Rocketship received two 2012 Spark awards for the Palatometer and the GoalZero portable power system. Spark awards celebrate designs – product, architecture, mobility and communications – that make the world a better place.

Spark founder Peter F. Kuchnicki described Spark as “first and foremost a community of designers and creative people, bound together by the idea that Design can make significant, positive changes in the world and help make it better. The way we promote this Good Design is through the annual organization of international design competitions, exhibitions, blogs and workshops”.

“The Palatometer and the Sherpa portable power system are two projects that have a meaningful impact on the lives of the users” say’s Rocketship’s Creative Director, John Omdahl. “These products are quality of life enhancers.”

3D entertainment, once the realm of movie theaters, is becoming affordable and ubiquitous. New video conversion technologies allow home theater enthusiasts to convert existing home theater systems to 3D entertainment systems. These new 3D technologies are compatible with both gaming and movie devices.

To ensure users get the most from the home theater experience, Rocketship is envisioning the new frontier of 3D home conversions products.

Provo City unveiled a new look custom bike rack which will grace key biking corridors throughout Provo. As part of Provo’s efforts to be biker friendly, Provo was awarded bronze-level status from the League of American Bicyclists. There are only two other Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFCs) in the state of Utah – go Provo!

Working with the Provo Bike Committee, Rocketship developed bike rack concepts that are locally produced and capture the personality of downtown Provo.

The first bike rack was installed south of the Utah Valley Conference Center.

Read more about the new bike installation on the Provo City Mayor’s Blog and learn about the development process.

Rocketship is an industrial design firm who specializes in building powerful products and brands.

Salt Lake Design Week was created to raise the public awareness of the impact that all design -industrial, product, graphic, fashion, architecture, advertising, etc.- has in Utah by creating a platform for local designers to interact, collaborate, teach and learn. The week long event featured studio visits, lectures and hands on workshops. Rocketship is proud to sponsor Design Week.

Active Alarm, a Utah based company and Rocketship client, unveils a new product designed to turn off unattended electric stoves.

Active Alarm was conceived by local firefighter Peter Thorpe. Firefighters consistently respond to fire calls where someone has left something cooking on the stove. Peter thought: “there has to be a way to stop the fire once the smoke alarm is blaring before the fire starts.” This simple idea led to the invention of Active Alarm.

Active Alarm cuts off power to the heat source. Stove fires can smoke for hours before actually igniting into flame. The Active Alarm hears when the smoke alarm is activated and cuts the power to the stove. This removes the power source from the potential fire causing material and stops the fire before it starts.

Read more news about Active Fire

A new Fast Company design article explores why “good (product) design” is finally a bottom line investment for companies.

Goal Zero, an innovator of portable solar powered products, was recognized by ‘Outside Magazine’ as one of the best places to work in America. Formed in 2009, Goal Zero produces power products for outdoor enthusiast and mobile professionals and helps to bring affordable power to impoverished areas throughout the world. NBC affiliate, KSL 5 featured Goal Zero for it’s humanitarian efforts and technology development.

Rocketship, a Utah based industrial & product design firm, helped to develop the original Goal Zero product line, including the Light-A-Life LED light, Escape 150, Sherpa 50 & 120 and Ranger 350.

The 2012 Outdoor Retailer Show held in Salt Lake City featured major product releases, including several projects from Rocketship Clients – the portable task lighting line from Brunton and Primus Firehole camping stoves.

The Firehole 300, a feature rich camping stove, includes an on-board light and cooking timer, prep kit with utensils and an integrated fuel line for fast set-up, was featured in the 2012 OUTSIDE Magazines Buyers Guide.

The Brunton WOW light featured in the OR Show Daily, was recognized for features that really “WOW”. The WOW light has three flexible, magnetic legs that allow the light to stick to any metal surface and it can be used as a mini-lantern or flashlight.

Escape 150 batteries from GoalZero and designed by Rocketship were distributed throughout the convention center for convenience charging of electronic devices.

The contemporary round throwback SportX spa from Bullfrog Spas was honored by IDSA with an 2012 IDEA award. Bullfrog spas, including the SportX, incorporate interchangeable JetPaks technology. JetPaks are modular jetted seat backs that can be exchanged between seats in under one minute to produce a unique & customizable spa experience.

As part of the development team, Rocketship created designs for JetPak snap caps and jet faces, weir door and control interface design.

The IDEA Awards are an annual program that recognizes good design and the impact design has on business and the quality of life.

The 2012 Design Arts Utah exhibit, an annual event dedicated to the promotion of excellence in the diverse fields of design in Utah, featured several Rocketship designed products including the Ubbi Diaper Pail, Vutara microscope and the BlenTec Total Blender.

David McFadden, the 2012 Design Arts juror said of Rocketship’s entries, “Rocketship’s designs for a kitchen blender, diaper pail, and microscope, to mention only three, were truly classic industrial designs. Again, the designers clearly understood the design brief, and gave a lot of time and energy to the necessary research to make the designs both functional and attractive. The designers are problem solvers in the old design sense, and I salute them with an honorable mention award.”

Ubbi Diaper Pail and Total Blender from BlendTec

Vutara Super-Resolution Microscope

The free exhibit, located downtown Salt Lake City inside the Rio Grande Depot /Rio Gallery, runs through July 27, 2012.

The 2012 Utah Innovation Awards recognizes five Rocketship clients for product innovation in various categories. Two clients, Inception Learning and Holorad were crowned Innovation Winners in their respective categories.

Inception Learning
Inception learning, creators of the first-ever electronic abacus, known as the Soropad, took top honors in the Consumer Software and Web Services category. The Soropad fuses a soft, friendly form and modern electronics into a teaching tool for the web-interactive generation. When connected to a web-enabled device, the Soropad interacts with software to help teach math principles.

Holorad
Holorad is a producer of glasses-free color animated 3D holographic images used in the medical imaging, education, entrainment and advertising fields. Holorad is the 2012 Utah Innovation winner for the Computer Hardware / Electrical Devices category.

The 10th annual Utah Innovation Awards recognize product innovations from Utah based companies. The program is designed to draw attention to innovation in all ares of technology including clean technology and energy, computer hardware, consumer software and web services, just to name a few.

Rocketship is proud to support the 10th annual Utah Innovation Awards, which are held every spring.

The BYU Industrial Design (BYU ID) program sponsored the third annual regional design symposium. Professional and student designers attended lectures, discussions and workshops. Guest speakers included Paul Backett Industrial Design Director at Ziba Design and Brian Matt founder of Altitude, Inc. Workshops focused on understanding the user experience to create meaningful products.

During the two day symposium, products created by designers from the Rocky Mountain area were on display. Visit the virtual Rocky Mountain design gallery.

The 2012 TEDxBYU event had speakers from across the globe, who inspired us with presentation on innovation, design, breaking down stereotypes, microconsignment and improving humanity.

Rocketship is a proud sponsor of TEDxBYU

TEDx is a program that enables local communities such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighborhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events.

Rocketship attended the annual Winter Outdoor Retailer Show and was recognized by Deseret News for it’s contribution to product design for the outdoor and action sports industry.