Laate

Background

In early 2015, a food startup asked me to become the Creative Director of its nascent and undefined new brand, Le Bon Magot. Naomi Mobed, the startup’s founder, had a keen sense of taste and a specific aim to build a brand that would deliver a premium experience.

I was charged with not only building the brand, but I was also asked to develop Le Bon Magot’s product line, signage, collateral, and website.

Process

In only a few months, we went from initial concept to production-ready brand and packaging details. While most brands in the chutney category emphasize family heritage, tradition, and bright patterns, we chose to take Le Bon Magot in another direction. Naomi and I both believed that the products should take center stage and that the feeling of the brand should be both modern and understated.

Quick iterations led us to an extraordinarily simple solution: highlight the food and textures, framed by simple color and material choices. The jar tops are gold along with the freshness seal. The logo is embossed. Helvetica works magically for a clean look. All text appears as either white on a clear background or white on a gray background. And left alignment rules the day.

Results

Le Bon Magot’s debut at international food fairs was fantastic. People have enjoyed the unusual flavor combinations, and sales have increased steadily. And the brand has received high-marks amongst food vendors for its sophisticated look and feel.

Only a year-and-a-half after launch, Le Bon Magot is on a strong growth trajectory. And as new recipes are created, I’m continuing in my role as Creative Director for Le Bon Magot.

While working with Steelcase in late 2008, I was asked to join a new venture called t2. This "blue ocean strategy" would boldly go where Steelcase's existing brands could not go – offering bold new easy-to-install products, shipped via FedEx, directly to the customers' door.

Our core team consisted of a savvy Project Sponsor, a brilliant brand manager, an ambitious marketing manager, Steelcase's online store project lead, an award-winning industrial designer, a stalwart mechanical engineer, and me – the experience designer.

The project kicked off with an information download from some bright folks with a smart idea. And while it seemed compelling from a 100,000-foot level, our new team needed time to explore the concept, reframe the problem, add new layers of insight, and develop refined offerings.

As experience design lead, I led our research efforts – visiting multiple small businesses and watching both professional and amateurs install Steelcase furniture. We also leveraged existing research and added our own insights gathered from my earlier venture, Workspring. Our analysis led to new criteria and new breakthroughs for our team. Meanwhile our product team refined our team’s design for a new product line that encapsulated our vision.

Intermittent reviews by the C-suite provided gut-checks, reinforcements, and ultimately a green light to kick our project into high gear. That’s when we learned that t2 would, in fact, take over Steelcase’s existing turnstone brand.

As we got closer to a more detailed vision, the real fun began. My interactive team created a digital representation of a customer journey as imagined through the ideas of a fictitious character. We layered content with user stories from primary research, built an augmented reality app that showed off our new product line, added t-shirt designs, redesigned turnstone’s logo, created mock-up packaging, and built a large presentation space to knock the socks of leadership. And that presentation could not have been more enjoyable. Jim Hackett, Steelcase’s CEO, and his team were blown away by what we had accomplished together.

I had a blast helping Steelcase re-boot its Turnstone brand – an amazing little engine that continues to impress.

In January 2007, I joined Steelcase Inc and, under the direction of Mark Greiner, SVP of WorkSpace Futures, I became the Project Lead for a team that began to envision a new type of workspace.

Initially our Research team uncovered some fascinating trends, including the emergence of coworking facilities in the United States. We visited many and learned an extraordinary amount about this fascinating trend. As we moved to our Synthesis phase, our team grew to include to bright MBAs from the University of Michigan who helped us build not only a business plan but also an extraordinarily robust financial model that showed how interesting a new type of work platform could become.

I'll never forget the moment when Steelcase leadership green-lighted our platform – internally called Birdland. I walked into the C-Suite with a robust presentation and a sound business plan – happy to make the presentation, and relieved when it was over. It was an incredible experience hearing Jim Hackett say to me shortly thereafter, "Great job. You know we're going to approve it."

Shortly thereafter we launched Workspring – Steelcase's first high-end offsite facility. Our first location opened in November 2008 in Chicago, IL. It’s a beautiful space that’s well worth visiting. If you get a chance, please stop on by! It will be an experience like no other.

654 Croswell was a 1,800 sq ft space located on the ground floor of a restored cottage. It was a wonderful place for working alone, with others, and for viewing artwork. Each of our meeting rooms featured whiteboards for capturing thoughts. Large screen displays (projectors and HD televisions) were available if you needed to share content with others.

Inc. Magazine featured 654 Croswell as one of "16 Cool Working Spaces."  In their description they said: "This one is more cottage than office, complete with a fireplace, and that’s what people who work there like about it. It also features a rotating gallery of work by local artists, and frequently sponsors artist receptions or visiting artist events that are open to the public. 654 Croswell is located in the heart of Gaslight Village in East Grand Rapids, a charming community that’s home to a variety of small businesses including restaurants, bars, shops, and a popular ice cream parlor."

The Plummer Project was developed "to optimize support for physicians to deliver high quality care by identifying opportunities and implementing a stream of integrated innovations in the areas of efficiency, teamwork, technology and communication." 

Led Ryan Armbruster, and armed with three interns – two MBA/MHA candidates and I – the Project resulted in the development of 23 space, technology, process, and staff concepts demonstrated in a 10,000 sq. ft. prototype of the next generation of the Department of Medicine. The innovations are presently being piloted, tested, refined, and implemented throughout Mayo Clinic.

Project: Plummer Project

Client: Mayo Clinic, SPARC Innovation Program, Rochester, MN

Team: Ryan Armbruster (Project Manager), Laate Olukotun, Dan Steffen, Justin Watkins

Date: Summer 2005

Hopscotch is a simple holder for cell phones and keys, designed to be out of the way yet always there when you need it.

We are thrilled to introduce the Hopscotch wall mount. It’s a little mount designed to keep your phone and keys safe, secure and close-by. If you have ever wanted to keep your phone conveniently located, as you bounce from place to place, we believe that you are going to love this little product.

NapoleonGlove gives you a more versatile, more flexible and more secure experience for you and your iPad. The unique NapoleonGlove pocket allows you to hold your tablet securely while using only one hand. Simply grab the bottom corner of the glove and pull to rotate your device. Or share your ideas with others by simply holding out your hand to face your audience.

NapoleonGlove I was meticulously designed to connect you with your iPad. The case is made of lightweight ballistic and ripstop nylons that feel soft to the touch. And the high-strength elastic bands contain a non-slip silicon backing that firmly grips your iPad – leaving no room for slippage. The product weighs next to nothing making it easy for you to hold and carry your tablet.

Learn more at Lollygig.com 

BoomMaster was born out of pure creative necessity. The first time I picked up the iPad, I immediately wanted to play with it.

Sure, I wanted to test the interface and the other apps on the iPad. But it wasn’t the iPad’s screen that first excited me but rather the object itself that caught my eye and my imagination.

Within the first thirty seconds of holding the iPad, I started carrying it around on my shoulders saying “wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a boombox app for the iPad?” And the wonderful thing was that my business partner said "Yeah!"

In only a few weeks, we designed an app that we submitted to Apple's App Store for review. And hours later, we were approved.

Two weeks after we first talked about creating an app BoomMaster was real and quickly topped the What’s New section of Apple’s App Store (sold through Gorilla Group).

Our team developed a system of smart products, services and communications that enable participants to have a more engaging and fulfilling museum experience catering to their personal interests. This spring, I chose to explore one of the concepts - a portable, interactive avatar-based system that provides an engaging thematic experience for participants.

Project: MSI SmartVisit

Course: Research and Demonstration, Institute of Design

Team: Nathaniel Block, Kimberly Dziedzic, Taylor Lies, Laate Olukotun

Advisors: Jeremy Alexis, Dale Fahnstrom, Greg Prygrocki, Patrick Whitney

Date: Fall 2005

Mattel provided our class with a single theme: to determine the future of play for kids between the ages of 3 and 8-years-old. By better understanding existing toys and the activities of today’s kids, I was able to develop a simple interactive toy to help kids do what they love most – explore.

Project: Play for the Next Generation

Course: Product Architecture Workshop, Institute of Design

Client: Mattel

Team: Individual

Advisor: Chris Conley

Date: Spring 2005

In my final semester of graduate school, I took a Product Design Workshop sponsored by Motorola. The project focused on exploring the behaviors, needs and wants of "tweens" – a relatively new term for pre-teen children.

Thanks to the kind parents in the greater Institute of Design community, I had the opportunity to interview, talk with, and observe tweens and their interests at the time. To say the least: it was mind-blowing. One child in particular, Eric, was not only a massive consumer of media and entertainment, but he was also the creator (and seller) of his own entertainment. He made Flash animation videos with his friends then sold the characters that he and his friends developed as stickers in their school.

It was pretty clear that kids like Eric were interested in much more than simply consuming content. They wanted to make their own content. They just needed more tools and platforms to just that.

I designed this interactive device to allow kids to not only consume but also produce their own stories. Not only that but I envisioned a platform with a shared device where kids could pool together their ideas and build stories together on a larger pooled screen.

The concept (along with several others in the classroom) was introduced to Motorola's design team at the end of the semester.

During graduate school at the Institute of Design I had the pleasure of working with an absolutely gifted group of students and professors. We inspired each other to new heights and efforts that resulted in an extraordinarily broad range of innovative ideas.

Working across industries and topics – from the future of news services to the future of transportation – and through a range of mediums – from products to entire systems – we developed ideas that still seem relevant.

Assigned the task of creating a new product line, our team chose to develop a concept for Garmin, the market leader in Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. By first understanding the industry, our client, and user needs, we were able to design a product with real business potential - a GPS unit for bicyclists.

Course: New Product Definition, Institute of Design

Team: Jaime Chen, Henning Fischer, Ah Young Hahn, Laate Olukotun, Jose Sia

Advisor: Chris Conley

Date: Fall 2004

Developed through an iterative process of brainstorming, sketching, prototyping and testing, the concept began as an idea for a recumbent craft but evolved into a much stronger design for a face-first vehicle for thrill seekers. The craft is a new, highly responsive, gravity-powered extreme sports craft.

Project:  Braun Design Competition 2005

Course: Product Workshop, Institute of Design

Team: Individual

Advisor: Chris Conley

Date: Fall 2004

Our team developed a working interactive prototype designed to support medical supply delivery. The system has three major components – a mobile unit with a GUI and voice interface, a Bluetooth-enabled headset, and a weight-sensitive shelving unit.  The components allow supply techs to deliver items with unprecedented accuracy while also enabling nurses to simply grab items and go.

Course: Interactive Product Workshop, Institute of Design

Team: Christine Choi, Yong Gyun Ghim, Laate Olukotun

Client: Vocollect

Advisor: Keichi Sato

Date: Spring 2005

As news outlets mulitiply and news quality diminishes, people need a means of making sense of what they are experiencing. Our concept, hive, responds to user needs by offering a powerful news retrieval, filter, sharing, and storage system. hive automatically collects worldwide news, auto-populates news lists, and much more.

Course: Design Planning, Institute of Design

Team: Kim Dziedzic, Christine Kim, Matthew Lennertz, Laate Olukotun, Abbey Ripstra

Advisor: Larry Keeley

Date: Fall 2004