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Formulatrix, a leading developer of laboratory automation equipment for pharmaceutical research, faced significant challenges in managing communication and collaboration between its engineering teams located in the United States and Indonesia. The company needed a cloud-native CAD and data management platform to streamline these processes and prevent version control issues. The time zone differences and the need to email files back and forth were causing delays and inefficiencies. Additionally, the company required a solution that could handle the rapid iteration cycles necessary for their design and prototyping processes.

Black Swift Technologies (BST) designs and manufactures unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for scientific missions in extreme conditions. The BST product development team faced significant challenges with their previous on-premise CAD system, particularly with version management. The inability to revert to earlier iterations of drone designs led to wasted time and effort, as engineers were forced to recreate previous work. This inefficiency was a major hindrance, especially given the demanding environments in which their drones operate, such as the Arctic, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and volcanoes. The need for a more efficient and reliable CAD system became evident as BST sought to improve their design process and better support their research missions.

Aerospace startup Analytical Space is developing a relay network of shoebox-sized nanosatellites to deliver the first secure and reliable high-speed internet data connection in space. The team faced significant delays with their previous file-based CAD system due to version control issues and frequent CAD crashes. They needed a cloud-native CAD platform with built-in data management to overcome these challenges.

As a small military R&D firm with engineers fulfilling multiple roles, Delta Development was seeking to reduce its IT overhead, which was taking up 20% of the team’s product design time to manage. Delta Development switched from an on-premise CAD system to a cloud-native Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product design platform, eliminating the downtime required for software installation, licensing and regular system upgrades. The military and the medical industry often rely on low-tech solutions for the safe transportation of blood, vaccines, virus samples, and temperature-controlled medications. Current methods, such as using beverage coolers filled with ice, are not reliable and do not follow FDA best practices. Delta Development was contracted by the U.S. Air Force to design and manufacture the Autonomous Portable Refrigeration Unit (APRU) to address these challenges.

To launch the development of a new medical device, Loop Medical founder Arthur Queval was searching for a CAD and data management platform that would run on a Mac without additional virtualization software and would also streamline collaboration between his engineering teams in Switzerland, Germany, and France. Using a cloud-native product development platform allowed his distributed teams to collaborate in real time and accelerate the design process.

In the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. government officials asked hardware startup Meter to design an affordable and scalable hospital-grade ventilator to address anticipated nationwide shortages. The design needed to be created with readily available machine parts not earmarked for specialized medical use to avoid undermining the already-strained supply chain. Additionally, Meter’s engineering team was forced to work from home due to the pandemic’s shelter-in-place mandates.

Pennsylvania furniture manufacturer Premier Custom-Built makes custom cabinetry for luxury homes and yachts, designing every job from scratch. The engineering team was looking to create a paperless manufacturing floor, aiming to migrate the product specs currently in 3-ring binders to 3D CAD models. Premier was also seeking a way to automate repetitive design tasks to speed up time to market.

Nick Whitehouse, a world-renowned lighting designer, faced the challenge of creating awe-inspiring light shows for some of the biggest names in music, including Justin Timberlake, Jay Z, Coldplay, Beyoncé, and Britney Spears. His journey began with humble beginnings as a stage-tech while attending Notre Dame College in Leeds. He worked primarily at small venues, making connections that eventually led to opportunities with major acts. His first touring experience was with Britpop band Starsailor, which caught the attention of Coldplay. This led to an eight-year touring stint with Coldplay, during which he honed his skills and gained global recognition. A pivotal moment came when Justin Timberlake, impressed by Whitehouse's work with Coldplay, offered him a job on the spot during a show in Tokyo. Although Whitehouse initially turned it down due to his commitment to Coldplay, he later joined Timberlake's team, leading to a collaborative relationship that pushed the boundaries of lighting design.

There are three competing sets of demands to address when beginning a successful project. Balancing the needs of each while still producing innovative landscape design can be a challenge. The first set of demands comes from the client in the form of an initial site program. While this may seem basic, the needs of a client, such as their desired uses for the space, required parking, spatial constraints, and budget limitations, often conflict with the second set of requirements faced by landscape professionals: meeting landscape ordinances. These days, landscape ordinances are increasingly common, which is great because it means more sites will benefit from a landscape architect’s influence. But it adds a level of complexity to your site plan because now you don’t just have to think about your building, parking, and grading. You also have to allow for things like extra spaces for landscape areas within a parking lot, perimeter planting and buffer regulations, and saving existing trees. And if a client wants to go beyond meeting local and state regulations and wants their site to achieve LEED or SITES certification, a third set of demands has to enter into this balancing act. Designers now have to consider issues like open spaces versus buildings in their plan, as well as heat island effects, opportunities for shading, and reducing water use for irrigation. While it’s great that clients want their sites to be more sustainable, it can be difficult to prioritize so many sets of regulations. This is where designing with smart objects makes all the difference.

ROJO Architecture faced the challenge of transforming a large, open retail space into a functional and welcoming orthopedic care facility for the Florida Orthopaedic Institute. The space lacked privacy and natural light, which were essential for the medical facility. Additionally, the entryway needed to be inviting to create a positive first impression for patients and employees. Another project involved converting a small lot into a 12-story affordable housing building in St. Petersburg, Florida. The challenge was to optimize the space, including three levels of parking, while maintaining an upscale, modern design that defied typical affordable housing aesthetics.

Greg and Jill Henderson wanted to create a real hoverboard, inspired by the 'Back to the Future' movie trilogy. Despite skepticism from others, they pursued their vision using Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology. Their goal was not just to create a hoverboard but to revolutionize urban planning and infrastructure by using MFA to levitate various objects, including buildings, to protect them from natural disasters like earthquakes and floods. Achieving this required significant financial resources, which they secured through a successful crowdfunding campaign.

McGregor Coxall faced the challenge of transforming the 200-year-old Parramatta Road in Sydney, Australia, which was heavily trafficked and considered an eyesore. The road, handling over 80,000 vehicles daily, divided the city and required a comprehensive strategy to revitalize it. The project demanded a big-picture view of the city, addressing transportation, housing, urban ecology, habitat, economy, and citizens' health. The team needed to develop a systematic workflow to manage the massive scale of the project efficiently.

Kipnis Architecture + Planning (KAP) faced the challenge of integrating sustainable design elements into aesthetically pleasing structures. The firm needed to address client requests for traditional designs while incorporating modern, energy-efficient features. For instance, a couple from Chicago wanted a log cabin design for their vacation home in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. KAP had to balance the clients' desire for a traditional look with the need for sustainable features. Additionally, CraftJack, a local firm, required a larger office space that fostered creativity and collaboration while being energy-efficient. KAP had to design an office that met these requirements and incorporated sustainable elements.

Peter and Sharon, founders of Architecture Is Fun, noticed a lack of advocacy for child-centric architecture while spending time in children's public spaces. They identified gaps in the design, materiality, and quality of these spaces, which led them to focus their professional ambitions on creating meaningful, interactive environments for families. Their goal was to elevate the standards of design for learning environments through new paradigms in pedagogy, play, and participatory experience. One of their first clients was the Chicago Children's Museum, and their work soon expanded to other children's museums, exhibits, and adult cultural spaces. They aimed to create spaces that appeal to children and adults alike, making them interesting and engaging for everyone.

The City of Dayton wanted better connectivity between the historic Oregon District and Webster Station neighborhoods and a way to convey its rich history while making the commercial corridor pedestrian-friendly. Sidewalks were too narrow and positioned against the roadway, where cars hurtled by on five lanes of one-way traffic. Pedestrians had to zigzag their way across large intersections, sometimes getting stranded on large, concrete medians. The city was one year into an urban renewal master plan study when it issued an RFP to achieve these goals through a cultural project. They wanted more than just 'signs on sticks' for their representation of Dayton’s history; they wanted a project that could spur economic development.

The Ureshino-City project in Japan's Kyushu Region faced significant challenges due to its location in a flood-prone, low-lying delta between the Shiota and Urata Rivers. The area experiences flooding approximately every decade, particularly when heavy rain coincides with high tide. The geography became even more critical after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, which caused devastating floods and loss of life. This tragedy heightened the awareness of disaster prevention for the SUEP. team. The challenge was to design a cultural center and junior high school that could withstand potential flooding while also addressing the area's declining population. The project needed to incorporate disaster prevention measures and energy-efficient solutions to create a safe and sustainable environment for the community.

A town hall and a multiplex movie theater may not seem the ideal partners; however, you can find this combination in Dutch Haarlem at the Raakspoort Project thanks to the involvement of BOLLES+WILSON. The 18,500-square-meter complex’s functional mix of local government headquarters and a cultural center rises like a monument amid Haarlem’s ancient gables, yet it blends with its surroundings perfectly to create a symbiotic combination. BOLLES+WILSON participated in this dense and highly urban neighborhood renovation from the beginning and experienced the constant refinement of the building’s use and function. For example, initial plans called for an eight-screen movie theater on the top levels with an underground casino and parking for staff. After much debate, the theater and casino locations reversed, and then the casino was scrapped from the project and replaced with a town hall. This change enabled the designers to insert windows into the brick façade that would give a traditional scale rather than the closed box of an entertainment venue – a suitable change that functions well within its contextual surroundings and creates visual interest. The final design features recycled arches, carved stone, and sculptures to animate and connect the building to the street. There’s also a clock tower and a brick skin that looks like shadowy, woven fabric articulated by two different mortar colors.

Reclaiming unused spaces for public use is not new, but a fresh twist, now referred to as “Pop-up Parks,” has been growing in popularity over the last five years and provides a way to be playful with the street, much like LRSLAstudio did with its recent installation of The Oval. Cities are adopting pop-up installations as a means to test interest in a place before they invest a lot of money turning around a great public space. They’re a way to put out a little money to see whether the investment is worthy or not. The plan for this temporary, contemporary project was to transform Eakins Oval into Philadelphia’s new “Park on the Parkway.” As lead designer for this transformation, LRSLAstudio collaborated with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation to create a fun-filled, summertime venue that would feature free games, educational programs, entertainment, and movies for all to enjoy. The project grew out of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s report “More Park, Less Way,” which outlined a three-year plan to transform the Parkway into a livelier space; The Oval is the first project to emerge from the report.

The production of SKYFALL required the creation of diverse and intricate sets that ranged from modern skyscrapers in Shanghai to the historic Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and the ancestral home of James Bond in the Scottish countryside. Each set had unique challenges, such as achieving correct camera perspectives, handling tight deadlines, and accommodating special effects. The Shanghai Tower set needed to be built quickly and accurately, while the London Underground set required precise handling of curves. The Istanbul scenes demanded the creation of natural-looking obstacles for a high-speed motorbike chase, and the Skyfall Lodge set required detailed plans to accommodate special effects and continuity issues.

PEDG faced several challenges while planning the 2012 iHeartRadio event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The logistics of accommodating 22 world-famous musicians and improving upon the previous year's show with a similar budget were significant hurdles. Additionally, the team lost three installation days due to a tight timeline, which didn't allow enough time to scale the show. The team had to ensure that every detail was perfect to avoid delays, as a single misstep could back up the entire project. They also had to contend with discrepancies in the initial AutoCAD drawings provided by the MGM Grand, which required them to travel to the site to measure it themselves.

Expectations for One Direction’s December 2012 concert in New York City ran high since it was the group’s first big foray into the U.S. market. The British company Production North hired Lee to tackle the lighting design. Tapping into his dance music history, he envisioned multiple ways to invigorate the show. It was just a matter of making it a reality. Along the way, Lee faced two challenges. First, the production team tasked Lee with designing the light set around an 80’x30’ video screen that could be installed into Madison Square Garden in just one day, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Second, the timeline of the entire project was quick. Lee had only three weeks until show time to execute a plan. Undaunted, Lee knew how to face these challenges, beginning with his flexible approach to clients. “You need to be fluid because elements in entertainment design change all the time—from schedules and artists’ requests, to spatial constraints, and to the equipment that needs to be featured,” says Lee. Consequently, designers need to think far beyond the proverbial box, keeping in mind that there is always a solution. “Nothing is impossible, and everything is achievable in some way, shape, or form,” says Lee. “I hear so many times people with negative views about why a show producer can’t have this or that.” But rather than choosing to focus on why a show producer can’t have certain things, he works to find that solution. “There is always a way—even if it entails meeting halfway or making slight compromises,” he says.

Cearnal Andrulaitis Architecture & Interior Design faced the challenge of managing complex architectural projects in Santa Barbara, requiring a thorough understanding of community needs and stringent local approval processes. The firm needed to ensure high-quality design solutions that met aesthetic, budgetary, and program objectives while also adhering to environmental and city guidelines. Additionally, the firm aimed to maintain a collaborative and efficient workflow to handle multiple projects simultaneously, including prominent civic buildings and sustainable architecture initiatives.

Ali Reza Honarkar faced conservative college professors in the 1990s who emphasized the importance of honoring architecture’s past in his designs, which he found confining. This conflict led to his desire to stretch the limits and do things differently, a trait that remains central to how he and his team approach projects today at Division1 Architects in Washington, DC. The firm was co-founded in 1994 as a response to a failing economy and stagnant design culture in the Washington metropolitan area. Honarkar's approach to design, which often involves defending his work and anticipating client questions, has led to a wide-ranging portfolio that includes single-family and multi-unit residential buildings, commercial spaces, and more. The firm aims to make its mark on the staid and predictable architecture of the DC area by using materials in innovative ways and creating designs that are both functional and dramatic.

Icebreaker, a leading company in the merino wool industry, faced the challenge of maintaining its competitive edge and ensuring sustainability in its operations. The company needed to streamline its design and data integration processes to enhance efficiency and support its mission of sustainability. With over 3,000 trading partners and a presence in 43 countries, Icebreaker required a robust solution to manage its retail spaces and merchandise effectively. The economic downturn added pressure to maintain growth and quality, making it crucial for Icebreaker to find innovative ways to optimize its operations and continue delivering high-quality products.

Daniel Libeskind faced the challenge of transitioning from a musical prodigy to an architect, eventually establishing his own firm, Studio Daniel Libeskind (SDL). His first major design was realized at the age of 52, and he gained international prominence with the Jewish Museum in Berlin. The challenge was to create innovative and symbolic designs that communicate unique stories and reflect the cultural and historical context of their locations. Additionally, Libeskind had to manage the complexities of large-scale projects like the Westside Shopping and Leisure Center in Switzerland and the Grand Canal Square Theater in Dublin, ensuring they were not only functional but also emotionally and intellectually engaging for the public.

Oversells, overstocking inventory, and disorganized inventory. As SlimShades began to grow, Tommy noticed that it was becoming harder and harder to keep track of his inventory levels. Too many bad buys and too much overstocking on inventory were eating away at his profit margins - it was time for an inventory management solution. He wanted one that was highly customizable, that could integrate with his shipping software, Teapplix, and that was, in his own words, 'dummy proof'. And above all else, Tommy wanted a warehouse management system with the capability to grow with his business - a system able to adjust to his needs, rather than the other way around.

The church contends with the ever-evolving advanced email threat landscape on a global scale. As with all major organizations, threat actors attempt to disrupt its operations and communications with email attacks involving ransomware, fraud, phishing, and impersonation. In 2021, sophisticated threats increased with thousands of attacks that passed Microsoft 365 email defenses. However, with Abnormal we protected the integrity of our email communications with our continued defense in depth approach.

There were a number of drivers for change in the development of William Tracey Group’s systems. Following a strategic review, the company’s management team identified an opportunity to gain better leverage and competitive advantage from their scale but realised that to do this they would need to be able to take an enterprise-wide view and to significantly improve their data and process quality. William Tracey Group also identified that there was a competitive advantage to be gained from improving its customer engagement and experience. New methods of customer communication were required and employees handling customer queries needed access to data that was current, accurate and unambiguous. The company’s existing systems were starting to age and their maintenance and development had become expensive with limited scope for growth. These systems could not provide enterprise-wide visibility or the detailed data required to make key business decisions. Information was not easily accessible and would often be stored in multiple locations. With these goals in mind, a decision was taken to find an enterprise-wide operational management system capable of supporting the company’s future growth.

Banneker Industries faced the challenge of rapidly deploying a warehouse management system (WMS) to meet the needs of a leading provider of reverse logistics services. The company needed a solution that could be implemented quickly to onboard new customers efficiently. The primary challenge was to reduce the deployment timeframe significantly while ensuring the system was flexible and could be configured on a site-by-site basis. Additionally, Banneker required a system that provided real-time visibility into the supply chain to identify meaningful trends and improve overall operational efficiency.

Sony DADC had a mission to differentiate and gain a competitive advantage in the Entertainment supply chain, both physical and digital. Beginning with superior supply chain operations for their own products, Sony DADC set a path to transform their company into a contract logistics provider for other companies and also offer supply chain services a la carte. To achieve their objectives, Sony DADC required the ability to react to dynamic business environments. The team aimed to onboard new clients in the shortest time possible (90 days or less depending on complexity). They set a goal to optimize the use of distribution and manufacturing network nodes to achieve exceptional customer service. They wanted to achieve all of this with the support of their current application framework with no major capital investments and less disruption.