Demonstrating its ability to create beautifully designed, innovative and disruptive products, Cambridge Industrial Design (CID) has won twice at the prestigious European Product Design Awards 2017. Two CID projects were honoured – the ioLight portable high resolution microscope and the Tangent Wave Ripple broadcast colour grading panel. Other winners at the awards included products created for, and by, Ikea, Pininfarina, Audi, Vodafone and Philips.
Thanks to CID’s design experience and links to local manufacturers, both products have been created, designed and manufactured in the Cambridge area, demonstrating the world-leading capacity that the city provides.
A winner in the Medical/Scientific Machinery category, the ioLight microscope combines high resolution with true portability. It has a resolution of better than 1μm, which produces beautiful pictures of animal and plant cells and displays them wirelessly on a tablet or mobile phone. Initially crowdfunded and now seeing rapidly increasing sales, ioLight has won endorsements from Bayer, Cambridge University and The Eden Project.
The Tangent Wave Ripple brings post-production colour grading of film out of the studio and onto desktops. An entry level grading panel that disrupts the market, it allows users to adjust the colour mix of film as it is edited through a striking and compact control surface that does not compromise on essential ergonomics. The Ripple won in the TV, Video and Audio Equipment category.
“The ioLight and Ripple projects demonstrate the importance of innovative, ergonomic design to successful and disruptive products,” said Alex Jones, director, Cambridge Industrial Design. “In both cases we’ve worked with customers to take their ideas from concept to reality – including full manufacturing in the local area. Recognition from the European Design Awards shows the strength of our approach – and how Cambridge design and ideas can lead the world.”
The European Product Design Awards were created to recognise the efforts of talented international product designers who aim to improve people’s daily lives with their practical, well-thought-out creations. They reward the strategic thinking and imagination which goes into making a great product.