Innovation. Ashcraft Design

Ashcraft Design is a product design, branding and innovation studio based in Los Angeles. Much of its client history centers on a long-running relationship with Seagate, the data storage company, spanning more than 15 years. That collaboration has produced a number of what the studio describes as industry-defining products, work that has helped shape the data storage category and kept Seagate positioned at the top of it.

Beyond Seagate, Ashcraft Design has taken on projects in adjacent hardware categories. A collaboration with HP printing led to developments aimed at the future of the printer category, applying the same product design lens to a different type of consumer hardware. The studio also worked with Aivvy to design the physical form of the company's proprietary music experience, resulting in the Aivvy Q, described as the world's first Internet of Things pair of headphones — a project that required translating a software-driven concept into a wearable physical object.

Across these engagements, the studio's stated approach is to apply reasoning and insight to the development of products, brands and experiences, with the goal of making things people respond to and want to use. Work is designed in Los Angeles, and the client list reflects a focus on hardware categories — data storage, printing, connected audio — where physical design and underlying technology have to be resolved together rather than treated as separate problems.