In Designers We Trust

Featured below is a listing of designers we know and trust to assist with your project. We will typically recommend certain designers for specific projects, based on their experience and expertise, however, we believe you should always interview as many as possible in order to feel as comfortable as possible in making your decision to invest in your idea.

Hrag Hassanian	Ignition Spring LLC
503-880-7985	Portland, OR
Career	Hrag is a creative leader with 20 years of experience, creating and influencing new product design, development, and innovation focused on bags and carry accessories. Currently, Hrag is the founder of WAYFINDER, a modern and minimal brand of accessories built with a technical nature for those who live their lives in motion. Previously, Hrag spent 12+ years at Nike, where he was a senior product designer on the global bags design team. During this time, he helped many of its business categories achieve year over year double-digit growth making it the highest-grossing athletic bag business in the world.
Strengths	Creating desire. Using color, graphics, materials and trims as tools for storytelling, which brings a product to life and makes it relevant to the consumer. Delivering value. Bringing together a mix of materials, trims, and details as well as different construction methods to create sophistication and ultimately value. Making it just right. Continually refining how bags fit and are constructed, enhancing comfort, and ultimately, it's performance. Experience to avoid pitfalls and move through the product creation process more efficiently and with the best results.
Design Beliefs	Complex simplicity: Pure performance is the sweet spot between complexity and simplicity. Sweat the details: Highlight the method of making to create a premium aesthetic. Fit is free: Product performance improves by tailoring for fit and motion. Visual disruption: Illuminate performance benefits by amplifying innovation.
Design Direction	Describe methods to create market separation visually, functionally, and through the method of make. Show how differentiation provides a performance benefit and advantage in the market niche. Identify visual language/tone/feel of the product, collection, or entire brand.
Industrial Design/Physical Product Design	Ideation. Explore and show what’s possible. Establish concepts that show function, construction, scale/proportion, and usability. Refinement. Narrow focus. Develop concepts further and define the remaining details — design for efficient manufacturability.
Product Development	Technical Drawings. Create detailed documentation from which prototypes can be made for evaluation and manufacturing/production. Revisions. Create documentation from prototypes received to make changes that get product closer to the desired state and manufacturing ready.
Sourcing	Find it and make it from small scale to large scale. Domestic and international sourcing of trims, hardware, materials, and products related to bags and accessories.
Media Links	https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ux-industrial-design-w-hrag-nassanian-founder-wayfinder/id1447442459?i=1000457243660 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/123-hrag-nassanian/id1088398598?i=1000443907565 https://youtu.be/6sxLcqjLo24 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0eflhf04qjn5cn6/AAAYhihTZp5JTawJrY2sJ-1qa?dl=0

Jeff Popp

Vagari Design

720-641-7117

Denver, CO

Bio

Jeff is an internationally acclaimed product and brand creator from the mile-high city of Denver, CO. He is a carry industry veteran with experience in just about every aspect of business. Jeff gained most of his experience by necessity, struggling to survive as a young entrepreneur. At just 22 years old he started his own backpack brands, MHM & CO.ALITION. The bag brands would go on to shake up the backpack industry, be distributed internationally and receive many coveted design awards and press for their innovations.

Jeff continued to build his brands for over 8 years until he sold them in 2016. After the acquisition, he stayed with the brands for another few years to continue his work on the product line. In late 2017, Jeff decided it was time to move on and left his backpack brands to create his current product focused venture- VAGARI Design Collective.

When not working Jeff is usually adventuring and doing ridiculous things with his wife, Rachel, and their hounds. He enjoys just about anything to do outdoors, snowboarding, tries to play the guitar (poorly), is addicted to volleyball, traveling, and putting down tacos like a boss.

Silas Beebe	Silas Beebe, The Beebe Company
503-734-7561	Portland, OR
Bio	As a seasoned independent design consultant, I enable emerging and established companies to transform concepts into consumer-driven products. With over two decades of experience working for leading brands and design agencies, as a consultant and in-house. I offer clients guidance and support from design to delivery. Over the last five years I have provided strategic direction and design counsel to Samuel Hubbard Shoes - including footwear design and development, branding, graphics, fit testing, as well as trend research. I also conducted a dozen trips on behalf of Hubbard Shoes to factories in Europe. Deep experience with softgoods, leathergoods, and footwear design, sewing prototypes, development, and sourcing in Asia, Europe, and the USA. AWARDS In collaboration with friends, designers, engineers, and clients I have won awards from Red Dot, the Industrial Design Society of America, Price Pfister, and the Oregon Manifest. MEDIA My creative and innovative designs have been featured on CNN nationwide and local Fox News, published in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Co., ID Magazine, the LA Times, and The Portland Tribune. CLIENTS Keen Footwear, Samuel Hubbard Shoes, Chrome Industries, Swiss Gear, Superfeet, Wenger, to name a few. PORTFOLIO www.silasbeebecom
Projects

In Designers We Trust

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