a d e s i g n a l l i a n c e
As a member of the Vangest innovation group based in Marinha Grande, Portugal, grandesign provides product design, graphics, and engineering services to an international client base.
Vangest, founded in 1986, offers an integrated services platform encompassing the entire product development life cycle, from product design and engineering to rapid prototyping & manufacturing, fixture checking, mold making, injection molding, machining, and information technologies.
Across client industries including automotive, aerospace, electronics, medical, and consumer goods, the collaborative, Vangest company alliance and shared, industrial complex offers a seamless depth of engagement and expertise ranging from specific services to complete, turn key solutions.
Grandesign then acts on a consultancy basis, bringing development value in market and trend research, idea conceptualization and design, while also realizing their clients’ visions through production with their Vangest partners.
s e n i o r i n d u s t r i a l d e s i g n e r
Wanting to work while traveling through Europe in 1999, a friend put me in touch with José Manuel dos Santos at grandesign. José had a relatively youthful, Portuguese team at the time, and was looking for an infusion of foreign, senior design proficiency.
I was readily enamored with José and his staff for their animate, yet balanced, não faz mal [“never mind”, “that’s fine”] approach in the studio and in life . . . a warmth I would find was intrinsic to Portuguese culture itself.
I had the pleasure of joining them for a few months, leading projects, sharing creative skills and planning tactics with the designers, and supporting José in areas of strategic management and project implementation.
José’s aspirations were always high and he passed on that vibrancy to others. He worked hard and remained positive to work things out when they went awry, which helped everyone progress and made the business prosper. He was a role model in every way.
Grandesign studio entrance at the Vangest headquarters in Marinha Grande, Portugal. Images | grandesign website, if world design guide
Folding step stool concept sketch, integrating a tool box and a broom handle supported tool shelf for working at heights.
Through the Vangest business model, a variety of projects—small and large—came our way.
Harkening to my design consultancy past in California, the exploration of a ruggedized, hand held, digital transaction device was most familiar. The concept was a disruptive breakthrough at the time, years before mobile computing platforms became ubiquitous as they are today.
And on the larger scale, drawing from my prior stint in furniture design, we developed and contracted the construction of an exhibition space for a national producer of high end, faucet and bath fixtures.
Even within a ridiculously small budget and timeframe, the team made it happen, including translucent kiosks with the hypnotic appearance of flowing, water waves within.
And, as an interesting cultural opportunity, I led an exploration into the means to make public recycling more mainstream at home.
An understanding of predominant, Portuguese urban and suburban lifestyles, homes, and existing infrastructures for collection was required to find a viable fit for people’s lives.
Factors of storage locations in the typically small homes, material separation, odor control and container cleaning, and transport from tower block residences to municipal, street level collection bins all had to coordinate.
And, the system’s most impressive task for adoption was to convince the public of the need to recycle, and change their perception of trash into something of imperative value for themselves and for their progeny to come.
Designing a wireless, mobile transaction computer for the banking tech start up, Digibase, to generate dramatic new scenarios for digital commerce.
Designing and implementing an exhibition space design for Metalurgica, a regional producer of architectural grade faucets, showers, tubs and jacuzzis.
Designing an urban, residential recycling system, for the rotational molder, Formoplás.