Connect Four: Sparkeology
Furniture line and NeoCon 2011 favorite Sparkeology is an example of W. Michigan collaboration at its finest.
Design
Latest in Design
Configura: A Swedish Company with a Grand Rapids Home
Swedish software company Configura, maker of the award-winning CET Designer, recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of their Grand Rapids office. This week, they're preparing for NeoCon.
Lee Meyerhoffer Promotes Local with Lo-kel
Grand Rapids inspired artist and former Marine Lee Meyerhoffer to name his company Lo-Kel, the phonetic spelling for "local." The name is backed by his "local only" attitude toward art and business in the community.
RapidBlog: A New Day for UICA by Kevin Budelmann
Kevin Budelmann of People Design discusses adaptation and co-creation in the design of UICA's new logo.
NewNorth Center begins regional benchmarking process on innovation
Holland-based innovation advocate NewNorth Center recently announced a joint project with Plante & Moran to launch an ongoing survey targeted towards Midwest executives to determine their company's innovation quotient (IQ). According to Stephanine Elhart, director of client services and communications at NewNorth Center, the survey will provide a benchmark for the "health of the area" in terms of innovation. Elhart explains they want to use the survey to identify "pain points" and subsequent opportunities for companies to innovate as the regional economy improves. "We want to find out if area businesses understand innovation," she says. "Do they have an innovation process in place?" Participants in the survey will receive a report that benchmarks their organization against others in the area. A "white paper" will also be published by Plante & Moran later in the summer. To participate in the survey, you can follow the link here. Besides providing leadership to the survey efforts, NewNorth champions innovation and design through several educational and training programs which can be viewed on their website. "Businesses are coming back and we want to help them navigate through the future," Elhart says. Source: Stephanie Elhart, NewNorth Center Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs editor
Illinois Institute of Technology to hold Michigan’s first Master of Design Methods program in GR
The Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design has announced that it will launch Michigan's first Master of Design Methods program at GRid70 in Grand Rapids. IIT bills the MDM as an executive master's degree designed to drive innovative methods and frameworks for the development of products, communications, services and systems. GRid70, the nickname for Grand Rapids Innovation and Design at 70 Ionia, is a new $5M design hub that brings together teams of innovators from local corporate giants Amway, Meijer, Pennant Health Alliance, Steelcase & Wolverine World Wide in a collaborative environment. The purpose of GRid70 is to promote idea generation and innovation through collaboration. Seth Starner, Amway's manager of business innovations, is part of the collaborative. In 2008, while seeking a master's degree program that fit his own aspirations, Starner says he attended IIT's summer MDM program in Chicago. That inspired him to pitch the idea to bring the program to Grand Rapids. "I want to see Grand Rapids as a regional and national design hub and there's a potential it could be an international design hub," Starner says. "This program really hones that skill for discovering new value, harnessing that value (and) serving your customer in new ways. That's the name of the game in finding and creating new businesses."The program, which begins Aug. 19, has some stiff prerequisites that include:• At least five years' professional experience.• Team leadership or product manager experience.• Recognition of professional work (awards, publication in professional journals, etc.).• Specific achievements in design or product development/management.Students will attend MDM classes at GRid70 two weekends a month, plus two mandatory one-week summer workshops. The course schedule allows students to work full time and complete the degree in 24 months. For more information, click here. Source: Seth Starner, Amway Corporation/GRid 70; Michael Zalewski, Seyferth PRWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
It’s Back to the Future for former Zondervan building in Grand Rapids’ Eastown
The behemoth of a building on the corner of Lake Dr. SE and Robinson Road in Grand Rapids' Eastown could soon lose its dreary facade on the first floor and be transformed back to its original terra cotta beauty. The Kingsley Building, also known as the former Zondervan warehouse and the former Kent Record Management building, had its original plate glaze terra cotta and its storefront windows covered 57 years when it became Zondervan's storage facility. But now Bazzani Associates has been hired to do the heavy lifting and uncover the art deco building's beauty and restore it as 14,000-square-feet of new retail space along both Lake Drive and Robinson Road. "The majority of people I talk to about it say 'what five story building?'" says Baird Hawkins, a sales associate for Bazzani. "It's just a blond wall that people have been driving past for half a century."The original storefront windows are there, they're just hidden," Hawkins says. "Zondervan put the stuff on the facade and a 14-foot wall on the interior but there are blinds still hanging on the inside of some of the windows, it's just boxed in and has been sitting for 57 years now."Hawkins says the building was built in 1927 by noted architect George S. Kingsley who was known for his stylish warehouses. The Kingsley Building is a concrete structure designed to hold 400 pounds per square foot for the furniture industry. That has made the building difficult to sell, thus prompting the renovation of the first floor, instead. The retail bays will be ready this fall. Hawkins says there are some prospective tenants, but he declined to give details.Source: Baird Hawkins, Bazzani AssociatesWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
Configura: A Swedish Company with a Grand Rapids Home
Swedish software company Configura, maker of the award-winning CET Designer, recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of their Grand Rapids office. This week, they're preparing for NeoCon.
Lee Meyerhoffer Promotes Local with Lo-kel
Grand Rapids inspired artist and former Marine Lee Meyerhoffer to name his company Lo-Kel, the phonetic spelling for "local." The name is backed by his "local only" attitude toward art and business in the community.
RapidBlog: A New Day for UICA by Kevin Budelmann
Kevin Budelmann of People Design discusses adaptation and co-creation in the design of UICA's new logo.
NewNorth Center begins regional benchmarking process on innovation
Holland-based innovation advocate NewNorth Center recently announced a joint project with Plante & Moran to launch an ongoing survey targeted towards Midwest executives to determine their company's innovation quotient (IQ). According to Stephanine Elhart, director of client services and communications at NewNorth Center, the survey will provide a benchmark for the "health of the area" in terms of innovation. Elhart explains they want to use the survey to identify "pain points" and subsequent opportunities for companies to innovate as the regional economy improves. "We want to find out if area businesses understand innovation," she says. "Do they have an innovation process in place?" Participants in the survey will receive a report that benchmarks their organization against others in the area. A "white paper" will also be published by Plante & Moran later in the summer. To participate in the survey, you can follow the link here. Besides providing leadership to the survey efforts, NewNorth champions innovation and design through several educational and training programs which can be viewed on their website. "Businesses are coming back and we want to help them navigate through the future," Elhart says. Source: Stephanie Elhart, NewNorth Center Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs editor
Illinois Institute of Technology to hold Michigan’s first Master of Design Methods program in GR
The Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design has announced that it will launch Michigan's first Master of Design Methods program at GRid70 in Grand Rapids. IIT bills the MDM as an executive master's degree designed to drive innovative methods and frameworks for the development of products, communications, services and systems. GRid70, the nickname for Grand Rapids Innovation and Design at 70 Ionia, is a new $5M design hub that brings together teams of innovators from local corporate giants Amway, Meijer, Pennant Health Alliance, Steelcase & Wolverine World Wide in a collaborative environment. The purpose of GRid70 is to promote idea generation and innovation through collaboration. Seth Starner, Amway's manager of business innovations, is part of the collaborative. In 2008, while seeking a master's degree program that fit his own aspirations, Starner says he attended IIT's summer MDM program in Chicago. That inspired him to pitch the idea to bring the program to Grand Rapids. "I want to see Grand Rapids as a regional and national design hub and there's a potential it could be an international design hub," Starner says. "This program really hones that skill for discovering new value, harnessing that value (and) serving your customer in new ways. That's the name of the game in finding and creating new businesses."The program, which begins Aug. 19, has some stiff prerequisites that include:• At least five years' professional experience.• Team leadership or product manager experience.• Recognition of professional work (awards, publication in professional journals, etc.).• Specific achievements in design or product development/management.Students will attend MDM classes at GRid70 two weekends a month, plus two mandatory one-week summer workshops. The course schedule allows students to work full time and complete the degree in 24 months. For more information, click here. Source: Seth Starner, Amway Corporation/GRid 70; Michael Zalewski, Seyferth PRWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
It’s Back to the Future for former Zondervan building in Grand Rapids’ Eastown
The behemoth of a building on the corner of Lake Dr. SE and Robinson Road in Grand Rapids' Eastown could soon lose its dreary facade on the first floor and be transformed back to its original terra cotta beauty. The Kingsley Building, also known as the former Zondervan warehouse and the former Kent Record Management building, had its original plate glaze terra cotta and its storefront windows covered 57 years when it became Zondervan's storage facility. But now Bazzani Associates has been hired to do the heavy lifting and uncover the art deco building's beauty and restore it as 14,000-square-feet of new retail space along both Lake Drive and Robinson Road. "The majority of people I talk to about it say 'what five story building?'" says Baird Hawkins, a sales associate for Bazzani. "It's just a blond wall that people have been driving past for half a century."The original storefront windows are there, they're just hidden," Hawkins says. "Zondervan put the stuff on the facade and a 14-foot wall on the interior but there are blinds still hanging on the inside of some of the windows, it's just boxed in and has been sitting for 57 years now."Hawkins says the building was built in 1927 by noted architect George S. Kingsley who was known for his stylish warehouses. The Kingsley Building is a concrete structure designed to hold 400 pounds per square foot for the furniture industry. That has made the building difficult to sell, thus prompting the renovation of the first floor, instead. The retail bays will be ready this fall. Hawkins says there are some prospective tenants, but he declined to give details.Source: Baird Hawkins, Bazzani AssociatesWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
