Isn’t it remarkable how a company can shape the products we use every day? Here we are at LUNAR in San Francisco. This is no ordinary design firm. It is a place where innovation meets everyday life.
LUNAR is a global creative agency. It specializes in lifestyle, technology, medical and life sciences. LUNAR embraces an experimental culture. They create new possibilities and unique experiences that people love. The company was founded in 1984 by Jeff Smith, Gerard Furbershaw, and Robert Brunner.
LUNAR offers industrial, interaction, and communication design. They also provide video story telling, mechanical and electrical engineering. Manufacturing support, user validation, design research, and need finding are part of their services.
LUNAR has quite an impressive client list. It includes Apple Inc., Abbott Labs, Cisco Systems, and Hewlett-Packard. Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Motorola, Philips, Oral-B, Palm, Pepsi, and Sony have also worked with LUNAR.
In 2015, LUNAR was acquired by McKinsey & Company. McKinsey is a management consulting firm. This acquisition brought design execution capabilities to McKinsey. It allowed them to offer a holistic approach. They combined design, engineering, and business thinking.
LUNAR has received many awards. BusinessWeek magazine recognized them as a top industrial design firm for over 10 years. They have won Industrial Designers Society of America IDEA Awards. Fast Company “Innovation by Design” Awards and Core 77 Design Awards are among their accolades. They also won CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards. iF Hannover Product Design Awards, and the ID Magazine Design Annual award have also been won by LUNAR.
Two LUNAR product designs were showcased at San Francisco International Airport in 2007. These designs were for Oral-B and Philips. They were part of the “Prototype to Product” exhibit.
John Edson is LUNAR’s president. He noted that exploratory discussions with McKinsey started two years before the acquisition. Both teams spent considerable time ensuring a cultural fit.
LUNAR has offices in California and Chicago. They also have a location in Europe, specifically Munich, Germany. The Chicago office opened in 2011.
Today, LUNAR continues to operate with its existing clients. They also work on joint projects with McKinsey teams. They create beautiful, ingenious, and charismatic products. They earned a 2014 US National Design Award for Product Design. The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum gave the award.
LUNAR has come a long way since its founding. It remains committed to pushing the boundaries of design. They shape our world in ways we might not always realize.