Principal, Chininis Product Development Group
Professor of Practice in the School of Industrial Design at Georgia Tech
Stephen Chininis studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He is also a teacher, and currently instructs senior design students in the industrial design program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he received his master’s. After a successful career designing everything from bicycles to medical equipment, he started Chininis Design. By 1994, inventing had almost taken over, and he formed Chininis Product Development Group so he and his partners could invent together. Designing infant products became a specialty. Over the years, he has placed over 50 inventions with major juvenile products companies, some of them award winning. Since 1995, just about every baby in the United States has played with a rattle that I have designed! His recent success in office products, health and beauty products and housewares have expanded his portfolio.
Stephen Chininis, IDSA is a Professor of Practice in the School of Industrial Design at Georgia Tech and Principal of Chininis Product Development Group. His specialty in integrating invention and innovation, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit he infuses into both the work he does and the design studios he teaches, have proved beneficial in 2020.
For many years, Steve has a taught a course at Georgia Tech that challenges students to design and manufacture a product, and then make 10 of them to sell at an event called MAKE 10. “The idea was to help students understand how to consider manufacturing as part of the design process,” Steve says. “As digital product manufacturing has become more and more feasible, it has turned into a way to generate mini startups.” This project took on an urgent, real-life relevance when the pandemic hit.
In the early months of coronavirus cases surging in the US, Steve’s wife Maria came home from the hospital where she works and asked him if he could figure out a way to use all of his “fancy 3D printers and laser cutters” to make face shields for frontline workers, Steve says. “I took the challenge, since I figured that if I was teaching it, I should be able to do it!”
Within a week, Steve had designed a face shield and had it reviewed by infectious disease experts at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, GA. “After the face shield design was approved, I built a factory in my garage and was making 10 reusable face shields a day, then 20, then 30,” Steve says. “It was a challenge to design and manufacture a high-quality product with the tools and materials that I could get my hands on in a short period of time, but it was also a lot of fun and really rewarding.”
Recognized as a “local hero” by his local Peach Tree Corners Magazine, Steve went on to provide over 300 face shields for hospitals across the US. “I was inspired by all the frontline workers that rushed in to help the first wave of COVID patients,” Steve says. “They were panicked and scared, but they did not hesitate to put themselves in danger to help others. I was honored to be able to help them a just a little. They are true American heroes.”
After making the face shields, Steve started working on other COVID-related problems. “My investigation into the rapid deployment of digital products like this has of course got me thinking about the future of product development with current and emerging new digital tools,” he says. “It amazed me how I was able to scale quickly by finding other designers with 3D printers who could help. I sent my plans to others, who also created manufacturing lines.”
Now, Steve is using some of these ideas in the classroom, such as how to design manufacturing lines along with the design of products, to teach students how to respond quickly to emerging problems.
