Roman produces the widely popular 99% Invisible podcast about design and architecture. With more than 7 million downloads, the show recently took the #2 spot in iTunes rankings for all podcasts and #1 in both the Arts and Design categories.

LUNAR helped kickstart Roman’s podcast in its first season.

We’re delighted to see Roman’s continued success with 99% Invisible (the show’s name comes from the architect Buckminster Fuller, who noted, “99% of who you are is invisible”) and his well-deserved recognition by FastCo.

Through our partnership with Stanford University’s Biodesign Program, the award provides two Stanford Biodesign student teams with 100 hours of LUNAR design and engineering consultation. Winning teams teams will conceive and develop new medical technologies to address important health care issues. Awards are open to any Stanford student, post-doctorate, visiting student researcher or teams comprised of the above.

Stanford and LUNAR are accepting nominations through May 17. Download entry information here and submit your entry here.

A panel of Stanford faculty and LUNAR representatives will select awardees. Award recipients will be recognized on commemorative plaques on display at Stanford and LUNAR.

Long-time LUNAR employee and friend Robert Howard and his family died in a tragic roadway accident in 2011. The Next Step award commemorates Robert’s passion and lifelong dedication to advancing health care for all people. “It’s an honor to team with LUNAR to support excellence in student work,” said Dr. Paul Yock, director of Stanford Biodesign. “This award is a fitting tribute to Robert Howard’s long-time support of health care and Stanford Biodesign.”

Learn more about last year’s winning projects here.

Please spread the word and thanks for helping us share Robert’s creative spirit.

In a story that aired on ABC7, pain management specialist Eric Grigsby, M.D., used iovera° to relieve pain associated with osteoarthritis in patient Winnie Meadows’ knees.

The pen-like device is designed, using a minimally invasive treatment, to penetrate then numb a key nerve pathway carrying pain signals from Winnie’s knee to her brain. “The relief is immediate; the patient was able to do deep knee bends, something she hasn’t done in a long time,” Grigsby explains.

The system includes a handpiece, dock, single-use Smart Tips and nitrous oxide cartridges. After locating the target nerve and inserting the micro-needles, with a push of a button the system cools the needles to draw heat from the surrounding tissue forming a precise zone of cold. This temporarily disables the nerve, but preserves the nerve structure so the nerve reliably re-grows over time in its original path.

iovera° works equally well on sensory and motor nerves and potentially may be used to address a wide range of clinical applications, including reduction in the appearance of wrinkles and muscular disorders. Potential applications include treatment for pain from arthritis or other peripheral nerve conditions and dynamic facial lines.

“We use your body’s natural response to cold to simply put the nerve into hibernation and allow it to wake up over time,” says Myoscience CEO Clint Carnell. “In the case of osteoarthritis in the knee, our studies have shown we can turn off that sensory nerve for to 2-3 months.”

The Myoscience device recently received FDA clearance for pain treatment in the U.S.; it’s already being used in Europe for cosmetic applications as well as pain.

We’re proud to have worked with Myoscience to design a beautiful and effective device that can help improve the quality of life for countless people through pain therapy.

In a Fortune guest thought piece published April 25, LUNAR’s John Edson and executive coach/author Prasad Kaipa (co-author with innovation expert Navi Radjou of From Smart to Wise: Acting and Leading with Wisdom) make the case that Cook is evolving from being merely smart to being wise, and he’s showing evidence of leadership changes.

The disruptive design innovation and charisma that Apple sustained for over a decade will spring from Cook’s willingness to give freer rein to Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design and the genius behind many of Apple’s marquee products.

Has Cook simply become weak? Is Ive’s team taking over Apple? Not necessarily, but clearly it’s just a matter of time before Apple starts its disruptive journey all over again.

Check out the full article here.

Nearly 325,000 designers attended the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (International exhibition of furniture) April 9-14. It was a great opportunity to explore new installations and design as well as mingle with colleagues visiting from around the world.

A few things kept surfacing:

“Copper seems to be the new aluminum,” Florian Gerlach observed. “There’s copper everywhere you looked. When metal was used, chances are it was copper. It was used as extensively as aluminum is in today’s products.”

Roman Gebhard noted the extensive use of LED lighting in products. “LED has clearly matured,” he said. “LED applications for lighting are much more prevalent than we’ve seen in previous years. And the designs are really starting to take on and celebrate that new technology.” Roman pointed to the task lamps designed by Naoto Fukosawa for Artemide (see below) as an example.

“Design” and “craftsmanship” are converging much more than we’ve seen in recent years explains Hanne Trafnik. “The approach of ‘design locally but manufacture around the world’ is evolving to ways of designing and building products that use materials expertise and the ‘craftsmanship’ found in experienced hands or through sophisticated machinery or robotics,” she says. “After a time of growing distance between the designer and the manufacturer, there are more and more opportunities for a reemergence of traditional craftsmanship thanks in part to new digital tools and services based on our ever-more-connected world. Even big players like Tom Dixon showcased works around this topic.”

As what once was a very Italian-centric forum evolves into a global gathering with thousands of attendees from Asia, the U.S. and seemingly every corner of the world, the salone continues to be an exciting source of inspiration and a great way to get a sense for new possibilities in design.

Check out this pdf of more observations by the LUNAR Munich team from the 2013 Milan Furniture Fair/Design Week.

John’s talk will be based on his book, Design Like Apple, which uncovers the lessons from Apple’s singular approach to product creation, manufacturing, delivery and customer experience.

The Indianapolis conference explores new models for design practice-like Apple’s approach. The world’s leading consumer electronics company sees design as a tool for creating beautiful experiences that surprise and delight, but also convey a point of view down to the smallest detail-from the tactile feedback of a keyboard to the out-of-the-box experience of an iPhone package.

John will show how design can create a competitive advantage by delivering beauty, ingenuity and charisma.

“Apple creates a unique voice and expresses its taste so confidently that the company became a tastemaker, a leader that others follow,” John says. “Steve Jobs wasn’t a designer by training, but he exemplified many of the traits of a great designer: He was creative, curious, exploratory and playful. He paid close attention to the world around him and came to appreciate a simple, refined aesthetic.”

If you’re at the IDSA conference, check out John’s talk Saturday afternoon. Learn more about Design Like Apple and John’s seven principles for creating insanely great products, services and experience here.

With each rebirth, design’s reach and influence expands through the companies, products and services of the time. But as Jim Couch, IDSA, guest editor of IDSA’s latest Innovation design journal, eloquently points out, design is so much more than materials, aesthetics, form, shape, function, typefaces, processes, color, texture, branding, ergonomics and everything else that goes into the realization and creation of a product. Design is about communicating meaning and affording desired experience.”

Designers and design thinkers are not defined by boundaries, and those profiled in the Spring Innovations are individuals who are thinking beyond the artifact, who see design’s potential as limitless, who are taking design thinking and applying it to big sticky wicked problems.

These are the best of all of us, change agents who are fearless in accepting challenges and boldly imaginative enough to think and believe in the impossible truth: that design can and does change and shape the world and always for the better. It is not our what or how; it’s our why and its limits are endless.

—by Mark Dziersk

Read Mark’s full essay plus “Hidden in Plain Sight” by Jim Couch for free at http://www.idsa.org/innovation-spring-2013 . IDSA members get the full version of every Innovation edition. Mark Dziersk is Executive Editor of Innovation.

This new practice is designed to serve the needs of healthcare companies seeking to identify and specifically tailor products for rapidly growing and dynamic emerging markets, primarily China and India.

The initiative is led by Rajiv Doshi, MD and Christopher Shen, MD, both consulting faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine where they teach medical technology innovation for emerging markets.

The new LUNAR practice provides:

• On-the-ground clinical immersion and needs identification in India and China
• In-depth screening of these needs, including analysis of existing treatment options and extensive market and stakeholder analyses
• Rapid concept generation and prototyping in partnership with LUNAR product designers and engineers

Learn more about LUNAR’s Life Sciences Practice for Emerging Markets here.

Read our press release here.

The March 18 article notes that a mind-boggling array of wearable electronics has begun to arrive in a “burgeoning trend that has captivated Silicon Valley.” And that means engineers are collaborating with fashion designers, futurists and gadget geeks to extend the reach of computing power along those precious few inches from pocket and purse to forearms and ears.

In the article, John notes that with the proliferation of these devices, “my smartphone becomes just the collector of all the data coming from the sensors I’ve got on me.”

John also points out that test audiences seem to love wearing the devices LUNAR has worked on with BodyMedia. “Some of these tools help users achieve weight loss through a wearable sensor,” he said. “They have really proven algorithms that can clearly and accurately tell you about your calorie burn, just by wearing a device that tracks a few different body metrics.”

Read the full article here.

“Design Like Apple: Seven Principles For Creating Insanely Great Products, Services, and Experiences,” a new book by LUNAR’s John Edson, uncovers the lessons from Apple’s singular approach to product creation, manufacturing, delivery, and customer experience.

Learn how design can create a competitive advantage for your organization by delivering beauty, ingenuity and charisma.

“Design Like Apple” is available now in bookstores everywhere. Learn more about the book here.