Because we are living in a material world we want to introduce you to our material pro.
Anne Taitto is Omuus’ Material Technology Specialist, with almost 20 years’ experience from the field, working for Nokia and Microsoft R&D. Today at Omuus she is dedicated to creation of material led products.
What does this mean?
We interviewed Anne about her thoughts and the biggest impacts of her work for companies we work with. Here is a sneak peek into her world!
Q: How would you describe your work at Omuus?
Anne: Every product consists of materials and colors. Omuus CMF (colors, material technology and finish) designers and industrial design specialists are in charge of the creative side of product development process. As an engineer I am bringing technical perspective from the field of materials. My work is to create production oriented solutions for the designs, and to research and specify materials and manufacturing technologies. Important part of my work is to create new contacts in the field and maintain global supplier network and material sample collection with raw material suppliers.
I have seen a clear trend of companies noticing the potential of materials in raising their products competitiveness. The value of materials is not only better market value, but also better lasting products, unique outlooks and innovative user experiences.
Q: Please describe some highlight of your career?
Anne: This is a tough one, but I would say Nokia Lumia 620. It was a project that I led from concepting to mass production. This was industry first 2K-injection molding into phone covers. With this technique, we accomplished to make different kind of colours by using the layer structure of plastic cover.
Q: So, you are an engineer in a design agency. How does Omuus then differentiates from other design agencies?
Anne: We have personalized and design driven solution models for customer needs. In addition to design work I make sure that every solution we suggest is doable in a reasonable price range. Our multidisciplinary team has a lot of in-depth insight about production process which means that we know how to build products. It is a huge benefit that we have worked together over 10 years at Nokia and Microsoft. We bring together different areas of expertise, which makes Omuus unique in the service offering.
Q: Which are customers most frequently asked questions and how do you answer?
FAQ 1: Do you design for production?
Anne: In Omuus we have a saying of ‘production guarantee design’. We focus to design products so that they can be translated and produced in mass production. To ensure production oriented design we work fluently with customer R&D team or with our own R&D partner Treon.
FAQ 2: Are you expensive?
Anne: Price is always determined by the amount of work, and we are efficient in our work. Best scenario is that me and my team could be part of the process right from the beginning.
Ideally, we start with the materials and supplier mapping to avoid unexpected production cost later.
In general, I can say that material led work always saves money and reduces risks. The time that we use for material work saves money in the future and product will be on the market in time.
We thank Anne for her time and hopefully we managed to open a window into her material world. If you would like to know more about her work or use her expertise in your next project, you can contact Anne at anne.taitto@omuus.com.