The Braden Design logo is a cell undergoing mitosis, symbolizing a new concept or venture.
I’m Braden Smith, an independent product developer in Colorado. Over the past 20 years I’ve served clients from startups to multinational corporations. I’ve taken products from concept to production and worked alongside established engineering teams.
My work spans scientific equipment, sporting goods, consumer products, tools, and electronics. I spent five years as the Director of Device Design and Production at a biotech startup, where I was responsible for the design, engineering, and production of bioreactors and cell settling devices.
I hold both a BA and an MA in industrial design from Purdue University with an emphasis on new product introduction and licensing. I’ve taught design at Purdue and developed a course at the Art Institute of Colorado, where students took their inventions through the product development process. I’ve also lectured at the University of Michigan. I’m named on 8 U.S. patents.
The most colorful ideas come from a playful yet disciplined approach to design. Think of a child animating a toy, imagining what that toy wants to do. He breathes life into it, giving it personality, sounds, and motion. He effectively becomes the toy.
I take a similar approach to product design, imagining what it would be like to experience the world as your product would. By identifying with its personality and purpose, and experiencing its environment, we can imagine gestures, forms, and design elements that express your product’s feelings. What is it supposed to do? Or rather, what does it love to do? We like the sleek sports car that wants to tear up the road, the brutal pliers that love to sink their teeth, the boots that laugh at the muddy trail.
Your customers will love your product when it loves its purpose!