Ammunition Group is a California based product design and development company. Founded in 2007 by Robert Brunner, a leading industrial designer who has previously worked with Apple’s industrial design wing, Ammunition provides expertise in physical and digital product design, service design, brand identity, user experience, graphic design and packaging. They have won more than 200 awards including the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Product Design, Industrial Designers Society of America, Red Dot, Core77 Design Awards and many more. They have been the force behind many ground-breaking products. Some of their iconic designs are:
1. Beats by Dr. Dre
Image Sources: Image 1 – Beats Headphones © www.behance.net
Image Sources: Image 2 – Beats Headphones © www.behance.net
Image Sources: Image 3 – Beats Headphones © www.behance.net
Image Sources: Image 4 – Beats Headphones © www.behance.net
When the rapper Dr. Dre expressed his frustration over the lack of high-quality playback support in conventional earphones and other audio systems at the time, Beats by Dr. Dre was born. Designed to create a high-quality listening experience especially for rap and hip-hop music, the sleek and vibrant design of the audio systems made Beats a cultural phenomenon.
2. NOOK E-Readers
Ammunition developed the product concept, brand idea, interaction model, industrial design and packaging for the NOOK family of e-readers in collaboration with the American book retailing giant Barnes & Noble.
Built on the concept of “books do not have buttons”, NOOK’s design focuses on delivering media to users in an elegant, smooth, simple and approachable manner. The e-readers and tablets are geared towards single hand usage. This approach extends from single-purpose, dedicated e-readers to multipurpose tablet computers.
3. Clarisonic Mia
Clarisonic revolutionised skincare with its range of sonic facial cleansing brushes. It has been an industry leader for over a decade. Ammunition Group worked to develop the range of smart cleansing devices for Clarisonic – the Mia Smart and Mia Prima.
The research and development involved user observations which provided a heightened understanding of daily routines, usability challenges and brand perceptions. The resulting cleansing brushes were very popular among users due to their simple interface, comfortable size and intuitiveness.
4. Square Stand + Reader
Square Stand and Reader are the new age cash register, reimagined to simplify the retail experience.
The Square Stand is the classic cash register reimagined and the Stand reader is a compact, wireless card reader which can be attached to a mobile phone, helping make transactions on the go.
5. June Intelligent Oven
First, of its kind, the June smart oven is an intelligent countertop oven which uses sensors and a library of recipes to detect food, its weight, appearance, internal temperature etc. to cook it perfectly. The product is recognisable as a traditional oven and yet it is more approachable and unobtrusive.
6. Abobe Ink and Slide
The Adobe Ink and Slide is a cloud-connected stylus and ruler designed to support smoother drawing experience on the iPad. It is inspired by the traditional triangular pencil grip, giving the Ink an ergonomic body which enables high precision drawings. The Slide ruler enables the two-handed activity of sketching to allow for perfect lines and perfect circles.
7. Ember
The Ember Travel Mug and the Ember Ceramic Mug are a unique take on the classic thermos or travel mug. These mugs work with an app to remotely adjust the temperature of the beverage they hold. These battery-operated mugs allow the user to enjoy the beverage according to their temperature preferences at the click of a button.
8. Savant Home Automation System
For Savant, a company that specialises in providing smart home solutions for its clients, Ammunition developed a suite of smart remote control and hubs. They aim to deliver control, customisation and ease into the hands of the customers.
The Savant Remote features a simple yet powerful interface by reducing the number of buttons and replacing them with a high-resolution touch screen control. It works with an array of devices – from Nest or Sonos to Apple TV and many more.
The Savant Host is the hub of the Savant home automation system linking all devices with the mobile app and cloud service. It has an elegant, sculptural design which makes it a focal element in any room rather than being tucked away in a cabinet.
9. Williams-Sonoma Cookware
In the range of cookware developed for Williams-Sonoma, ammunition has focused on unifying industrial design, interaction design and service design to deliver products that enhance the users’ kitchen experience, with each product heightening the sense of control, confidence and enjoyment of the cooking process.
10. Polaroid
As part of an ongoing collaboration, Ammunition has worked with Polaroid to develop digital photography products to help the brands revitalisation in the current times, and recapture the simplicity and spontaneity synonymous with Polaroid.
Some iconic products born out of these collaborations are the Polaroid Cube, a tiny 35mm action camera, the Polaroid Snap, a pocket-sized instant digital camera and the Polaroid Zip, a wireless mobile printer. All the products are minimalistic, incorporating the classic Polaroid design elements such as the identifiable rainbow stripe and red shutter button.
