Ravi K. Sawhney, PhD

For as long as he can remember, award-winning design visionary Dr. Ravi K. Sawhney has looked at the world around him and seen opportunities for positive change everywhere. It is a persistence of vision that has countless times resulted in the building of a better beast—the total remaking of an object to reveal its best possible nature and unleash its full potential, be it a luxury item or an essential tool of daily life. Glancing back, Ravi’s first personal involvement with inventing designs was via ceramics—as a teenager, he was throwing two to three original pieces a day. In this intensive practice, and the wisdom gained through making a successful piece—when form, shape, weight, function and purpose seamlessly blend—lay the seeds of Psycho-Aesthetics^SM, Sawhney’s proprietary, cutting-edge design methodology. Looking ahead, this unique means of creative expression— fusing art & design, science and experience—is a growing force in the rapidly accelerating trajectory of futuristic 21st century design.

“It’s a sum-of-all-its parts concept, a spirit of design that when fully and expertly realized, captivates, engages and delights its audience,” says Ravi, who is President & CEO of RKS Design and RKS Guitars, as well as an entrepreneur, educator and philanthropist. “Psycho-Aesthetics,” he adds, “lives in that rarified space of creating meaningful impressions of a design’s intended benefit, and the assured delivery of that benefit.” From mass spectrometers to cheese graters, from cellular phones to downhill sleds, and on through a full spectrum of items in between, the Psycho-Aesthetics process has resulted in the realization of forward-thinking, spirited versions of myriad objects that make up the concrete reality of our existence. As a relentless activist of vision, Sawhney’s core instinct to expect more--to enhance the everyday with the extraordinary--is a mindset that’s elevated him and RKS Design to positions of global prominence.

Merging the talents of over 40 people, including a team of two dozen product and industrial designers, the company Ravi founded in 1980 out of a spare room in his parents house now serves clients ranging from Fortune 500 icons to fledgling start-ups. Headquartered in a light-filled 18,000 square-foot building in Thousand Oaks, CA, RKS Design offers turnkey project oversight from research & development through production. Among its many world class features, RKS’ famed in-house prototyping lab, “Voodoo Works,” allows for unsurpassed capabilities to machine 3D models for “creative envisioning” and an experiential level to the process that Sawhney believes is key to a design’s ultimate success. <

The house that Ravi built also incubates outside companies and invents a diverse array of licensed products—in all, Sawhney is named on over 160 patents. Notably, in 2001--with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dave Mason--he launched RKS Guitars, whose unique open-architecture instruments represent the most revolutionary rethinking of the electric guitar since Leo Fender first gave it life in the ’50s. Coming soon are RKS’ groundbreaking “Optigami Readers,” full-sized reading glasses plus a sturdy case in one almost impossibly compact, foldable piece.

Born near Toronto, Canada and raised in Southern California, Sawhney’s milestones in the design profession also extend, among other achievements, to the launch of the prestigious IDSA/BusinessWeek Catalyst Award, which recognizes winning designs’ marketplace success. As a founding trustee of the Pasadena Museum of California Art, he’s been instrumental in the California Design Biennial, and served as head juror for the inaugural exhibition. Ravi is a regularly featured lecturer at USC and UCLA’s Anderson School of Business, and has taught senior level Industrial Design at California State University at Northridge and Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design (he holds a degree from the latter).

Recently, Ravi’s extensive body of work was recognized with an honorary doctorate from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. In bestowing the award, Art Academy cited his ongoing work with Psycho-Aesthetics, which was born in the mid-’90s and continues to evolve. As this transformational methodology deepened over time, Sawhney and his team incorporated concepts from Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs and ‘The Hero’s Journey.’

This contextual imagining of products that, as Ravi describes, “give you the impression they not only function well, but fit your life and make it something more,” led to the creative use of mantras in the creative process. “Designing ranges for Amana,” he explains, “it was, ‘I should look at this and smell my grandmother’s cookies.’ High-tech mini-speakers demanded, ‘I’ve got to look like I sound great.’ New knobs for washer/dryers had to scream, ‘touch me!’”

Via ideas and products in the realms of electronics, computers, housewares, medical devices, business equipment, sporting goods, toys and more, Ravi Sawhney has indeed touched our world and provided a meaningful template for the future. With a vision that is equal parts art, science and intuition, and a respect for fulfilling both our dreams and our needs, he challenges the status quo and changes it for the better with grace, pleasure, intelligence and style, one product at a time.

A father of two, Ravi Sawhney lives on the coastline in Southern California.

RAVI K. SAWHNEY, Ph.D.