Mike Simonian and Maaike Evers, the team behind San Francisco studio Mike & Maaike, have a portfolio that merges the tech and industrial design worlds. Here is a timeline of their many innovative products, from the first Android phone to early driverless cars to office systems designed for digital workers.
2000: Flowboard, a 14-wheel skateboard co-designed with Pieter Schouten, was Mike Simonian’s first commercial success as an entrepreneur.
2005: Mike Simonian designed the XBox 360 with the team at Astro Studios in San Francisco. More than 40 million units have been sold since 2010.
2007: A soft computer stand for tabletop and lap use was one of many accessories the studio worked on with consumer electronics giant Belkin.
2008: The world’s first Android, Android Smartphone 1, was originally developed and distributed to Google employees as a test-bed device.
2009: One of the first concepts to emerge from Silicon Valley for driverless cars was Mike & Maaike’s ATNMBL, a name that blends autonomy with automobile.
2010: Working with Rollout of Vancouver, the studio developed a series of custom wallpapers using familiar wayfinding patterns such as arrows and male/female washroom icons.
2010: Swarm looks like a giant coat rack. It’s actually a room divider that shows best when grouped in twos and threes. Designed for the San Francisco furniture company Council.
2012: The Q Media Streamer, Google’s first internet-of-things suite of products for the home, is a simplified hub that can stream media and control lighting systems.
2012: Tonic is a streamlined modular office system created in response to the desire of digital-era workers for more collaboration. It is manufactured by Watson.
2013: Part of the Windowseat family for Haworth, this popular office chair was inspired by architectural elements.
2016: Google’s first wearable V.R. device, the Daydream View is powered by an Android phone that slips into the headset. The intuitive remote houses a variety of sensors that can understand movement.
2017 Rerelease: One of Mike & Maaike’s most artful pieces is Juxtaposed, a bookshelf that contains seven central religious volumes, including the Qur’an and the Bible, and raises each to the same level, physically and symbolically.
This story was taken from the May 2018 issue of Azure. Buy a copy of the issue here, or subscribe here.
