Junggi picked up his award at the iF Design Awards on February 10 in Munich. Established in 1953, the internationally recognized iF product design award is among the most important awards for innovative product design. Only 100 iF awards are given annually.

Elastine is a new style of bottle that uses three different textures to help consumers recognize shampoo, conditioner or hair treatment without opening their eyes. The textures help anyone — including people who have vision issues — to find the right bottle during their shower.

“Hair treatment makes our hair shiny, so this container’s surface has a shiny feel,” Junggi says. “Conditioner makes our hair soft, so the conditioner bottle has soft lines and shampoo cleanses our hair so this bottle’s surface has clean lines. These simple designs make it easier to distinguish each of the products.”

You can learn more about Junggi’s perspectives on design and see more of his work here.

Congrats, Junggi!

LUNAR Europe is redefining the experience of exercising at home in style, and we’ll be sharing our vision at “Design Expression” on February 8 at our Munich office. We’re looking forward to showing these exciting concepts in the form of models and illustrations, including their digital interfaces.

The “Design Expression” vernissage is part of Munich Creative Business Week. If you can’t make it to LUNAR Europe on Feb. 8 (at our new and larger studio space at Baaderstrasse 56,80469 Munich starting at 18:30), watch our blog for an event recap, photos and videos.

Get more event details here.

Whether it’s worn blue jeans or grandmother’s iron skillet, the initial design determined the quality, but imperfections made them comfortable, lovable and yours.

And if you think that a “slightly broken” escalator can’t be lovable, check out this episode of the 99% Invisible podcast.

Chris Richards is a music critic for the Washington Post, and after years of ignoring the wailing and screeching of the much maligned, often broken escalators in the DC Metro, he began to hear them in a new way. He began to hear them as music.

LUNAR is proud to have been a founding patron for 99% Invisible, a new show that focuses on the unseen hand of design in our everyday lives…from San Francisco’s KALW radio station and seasoned producer Roman Mars.

Listen here.

There are new models of consumer attitudes and behaviors that are defining the landscape for marketing, customer loyalty and product design. If you’re still using traditional segmentation and the 4 Ps, you’re probably destined to fail.

LUNAR’s Mark Dziersk (head of our new Chicago office) shares his insights about tribes, semantic stimulus and group behavior as purchase drivers in a new video based on his presentation at the last fall’s Industrial Designers Society of America International Conference.

Mark dissects how some of the world’s biggest brands — including Starbucks, Nissan, Apple and Sears — tap into tribes or miss the mark as they try to build new value for their companies. He draws on material from courses he’s taught at Northwestern University’s Kellogg/McCormick Engineering School and his extensive experience in innovation strategy, branding, industrial design and packaging.

Check out the video…we think it’ll spur some creative thinking in your organization.

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Gerard joins a list of past recipients that includes Frank O. Gehry, Pierre Koenig, Henry Bumstead, Thom Mayne and Boris Dramov.

“If design can be seen as creative intelligence, transforming ideas into reality with elegance, Gerard demonstrates the best design training that USC can provide,” USC Dean Qingyun Ma said about Gerard’s selection.

Since Gerard and Jeff Smith founded LUNAR in 1984, we’ve grown to be an internationally recognized user-experience, industrial design, engineering and strategy firm with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Chicago, Munich and Hong Kong. Gerard plays a key role in overseeing our operations and ensuring the success of our royalty and licensing programs and venture investments.

Over his three-decade career, he has received recognition in annual design competitions sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), ID magazine, Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA), the Chicago Athenaeum Museum, Appliance Manufacturer magazine, as well as in numerous product design books.

Gerard has served the design community as President and Chairman of the Board of the Association of Professional Design Firms (APDF), Chairman of the San Francisco chapter of the IDSA and as a Trustee of the Design Foundation.

USC will present Gerard’s award at the 53rd Annual USC Architectural Guild Dinner on May 3, 2012 at USC’s Town & Gown.

Core 77 carried the announcement on their blog and here’s the news on the USC website.

But for an innovative concept to work and have lasting value, it has to start with how to improve the shopping process for the customer.

CBS News talked with LUNAR’s John Edson to explore the issue in a recent news story, “Why most new shopping technology still disappoints.”

“Most of the [retail] concepts I see have to do with bringing technology into the store environment for some flashy efficiency improvement,” John says. “For example, some concepts propose that the store will recognize me when I walk in and guide me with lights or sounds to the things it thinks I want to buy.”

“I think this concept is pretty silly – it misses the point of being in a good store,” he notes.

At the same time, John thinks these ideas contain the kernel of something interesting, “which is the whole point of concepts. They help us envision the future and consider what we like about it.”

Read the full article here.

LUNAR relocated its San Francisco headquarters to a century-old factory in the city’s design epicenter a few months ago. The move turned out to be a huge success, and our SF team now has a spectacular space that improves collaboration and productivity.

LUNAR’s new space was built in 1907 to house a cornice works and sheetmetal factory. “It’s still a factory today,” LUNAR’s John Edson says. “But it’s a creativity factory where we’re making ideas and designs and products in a warm, authentic space that very much reflects who we are as a company.”

The experience of developing the new space unearthed a few key lessons that John shares in his latest Fast Company Design blog post — express your voice, embody your values, and build a stage, not the set.

By exploring these issues through the planning, design, and build processes, you can create a unique space that is inspirational and adaptive to the needs of your brand, culture and work.

Read John’s full post on the Fast Company site.

AIGA gave us a Cause/Effect “do-gooder” award for the “Positive Piece” website we developed for the Korean Institute of Design Promotion. Positive Piece showcases designers who are doing thought-provoking work around environmental themes. Cause/Effect celebrates designers and organizations that set out to positively impact society.

We also picked up two SPARK awards: one for our Manual Intraosseus Drill concept, which is bringing a low-cost medical device to developing countries where the human need is great and traditional health care products are unaffordable; and the other for the SWITCH75 LED light bulb, a stylish yellow-tinted LED that casts a warm, living-room-quality glow – and draws only 13 watts to do it.

And we were honored with a CORE77 Design Award for our work with Green Toys, the family of toys that are made with recycled plastic from used milk jugs. CORE noted, “Without losing an ounce of the fun, this line introduces innovative, reengineered and redesigned versions of classic toys that push the limits of sustainable materials and manufacturing, representing a new step in the greening of everyday objects.”

While it’s always cool to get some recognition, the real honor for us is serving great clients who collaboratively work with us to deliver successful designs.

Widely known design thinking and management consultant Mark Dziersk has joined LUNAR to serve as Managing Director of Chicago and as a key player in the LUNAR leadership team. Mark’s 20+ year career advising global companies spans experience in innovation strategy, branding, industrial design, packaging and public speaking. We’re excited about Mark joining LUNAR and expanding our global presence.

Chicago is an extroverted city like New York, Tokyo and London, and we think it’s the ideal juxtaposition to the savvy, tech centered ingenuity that Silicon Valley provides.

LUNAR also has offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Munich and Hong Kong.

Our new digs are at 750 North Franklin #201, Chicago, IL 60654. You can reach Mark and the Chicago team at 312.929.2750 or email talk@lunar.com.