CITY FOCUS: Circulating local ingenuity

As the son of an architect, Steve Ewing always had an eye for design. He spent time as a child fabricating various projects with Legos.

Ewing’s 5-year-old son, who is also very fond of the iconic Danish Lego blocks, got a chance to visit the Lego headquarters when his father was called to Denmark in August for the Index Awards.

Ewing’s Laguna Beach-based product design group crafted a tourniquet that has won not only military contracts, but the attention of product designers worldwide.

The Index Awards recognize products that have a positive effect on lives. The product designs are nominated from designers worldwide. Ewing, who also sits at the head of the Laguna Beach Business Club, was a finalist for the 2007 health product award.

The tourniquet was designed to specifications made by military officials. They wanted a tourniquet that could be put on quickly with one hand. It also had to be suited to cutting off circulation in a trapped limb.

Ewing’s design team delivered all of those demands, creating a device with a strap, hook and crank to tighten the strap around an injured extremity.

Now about 100,000 of these lifesavers are on the market. The U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps use it.

“It’s the best tourniquet any of them have ever tested,” Ewing said.

The tourniquet is so effective, it is carried in President Bush’s emergency response kit.

Tourniquets have the bad reputation of killing off limbs while stopping major bleeding, but Ewing said modern technology has all but eliminated the problem. While wounded soldiers in the past would have to wait for hours for help, the medical response time for modern warriors is far faster, negating the likelihood of killing off a limb.

Ewing works closely with the rest of his designers to create the company’s inventive products. Charlie Cheowanich, Ben Labelle and Bill Monteleone all have their hands on the designs at one point or another.

“Everyone here has a big brain,” Ewing said. “It’d be a shame not to use that.”

Labelle says system brings individual viewpoints and ideas into the design process. After that, nature takes over and the strongest concepts survive.

“The cream rises to the top,” Labelle said.

Ewing is enthusiastic about the job that allows him to design so many various products.

The design group has produced product models in everything from toys to electronics. Televisions, motocross gear, tools and medical equipment are all on the company’s résumé. Fittingly enough, they are even forming plans for new Lego toys.

Ewing said the group’s philosophy is to create products that meet the needs of their customers. Dozens of prototypes of the products are built and used by team to ensure they’re functional.

“We’re using it and playing with it to make sure it’s suited to the consumer,” Ewing said.