Continuum Receives Seven International Awards

Continuum, a global innovation and design consultancy, announced today the company has received seven International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) from the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). The IDEAs, recognized as the preeminent international design competition and referred to as "the Oscars of Design," were awarded to Continuum for the company's work with Mindray, the Herman Miller Compass system, Daktari Diagnostics, Preserve's Mail-Back Pack, the Herman Miller Compass research, the Leverage Freedom LFC Sport Chair and the Oreck Edge vacuum.

"We are honored to be part of the team recognized for this work. Each of these products makes a positive impact on people's lives," says Harry West, Continuum's CEO. "Passionate concern for the human in human-centered design is what drives us. These projects are great examples of how, by developing the right ideas and making them real, we not only enhance lives in very practical ways, but also drive meaningful business results for the companies that launch them."

With the addition of these seven IDSA Awards, Continuum has won a total of 19 design and innovation awards in 2011 including being recognized with a Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, three Medical Design Excellence Awards, three Design of the Decade Awards, three REBRAND 100(R) Global Awards, an Edison Award and a BoNE (Best of New England) Award.

Continuum's International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA): 
        --  Mindray - Continuum's collaboration with Mindray won a gold IDEA. The
            Mindray V Series Patient Monitor is designed to provide critical
            information and easy access to healthcare professionals in the most
            chaotic environments. The Mindray V Series are the first patient
            monitors to use a vertical display, which allows for more information
            to be displayed in a clear, easily readable format in a way that takes
            up less space in crowded critical care rooms.
        --  Herman Miller Compass System - Continuum won a silver medal for its
            innovative approach to developing a modular system of interchangeable
            components for patient rooms, caregiver work areas, and other clinical
            spaces. The system is designed to adapt to changing needs in hospitals
            and improve the experience of working in a hospital, visiting with a
            patient, and most importantly, healing. Expected to be Herman Miller's
            largest clinical product line, Compass represents an entirely new
            business and revenue stream for the company.
        --  Daktari Diagnostics - Continuum's work for Daktari was awarded a
            bronze IDEA. The Daktari device is designed to provide on-the-spot CD4
            counts with a finger stick in about eight minutes. The device's
            innovative process overcomes the need for complex preparation
            techniques, enabling the device to be simple, inexpensive, and most

            importantly, portable -- ideal for caregivers traveling to remote
            areas of the world and working outside traditional medical facilities.
        --  Leveraged Freedom LFC Sport Chair - The partnership between Continuum
            and the MIT Mobility Lab resulted in a bronze IDEA for their Leveraged
            Freedom LFC Sport Wheelchair. It's a high performance, off-road
            wheelchair that goes uphill and off-road with ease, increases speed
            over distance and is lightweight and easy to repair. Utilizing a
            technology developed to assist disabled populations in developing
            countries who traverse challenging terrain, this high-performance
            chair will enable people with disabilities the same affordances as a
            mountain bike.
        --  Preserve - The Mail-Back Pack system for the Preserve toothbrush also
            won a bronze. The innovative Mail-Back Pack protects the toothbrush
            during shipping, presents it well at point of sale, incorporates a
            hang tag feature, and doubles as a return envelope. At the end of the
            toothbrush's life, the user puts it in the mail-back package, and
            sends it back to Preserve, so it can have another lifecycle -- as
            plastic for park benches and playgrounds. After debuting at Whole
            Foods Market and Target, the new package was outselling the previous
            package by 45%.
        --  Oreck Edge - Continuum garnered a bronze IDEA for the development of
            the Oreck Edge. The Edge is a two-piece lightweight vacuum cleaner
            that is the most powerful Oreck to date. It consists of an upright
            vacuum for floors and a handheld vacuum for stairs and furniture. It's
            designed to be a more flexible cleaning system that supports the
            end-to-end cleaning experience.
        --  Herman Miller Compass research- Continuum's holistic research with
            Herman Miller for the Compass System, which focused on the entire
            ecosystem of care -- not just the patient -- won a bronze IDEA.
            Research focused on patients and how to heal them, but also on
            understanding the needs of physicians, nurses, custodial staff,
            patients' families, hospital administrators and architects. This
            enabled the team to design a system that would help them all achieve
            their shared goal: Better patient care.
        
"We found our partnership and collaboration with Continuum remarkable, they understood our philosophy of human-centered design," says Jim Fidacaro, vice president marketing and product development with Mindray. "Our teams lived and breathed the fact that a typical nurse is 5' 6" tall, 47 years old, has failing eyesight, and performs multiple complex tasks at once. Our Mindray V Series Patient Monitors take into account every possible environmental factor, from the caregiver to the patient to today's hospital room. The result is that medical professionals now have innovative products to help them focus on the most critical information and thus provide more effective patient care."

About the IDEA: For 31 years, the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) has recognized design excellence in products, sustainability, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts and solidified its position as the preeminent international design competition. IDEA 2011 winners include designers and design teams widely recognized as leaders in the field, newcomers, young designers, rising stars and businesses who understand the value of exceptional design.

Earlier this year, 20 world-renowned design experts and thinkers, spent weeks evaluating thousands of international entries from 39 nations including record student submissions online. Then on April 6, the jury convened for two-and-a-half days of hands-on judging and evaluation, emerging with their choices for the coveted IDEA 2011 Gold, Silver, Bronze and Best in Show.