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TOM: As students together, we all looked at each other's
projects side-by-side-by-side. We saw Ravi's work.
Ravi always had a little different approach,
took a little additional study and examination to really understand it.
And as Ravi's career grew, his work has always been like that.
And when Ravi developed, later in his career, psycho-aesthetics,
that was in my view, the fulfillment
in a form that everyone could understand
of how Ravi saw the world of design.
(music)
NARRATOR: Born in Canada to parents of Indian descent
and raised in Los Angeles, alumnus Ravi Sawhney
is a world-renowned designer.
As a young man, he attended California State University, Northridge
majoring in art three dimension.
RAVI: Each one of those teachers I had were just, I mean,
absolutely stellar amazing.
They thought about design, thought about experience,
on a very different level,
and they really encouraged experimentation and synthesis.
NARRATOR: Ravi began his professional career at Xerox,
and he helped develop the world's first touchscreen interface.
In 1980, Ravi founded the consulting firm RKS,
assembling a high-caliber team of colleagues,
developing solutions for clientele in diverse industries
and creating licensed products.
ROBSON: What makes for the personality of a lot of successful designers
doesn't match that well with the personality for someone
who's a good businessman and marketer.
Ravi's good at business and marketing.
You know, he kind of brings the whole package together.
ROBERT: Ravi has this beautiful capacity of anticipating trends,
of anticipating the next great idea, and he's willing to invest
an incredible amount of energy in the pursuit of that idea
even before it's part of the mainstream,
which is an incredibly important part of being a great designer.
And we frequently hear the term, "Oh, so-and-so
is really creative because they think outside the box."
Well, Ravi's outside the box; he's in front of the box.
NARRATOR: Ravi has been recognized with nearly
every major industrial design award
and has helped RKS clients generate more than 200 patents.
TOM: Ravi has a great ability to motivate designers to really dig down
and find not the second, third, fourth, the fifth solution.
And RKS today is working with some of the biggest companies in the world,
who are seeking exactly that kind of deeper motivation
that Ravi is able to instill in all of the team works with him.
NARRATOR: He invented the psycho-aesthetics design strategy,
an approach that was profiled as a Harvard business school case study
and which leverages the works of Abraham Maslow into
a design-thinking methodology.
RAVI: It's really all about psychology.
Once you get past the skill level, and you can actually
design and create something visually, interactively,
ergonomically that everyone wants, it's all about psychology.
NARRATOR: Recently, RKS has consulted on a wide variety
of innovative projects impacting business and society.
Ravi regularly speaks at conferences worldwide,
lecturing on topics, such as building emotional connections
between consumers and designs, while always underlining
innovation's ability to make the world a better place.
ROBSON: Ravi, congratulations on your award.
I'm not sure you have room on your walls for many more.
But I think it's great, and I really think it's nice
that you're kind of mentoring the programs over at Northridge.
ROBERT: Ravi, on behalf of the Mike Curb College
of Arts, Media, and Communication and certainly on behalf of me personally,
I would just like to congratulate you.
AMALIA: Congratulations, Ravi. I have to say, I was really
not surprised at all when I heard about your award.
I have seen your accomplishments and how dedicated you are.
Your passion for everything you do shows in the sparkle in your eyes
when you see the outcome when it all comes together.
I am very proud of you, and I am looking forward to many
exciting days ahead of us.
(music)