Hans Erich Slany, a P.O.W. in WW II, was fascinated
and influenced by the American soldiers' equipment. They "..had equipment
none of us had ever dreamed of, and it was well reflected, well engineered
and often attractive to look at."
The famous jeep, for instance, in all its ingenious conceptual simplicity
and servicing abilities came to Slany as something of a revelation.
Having studied mechanical engineering, he worked at
a metal ware company and designed the now classic round-grip tea kettle.
Ergonomics was always a focal point in Slany's work. He also worked with Bauhausian
ceramic designer Loeffelhardt before freelancing in the Mercedes styling studio.
He then turned down an exclusive contract with them to establish Slany Design
Teams.
Slany approached Bosch Power Tools and introduced the
concept of industrial design and ergonomics to a previously solely engineering-based
field of manufacture.
He revolutionized the power-tool world by introducing the plastic housing
and made groundbreaking research into tool ergonomics. He introduced a modular
system drill/ grinder in 1959, and used common parts to reduce production
costs. Bosch gradually became known for their innovative, qualitative ideas.
Professor Slany was one of the seven founders of the
VDID,a body to promote and support the use of design in Europe (similar to
the IDSA in the States). He founded a course at the Stuttgart Academy of Art
in industrial design of capital goods, an area in which he also excelled with
his company.
Here, his philosophies on ergonomics and the reduction of manufacture costs
came into their own element.
In 1996 he received the "Bundesverdienstkreuz" from the German President,
-the highest order award for lifetimeservices to Germany.
Slany retired in 1996, being suceeded by Klaus Schoen
and Reinhard Renner.
In 1998 Paul Hatch opened TEAMS Design in Chicago having
worked in the Esslingen office and in 2002 Ulrich Warth opened the Hamburg
office with Walter Heidenfels.
Klaus Schoen retired in 2003 suceeding his
position to Hans-Peter Aglassinger and Klaus Baumgartner and in 2006 Jonas
Vollmer and An Luo opened our Shanghai design studios.
TEAMS Design's goal is to see that all clients benefit
from a reputation of good quality design, thus encouraging their return. And
return they do.
This is a unique ability of TEAMS, as the majority of their customers have
worked almost exclusively with them for over a decade-some for almost 50 years.
TEAMS Design has been able to design their entire product families, thus enabling
corporate brand identity throughout their product lines.
TEAMS Design, formerly Slany Design was established by Professor Hans Erich
Slany in March 1956 -it was one of the very first design consultancies in
Germany.
Fifty years and 1000 design awards later, TEAMS Design ranks as one of the
most successful and respected design companies in the world. -A 2005 poll
on international design ranked us in third place just behind Sony and IBM.
The following pages briefly explain how the company went from Slany's pioneer
steps to today's multinational design company.
