Brand Bible

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BRAND BIBLE246

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

When we started Smart Design in 1980, we began

with the premise of “designing for people,” which

the general design consultancies at the time were

not practicing. We had a conviction that we needed

to understand not only how a product works but also

how the body works, and how a person interacts both

physically and psychologically with a product. We

had been in business as consultants for ten years, and

we had previously done a lot of work with Corning, so

we knew housewares pretty well.

Sam Farber, OXO’s founder, called Davin Stowell—

apparently in the middle of the night—with this idea

of designing a line of housewares that would be func-

tional and usable by everyone, including people who

may have some physical challenges, like arthritis.

I had a master’s degree in biomechanics, so I had a

good understanding of the body and the hand, and I

recognized that this was a great opportunity. Sam

had an idea and a clear vision.

22

how To Brand

usaBiliTy



Dan Formosa

Cofounder /

Smart Design

Creating objects that

are irresistible to touch

and exquisite to use

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How to Brand Usability







People get used to seeing things in a certain way and,

as a result, there’s no new life pumped into certain

categories. Like the carrot peeler, they are what they

are, and they’ve been that way for a long time. There

are still opportunities in numerous categories where

we’ve gotten so used to seeing things in a certain

way for such a long time that we stop thinking about

rethinking them.







At Smart, we never use the term “universal

design”—we actually try to avoid it. “Universal

design” gets interpreted as meaning one design

that should work for everybody. Our philosophy

is that design should be for everybody, but every-

body doesn’t necessarily need just one design. For

us, design is about eliminating segregation. We

shouldn’t articially divide people by design. People

will always have individual preferences on what

they like or dislike. But we believe people shouldn’t

be forced to use products and services that are being

designed for the people in the middle of the popula-

tion. Those may not suit the needs of the people at

the edges of the population.

At Smart, we are coming at this work from a dier-

ent angle: We think design in general should be

for everybody and that design doesn’t have to be

reserved for expensive stu. Design shouldn’t be

an elite enjoyment. We should be able to nd good



Handle prototypes



The iconic OXO Good

Grips handle

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