Whipsaw

2007 Bottom Line Design Awards

By: Bob Parks

Beauty is more than skin-deep. the winners of our annual design competition are also versatile, elegant, eco-friendly, and – most important – successful.

Great design is about more than just creating pretty objects. When done right, design increases the value of a product by attracting attention, increasing sales, and nurturing long-term customer loyalty. Those are the kinds of criteria our panel of judges used to evaluate the nominees for our third annual Bottom Line Design Awards – a collaboration between Business 2.0 and strategic-creative consultancy Frog Design. As we considered 75 submissions, a few recurring themes emerged. Many of the winning products satisfy a desire for customization. They emphasize elegant sophistication over barebones simplicity. And they have been designed to make use of recyclable materials while reducing consumption of fossil fuels. But these elements alone weren’t enough to impress our judges. Each of our prize winners also made a clear contribution to the success of the company that produced it – and, in one case, is even giving rise to an entirely new industry (see “Air Taxis on the Runway,” page 76). Easy on the eyes. Good for the income statement. That’s the kind of design that appealed to us when selecting the 11 winners that appears on the pages that follow.

A SIGHT FOR SORE RETINAS

Product: RTVue
Manufacturer: Optovue
Designer: Whipsaw
Bottom Line: 100 of the $60,000 units sold in 60 days
How does a startup compete with giants like Zeiss? Optovue created a radically new technology that uses an infrared beam to probe a patient’s eyes for ailments like glaucoma, To make it more appealing to patients, Optovue encased hardware in clean, welcoming lines.