With more than seventeen years of design and development experience each, Tom and Tracy successfully combine their creative expertise with sound business and quality manufacturing judgment. Their unique backgrounds spanning multiple channels like retail, contract, case goods and RTA furniture, technology, engineering, environmental research and of course user-centric design practices combined with an ability to identify the right product for the right market at the right time has made their combined portfolio of over 175 products, market successes.

As partners for 20 years, Tom and Tracy have produced consumer products and furniture that meet functional and manufacturing needs through extensive market research and their right-fit design strategy for clients like Herman Miller, Phoenix Designs (Miller SQA), Steelcase, Bissell, Inc, Milliken & Co., Nucraft, Design Ideas, Crate & Barrel, American Dryer, Clark American, Mobile Office Vehicle, Ethan Allen, Ameriwood, all the office superstores, mass market chains and wholesale clubs, Discovery Channel (Trading Spaces license), and Novimex, as well as, all the distributors, catalogs, dealers and retailers that carry their licensed designs. Tom and Tracy also have significant business and intellectual Property management experience from running ttools, LLC and bringing it from Internet start-up to the successful sale of all their patents. Additionally, they successfully negotiated a patent infringement settlement with IDEO and Palm Computing that validated the IP, brought in royalties and was a deterrent to future infringers.

Tom has not only worked as a consultant and entrepreneur for a good portion of his career, but in 2006 joined True North America to champion a foray into Furniture. Prior to that, he was Design Manager of RTA Furniture for Bush Industries and then Vice President of Design and Development for Z-Line Designs. At all companies, Tom developed relationships with buyers in all markets as well as established and developed formal design departments and processes that never existed prior to joining those companies. He was also in charge of all imported product and worked directly with the factories in Asia, establishing procedures and systems for communication, design, engineering development, testing, quality control and manufacturing. His long list of market successes is capped by the recent placement of the “Autumn Lane” collection at Wal-Mart achieved in just six months. Tom is also the sole or co-developer of twelve pending and issued utility patents for furniture, consumer products including three he shares with Tracy.

Tracy began her career at Milliken & Co., a Malcolm Baldridge Award winning textile and chemical firm designing and managing projects in vertical markets like contract office, automotive and home furnishings but soon found that her knowledge in textiles was a strategic advantage to furniture companies. She served as a research, design and development program manager and buyer at Herman Miller, Inc., where she chaired the first cross-company “Green Team” and also was an original member of the Western Michigan Environmental Action Council. In her position at Herman Miller, she advised consulting industrial designers like Aeron Chair designer, Bill Stumpf, all internal project teams, and architectural firms on manufacturing, material and aesthetics issues. Tracy developed a focus group that collected quantitative and qualitative data and direct feedback from architects, interior designers and dealers. In 2003, Tracy helped Bush Industries develop and manage their commercial furniture venture and developed a complete design and marketing strategy for growing their commercial product available at retail.

As a practicing Industrial and Furniture Designer, Tom has been recognized with numerous International Design Resource Awards and has had product featured on television spots, such as “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and the “FX Morning Show.” Tracy’s textile and interior designs have also won numerous awards including First Place in the American Craft Council Design Awards and Northeastern Regional Winner for Original Product in the Working Woman Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards for her work at ttools, LLC. As experts in design theory, Tom and Tracy have lectured for various trade associations such as International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) as well as their alma mater, RISD. Their products, expertise, or business has been profiled in various magazines like Buildings, Interiors, Wired, Home World, Furniture Today and Fortune Small Business. In addition to features for her environmental blog, easygoinggreen.org, assisting the core subscriber base of retail buyers with their sustainability decisions at a time when material, marketing and state/federal regulations are all reaching critical mass, Tracy has written articles for ArchiTech and ICON magazines.