Michael Morton
Product and Experience Design Management, Synthesis, and Implementation
Past Experience
Industrial Design Senior Principal
Dell Inc.
Design Manager
Hewlett-Packard Corp.
Hired to help manage and expand HP’s server and storage design team based in Houston, Texas, after the merger with Compaq. Developed the vision for a new enterprise design language, leading the full team's involvement from collaborate brainstorming and definition of tenants and attributes, through development to executive presentation and publication of an application-ready vision and principle document. Managed and mentored 2 direct reports on server and tape storage programs. After company-wide cuts shrank the team, I continued work on server programs until the opportunity with Dell came up.
Senior Industrial Designer
Sunbeam Products, Inc.
As one of only 2 designers at Sunbeam, responsible for multiple brands such as Sunbeam, Oster, Mr. Coffee, Health-o-meter, etc., I worked closely with marketing and engineering to develop new product concepts and features, resolving widely varying inputs into coherently designed product lines. In a commodity industry, innovative use of current technology as well as adoption of new technologies was a key part of driving competitive advantage. I selected and directed multiple outside design consultancies to develop and execute design for new products, synthesizing the brand vision and direction into actionable tenants, and closely directing the concept development to successful solutions for the company. My strong experience in tooling, molding, electronics integration, manufacturing and other processes, helped me break down barriers between ID and engineering groups, developing designs that required minimal engineering rework to bring to production.
Director
Morton Vaughan Product Design, Hong Kong
Senior Design Lead
S.Megga Ltd.,
Smoothline Ltd., Hong Kong
Provided in-house Industrial Design competency for these Hong Kong based telecommunications OEM Manufacturers, designing consumer and SMB wireless telephones, fax machines, answering machines, and other products for ATT, BellSouth, Brondi, and other western telecoms customers. Responsible for translating customer designs to production, generating original product designs, and packaging design implementation.