The Brewery Creates Eastman Site as a Focal Point for Brand Owners and
Designers to Find Innovative Materials Solutions
KINGSPORT, Tenn. June 27, 2005 - The Eastman Innovation Lab Web site (www.EastmanInnovationLab.com), designed by The Brewery, captured a gold award in the 2005 Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) competition in the Digital Media and Interfaces category.
The IDEA competition is co-sponsored by BusinessWeek Magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). A jury of 17 world-renowned designers and critics reviewed entries online and conducted intense, face-to-face evaluation and debate with IDEA contestants in one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions. Judging criteria for each entry focused on five areas of industrial design excellence: design innovation, benefit to the user, benefit to the client/business, ecological responsibility, and appropriate aesthetics and appeal. The Eastman Innovation Lab Web site competed against 423 submissions from 17 countries.
“The Eastman Innovation Lab brings the visitor into a world that clearly conveys credibility and expertise," said Peter Arnell, founder and chief creative officer of the Arnell Group and a judge in the IDEA competition. "Their products speak for themselves while providing constant demonstration. The web site provides confidence and demonstrates innovation within their category.”
After a series of workshops and focus groups with designers and brandowners revealed a lack of available in-depth, easy-to-use resources on materials, Eastman joined forces with The Brewery to determine a way to bridge the gap between material suppliers and the design community—thus, the Eastman Innovation Lab was born.
"The Brewery delivered the graphical and conceptual excellence that really makes our site something worth shouting about," said Nicolas Voiriot, manager of electronic marketing. "They make a lousy cup of coffee, but their vision reinforces our belief that the innovation lab can bridge the knowledge chasm between the material and design worlds."
The site challenges expectations of a materials company by using design to provide a highly visual, easy to navigate materials resource. Content includes simple, non-technical descriptions of Eastman's products and demonstrates their use through application successes, providing links throughout for additional information. It is an innovative resource for designers and brandowners that facilitates awareness of Eastman's products and enables inspiration for new products. In addition, it encourages the improvement of existing products, the development of new market categories and the stimulation of the senses.
“This is fantastic recognition for our work with Eastman and a true endorsement of our approach that re-establishes the link between creative thinking and business results," said Paul Stead, chairman of The Brewery. "Our creative focus is design and innovation. We established The Brewery in 2004, and this is an amazing achievement to be acclaimed internationally for such a newly established agency. We have worked closely as partners with Eastman to achieve a radically new approach, which is delivering measurable results to their business. ”
The Eastman Innovation Lab Web site accumulated more than 120,000 hits by March 2005, marking the end of its first year. An estimated 60 percent of the visitors were designers and design engineers from some of the world's leading companies. The user base is expected to grow by at least 30 percent.
"Winning the gold is a tribute to the vision shared with the designers at The Brewery of a creative resource connecting designers and brand owners to Eastman materials," said Gaylon White, manager of design industry programs for Eastman. "Awards recognize excellence, they don’t ensure success. For that, we must continue to deliver on our promise to inform, inspire and provoke.”
About The Brewery
Based in London, England, The Brewery is an independent business, brand and strategic design consultancy that re-establishes the link between creative thinking and business results. Its creative focus is design and innovation. Formed in January 2004 with a partnership team of senior industry figures, The Brewery has in excess of 175 years agency, consultancy and client-side experience. Its partnership-based structure enables more senior talent to be applied directly to meeting client needs, and allows clients to access talent with more relevant experience across more skill sets in one physical place. The Brewery’s expertise includes business & brand consultancy, trend forecasting, innovation programmes, and design services that include: product, packaging, environmental/ architectural, graphic and brand identity design, together with interactive/digital media. The Brewery's clients include Diageo, Eastman Chemical Company, National Museums of Scotland, Ferrari, Unilever and WRAP (waste and resources action programme). For more information, visit
www.thebrewery-london.com.
About IDSA & IDEA
IDSA is the nonprofit association that represents the profession of industrial design to education, business, government and the public and serves the profession’s needs for information and networking. The IDEA programme fosters business and public understanding about the impact of industrial design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. Industrial designers determine the form, use features and interaction qualities of manufactured products, packaging and digital media systems. They study people at work, at home and in motion to create satisfying experiences with products from the kitchen and the office to the hospital and the warehouse, shaping these to fit their customers and to make effective use of industrial processes. In this way, industrial designers have a quiet but profound presence in almost everything people encounter during the day.