Davin Stowell co-founded Smart Design with partner Tom Dair in 1980, after he and Dair graduated from Syracuse University. Early on, the firm was approached by an entrepreneur seeking to make a potato peeler that his arthritic wife could easily use; hundreds of prototypes later, the OXO Good Grips peeler emerged. Smart Design has gone on to help create many other innovative products (see website link below).

In Glimmer: Stowell explains how the OXO peeler came into being. 

Quote: “I’d rather design a product that sells in Wal-Mart than one that is in all the design books. Of course, if you can do both, that’s great.”

Website: www.smartdesignworldwide.com

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