Earlier this week, I attended that Industrial Designers Society of America ceremony for the winners of the 2006 Industrial Design Excellence Awards in Texas. There we received our official recognition for the silver design explorations award for our floating automotive creeper, the Hover Creeper, and our bronze win in consumer products for the BikeBoard – both are featured in the Fall 2006 issue of Innovation magazine.

Among the throng, more than 700 people attended, I noticed something different in the design community: A lot of major corporations are attending more and more. Company’s in America are starting to recognize the value of innovation in their products, more so than ever before. It was apparent in the attendance and the showing of major corporations among the design firms. Some of the world’s largest companies were present, from Panasonic to Intel, Bayer, Microsoft, GE and more. There were international design teams coming forward for the first time with American designers working with Asian designers working with European designers all building the new products for international companies.

It’s an exciting to watch big corporations recognize the needs of innovation as an essential tool to keep a competitive edge. You can’t just make a wastebasket anymore. It has to be ergonomic, aesthetic, environmental friendly and so on to compete. The need for good design has finally taken a hold in the mainstream.

This design competitiveness and specificity in trying to match with consumer wants leads me to some predictions on innovation. My thoughts are, and I hope they’re correct, the very next steps for consumers and the design industry are not far off. With the growing use of rapid prototype machines, it’s only a matter of time before they become a part of a consumer’s everyday use. People will design their own products or even download ones they like. Just input the files into this new home appliance go to sleep and wakeup with a new wastebasket. Consumers will be empowered more than ever. This is a very exciting time to be in the innovation business.