Doug Mockett honors 2016 product-design winners

Doug Mockett & Co., a hardware manufacturer and distributer based in Manhattan Beach, Calif., announced four winners in its 2016 product design competition.

“What made this year’s winners so interesting is that three of them are students, and the fourth is a repeat winner who submitted a design 20 years ago and won,” Mockett marketing manager Billy Peele says.

The winners include three students from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.: Richard Bell, Nathan Haeme and Myers Welborn. The fourth is Steve Goldberg of SGE Designs in Wilmington, Del.

Peele says the contest, now in its 31st year, helps Mockett keep product ideas fresh by reaching outside its in-house design department.

“It’s an opportunity for designers to submit their ideas to us. We’re open to everything and it’s helped us grow our line over the years. We started out basically with just grommet wire management in desks and then our very first design competition winner was a drawer pull and that opened up a whole new line of drawer pulls over the years, and we moved into power and data systems and more,” Peele says.

“Anytime we have a new vision from one of our collaborators, they take us in a whole new direction. We’re always open to new ideas and it’s basically a win-win for everybody since the designers get royalties based on sales, plus a cash prize and a trophy, and bragging rights in the industry.”

The entry deadline for the 2017 competition is Sept. 5. For guidelines, visit www.mockett.com.

This article originally appeared in the April 2017 issue.