RKS Wins 8 Good Design 2009 Awards

Founded in 1950, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum’s historic GOOD DESIGN program is now in its 59th year. GOOD DESIGN bestows international recognition upon the world’s most prominent designers and manufacturers for advancing new, visionary, and innovative product concepts, invention and originality, and for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered ordinary product and consumer design.

For 2009, a record number of submissions were received, representing the work of thousands of designers and industry leaders from 35 nations. “All in all, this year’s GOOD DESIGN Awards bestowed the coveted GOOD DESIGN Award to the most important and influential industrial and graphic designers in the world,” says Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine, Museum President, The Chicago Athenaeum. Eight designs submitted by RKS were recognized with 2009 GOOD DESIGN Awards.


“These eight GOOD DESIGN awards show the strategic thinking that goes into every solution we design,” says Ravi Sawhney, RKS Founder and CEO. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team.” The RKS wins span a range of categories including consumer electronics, medical equipment, industrial machinery, consumer goods, and even children’s products. These broad ranging wins illustrate how the firm is able to swiftly and adeptly develop insight into the needs of a wide variety of users, and generate designs that connect emotionally and appropriately in each of these very different categories. “In one corner of the studio, we may have a team developing a tattoo machine that provides a safer, quieter, less-painful tattoo experience, while in another area a team is developing designs that standout in the crowded consumer-electronics market, all while another team works on designing an ICU ventilator that provides a safer, and more reassuring experience not only to the medical personnel, but to the patient and their loved ones,” explains Sawhney. “I think the breadth of the work we do is one of the things that makes it so rewarding to work here.”


The RKS wins include:

• JBL EON515 – a Portable Powered Speaker
• Vestalife Pi Headphones
• Vestalife Firefly® Speaker Dock
• Vestalife Bumblebee, Boa, and Scarab Earbuds
• Hamilton C2 Ventilator
• Neuma Hybrid Tattoo Machine
• GE Sensing Ventostat® Wall-Mount Transmitters
• Prince Lionheart Baby Bottle

These winning designs will join the rest of the 2009 GOOD DESIGN winners in Chicago in June, 2010 for the GOOD DESIGN Show at the Chicago Athenaeum.