Bridging the gap from potential to reality - North County Times
CARLSBAD - A lot of hard work comes between getting an idea for a product and actually selling it. September 5, 2009. BRADLEY J. FIKES
Bridging that gap is what keeps DD Studio in business.The privately held company has handled nearly every facet of product development, from technology research to prototyping, usability studies and pricing components.
Customers include startups and large corporations, said Michael Swartz, DD Studio's growth strategist. Some just want help with external appearances on a nearly finished product, while others work with the company almost from the beginning.
"The types of work that we do vary from cosmetic design to very detailed engineering, solving a lot of engineering problems," Swartz said.
Prices start around $150 an hour, varying with the complexity of the project.
Visitors walking through the front door can see the results on wall displays or on the floor. There's consumer electronics, medical devices and home appliances. High walls with posters and large windows add to the creative atmosphere.
In the back of the company's sprawling headquarters just north of McClellan-Palomar Airport, there's the industrial workshops and machines that make conceptual models and functional prototypes.
Pointing to a spa control panel designed by DD Studio, Swartz said it presented significant engineering hurdles, such as making it waterproof and resistant to chemicals and exposure to ultraviolet light.
On the design end of things, he said, the controls had to be made "simple and intuitive."
The company's work has won it recognition from Connect, a San Diego-based nonprofit that encourages technology-based innovation.
In 2004, DD Studio won a Most Innovative New Product award from Connect. It was for designing the Ophthonix Z-View Aberrometer, a new system from Vista-based Ophthonix, for more accurately measuring eyes for corrective lenses.
In 2009, the company was a finalist for Connect's International Design Excellence Awards. That was for designing the Vue Personal Video Network, a wireless video monitoring system. Vue's egg-sized and roughly egg-shaped cameras can be mounted nearly anywhere.
In that case, the company's job was to help adapt an existing business video monitoring system to a home system the average consumer could use, Swartz said.
"What we came up was this metallic half-dome with a magnet, so you can just use an adhesive tape and stick these anywhere you'd like throughout the house," Swartz said. "You can put these in nearly any position."
In another job, for Carlsbad-based PhotoThera, the company designed positioning guides for the company's medical lasers. The lasers, aimed through the scalp into the brain, appear to stimulate a chemical reaction that helps some stroke patients.
At first, the idea was to make a helmet with holes where the lasers would be positioned, Swartz said. Instead, DD Studio developed a metal mesh with larger holes where the lasers can be positioned. The mesh collapses flat, which makes it possible to store more of them in the same space, saving money in shipment.