The Flirt Collection designed by David Ritch and Mark Saffell of 5D Studio for Arcadia has won a Gold Award in the 2018 International Design Excellence Awards(IDEA) competition run by the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA).
On its website the society proclaims, “IDSA is the oldest (and only) professional society of industrial designers in the United States. Our mission is to promote the practice of industrial design through education, information, community and advocacy.” As such, it conducts several types of annual awards programs including the Personal Recognition Award, Education Awards and the Special Award. Students of industrial design are eligible to participate in IDSA Student Merit programs initiated at their schools. Individual members can be awarded the society’s highest individual honor by being inducted into the Academy of Fellows.
But the Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) is by all accounts the most prestigious award in IDSA’s line up. In its 38th year, the IDEA Award is a juried product design competition encompassing 20 product categories, such as Automotive & Transportation, Commercial & Industrial, Consumer Technology, Entertainment, Digital Interaction, Outdoor & Garden, Medical & Health and so on. This year IDSA added three new categories including Furniture & Lighting, which promises to reward excellence in the product design most near and dear to our industry.
There are a few factors that have made an IDEA Award so sought after. Importantly, steps are taken to keep submittals anonymous so that the judgments of the jury, to the extent possible, are based solely upon the criteria. And the criteria are excellence of design innovation, user experience, benefit to the client, benefit to society and appropriate aesthetics.
Over the history of the competition the composition of the jury has added to the prestige of the award. Each year, the collection of designers, thought-leaders and visionaries who compose the IDEA Jury epitomize the very best of the industrial design community. Representing industry, consultancy, academia and private practice, they are experts within their fields. Many of them are past IDEA award winners who deeply understand the significance of the jury’s role.
This year Michael Kahwaji, IDSA, senior design manager at Whirlpool Corp. was the Jury Chair and interestingly his first job was to handpick the other 30 plus members. Once invited and agreeing to serve they were charged with reviewing over 1,800 entries across the 20 categories, eventually they recognized 145 products with Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards; only 32 of 1800 + were Gold Awards.
The Flirt Collection is only the latest award-winning product designed by Ritch and Saffell. Their first IDEA Gold was for the Kart Chair, which went on to win Bronze in the Design of the Decade competition. In addition they’ve designed Best of NeoCon winners for multiple companies. “To win Gold in such a respected competition and among some of the most esteemed designers is an exceptional honor for Mark and David,” says Casey Journigan, President of Arcadia. “We are proud to have played a part in bringing their vision to life.”
Flirt is a comprehensive collection of meeting solutions all of which nest. Says Mr. Journigan, “When they brought us the idea, my first thought was ‘Does the world really need another training table?’ But it was the breadth and mobility of the collection and the fact that every element nested that really got our attention. Then it was their attention to detail that put it over the top. And I want to say that what’s great about working with Mark and David is that they really listen. They take suggestions and truly collaborate to find the best solution, not only from the design standpoint or the user experience but including manufacturing issues as well. It’s that give and take that we enjoy so much in working with them.”
In an officeinsight interview David Ritch said, “We noticed a shift in the way training and group meetings are being conducted. Following the trend toward more relaxed seating postures found throughout the work environment, we saw that training and collaborative sessions are becoming more relaxed as well. Having seen the space saving and flexibility advantages of nesting for training and meeting rooms, we set out to design a nesting chair with more relaxed, lounge chair characteristics. Once we solved the mechanical issues for nesting, we realized the solution could apply equally well to guest chairs. And that led us to develop nesting solutions for many of the other elements used in training rooms – training tables, white boards, tack boards, easels, space dividers, etc.”
“Once they were on board, we were blown away by Arcadia’s willingness to tool the myriad parts necessary to complete the program,” continued Mr. Ritch. “I think this was one of the biggest tooling investments Arcadia has made in a new product and it’s a real demonstration of their belief in the concepts. So winning the IDEA Gold is a particularly rewarding form of payback for that confidence.”
Arcadia is one of those mid-size companies enjoying extraordinary growth as a result of the rising share of the market captured by “ancillary” products.
From its showroom on the third floor of the Merchandise Mart, Arcadia enlivens NeoCon year after year with product launches for environments ranging from corporate, educational, healthcare, hospitality and retail spaces to government institutions, airport and club lounges, and more.
Introduced at NeoCon 2017, Flirt has already earned a top-spot as one of Arcadia’s most recognized products and we understand it’s well on its way to providing a more financial payback to go along with the psychological payback of the design award.
