Creo Customers: RKS Harnesses Emotion and Creo to Build Hot Guitar

By Geoff Hedges | Published: June 21, 2011

If design firm RKS is right, your guitar defines you. It signals your aspirations, affirms your identity, and brings meaning to your life. And if you think that all sounds a bit overboard, you’re clearly not a guitar player. People can form emotional connections to their musical instruments and, according to RKS, everything else—from security cameras to water bottles. RKS has spent decades researching how those bonds form. “It’s not just how you feel about the design or experience,” says John Kiehle. “It’s how the product makes you feel about yourself.”

RKS uses a unique approach to concept design that harnesses the power of emotion in consumer behavior. The Psycho Aesthetics method draws on the writings of Joseph Campbell and Abraham Maslow to ensure all of RKS designs pack an emotional punch. It also draws on Creo to ensure those concepts get captured and manufactured.



Does it work? RKS is consistently regarded as one of the top 10 industrial design firms in North America,
with clients like Amana, Nokia, JBL, and RKS Guitars.