Engineering a Sharper Image

A peek into the design side at the upscale catalog company

by Richard Mandel

Many consumers are familiar with The Sharper Image, a catalog company that got its start in 1977 when founder Richard Thalheimer decided to independently sell a jogger's wristwatch that he had acquired at a show. The inaugural catalog appeared in 1979, with an array of innovative and well-designed products from a variety of large and small manufacturers. Today, many of the products are actually designed in-house, with 50 such products already on the boards for the 2002 catalog.

Sharper Image Car Cell Phone System

To learn more about the company's engineering department, Designfax spoke with Charles (Chuck) Taylor, senior VP of Sharper Image design.

DFX: What is the design philosophy, as it applies to your customer base?

CT: Well, number one, the product has to look good, and industrial design plays a significant part in this philosophy. We like new and unique finishes. For example, we used rubberized paints for a while, and another called "chrome illusion." Of course, besides looking good, the product has to work well. This is critical, since catalog sales have a higher rate of return than retail. The product must reflect the catalog description. Conversely, the catalog has to accurately represent the product.

DFX: What is the starting place for new product ideas? For instance, did your Ionic Breeze air purifier come from recent trends in healthy indoor environments in homes and offices?

CT: We receive between one and 2000 product submissions per month from our manufacturers and salespeople. Some are new products, others are ideas. We've even had the classic pencil-sketch-on-the-back-of-an-envelope submission, saying 'you ought to do such-and-such.' In rare cases, we've actually paid a royalty when there was neither a patent nor patentable idea. A CD display that vertically rotates disc cases with a flexible belt is one such example that appears in the catalog.

The idea for the ionic air cleaning came when someone showed us some technology and we said, 'Gee, this could be used for air cleaning.' We were already selling air cleaner-type products from other manufacturers at that time.

Ideas come from everywhere for us. We usually spend at least two days a week brainstorming with Richard [Thalheimer], determining how to apply these technologies.

DFX: How did Sharper Image evolve toward in-house engineering?

CT: It was about 10 years ago that Richard realized that new ideas needed to be generated from within the company, rather than buying entirely from outside sources, because those sources were also selling to other catalogs, minimizing our competitive advantage. We began with improving on products that were reasonably successful, but didn't have the right quality, the right feature content, or the right price point. From there, we started coming up with completely different products, based on ideas from within the organization, ideas submitted from outside sources, as well as from Richard's imagination. I don't think we've had a product that didn't make back the cost of its tooling.

DFX: Did Sharper Image originally outsource its engineering work, then?

CT: Actually, I was working for the company that was doing development work for Sharper Image, about six completed projects at the time. When that company fell into financial trouble, I ended up being part of the assets that were purchased by Sharper Image. At the same time, all the outsourced work was brought inside. The design department began as myself and an assistant -- now we're up to 20 people, with 10 different manufacturing groups assisting us.

DFX: What's the breakdown on specializations amongst the group?

CT: We have three mechanical engineers, two electrical engineers, and two electrical technicians. There is one PhD'd medical doctor who's handling a lot of the testing of items like our air cleaning products, with a test laboratory we've set up on site.

DFX: So you have a fairly typical engineering office -- CAD software, workstations, etc.?

CT: That's correct, although we have a different array of toys around -- scooters, bicycles, almost anything. Otherwise, we're doing industrial design from ideas, then we create styling prototypes using 3D Solidworks. Modeling is done by a local group using CNC machines and foam.

DFX: How do you handle quality standards?

CT: Besides writing our own standards, we have our own people handle quality testing of products before they're shipped. That was one of our earliest problems, with some of the manufacturing being performed in China and Mexico -- they didn't have the quality standards we required. Over the last 3 to 4 years, we started hiring groups to go in and do the testing on lots before they get shipped out.

Quadra Ionic Breeze Air Purifier

DFX: With as many product proposals that you receive, you must get a lot of employment applications.

CT: Surprisingly, we don't get all that many inquiries from the engineering schools or engineers, perhaps because they don't know that we have our own department. And it's interesting, too -- we're apt to be working on a robot one day, an air cleaner the next, followed by a scooter design on another day. It certainly challenges all the areas in one's engineering career.

DFX: So without revealing too much of proprietary information, what's on the drawing boards?

CT: It's already been announced that we're looking at some type of remotely-operated robot that has a built-in camera. Our intent is to make it more open-architecture, to allow serious robot enthusiasts the ability to customize the unit to another level. Scooters are also a major part of personal transportation -- we're seeing a lot of adults using them. Motorized versions, too. Also improvements in air cleaning products. With 50-some projects, there's some overlap, but we just keep taking good ideas and are constantly working on them.

For more information:

Circle 410 - The Sharper Image, or connect directly to their website via the Online Reader Service Program at http://www.OneRS.net/102df-410