2008 IDSA/Microsoft Designer Spotlight Series (Live Webinar)

Ravi Sawhney, Hon. PhD, IDSA
RKS Design

"The Hero's Journey: Empowering Designers to Create Evangelistic Consumers"
October 29, 2008, 1:00 pm ET

With roots firmly planted in the backyard of the entertainment industry, it's not surprising that Southern California-based RKS, a globally-recognized strategy, innovation and design consultancy, uses elements common to feature filmmaking to create blockbuster successes for their clients. Found in classic storytelling from Greek mythology through film epics like Star Wars, The Hero's Journey is the archetypical narrative structure that describes the development of a hero from the call to adventure, through the trials of adversity, and on to their conquering return to share the spoils of victory.

In this IDSA Spotlight presentation, RKS founder and CEO Ravi Sawhney will discuss how RKS applies The Hero's Journey to the "journey" consumers make when purchasing a new product. For many firms, the product purchase story ends with the sale. But in The Hero's Journey, RKS takes us beyond the purchase and on to the "Moment of Truth" where the consumer is enriched by the product experience. It's here that the RKS mantra, "It's not how you feel about the design or the experience, it's how it makes you feel about yourself" comes to life. Designs that make the consumer feel empowered will generate brand adoption and drive consumers to share their delight in their purchase with others. In market terms, this "sharing the spoils" equals viral demand. Their use of The Hero's Journey is a key component to RKS's 27-year, award-winning history of creating market-building designs, innovations, and market successes for its clients.

Ravi Sawhney, IDSA is the founder and CEO of RKS, a global leader in strategy, innovation and design. RKS is best known for its legacy of transforming client aspirations into powerful business results by creating evangelistic consumers and generating viral demand for its clients' products.

Born in Canada, raised and educated in Southern California, Sawhney was hired by Xerox's Advanced Development Group where he was the sole industrial designer working with a team of 20 cognitive and social scientists to develop the first touch screen interface years before computers entered the mainstream. There he helped create an information hierarchy (including consistent placement of status bar, return icons and help menus) that is still seen in computers today.

Since founding RKS nearly 30 years ago, Sawhney has been recognized with every major design award in the industry for a top tier client list that reads like the who's who of business. In the process, RKS has helped generate nearly 200 patents on behalf of their clients. As a staunch advocate for design as a business tool, Sawhney initiated the IDSA/BusinessWeek Catalyst award to celebrate products that generate measurable business results. In 2004, he chaired the jury for the Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) program.

Sawhney invented the popular Psycho-Aesthetics design strategy, which Harvard adopted as a Business School Case Study. For this unique process that can quantify sources of emotional demand in the market, Sawhney was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He is a regularly featured lecturer at Harvard's Business School, USC's Marshall School of Business and UCLA's Anderson School of Business, where he teaches this powerful business-driven design tool to top business school students.

In addition to RKS, Sawhney has been involved in founding several other businesses including Intrigo, On2 Better Health and RKS Guitars. Best known for their reinvention of the electric guitar, RKS Guitars' "Open Architecture" Guitar was the cover of BusinessWeek's Best Product Design issue for 2005.

Sawhney earned his Bachelor's Degree from California State University, Northridge. He has taught at both CSUN and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He is the father of two children, loves riding his motorcycle and lives in the rolling hills of Southern California.

Individual seminars are $100 each for IDSA members. For non-IDSA members, the cost is $205 per individual seminar.

SPECIAL DEAL!! Register for the three remaining Spotlight sessions and pay $250 for members and $550 for nonmembers! Call Donna at 703.707.6000 x100 for details.

[register here]

The Microsoft/IDSA Spotlight Series are live, online seminars using Microsoft LiveMeeting. You can enjoy the seminars live from any location using a phone and a computer with an Internet connection. Spotlight Seminars are recorded and registered attendees receive access to the recording.




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