stephen wahl
Director of Design · Drop
San Francisco, CA
In My Own Words
20+ years of leading design development through all stages of the product lifecycle from concept through production with an acute attention to details. Throughout my diverse design career I have worked closely with manufacturing and development partners throughout Asia, Europe and domestically. Collaboration between different departments is deeply infused into my creative process and is essential to maintaining quality by embracing technological advancements, financial responsibility and user experience to drive innovation.
Work Experience
Director of Design
Drop2018 – 2021
• Design and development of audiophile quality headphones and mechanical keyboards for Drop branded products and collaborations. Technical and creative liaison with Taiwan based Drop manufacturing team. • Established and maintained global supplier relations throughout every phase of design development through mass production
R+D Manager, Retail Real Estate Design and Development
APPLE2015 – 2017
• Design and development of visual elements impacting locations worldwide. • Global vendor coordination and development.
Co-Founder & Chief Creative / Operations Officer
EARTHBABY, COMPOSTABLE DIAPER SERVICE2008 – 2013
• EarthBaby is a first of its kind diaper delivery and collection service designed to do one simple thing; divert disposable diapers from going to landfill. • Diapers responsibly composted and turned into nutrient rich soil in 14 weeks. • Over 10 million pounds of diapers diverted from landfill and turned into nutrient rich soil.
Senior Design / Creative Content Lead
IDEO1996 – 2010
Being immersed in user experience, design, product development and manufacturing has nurtured my understanding of the importance and practice of empathy, inspiration and intuition as valuable design tools. • Design, creative leadership and user research for numerous clients and industries worldwide. • Creative and strategic lead for the design and guest curatorship of an exhibition on design thinking at The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum •Clients include: Hewlett Packard, TCL, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, Samsung, Tanita, OXO, Pfizer, Proctor and Gamble, PepsiCo, Kraft/Cadbury, Steelcase, Dell, SGI, Seagate, Intel, Vitalcom
Senior Designer
STEELCASE / DETAILS1991 – 1996
Product designer and strategist for an entrepreneurial division of Steelcase created to address the then-emerging unmet user needs of integrating technology into the workplace. • Integral in creating and establishing the internal product design and development process. • Product design and development from concept through production.
Industrial Designer
SMART DESIGN1990 – 1991
• Product design and development of a range of consumer products from concept through production. • Clients include: OXO Good Grips, Johnson & Johnson/Reach, Serengeti sunglasses and serving platters for Wilton.
