Interview with Professor Andreas Mühlenberend, Resolut Design

We talked to the designer Professor Andreas Mühlenberend, Resolut Design, who designed Lumbo TriStep for Otto Bock.

What inspired you to create this particular product and what was the intention behind it?

The study of nature is an “eternal” source of inspiration – the relationship to supporting structures in nature may be visible in the product. The complexity of requirements for the effects and the operation of the Lumbo TriStep is also an inspiration. We did not take any shortcuts to simplify matters, but worked out all the requirements step-by-step.

The product goals of the Lumbo TriStep are as follows: Care, Protection, Comfort.

Care: It provides relief, assistance, support. Protection: It protects against pain, uncertainty of movement, and the invasive gaze of curiosity. Comfort: It can be adapted without the use of tools, is easy to put on, and comfortable to operate. It distributes force in terms of its active principle and improves wearer comfort by fluently bridging the boundaries between soft and hard elements. The product replaces the stiffness of previous products with a flexible solution that is auto-adaptive due to segmentation.

Through immediate cooperation “without a double bottom” between Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH and Resolut Design – from the integrated concept to detailed development – a product was created which has no precursors in terms of appearance and functionality.

What does being awarded with the “red dot: best of the best” mean to you?

Everyone is happy when their work receives attention.

What particular challenges do you think designers have to face these days?

Still designing – with a growing need for motivation and moderation of

interdisciplinary design processes.

As a designer, what would you still like to accomplish in the future?

To continue finding and inspiring confidence, and to continue teaching this philosophy.

What do you think is the economic significance of design?

The claim that we design visually fascinating phenomena does not discharge us from functionally surmounting the numerous “silent” problems that are inherent in all three-dimensional designs on their path to becoming usable items, during use, and after use. The appearance of a product always represents a visual promise which our body wants to redeem by using the product. When a product keeps this promise, then the product, the design, and the company all win – in the long term.

>>Back