Using architecture to inspire product design

My company Envion, LLC has been fortunate to be the main supplier of home air purifiers to our business partner Costco Wholesale for the last three years.  Each year we have to come up with a new design that will satisfy the discriminating taste of the category buyer and appeal to the “treasure hunt” mindset of the Costco member.  We have to combine category leading features and performance with innovative design.  To come up with our Winter 2012 model (just introduced in the fall of 2011) we decided to look at modern commercial architecture as our inspiration and where better to look than the land of ambitious architecture, China.  Our senior vice president of product development and sourcing, suggested the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. When our design team looked at the photograph we knew we were headed in the right direction… not only did we find a sleek modern design, but one of the only buildings in the world with “a handle”.  Take a look at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai and the air purifier it inspired, the Therapure 440, available exclusively at Costco.

Grand Hyatt Shanghai

Therapure 440