Perhaps the only thing harder than staying abreast of fast-changing technology is housing that technology in a consumer product with enough utility and style to ensure decent shelf life before the market moves on.

Host of the product raffle at the Association for Corporate Growth in Silicon Valley’s U.S. Trust GROW! Awards in Mountain View, California, was Dan Harden (pictured), president of design firm Whipsaw Inc., a sponsor of the event.

After giving away Google Wi-Fi devices and a Neato robotic vacuum at the event, Harden spoke to Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), host theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, about innovative design that stands the test of time. (* Disclosure below.)

“To me it’s always been a craft using psychology. I think it’s half psychology, communication — we try to establish a narrative with our clients and our end-users so we can understand what they want,” Harden explained.

Designers are artists at least as much as they are engineers, and the job requires a certain sensitivity — toward the individual user and toward issues like sustainability, he said. “Most of our clients want to, first and foremost, make money — that’s great. Everybody wants growth. That’s what we’re here celebrating tonight,” Harden stated.

However, there is more to consider. One of the biggest challenges of designing is getting the client to do the right thing, “which means they have to think sustainably; they have to really be open and be very original even if it means taking a risk,” he said, adding that the very best designs  make a cultural statement.

No humans were harmed during testing …

Based in San Francisco, Whipsaw often works with companies riding tech’s rapids of constant change. The best defense against obsolescence is a focus on what real quality means to individuals, he said.

“If you can resonate with that single person beautifully on every level and then you multiply that in mass production, you can find that your values as a designer and, ultimately, the values of our clients can then be reflected in products that they end up shipping in the market,” he said.