Ammunition’s design for the Barnes & Noble Nook Color Accessory Packaging System picked up a Bronze IDEA in the 2011 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in the category of packaging and graphics.

This year's competition, organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), received a record amount of entries breaking the 2,000 mark since it began 31 years ago. Out of 524 finalists, 27 were honored with the Gold Award, while 68 received the Silver Award and 96 won the Bronze Award.

Check out the full gallery of 2011 IDEA winners here.

Ammunition’s long-standing partnership with Barnes & Noble reached a milestone today with the announcement of the All-New Nook, the ground up redesign of the company’s successful Nook digital reader. Working alongside the world’s largest book retailer, Ammunition developed product concept, industrial design, and packaging for the All-New Nook, the third e-reader and electronic publishing device to join the Nook product line.

The challenge for the All-New Nook was to create a lower cost, full featured e-reader and to do so on a timeline that would allow it to move to market quickly. The result is a $139 device that uses eInk technology, a touch interface, and wireless connectivity to create a more immersive and personal reading experience for users. With its simple, soft, rubberized form and refined details, the All-New Nook is by far the smallest and lightest dedicated e-reading tablet to come to market to date.

Pre-orders are available at Barnes & Noble retail and online stores with a ship date on or about June 10, 2011.

To learn more about Ammunition’s contributions to the Nook, Nook Color and All-New Nook, click here.

Ammunition founder Robert Brunner was in Belfast, Ireland last week to give a talk at Queen's University Belfast. The topic was on how ideas not objects are driving change in the market and defining what a company means to its constituents. While Robert regularly travels abroad to share his insights with the international design community, this was his first address to a UK university.

On the experience Robert says, “The atmosphere in Belfast is fantastic and the design community is strong and growing. It was a great opportunity to speak at Queens University about our work at Ammunition, and building an emotional connection between people and their products.”

Attendees included University staff and students involved in product and graphic design, local business representatives, and those who work in Northern Ireland’s creative industries.

The talk was organized by the Chief Executives’ Club at Queen's University in association with the Northern Ireland Technology Centre.

Third Rail Mobility, a start-up focusing on mobile power accessories, on Wednesday released its debut product: Slim Case for iPhone 4 with Slide-On Smart Battery. Ammunition developed the total design solution for the Third Rail System, creating the overall industrial design and and assisting in the development through to manufacturing.

The Third Rail System is the first protective case for smartphones with an optional, modular slide-on battery. The system, which can be purchased separately or in a bundle, includes a Slim Case to protect your iPhone 4 and a 1250 mAH Smart Battery that you can slide into place whenever you run out of juice. The removable battery can be stacked up to six deep for additional power and can charge other (non-iPhone 4) devices using a micro-USB.

Initial product reviews have been positive with CNET dubbing Third Rail as “one battery to power them all.”

For more information on the product, visit Third Rail Mobility.

Ammunition founder and partner Robert Brunner was recently a featured speaker at the 2011 SXSW Interactive festival to talk about the emotion behind design and how it is driving change in the market. At the core of his presentation was the notion of “ideas, not objects” as a way for companies to connect with their constituents and develop relationships that matter.

Central to his talk was the belief that today, you can’t just create something, make and deliver it, and then expect it to do well. Products must be more than just a thing. They need to build off relevant, meaningful ideas, and the story needs to be driven through the entire proposition in an authentic way. Great products embody an idea that people can understand and engage with – one they can emotionally connect with.

This year’s SXSW Interactive Festival was held from March 11th to March 20th in Austin, Texas.

Watch the summary edit of Robert’s presentation here.

Ammunition's work for the launch of the Kohler Numi toilet was released today at an event in New York City.

Created to associate the Kohler leadership position with the concept of gracious technology, Ammunition wrote, designed and produced an integrated launch campaign including video, photography, web, print, packaging and merchandising components.

Engineered by Kohler to deliver many new technology-driven comfort and water-saving features within a forward-looking industrial design, Numi is pretty audacious in the sense that it rewrites the rules of what people might expect from something most of us take for granted. Numi presented us with a unique set of communication and positioning challenges and the goal of the overall campaign was to magnify the sense of aspiration and luxurious technology residing within.

The launch represents the latest installment in a longstanding collaboration between Kohler and the Ammunition team. Prior collaborations include identity and launch campaigns for Kohler’s Karbon faucet line, Formilia modular bath fixture line, Flipside showering product, and Honed White product editions.

To learn more about the product and campaign, explore the Numi microsite designed by Ammunition or click over to the work section of our website.