Calphalon pioneered the concept of professional grade cookware for the home back in 1963. Coupling Calphalon’s reputation for excellence with Design Central's expertise in design and engineering built a 14-year relationship and a platform to enter new categories for a growing brand.
As a leader in the upscale cookware category, Calphalon came to Design Central looking for help entering the non-existent mid-range cookware market. Their strategy was to conquer the mid-range market with an exclusive line of cookware for Target and needed a new level of design and implementation expertise to succeed. The new line was hugely successful for both the retailer and manufacturer and brought Calphalon back to Design Central to continue their expansion into new markets.
We worked with Calphalon to satisfy their marketing goals of developing new products outside the cookware market. The team engaged in research, project definition, human factors and ergonomics studies, industrial design and visual communications to design glassware, kitchen gadgets, small kitchen electronics and more for mid-range retailers. This strengthened Calphalon’s brand position in the market.
Our engineers partnered with Calphalon to bring products such as ergonomic cutlery, a mandolin slicer and more to market at breakneck speed. The team’s focus on user safety, speed to market, surfacing, prototype development, implementation, testing, verification and vendor coordination, as well as Design Central’s extensive knowledge of Calphalon’s manufacturing requirements, resulted in several successful product launches and the extension of Calphalon’s brand.