Alex Ritvin, R&D Industrial Designer at Manfrotto Bags (Israel)

This was an interesting interview – a world famous designer wins his company a number of prestigious awards and is then thrown to the curb after a round of cutbacks. All visual materials used is intellectual property of Manfrotto. Key takeaways:

• Use design awards as part of a marketing campaign.
• Winning awards isn’t a path towards job security.
• Design for function, not awards, they’ll take care of themselves.

You can view Alex’s portfolio at http://www.coroflot.com/AlexRitvin/

You worked in a number of different designer capacities, from interior and furniture design to exhibition and consumer products. How well did your education (Masers in Design Management and BD in Industrial Design) prepare you for this diversity of projects?

The BD in Industrial Design from my perspective prepared me very good for the areas I worked in, nevertheless I feel today that the studies miss a lot in the area of User Experience, today this is a very dynamic and evolving field that influence greatly product design.

I finished my Masters less the half a year ago and now I am trying to implement it in the project I working on. I gave me a wider view and deeper understanding in business proses and the values need for successful project

How long did it take you to design the Manfrotto Backpack 50 from initial idea to finished manufactured product? Bags are everywhere in all shapes and sizes, what made you want to design something so universal? What kind of tests did you make on the bag to make sure the design was strong enough for everyday use?

The design development of Manfrotto Backpack 050 something like 10 to12 month. It was more than designing one bag, I was responsible for guide lines for all Manfrotto Pro collection. Moreover it was a team work of Manfrotto Bags R&D department at the time.

This particular bag is the flag ship of the collection, the target audience of this product is working professional photographers and videographers. The product needed to be rigid strong and comfortable in its main use. I have more than 5 years experience in developing soft goods product for photo and video market. I used my knowledge and user research that was conducted prior to the development in the proses of developing products.

Regarding the tests – there was a standard test set for materials we used in the developing of the product.

How long after your Manfrotto Backpack 50 were you nominated and won the Reddot Design Award and IDEA Bronze Award last year? Has this opened any new opportunities for you as a designer and the company you work for?

I worked in Manfrotto Bags for almost 6 years, today I am independent designer and entrepreneur. While working in Manfrotto I won 3 REDDOT awards, IDEA finalist for Design Strategy and IDEA bronze award. Unfortunately this did not help the company went for serious cut backs for the last year. This is one of the reasons I’m independent now.

When you first designed the Manfrotto Backpack 50, was it to win an award or did everything just happen by serendipity?

This product was not made to win awards, the aim was to create a working tool for professional photographers. Applying for REDDOT award and IDEA is part of the marketing campaign.

What are some of your other non-bag related projects that you enjoyed designing and creating the most? I really like your people trolley you made as a graduation project for instance.

The Graduation project was a lot of fun, I was mentored by very talented and inspiring, Prof. Shmuel Kaplan. Also the Bitbed I made when working in furniture field, it is an adjustable bed with integrated sound system and (this is my favorite) massage option that works according to the music you play.

What are the software tools you use most often to create your design and hardware to turn those concepts into real products?

Photoshop, Illustrator, Solidworks, PowerPoint. I also used wacom cintiq.

What advice would you have for designers looking at getting into product design and working very hard to achieve the same success you have?

First of all would advise them to enjoy the design proses, sometimes it’s very hard and frustrating.

Anything else you’d like to add?

As I said before today I am independent. My focus is on developing Design Strategy based on Design Driven Innovation method. This is a very innovative approach to development process that adds a significant value to the product.

Thank you for this interview, it was also very interesting for me.