Michelle Berryman was recently interviewed by IDSA and Businessweek Magazine for a new podcast series called ‘Making Innovation Work – Corporate Creativity in Action’. The interview was released on the Businessweek site and via iTunes on Thanksgiving Day. Michelle spoke on interaction design and trends in the field. Of course, there is also some discussion about EchoViz and the type of work we do. The podcast is called ‘Trends in Interaction Design‘. Check it out!

EchoViz principal Michelle Berryman has been elected president of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).

Michelle Berryman of EchoViz has been selected as a juror for the fourth annual Housewares Design Awards, to be held on November 14-16. Michelle will be one of 12 jurors for the event. The Housewares Design Awards recognizes design’s critical importance in the housewares industry. Submissions in 13 product categories will be evaluated, and five finalists per category will be chosen. The finalists will be notified in November and invited to the Awards Luncheon to be held on January 16, 2007 in New York City. At that event, the Best-in-Category selections will be announced.

EchoViz principal Michelle Berryman will be presenting a lecture on Interaction Design this Friday, September 29, at Virginia Tech to the industrial design students. The lecture is titled “Convergence: Industrial Design + Interaction Design”.

Michelle Berryman has been chosen to be an international expert for The Observeur du Design jury, an international competition hosted by the Agency for the Promotion of Industrial Creation (APCI) in Paris, France.

The competition will highlight and reward “stars” to a selection of the best creations resulting from collaboration between companies and designers. An independent jury of professionals will choose the most outstanding achievements from 163 products presented this year. Contestants to this year’s competition are from such diverse locations as France, South Korea, China, Italy and Germany.

Winners will be chosen for outstanding and exemplary achievement in innovation, quality and originality of processes, and implementation of a global corporate strategy. Criteria included user friendliness, safety and ergonomics, improved comfort, reduced costs, formal, sensory and structural research, accessibility, respect for resources and the environment, anticipation of emerging needs, design progression in a new economical sector, promotion of traditional know-how and innovation.

The Observeur design exhibition will take place on October 10th at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, La Villette in Paris. The three-month run exhibition will be displayed until January 14th. The APCI was created in 1983 on the initiative of the French ministers responsible for industry and culture to contribute to the bringing together of culture, research and industry.

Echo Visualization and Cooper Lighting received ‘Best in Show’ honors for booths 600 square feet and above at Lightfair 2006 in Las Vegas, by unanimous vote of the judges for the design of the Cooper Lighting exhibit. This is the first time that Cooper Lighting has ever garnered ‘Best in Show’ honors at Lightfair. Various defining factors, including effective branding, product presentation and unique use of design elements were utilized. The winners were selected by an independent panel of judges who bring decades of visual display expertise to the program.

The EchoViz team was also responsible for the interface design of the exhibit’s wireless lighting control system, multimedia plasma screen presentations, Energy Solutions Calculator demonstration and the on-site Internet-based ‘Voice of the Customer’ surveys. As part of the Lightfair rollout, EchoViz also assisted in updating the Lumiere, Corelite, Farallon and Healthcare brand websites for Cooper Lighting as well.

Lightfair is the world’s largest and most comprehensive annual architectural and commercial lighting conference. It is sponsored by the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA).

Echo Visualization wins two Horizon Interactive awards. This marks the second award for the Cooper Lighting Buyer’s Guide and the first for the Cooper Lighting F-Bay Calculator. The Cooper Lighting Buyer’s Guide won a Bronze award in the Self-Promotion / Company Identity category, and the F-Bay Calculator won a Bronze in the Business To Business category.

The March 2006 issue of the SEEdesign Bulletin features an interview with Michelle Berryman, EchoViz Principal and Executive Vice-President of IDSA. In the article, Michelle discusses IDSA’s influence at national and international levels.