A Quiet Evening

It was a quiet evening filled with doodling and thinking about new projects. That same day I got ID Magazine in the mail filled with images of other designer’s studios. I figured I'd share a few quiet moments at MIO so I went looking for those small corners that look perfect in their organized chaos. I found a few:

The Packaging Is The Message

Our products are designed in a holistic way which means that packaging and shipping play an important role in the development process. Our decisions are influenced not only by cost but by the impact these decisions have. For this reason we have been re-developing some of our packaging and figuring out new ways to cut on waste and create a more user-centered experience. The first candidate for re-design was our line of PaperForms. About two weeks ago we eliminated the bleached liner in all of our boxes and replaced it with a recycled kraft liner (bringing back our original look -circa 2004-). The box itself was re-designed to better fit and protect the product without having to create a new die. Internal wings were perforated into the tabs to hold the product down during shipping. The same box fits V2, Flow and Acoustic Weave reducing inventory and the need for additional dies. Next up in the process is the label. We will re-design the graphics to work better with the new kraft color but will still use the soy-based inks to print them.

The Bendant Lamp is up next. After looking at all the alternatives we have created a more efficient packaging system for the Bendant lamp. The new design reduces material use and labor, while elevating the user experience. A flat-packed chandelier that is co-designed by our customers deserves packaging that fits the experience of the lamp. Several tests and rounds of prototypes have generated a lot of great information about how to better ship and display our Bendant Lamp. Some of the improvements include a handle and a perforated cardboard zipper to extract the lamp. The graphics are under development but I will be sure to post the results. For now I leave you with some images of early prototypes and tests.

Of course the fun does not stop there, expect lots of new packaging improvements soon.

The power of Transitional Design

Businesses worldwide are starting to tackle the immense challenge posed by the current paradigms of products and consumption. They are also confronted by the difficult task of dealing with the emergence of an economy based on social, environmental and realistic financial expectations. The approaches taken by these organizations may sometimes seem divergent and even at odds with the final result. Some companies are working on their image while others are investing heavily on “cleaning” and making their operations more eco-efficient. Regardless of the strategy, these initiatives have managed to raise red flags for proponents of radical change. Some would like to see change happen quickly; without an ear/eye to the ground where the change has to happen. The question no longer is about the technologies necessary or the will of companies, but in the transformation of both internal and external culture as well as the dramatic re-engineering of infrastructure to sustain this kind of change.

Most of the companies we work with do not have a large budget allocated to the transformation of their manufacturing, business and marketing practices. As a matter of fact many don’t even have a strategy in place. We believe that this is often fertile ground for change. What starts as a test to make money doing something outside of their own markets becomes a gradual cultural and business transformation.


The standards by which customers have been “trained” or “accustomed” to judging products and services are changing slowly. This is no surprise as the decision making process is deeply rooted in consumer culture and heavily influenced by the media. Unfortunately the expectation is that companies will turn on a dime and more worrisome, that customers will embrace new values over night. This is not only unrealistic but dangerous to the momentum that environmentally and socially driven product lines, companies and organizations have achieved in the past few years.

A period of adjustment is necessary in order for things to change. This usually means a period of unrest for markets, consumers, manufacturers and marketers. By my estimates we are five to six years into this wave of change and we will require over a decade to achieve significant transformation in “consumer values”. What we are left asking ourselves is: what is an acceptable rate of change? What technological leaps are necessary? The answers are being determined everyday and all of us have not only the opportunity but the responsibility to choose.

Sustainable Meltdown

We have read it in magazines and newspapers, we have heard it from politicians, the tube and the web. Green is a fashionable, trend-setting cultural commodity. This has a lot of people very excited, while others worry and wonder if all of this "green" stuff will go away like it did in previous decades. Is sustainability in its current form a big fat juicy trend? And if it is a trend, what does this mean to companies who have been committed to sustainability before it was a fashion statement? What are the consequences of this much attention?

I must admit that I have thought about these issues more than once, but I have done so because colleagues and friends have been kindly sharing their thoughts and concerns frequently. I have come out of these exchanges unmoved when I point out that sustainable development is inextricably linked to the economic, social and political conditions of today. For me sustainability is not a design movement, a fashion statement or a trend, it is a logical, and ethical problem solving process that addresses the cultural and social issues we face. To put it simply, issues of national importance such as energy independence, defense, climate change and health care are directly impacted by the greening of society. The means may be questionable and the excesses of the market evident, but no matter how many layers of cool branding or good old marketing are spread on top, the simple truth is that sustainability is not likely to fade away like leg warmers, skulls and polka dots.

MIO Europe

MIO is now available in Europe through the newly established EU Distribution office in Cologne, Germany. This means we are able to better serve our customers with stock and service in both continents. From an environmental and design point of view, this strategy has presented some very powerful opportunities which we are gradually implementing. We want MIO to be both global and local. This means that most MIO products will eventually be made and (some of them even designed) wherever we open a distribution office. We will always remain committed to strategies that account for environmental and social impact while making our products and services more effective, flexible and personal. Every constraint makes us think about opportunities that have not been harnessed in sustainable design. Operating out of Philadelphia and Cologne means we are able to make goods that better address our customers specific needs and wants. Finally designing, manufacturing and distributing out of two continents, provides flexibility in manufacturing technologies and is beginning to inform and transform our design process.

So now that we brought you up to speed on MIO EU, I wanted to share images from our first EU commercial project.

Sustainability is itself a Transitional Design

The “next industrial revolution” relies on the re-invention of design, “production”, “consumption” and culture. Everywhere we look we find objects, infrastructures and services that rely on others in an infinite chain of interdependence, which at the end of the line relies on natural systems and human behavior. If interdependence can generate destructive consumption patterns, interdependence too, when adjusted to truly serve us holistically, can serve as a tool to change these cycles into truly sustainable ones.

If the above is true, we have to start looking at the changes in design, production, consumption and culture as valuable tools for an emerging sustainable culture even by themselves. Why must we look at these interdependent elements of sustainable development by themselves? When we start to tackle a design problem, we generally approach it from a single angle, one point of view and rarely can capture the true and complete impact of our solutions. In a way, we merely patch the system by applying this “solution”. This might seem wrong at first because A) It might not hold into account the other factors, B) The patch is just that, a temporary solution to a long term problem, and C) This patch might at some later point become a nuisance to re-designing the solution with the right tools and the most appropriate method. In effect this patch should be viewed as an integral part of the construction of new cycles of interdependence, a transitional design solution, to get us on the right course, a push from the comfort of thinking that we had the right solution all along. This transitional solution is in effect accounting for the greater system of interdependence by changing an element in the structure, one that often forces us to reconsider the other elements. Further more, if at the particular time, the given solution was the best that could be achieved given the existing resources, this was in effect not a patch, but a transitional solution to the problem. If we cannot fix a faucet, should we leave it running? Or should we try to minimize this waste, reduce the loss, or somehow benefit from the running water? Lastly, to consider this transitional solution an additional burden on future “permanent” solutions might seem narrow minded and limiting towards the goal of sustainability. If the transitional solution were not implemented, then at a later point we would be implementing what we would believe to be the ideal and final solution. But is it really a final solution that we are implementing? Even if we were to build this solution according to the principles of nature, as a living, self-sustaining organism, how could we guarantee, that the conditions under which it was built would continue rendering this solution permanent? Even organisms made to adapt, fail to adapt and become extinct. This might sound like I am arguing against the ideal solution, or the permanent solution, but I am not!! I too wish that every design solution implemented could be the perfect solution, the permanent and self-sustaining solution, but not everyone who has to contribute to changing the cycles of design, production, consumption and culture are ready, or in a position to implement these solutions, so transitional solutions must serve the cause of altering interdependence and building towards perfect sustainability.

All of this has led me to believe that in sustainability there is a big gap which we have left open, it is the idea that sustainability has to be re-defined constantly according to the conditions of the context where it is being applied. To create a set of rules and blindly believe that when implemented anywhere to any problem will yield the ever lasting sustainable solution can be counter productive to what sustainability could truly mean.

Sustainability should mean more than the re-invention of design, production, consumption and culture, it should also mean that the systems that we rely on, on a daily basis need to be evaluated over and over again against the new conditions that develop all around us. A sustainable culture is one of accessible and executable information, one that is permanently in a state of flux. I am starting to believe that we are getting comfortable with the idea of sustainable design as a method to put society back on some sort of track. A track? Is that the best that society can do? Get back on a track that rolls in one particular direction? What about choice? What about context? True sustainability is a different color in every corner of the globe. Even earlier cultures (some of them considered primitive) did unsustainable things in a world that was sustainable… That is sustainability: A process, not an end but a means.

Why Blog? Why Now?

It is clear to me that MIO needed a space to share ideas with the blogosphere. So I took it upon myself to build one. So what can you expect? We will post our ideas, thoughts and opinions at length (time permitting) and hopefully get some feedback, inspire and communicate.