Kean Students Hear from Designer Behind OXO Good Grips Kitchen Tools

Tucker Viemeister, leader of Viemeister Industries and creator of the award-winning OXO "Good Grips" kitchen tools, recently gave Kean University students an in-depth lecture on the design process from conception to prototype.

Students from the Michael Graves College’s Robert Busch School of Design and School of Public Architecture attended the lecture and asked questions about his experiences.

“Industrial design is more than a concept, it’s the truth and real,” he said. “It’s not something on paper you have to show your clients. You have to show them the product itself.”

A world renowned innovator, Viemeister’s work is in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collections, and he holds 32 United States patents. Kean students also know his work through Elements of Design, a textbook in the college’s studio library which features his designs.

Viemeister took Kean’s students through his design career, from being inspired as a child by his father Read Viemeister, founder of Vie Design Studios, up to his current project with Xenario designing the new Shanghai Planetarium, scheduled to open in 2020.

He also discussed the need for industrial design to be inclusive of all consumers, noting  his inspiration for Good Grips was to make a wider handle for users with arthritis.

“As designers, we have to be empathetically user friendly and democratic in our concepts, so that all people can enjoy and use them. You remove users when you add limits.”

For more information about Michael Graves College, please email design@kean.edu or call at (908)737-4740.