A globally informed design outlook

For businesses that compete around the world, welcome to our world

INTRODUCTION 2009/10

READYMADE

How better to describe the creation of a plan than to call it “the design”?

Surely good design is a careful plan and the disciplined execution of that plan to create something which is nothing more than appropriate.

Readymade might not be a famous name but we don’t mind, as long as you remember the names of our clients. We drop them unashamedly; after all, their continued fame is what we hope to be known for.

Our FriendsAlso known as our clients

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B S CREADYMADE

Beauty

Function

People

Business

Diamond ring holderfor Pure LustreJohannesburg, South Africa

Pure Lustre wanted to distinguish their branded diamonds from all others. They asked Readymade to design packaging that would rival the beauty of the diamond itself and capture all that is special about the moment a diamond is offered to a loved one.

Our solution created a mysterious, sparkling object that could become an heirloom in itself. The two halves are joined by a precision friction fit. The moment the diamond is revealed is thus accompanied by a rush of escaping air from the holder, and hopefully a sharp intake of breath from the receiver.

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Color and finishfor XM2goFlorida, U.S.A.Readymade assisted XM’s internal design team by designing the color and finish pallette for Tao’s XM2go portable satellite radio.

When the Tao XM2go was released simultaneously with two competing products, it gained favor with reviewers for its distinctive coloring, eventually being picked as one of WIRED magazine’s gadgets of the year in 2005.

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Mobile phone headsetsfor Body GloveCalifornia, U.S.A.Body Glove is the legendary California based surf and dive company that invented the wetsuit. Readymade worked with Body Glove and its licensees on defining the look and engineering of their technology accessories range from their first internally developed mobile phone headset in the year 2000 until they exited the business 7 years later.

During that time the Body Glove headset business won some of the world’s most coveted design prizes, sold in 42 countries and increased sales on key products by up to 80%.

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Two-way radiosfor MotorolaChicago, U.S.A.

When Motorola’s two way radio licensees wanted to create more relevant appeal for their radios in Europe, they asked Readymade to design the color pallette. The result was a fresh color style for the year 2005.

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DAB radio recieverfor MotorolaChicago, U.S.A.

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Readymade was engaged to provide the industrial design of Motorola’s mooted entry into the competitive European portable DAB radio market. Readymade collaborated with Motorola’s design department in Chicago but did a complete ground-up design of the product.

TV accessoriesfor SMARTITAalborg, Denmark

SmartIT sells TV accessories throughout Northern Europe. They approached Readymade to help develop products that would compete in these sought after markets.

The ELEMENTS universal remote control brought elegance and simplicity to the unenviable task of running home entertainment devices from one magic wand.

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Service solutionsfor ABSA bankJohannesburg, South Africa

ABSA is South Africa’s largest consumer bank and a division of the global Barclays Group.

ABSA hired Readymade to assist in solving some of their most pressing consumer facing

problems. Over 3 years, Readymade has helped to reduce queuing times, introduce successful new offerings and engage bank staff in a culture of creating new solutions that reduce costs and delight customers.

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Angle & Circle Makerfor Helix

Chicago, U.S.A.

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Helix is the famous stationery company that invented the ring compass in 1894, the first mass-produced

ruler in 1899, the first mathematics set in 1902 and has since registered many other patents.

Helix approached Readymade to create innovative school math equipment for sale in key markets.

Our response was a range of products led by the Angle and Circle Maker which caused a sensation at trade

shows and was called “The first innovation in school stationery in 80 years”.

The product subsequently won the world’s oldest and most prestigious awards program organized worldwide,

the Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Awards.

Chicago AthenaeumGood Design Award2007

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Product strategyfor Clarity

Chatanooga U.S.A.

Clarity, a division of Plantronics (which is notable for making the headsets used by

NASA - including for the moon landings), is a company which makes phones for the

hearing impaired.

Clarity asked Readymade to facilitate thinking on product strategy and design. An

early success of the engagement was the reintroduction to Wal-Mart of Clarity’s most

popular phone due to Readymade’s advice and the Clarity sales team’s hard work.

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Paraffin safety capPASASASouth Africa.

60 000 people are hurt by paraffin in South Africa each year. Some of these are children who drink it because it is sold and stored in cold drink bottles.

Initiatives to provide a safer paraffin bottle have failed because users overwhelmingly prefer a free bottle to a safer container that must be purchased.

Readymade designed a solution that addresses both issues by making the current bottle safe. The cap has a fill line that prevents overfilling. This simple feature can save a reseller significant money and spark adoption of the system.

The safety cap won a paraffin safety award and was a finalist in the world’s largest prize for design that improves peoples’ lives, the Danish INDEX award.

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Paraffin stovefor BPLondon, U.K.BP, as part of its commitment to the environments where it operates, has an Emerging Consumer Markets business that seeks to bring energy solutions to the world’s poorest people.

This business approached Readymade to design a 21st century stove for paraffin users. The brief was impossible; it had to be affordable, highly efficient, safe, non-polluting and extremely durable.

Not only did Readymade meet these targets, we exceeded them, passing some of the most stringent regulatory testing of its kind.

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SNIF tag systemfor SNIFlabsBoston, U.S.A.

SNIFlabs was started by a group of MIT graduates with the idea to create a new generation of products that bridge the digital and physical worlds.

SNIFlabs engaged Readymade to develop the product strategy, packaging, concept design and engineering for the SNIFtag.

The SNIFtag is a social networking product for dogs. It allows dog owners to track their dog’s friends online and just possibly meet attractive dog owners in real life.

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Fablabs Strategyfor MITBoston, U.S.A.MIT professor, Neil Gershenfeld has an idea that could change the economy of the world. Neil explains in his book, FAB, that instead of sending megatons of products around to world from factory to consumer, we could be sending the data around the world and making products in our basements using personal fabricators.

To realize this vision, Neil asked Readymade to investigate his global network of FABlabs (fabrication laboratories) which are the prototype of these new fabricators. Readymade’s brief is to develop the commercial model to bring the vision to life in everyone’s back yard. Working with the FABlab in Soshanguve, South Africa, Fabrication Africa created the NEST bowl as the start of a range of distinctive new products which embrace social conscience and precision technology.

The bowls are sold worldwide and assembly of the bowls is done by a local charity that assists homeless and destitute people in informal settlements. This helps the poorest of the urban poor.

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Rural transport solutionsfor the Department of TransportNorth West Province, South Africa

Readymade was part of the 2005 Interdesign which focused on alternative transport for South Africa’s rural poor. Altogether 60 designers from around the world spent 2 weeks in the field immersing themselves in the daily transport challenges facing the local people.

Readymade’s area of work was in designing for the short distance transport of heavy goods around the village such as wood, water and provisions.

We uncovered latent potential in the local people to sustainable create and supply their own solutions with some outside help, a concept which guides our design thinking still.

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Strategic consulting for Optimal Energy Cape Town, South Africa

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Readymade has been part of the team supporting the strategic development of the business plan and capital raising by working with the company executives to conceptualize the overall plan and reconcile its multitude of complex technical, financial and marketing issues. The goal has been to clear the way for the Joule to claim its share of the mainstream automotive market and for Optimal Energy to become a leading global manufacturer of electric vehicles.

“Design contains the skills to identify possible futures, build bridges to customers and crack wicked problems” The Designful Company, Marty Neumeier, Rotman School of Management/Winter 2009

A globally informed design outlook for product businesses that create a little beauty, make things work better and improve the lives of people

That’s our world

www.readymade.co.zaREADYMADE

012 643 0996