Tactile, recruiting, design, seattle
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NAIAS, Detroit Auto Show, Tactile, CMF, Transportation

news

Best in Show

This month’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit isn’t just for motorheads—it also provides plenty of inspiration for designers who look to the automotive world for trends in colors, materials and finishes. A few of our industrial designers attended the 2015 show and shared their observations. First, satin/matte paint is back again (see above). It seemed like most manufacturers were showing at least one car in a satin finish, and they all drew a lot of hands-on attention. This year, wheels were in polished metal—not chrome—which felt both fresh and futuristic. It made cars look like they were concepts, even if they weren’t, and the polished trend showed up everywhere. Every “performance” car seemed to use exposed carbon fiber on interiors, exteriors, and everywhere else. Even if it wasn’t exposed, as expected, carbon fiber was a big part of the build story for the performance cars. The Ford GT was a great example: Their use of carbon fiber looked integrated into the design, with a unique matte gray finish, and completely necessary to the overall visual effect. A few more observations from an exciting show: The majority of personality of the cars was expressed in the headlights and taillights this year (though Audi kicked this off a few years ago). A lot of design attention was on micro details you might only see if you were crouched down inspecting the headlights. Accent stitching was everywhere, especially on high performance cars. Matte black racing stripes and decals were prevalent, particularly among American muscle cars. BMW took some interesting CMF risks with their electric cars. They mixed several different textures, including some raw materials, and the result worked pretty well. Ford’s performance line featured a unique blue (shifting from green to purple), ceramic white accents and matte black/medium gray striping and accents—very cohesive.
IDEA, IDSA, Awards, Jury, Tactile

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IDEA Jury

We’re pleased to announce that our President, Josh Kornfeld, will serve on the jury of this year’s International Design Excellence Awards. It’s the 35th anniversary of the awards, and winners will be celebrated at this year’s IDSA International Conference in August. The jury is led this year by the UW’s Matthew Marzynski.
Jared Randall, Tactile, Design

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Farewell

For the first time, a new year rings in at Tactile without Jared Randall on the team. Bittersweet! Jared was Tactile’s #2 employee after Josh—two RISD graduates working side by side for more than a decade. Jared helped grow the team to where it is today and will always be part of our DNA. He’s moving on to spend more time with his young son and to pursue some long-desired personal projects, which we’re excitedly tracking. We will miss him so but wish Jared the very best. If you have any questions about the transition, please email or call us anytime.

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Celebrate

From all of us at Tactile, thank you for making 2014 a year of growth and design adventure. We wish you all the best and look forward to working with you in 2015! (Image credit: devlin85 on flickr)
Xbox, Microsoft, Tactile, Gamers, CMF

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Limited + Special

Tactile once again collaborated with the Xbox Industrial Design team on CMF for an exciting collection of game products: The Xbox One Limited Edition Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Bundle, the Xbox One Special Edition Armed Forces Wireless Controller and Headset, Midnight Forces Wireless Controllers, and the Xbox 360 Special Edition Blue Bundle. We’re gamers ourselves, so we loved finding meaningful graphic details—and getting creative with production processes—that we knew would excite hardcore Xbox fans.
Clarisonic Pro, Tactile

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Clearly Intelligent

We continue our design collaboration with Clarisonic (owned by L’Oreal) with the Smart Profile, a professional-grade sonic cleansing brush. Tactile worked with the engineering and marketing teams to amplify existing brand elements with upgraded materials and thoughtful interaction points.
Genie, Tactile, Industrial Design

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Brand Elevation

A best-in-class product line deserves a strong visual language. We continued our local partnership with the Genie team, leveraging the passion and attention to detail of longtime Genie staff and loyal fans to understand the Genie brand story and bring it to life. Together, we designed a product line that feels reliable, intuitive, accessible, and safe.
Tactile, Tactile Halloween, Seattle, Design

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Halloween 2014

Possibly the biggest Tactile Halloween on record. The costumes and merriment didn’t disappoint—so we’ll let the costumes speak for themselves. See our video slideshow, courtesy of the SnapBar. We’ll see you next year!
Seattle Design Festival, Herman Miller, Tactile, Design, Seattle

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Sitting in Motion

Tactile was pleased to take part in a special design effort for the Closing Party of the 2014 Seattle Design Festival. Herman Miller donated 10 Eames rocking chairs (fitting the Design in Motion theme of the festival) for local design firms to customize, then auctioned them off to benefit youth creative organization Sawhorse Revolution. The Tactile design team went for a classic mahatma dot pattern beloved by the Eames’, accented with a gold frame and dark-stained rockers. Our chair went home with the NBBJ Architecture crew—but perhaps we’ll reproduce one to decorate our studio…
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