August 2008: Canadian Entrepreneurs Learn with Lucid

The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada has selected Lucid Group’s Innovator’s Guide as reference for students on a medical device entrepreneurship programme. Dr Antony Hodgson, Associate Professor at UBC was seeking a concise, accessible summary of the innovation & product development process to point out pitfalls & opportunities to his students. We wish UBC every success this academic year.

Contact us now to receive your free guide.

July 2008: Alistair Judges Emerging Design Talent

Lucid's Managing Director Alistair Williamson judged the North-West Rotary Club's annual Young Designer of The Year award. Having judged the competition previously he admitted that the standard is improving year-on-year:

The 4 categories for judging were fashion, electronics, product design and graphic design.

June 2008: Lucid Welcomes Rob & Jack

Lucid Group encourages the nurturing of young design talent by offering short work placements. This month we welcomed Robert Stacey and Jack Poppleton...

May 2008: Supporting Salford Students

Lucid Group is supporting undergraduate product design students at Salford University with live projects and input from our team. Our first project's objective is to get students to envision innovative applications for emergent display technologies.

- Alistair Williamson, Managing Director.

April 2008: Design 20:20 - mapping the future of UK design

Lucid Group's Alistair Williamson was among 30 product design consultancy & academic participants in the UK Design 2020 Futures workshop at the Design Council in London.

Design 2020 is a foresight initiative investigating future scenarios to predict threats and opportunities facing the UK commercial design industry. The overall aim of Design 2020 is to explore potential futures for the UK Design industry. The project is collaboration between the Universities of Salford & Lancaster with British Design Innovation.

Participants divided into groups to debate futures scenarios - Eco-Imperialism, Global Flow, Silver Community and BRIC Power (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and their potential impact on the design industry. Lively discussions included frank views on the quality and quantity of UK design education, as well as the effectiveness of public intervention in industry.

A Design 2020 Research questionnaire is now online, at http://www.ukdesign2020.org/survey/index.php giving everyone the opportunity to participate in this important piece of research.

March 2008: Genie launches in China

Genie Complete, an electronic therapy device for beauty salons designed by Lucid Group was launched in China this week. Lucid's client, Genie Tech International had previously supplied a system imported from China into the UK and approached Lucid to create a better product. Lucid Group delivered a total development & manufacturing solution from concepts through mechanical, electronic hardware & firmware design, software & interface development to prototyping, tooling & delivery of a first batch.

July 2007: Jan joins Lucid group

Jan Wong strengthens the industrial design team with skills in product graphics, CAD, web and user interface design. Jan is a graduate of Brunel University and has spent placement periods at Lucid in previous years. He has a strong interest in user psychology, environmentally sensitive design and making cups of tea.

Dec 2006: Double Gold Award for Innovation

Lucid Group's design for Hendolock, a no fastener privacy door lock received the Double Gold award for Innovation at the British Inventors Fair. Inventor Dave Henderson came up with a novel idea - create a simple-to-fit lock, retro-fittable to existing handles. Dave made a rough prototype that needed no new screws to fit and could be be swapped to different doors. He approached Lucid Group to assess its feasibility, design the product and design its packaging.

Lucid group created a series of alternative product designs, developing the idea into reality using a series of basic and precise prototypes to evaluate the appearance & feel of the lock action. Both parties were committed to perfecting functionality and visual impact prior to production. Lucid's international manufacturing network helped David to source appropriate and competitive suppliers.

Hendolock is now available in Magnet.

Nov 2006: Directing British Design Innovation

Lucid Group's Alistair Williamson has become a founder member of the Northwest board of British Design Innovation (BDI). BDI is a non-profit organisation that brings together in-house designers, universities, design consultants, entrepreneurs and business to develop collaborative ways of working and exploiting creative innovation. Alistair comments:

June 2006: SMARThomes launch

SMARThomes is an intelligent home control system that regulates water, lighting, security and smoke detection via a wireless panel that can be accessed & controlled by mobile phone or the web. Working with electronic engineers at Adam International, Lucid Group developed and prototyped wireless control interface, switching & sensor devices, sourced suppliers and managed first batch manufacture.

Dec 2003: Upgrade to ISO 9001 - 2000

Lucid Group is proud to announce that the British Standards Institution has accredited it's transition to an ISO 9001-2000 management system.

"We've been working with a BSI accredited system since 1998" comments Lucid Group MD, Alistair Williamson. "The smooth transition to the latest standard is a credit to our team's commitment and will result in better services for our clients"

June 2003: Starpack Gold Award for Innovation

Royal Mail SafeBox - a unique tamper evident pack for postage of potentially dangerous diagnostic specimens - won Gold at the Institute of Packaging's 2003 Starpack awards. Royal Mail commissioned Lucid Group to develop a system that allows the carrier to compete in a market previously dominated by couriers.

Using an ingenious combination of highly impact resistant & tearable polymers, Lucid's industrial designers devised a pack compact enough to slot into a post box, but tough enough to withstand crush & drop impacts. Engineering of one way snap fits & viewing windows prevents inadvertent opening & alerts recipients to quarantine any damages.

The project encompassed cradle to grave service design, considering ordering, how & when samples would be handled, the safety of personnel in transit/on receipt and the process for recovering & recycling SafeBox. Lucid Group led the project from consumer research through product design consultancy, prototyping & supplier selection, to the production of the initial batch of SafeBoxes on behalf of Royal Mail.