From a young age, engineer Mike Gruizinga has been fascinated with speed and racing.
Continue readingThe Need for Speed
Global Innovation Awards
We are excited to celebrate the accomplishments of our very own Eve Berndt at the Global Innovation Awards!
Continue readingDigimate
Digimate
Branding
Digimate is a reusable buddy splint product designed to join two fingers together to promote healing. Created by an orthopedic surgeon, it’s designed to put comfort and function first. We developed this brand to be approachable, yet professional – a sure standout amongst the competition.
To kick off the nomenclature portion of the project, we set up a series of working sessions. Through Microsoft Teams meetings, we interviewed our client to understand his field and to discuss the engineering and intent of the product. Throughout that process, we generated a list of themes in which to categorize our bank of words. With guidance from our research, we assembled an array of names that were not only intentional, but also memorable.
To visualize the full picture of the feel that the brand should go, we created four different mood boards with different colors themes, and overall brand representation.
We chose Mollen as the brand’s primary typeface, including some customizations to create the logo itself.
We explored multiple different logo variations before the final decision was made. Once we knew the logo, we did a color study to understand which colors best fit the desired brand experience and tone that we set with the mood board.
“Digi” represents the hand by calling out the fingers, or digits. “Mate” represents the joining of the injured and uninjured finger that creates a pair when the product is in use. Brought together, this name suggests the brand’s friendly and approachable tone. By turning the “D” in Digimate, you get the hand icon (shown here above the logo). This not only shows the product in use, but also represents the state of Michigan where the product was developed.
The tagline, “Comfort & function first” highlights the values and benefits of the product. These were the first two things Dr. Mayor addressed in his design, and are factors that other splints fail to accomplish. The Digimate splint is also the first product that Dr. Mayor has created and is emphasized by the word “first” in the mark’s tagline.
Responding to the Need – PPE for the COVID-19 Pandemic
We can’t express enough gratitude to all of the healthcare professionals working so hard to care for us in a great time of need!
Continue readingNew Year, New Look, New Website
It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since we launched our rebrand and new website. At the same time, it feels like it’s exactly who we’ve always been.
Continue readingRetroFit Cart
RetroFit Cart
Industrial Design
We were approached by Dr. Ron Bochner with an idea for a device that wheels up to the foot of a hospital bed and enables a physician to perform optimal bedside exams with the comfort and ease of a full exam table. This concept was presented with a strong idea and a rough, wood model. The initial design phase began with extensive research and market analysis. This information was interpreted through sketching several ideas and presenting back to our customer.
Once a final direction was decided, the team quickly moved to full-size volume study models in order to understand the space and the storage requirements in real world dimensions.
The finished design concept was taken to our engineering department for design-for-manufacturing. This involved flushing out the details for the mechanics of the design, manufacturability, and material stress analysis. The cart is now a strong example of our team bringing an idea from concept straight through to full manufacturing.
IoT Controller
IoT Controller
Industrial Design / Manufacturing
We partner with companies big and small to bring their new innovation to market. Sometimes that requires working with their existing development partners and suppliers, while other times we bring the ecosystem of necessary capabilities together to launch a new business. As products and device become more intelligent and connected, have a trusted network of partners to execute has never been more important.
Tekna Awarded Wonderful Workplace
Tekna was selected by 269 Magazine as one of Southwest Michigan’s Wonderful Workplaces.
Continue readingMitoLUX
MitoLUX
Research / Industrial Design
The team at Mitovation has identified a non-invasive therapeutic treatment in the prevention of brain injuries caused by hypoxia and ischemia reperfusion injury including cardiac arrest resucitation. The therapy utilizes a unique combination of infrared light therapy to directly modulate mitochondrial activity and prevent generation of free radicals.
In a pre-clinical small animal model of cardiac arrest and resuscitation, the non-invasive treatment resulted in an 83% reduction in brain injury. Since 2006, 16 grants totaling over $8.5M have been awarded to the Mitovation team and several patents have been issued (with others currently pending).
More than 80% of surviving cardiac arrest patients experience poor neurological outcomes including brain damage, loss of speech, paralysis, and even death. Their cost of care and difficult-to-administer treatments are significantly greater and are a large burden on the patient, caregiver, and healthcare system.
To date, we’ve supported user needs research and the advanced development required to deliver the technology to the patient in a healthcare or pre-hospital setting.
User needs and contextual research were conducted at leading emergent care hospitals in Michigan. Journey maps were created to illustrate the ideal workflow, prioritize needs, and help the development team understand the users and their environment.
Concept ideation explored a wide range of ideas that addressed solutions to delivering light to the brain. Sketches were used to help narrow physical and mechanical solutions, as well as help pull out product requirements from the scientific team.
Technical requirements of delivering infrared light focused on the appropriate intensity and the right location of the patient’s head.
Works-like prototypes were used in the continuation of pre-clinical studies to investigate effectiveness, while photorealistic renderings were used to help tell the story of the technology and raise additional capital required for commercialization.
Irwin Mobile Command Center
Mobile Command Center
Industrial Design
Multiple products or materials are often needed in order to both transport tools and have a work surface on the jobsite. The IRWIN Mobile Command Center with Integrated Work Surface provides a large, organized space for tool storage and has sturdy wheels for easy transport onto and around the jobsite. Additionally, the heavy-duty top lid is easily removable and becomes a durable work surface with a quick release of its metal legs, making it possible to always have a work surface available.
We worked alongside our client’s team to mechanically solve for and package the additional functionality in a value-add, usable product. Alongside rapid sketch ideation, iterative, low fidelity mock-ups were created to explore spatial relationships between components, functionality, and feasibility.
Mechanical CAD models were created based on the confidence gained through rough prototyping and used to create higher fidelity models used to sell the new concept and gain excitement. CAD deliverables were used as a solid starting point for the internal development team to finalize the design and flesh out manufacturing details and cost constraints.
Since its release, it has been exciting to see how customers have used the solution at home and at the job site, as well as some unintended places like campsites for storage and usage of cooking gear!