In a week when the Good Design Australia awards deadline for 2023 is approaching, we had cause to think back to Katapult Design’s first big breakthrough on the awards front, WiTouch
At the time WiTouch was the world’s first wireless TENS unit. Our team worked closely with the client and key stakeholders to develop an innovative product that included flexible conductive wings that hugged the curve of a patient’s lower back in a discreet way that allowed patient’s to wear the unit all day and treat back pain when needed.
The project included some serious technical challenges but, with the benefit of multiple prototype runs, highly engaged supplier partnerships and a visionary client, we were able to produce a product that was a paradigm shift for patients in this niche medical product category.
The ROI for our client Hollywog, LLC was stunning. The product was highly successful, leading to long term supplier agreements with larger medical brands and many hundreds of thousands of units sold globally.
For Katapult, it brought our first Red Dot Design Award ‘Best of the Best’, Industrial Design Excellence Award, Good Design Award Australia ‘Best in Category’, Good Design Chicago Athenaeum, Powerhouse Museum Selection, which was a wonderful ‘icing on the cake’ for our design team after they really putting everything on the line to help get this product to market.
One of the great things about these awards is that they are judged by our peers, so recognition on a world stage through this early phase of the company’s history really gave our group validation that we could play with the big boys. It also helped jump our business to a new level of acceptance within the competitive Australian design market.
Best of all, it highlighted the fact that design is an investment in success for businesses trying to stand out from the crowd.
