Press

20 Woman-led Industrial Design & Innovation Firms. Gender disparity is a real issue in the industrial design industry. Women account for 85% of consumer purchases but the designers of these products are rarely women. Recent reports show that industrial design is skewed toward men, with a whopping 81-95%** male designers in the industry. That is not to say that men can’t design products for women, but there is real authenticity and fresh approaches in design when women bring their lived experiences to the products they use. If you are looking to bring diverse perspectives to your products, we’ve rounded up 20 woman-led industrial design and innovation firms.

Liz Daily is based in Chicago with a focus on technical soft goods and prototyping. She combines traditional industrial design methods with a knowledge of soft goods construction techniques and fabric technology. Core77

Featured on Wired. A Cute Mask-Wristband. Cubcoats Kids Convertible Face Mask and Wristband. If you’re struggling to get your kid to wear a mask or to hold onto them after they take them off, Cubcoats has an ingenious solution. The company’s masks flip and fold into a small, adorable animal face. You can slide them onto your child’s wrist, or you can do as my children do and line them up on the desk in their bedroom for playing. They have two layers for safety and elastic ear loops for comfort, and they’re washable. Core77

Featured on New York Magazine’s The Strategist. To help you find the masks both you and your children will like, we rounded up a bunch of cute and comfortable kids’ masks that follow DiBardino and Vermund’s recommendations.

Cubcoats Mask Buddies. These adorable animal face masks should also entice fussy kids to mask up. Made of two layers of cotton, they are machine washable and transform into a wearable wristband for handy carrying. New York Magazine

Featured on Condé Nast Traveller. Top pick: Cubcoats Mask Buddies. As soon as I pulled out the Cubcoats Mask Buddies three-pack, both girls started screaming about how cute and adorable they are, with Abby adding, “I can’t wait to try it on—I call pink!” They figured out on their own that it was a wristlet that flipped inside out into a mask (I happened to give them Cubcoats hoodies last Christmas, so they were experienced in transformable clothing). Olivia gave it bonus points for a filter sleeve and softness, articulating it as, “It’s so comfortable that it feels like you’re in a bed.” Both called this one their favorite and immediately started using it. Condé Nast

Featured on People.com. Those adorable animal face masks for kids are now even easier to carry to school. This simple update lets kids wear them on their wrists, so they won’t get lost. People Magazine

The Modjewel Modular Clutch is featured in the Nylon article “The Wildest Street Style from Tokyo Fashion Week”. Nylon Magazine

“As a nanotechnology engineer, Eliana Ghantous is always mentally deconstructing the items she sees around her, thinking about their fundamental parts. Working at a lab co-owned by Boeing and General Motors, she was tasked with developing the smallest parts of big machines, like sealants for fuel tanks and tiny magnets for cars. So it’s no surprise that whenever Ghantous picked up a clutch to go to a wedding or party, the wheels in her brain began to pick the bag apart, thinking about its components.

Ghantous assembled a dream team of expert scientists, including her husband, Sami Ghantous, an engineer who focuses on battery storage, and industrial engineer Liz Daily, who designs products with high-tech fabrics. Together, they launched the startup Modjewel–a play on the word “module”–and their very first product is a modular clutch bag.” Fast Company

“To mark the centenary, Surface magazine invited 12 designers to reimagine the bottle for its June/July issue. “Coca-Cola, though global in scale and influence, is so American,” Surface editor-in-chief Spencer Bailey says. “I thought, ‘Why not ask some of today’s top U.S.-based designers to rethink its iconic design in a fresh way?” Fast Company

Selected to exhibit in the idsa sponsored Women in Industrial Design Show during San Francisco Design Week, 2014. The show featured 15 female designers and was covered by Forbes, Design Milk and Core77. Forbes, Design Milk, and Core77

“Surface reached out to 12 designers working in the United States with a straightforward yet open-ended brief: create an object inspired from the original Coca-Cola bottle design that somehow dispenses the beverage. The concepts on the pages that follow suggest Coca-Cola executives may very well consider launching another call-out.” Surface Magazine