

World Release of Zipbuds Tangle Free Audio Earbuds System

Pillar Product Design worked directly with DGA to develop the Zipbuds product. We started with an idea and a napkin sketch idea and took it from there. We spent almost 4  to 6 months developing this idea and another 6 months product testing and working out the production bugs. This amount of sweat equity and effort is worth it once you see the final finished product. We are excited to see how this new product will be received by the audio market. DGA has done an excellent job on viral marketing in the high-end audio markets. They have excellent distribution and have spent wisely in the over-all development of

November 8, 2010 In blog

Proof of concept to rapid prototypes

The proof is in the pudding. At Pillar Product Design we stand out from many other product design studios for the the fact that we back what we design and submit to our clients. With over 85% of our clients that are looking for product design, prototype and production assistance services we are often faced with the challenges of proving the concept and making physical units functional, cost effective and manufacturable. We pride our selves for our ability to address and take responsibility for the manufacturability, materials, production cost constraints up front early in the product development process, before our clients make the big spend

October 23, 2010 In blog

JP Enterprises

Seattle based new development business JP Enterprises has asked Pillar Product Design to develop a unique ergonomically friendly and practical blue tooth system that will offer the end user a compact, comfortable light weight sleek and stylish alternative. Blue Tooth Technology is growing at rapid pace in the communication industry.  Processing chips are becoming smaller and more efficient with power usage. The un-comfortable, heavy , poor sound quality will soon be a thing of the past. The Pillar Product team is focused and working diligently to re-invent this amazing interface in wireless communication. We are excited that JP enterprises has asked us to work on this venture.

October 23, 2010 In blog

Photon Manufacturing Home of Laser Fantasy

Pillar Product Design has been working with Bothell based Electronics guru Alex Hay who owns Photon Manufacturing. His modest shop and lab is one of the premier high-end laser builders in North America. Pillar Product Design has had the amazing opportunity to work with Alex on the Lotus Revolution project with required his expertise in chip programming design and construction. His amazing team truly brought to the table the necessary expertise to miniaturize the chip design and optimize the functionality and performance of the product. Together with compact efficient electronics and world class design and ID we have an amazing prototype and future product. www.photonmanufacturing.com

October 5, 2010 In blog

Chuggington trains project back from the rapid prototype house

The complex 3D models that Pillar Product Design recently created for a local client just came back from the rapid prototype house. The client was very excited at the results and attention to detail as well as the results of Pillar’s 3D CAD and advanced surfacing work. These samples will now go to Disney Licensing for review and final buy-off. We built these complex models straight from the Disney / Pixar Style guide. The client requested the scale and we built the project from this information.Fun stuff for sure.

October 5, 2010 In blog

Lotus Revolution concept, design, prototypes to production

Pillar Product Design has been working with Lotus Revolution on a new high-end discreet product that is a thing of both beauty and complexity. We are in the early stages of producing the first off prototypes to qualify the design. The goal is to get buy-off on the product then we can look at producing a pilot production run for marketing and sales samples. The amount of engineering resources and prep has been incredible so we can insure a smooth transition into production. Thus far we have had an amazing and talented team working on this project. From world class industrial design and concept development to 3D CAD engineering and

October 5, 2010 In blog

Commutapult

This is the most brilliant and hilarious presentation that I have seen in a while. Lots of wonderful industrial design and illustration works by Mark Selander. I had the opportunity to hang out with mark at Flying Fish for dinner one night and he is an amazing and creative individual. His concept art, design and illustration work is super detailed and very engaging. So who’s on board for the commutapult? This look way more fun than boring a tunnel thru downtown. www.commutapult.org www.machineandhumans.com

September 22, 2010 In blog

Found a bug with Solid Works 2010

For 90% of my product design, I use Solid Works 2010 at Pillar Product Design. It is an amazing software 3D CAD package that I have been using for nearly 10+ years. They radically changed the layout about every 5 years to keep things interesting. I recently needed to scale a 3D assembly and output an .stl file for a prototype for a client. Solid Works would not allow me to do this with-out going thru a long and confusing process. If it was not for the quality assistance of the Hawkridge technical help, I would have been spinning my wheels for sometime. I guess the annual maintenance fee

September 22, 2010 In blog

Gearing up for the ski season

Since we basically had one of the most weakest summers that I can remember, I have decided to move on to the snowboard and ski season. I just ordered my season pass last week and now I am looking into purchasing a new avalanche beacon. As you may or may not know there are a lot of options out there. I have decided to go with the BCA tracker DTS beacon and transceiver. I am replacing my baby blue 1990’s Ortovox transceiver that only worked on 3 channels.  The BCA is a well known fairly high quality brand. It is interesting that you

September 16, 2010 In blog

Top Ten Reason for Product Release Failure

Pillar Product Design recently attended the local PDMA (product development management association) seminar on Mercer Island, WA earlier this week. It was presented by 2 very talented individuals who have a large and extensive back ground in developing products for fortune 100 corporations like IBM, Boeing, Motorola. An interesting statistic that I pulled from the meeting was that in the US alone corporations spend over 260 billion in developing new products. On average a large size corporation will have roughly 3000 unique ideas on an annual basis. Of that 3000 ideas 100 will be explored. Of that 100 ideas explored

September 16, 2010 In blog

Pillar Product Design business spot light with West Seattle Junction Association

Pillar Product Design recently was interviewed by the West Seattle Junction Association and will be on their very popular web site for the next 4 weeks. This is a wonderful opportunity for locall Junction based Wests Seattle businesses to let the greater Seattle area know about their business, who they are and the services they provide. Having the Pillar Design studio in downtown West Seattle has really been an amazing opportunity. There is a wonderful sense of community on our little island across the bridge. Down town West Seattle has it’s own pace and energy. I often think of it as much slower