COMPANY STORY
Creativity through empathy, insight and persistence
Fundamental to our culture, we believe that every step in the development process offers an opportunity to innovate. Formation was formed more than 24 years ago by a group of experienced industrial and user experience designers with a proven track record of creating market-leading products grounded in the principles of human-centered design. Over the years, we’ve amplified our focus on innovation by adding strategic thinking designers, visualization specialists, technical developers and engineering expertise.
Leadership
+ Robert Henshaw - Founding Partner, Industrial Design
Robert Henshaw is one of the founding partners of Formation Design Group. Robert focuses primarily on Formation's transportation related programs for clients such as Airbus, B/E Aerospace, Crown Equipment and Textron, as well as managing a portfolio of independently developed IP.
Before partnering to establish Formation, Robert worked as an industrial designer at IDEO, Crown Equipment Corporation and Siemens. While at Crown, Robert led the design development of numerous award-winning products including the creation of a new industry archetype, the RR5000S sit/stand reach truck in 1997. He also developed the initial concept for a battery counterbalanced monomast truck configuration that was patented & later developed into the Crown RM 6000S MonoLift™ Reach Truck, which received a Gold IDEA award in 2012.
Robert’s design and research work has been recognized with many international awards, including numerous IDEA awards, Top Ten IF, Red Dot, Crystal Cabin Award, ID Magazine, GOOD Design- Chicago Athenaeum, ASA Universal Design award and an Alexander C. Williams Award. He is named on over 75 design & utility patents. Robert holds a BSID from the University of Cincinnati.
+ Russell Kroll - Founding Partner, Interaction Design
Russell Kroll is one of the founding partners of Formation Design Group. With a background in Industrial and Interaction Design, Russell directs innovation programs for a broad range of client companies - from start-ups to some of the world’s best-known brands.
Russell has worked as an industrial designer and program manager in the US and Europe. He draws on a diverse product development background to create novel solutions for client companies. Russell prefers complex projects and challenging assignments typically found in healthcare, industrial equipment and other commercial product categories. He has a hands-on approach characterized by direct involvement throughout all phases of a project; from inception and research through detailed execution. He believes the secret to successful product development lies in lean teams capable of strategic thinking as well as tactical execution - design thinking combined with design doing.
Russell’s work has resulted in numerous patents and international design awards. He has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and a Master of Fine Arts in Interaction Design from the Designhögskolan at Sweden’s Umeå University.
+ Phil Palermo - Founding Partner, Industrial Design
Phil Palermo is one of the founding partners of Formation Design Group. Phil has more than 30 years of experience leading a wide range of design programs spanning many industries including: medical, commercial equipment and recreational products. Phil works closely with his Partners to keep a tight vision for Formation and maintaining a strong presence in the design community.
Phil is an advocate and lead user of digital tools, particularly three-dimensional modeling applications and challenging surface development. Persistent exploration of these technologies combined with unique industrial design methodology has helped shape Formation's digital development process.
Phil's work has gained considerable recognition through national and international design awards. Phil is named on no less than 30 design and utility patents and has a growing collection of Red Dot, Industrie Forum, Good design and IDEA awards.
Phil has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to founding Formation design group Philip led programs as an industrial designer at Hill-Rom and as a project design lead at Crown Equipment Corporation.
Companies
Strategic innovation in a wide range of markets.
Awards
More than 100 utility and design patents
