Hasta La Ideas

pA lot of people think of power tools in terms of German, Japanese or American; you’ve got your Boschs and Festools, your Makitas and Hitachis, your DeWalts and Milwaukees. Lichtenstein is probably not the first country that comes to mind./p

pIt’d be a mistake to overlook them, though, particularly since Lichtensteinian (do I have that right?) power tool manufacturer Hilti A HREF=”http://en.red-dot.org/3535.html” has been awarded the Red Dot Design Team of the Year/A for 2010. (Power tool afficionados will point out that Hilti tools are actually designed in Germany and Austria, but the parent company itself is from Lichtenstein.) This puts them in the vaunted company of previous award winners Apple, Audi, Bose, BMW, and Sony./p

pimg alt=”0hiltiaward.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/0hiltiaward.jpg” width=”468″ height=”642″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pWhen buying a power tool I tend to do a lot of research, weeding through reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, generally taking a few weeks to make up my mind. But Hilti chief designer Stephan Niehaus reveals an interesting statistic:/p

blockquote”Seven seconds – that’s how long it takes professional tradespeople to make an initial judgement when using a new device,” explains Stephan Niehaus, chief-designer of the Hilti Corporation. That is seven seconds to instantly get a client enthusiastic about a new product. “We do everything possible to literally make the quality, performance, and reliability of our devices tangible. The aim is that customers perceive the passion that is in our machines and tools with different senses.” Today, design is the means of choice to express this added value without words./blockquote

pHit the jump to read more about Hilti’s story vis-a-vis design./p

pvia A HREF=”http://www.dexigner.com/product/news-g20761.html” dexigner/A/p

blockquoteWhen Stephan Niehaus joins Hilti as chief-designer in 2003, product design is still strongly driven by technology. At this point solely the engineers and project managers determine the design of products. Niehaus starts working on a holistically oriented Hilti design line and defines processes that allow its implementation. He combines technical knowledge with design to emotionalise the brand. The goal is to create complete solutions with added value for the customer. In contrast to its competitors, Stephan Niehaus and his design team have thus managed to emotionalise products so that they not only inspire new customers, but also appeal to traditional buyers.

p”Hilti design is so good because it promises exactly what the device ultimately delivers. Thus Hilti has managed with its excellent products to establish high design strength as well as continuity, while at the same time keeping a perfect balance between the differentiation from the competition and the establishment and strengthening of its own identity,” said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, initiator of the red dot design award and Senator of the international umbrella organisation of design, Icsid, explaining the selection of the design team of the year./p

p”We are delighted that our consistent, clear and expressive design language has also been recognised by an external expert jury. Receiving the title ‘red dot: design team of the year’ is a great honour and appreciation for everyone involved in the design of our products,” said Bo Risberg, Hilti CEO./blockquotebr /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/hilti_wins_red_dots_design_team_of_the_year_16616.asp”(more…)/a
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