Liz and I met Klaus Rosburg of Sonic design when he was unassumingly pacing back and forth in front of his wall of cuckoo clocks during ICFF. Little did we know about Sonic design – the consultancy he built from the ground up; or the wide range of work he’s completed for a series of high profile clients, most notably, the Target ClearRX prescription System included in MoMA’s permanent collection. Read on for insight into the man behind the medicine bottle, the green ketchup packaging, and a whole lot of other mass market, but you never though to ask who did it, designs.

Sonic Design
181 North 11 Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 387-7927
www.sonicny.com

How did you get into design?

Growing up, my dad had a shop at home. He built anything and everything in that house, which meant that we always had all these tools around. Eventually I started to build things too – a bicycle, a trailer, a tandem, tree houses, another tandem. One day I saw a report on TV for a guy that designed a chainsaw, I thought – I could do that too, so I went to school for it.

What prompted you to make the switch from employee to self-employed?

In Germany I worked for Interform- it was a small studio with eight people. Actually, they we’re pretty big until Frog came around. Interform hired me because the boss wanted someone fresh and unspoiled, who wasn’t already a part of the machine. It was good money and a lot of responsibility. I was writing proposals, doing business development, presentations – not a lot of design. After five years with them I couldn’t handle the stress, I needed to get out, so I took six months and came here. I joined another commercial office, did five more years, and then started Sonic. I wanted to run a firm that was young, fresh, dynamic, and creative, with no one telling me what to wear.

And your first clients were…

My first client was one I took over form the company I left. That’s how most people start. Though it was harder having come from Germany – I didn’t have any connections to start with. The client was this noise cancellation company – they’d liked my work, but things had gotten messy with them and my previous employer, and they’d bailed. When I called them up and said I’d started my own company, they started giving me work. After that I freelanced. I had my own company but no clients, so I did subcontracting for the big brand agencies- a lot of structural packaging. Frog, Ideo, Smart – worked for all of them.

Who would you consider your biggest – breakthrough client?

I would say its probably Target. The prescription drug bottle I did made it into MoMA’s permanent collection while I’m still alive. I had already quite a few awards on my belt including IDEA Silver for Heavy Equipment and Medial Design, but the bottle was all over the press. If you want to know the story…

We want to know.

“Well this is the original design,” Klaus says pointing to a D-shaped bottle. Deborah Adler, a student at the time, had a grandma who’d miss medicated. She took the wrong pill because she couldn’t see the label clearly. Deborah then had the idea to come up with a flat and color-coded label system, making the bottle easier to read.

She pitched her idea to Target – but people didn’t like the look, nor was the bottle closure child-resistant, so I got brought in and proposed to design a new bottle from scratch.

I worked with three people for six weeks developing a new medication and labeling system for Target. The biggest innovation was the label that went over the top. It streamlines the pharmacy operation so they’re just dealing with one sticker – not six. I met Deborah only after we presented our revolutionary up-side-down bottle to the project team. Target called me up one day and told me she was coming over to see the design, and that she was going to be involved in the graphics. Things moved forward, we dealt with manufacturing – and the bottle went into production.

After it came out, I saw a Target advertisement in Vanity Fair with photos of my bottle and Deborah, describing the entire design and shape as her invention. Target pushed the story of the sick grandma and student inventor hard and the bottle was all over the press. She was on national TV and public radio and if I was mentioned at all, I was credited for turning her bottle up side down. I start calling people, the magazine, Target, telling them that I was the designer of the bottle – it was really just a mess. I can’t even tell you how many letters I’ve written to various publications trying to get credit for my work – some of them listen.

Eventually, after I made enough noise, Target called and told me, in fewer words, that I’d get fired if I kept talking to the press. They wanted me to be the ghostwriter for the product, and for the girl with the story to be the hero.

Of course now that I’m looking back at my career, this is just one of many projects, awards and patents. And I am quite pleased that the MOMA gave me full credit for designing the bottle.

What has been your favorite object you designed?

I did a home security system. It was for this start up company – four guys. They really respected me, and what I did. Once they even bought a key chain remote control from Taiwan, to be sold with the system I was working on. When I saw it, I told them it was ugly, so we redid it. When your working with start-ups your design has much more influence over the company, over their future branding, then with larger companies. It can be really exciting.

Do you have any advice for design grads looking to find work at a consultancy?

If you’re an in house designer – you’re going to have a more standard workday. That’s just how it is. Consultancy can be brutal, but it also means exposure to different projects. How boring would it be to become the guy that just sits around and designs toasters. Here we have a never-ending variety, and when I’m interviewing, I usually know in the first five minutes it someone can do that. You can tell if someone is born to be a designer or not.