Design 1st Marks 30 Years of Innovation with Record Global Growth

OTTAWA, ON – January 20, 2026 – As the world accelerates its digital transformation, an Ottawa-based firm is proving that tangible innovation is more in demand than ever. Design 1st, a full-service product development company, is entering its 30th year of operation on the heels of its most successful year in history. The company announced a record-breaking 2025, marked by unprecedented growth fueled by a surge in global demand for complex physical hardware.

In 2025 alone, Design 1st managed 103 distinct projects for 41 new clients, expanding its international footprint to include partners in Europe, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, and Australia. This milestone anniversary highlights not just the firm's longevity but its remarkable ability to adapt and thrive by turning ambitious ideas into commercialized products, from life-saving medical devices to groundbreaking consumer electronics. With over 1,200 products brought to market and 130 client patents secured, the company has solidified its reputation as a cornerstone of physical product innovation.

The Architect of Adaptation: Three Decades of Evolution

Founded in September 1996 by Kevin Bailey, Design 1st began as a specialized design engineering consultancy. Bailey, an engineer who had worked on one of the world's first smartphones at Nortel Networks, envisioned a firm that could serve as a reliable and innovative partner for companies looking to build physical products. "Thirty years ago, I left a global telecom design team as an engineer who loved to build physical electronic gadgets," Bailey, the founding CEO, recalled.

That initial focus on engineering excellence became the foundation for three decades of strategic, client-driven expansion. The firm's evolution mirrors the increasing complexity of the products themselves. As "smart" devices became the norm, Design 1st responded by acquiring an electronics firm, integrating electrical engineering and embedded firmware into its core offerings. When the medical device industry faced stricter regulatory hurdles, the company built out the necessary expertise and processes to navigate that intricate landscape. Most critically, when clients consistently struggled with the difficult transition from a working prototype to mass production, Design 1st added manufacturing setup and support to its services, creating a true end-to-end development pipeline.

This deliberate growth transformed the company from a consultancy into an integrated, full-service powerhouse. By housing industrial design, multi-disciplinary engineering, prototyping, and manufacturing logistics under one roof, the firm created a streamlined process that de-risks product launches for clients ranging from fledgling startups to established enterprises.

A Blueprint for Global Demand

The record-setting performance in 2025 is a direct result of this integrated model, which is perfectly positioned to meet the current global appetite for sophisticated connected hardware. The "surging global demand" mentioned by the company is validated by market trends showing explosive growth in the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), and medical technology sectors. The global market for outsourced product development is expanding rapidly as companies seek specialized expertise to accelerate time-to-market and manage the escalating complexity of modern devices.

Design 1st has become a go-to partner for innovators navigating this landscape. "Many people have great ideas but struggle to find development partners who can properly design, prototype, and manufacture their first-generation products," Bailey stated. "Our integrated development team specializes in taking clients from a napkin sketch to the factory floor."

This comprehensive approach is particularly valuable for the kind of unconventional products the firm specializes in, such as connected stethoscopes, electric brake walkers, and automated litter systems. By leveraging its deep, cross-industry experience, the team can solve novel challenges that often stump more specialized firms. The firm’s 2025 project portfolio spanned 16 different market segments, including consumer products, industrial equipment, and health and wellness, demonstrating the broad applicability of its development process.

From Cobots to Connected Health: A Portfolio of the Future

The impact of Design 1st's work is best illustrated by the groundbreaking products it helped bring to life in 2025. One notable project, SwabBot, is a collaborative robot, or "cobot," designed to automate the painstaking process of cleaning and validating pharmaceutical manufacturing tanks. By deploying an autonomous robot, the system enhances safety by eliminating the need for human entry into confined spaces and improves data consistency, leading to a 40% reduction in operator training time. The SwabBot successfully moved into production last year.

In the consumer space, the firm helped guide Groove Thing from a garage concept and Kickstarter success into volume manufacturing. Marketed as the world's first "internal music player," the device uses patent-pending technology to translate sound waves into nuanced tactile sensations, allowing users to feel music.

The firm's expertise in IoT is showcased by BlueKit, an educational platform that shipped in 2025 after a two-year development cycle. Meanwhile, its long-standing relationship with medtech company Joylux saw the launch of new award-winning medical products, a testament to the trust Design 1st builds with its partners. Perhaps most indicative of its forward-looking focus is a project still in the lab: a medical device that uses wireless power to charge an implant located inside the human body, a technology that could revolutionize patient care.

Navigating the Next Wave of Complexity

As Design 1st enters its fourth decade, it does so with a full project pipeline and a clear understanding that the pace of technological change will only accelerate. The integration of cloud networks, advanced sensors, and now artificial intelligence is pushing the boundaries of physical product design, creating challenges and opportunities that were unimaginable in 1996.

This increasing complexity is precisely where the firm finds its purpose. Bailey reflected on this evolution, noting, "We've expanded our technical capabilities as cloud networks, IoT, sensors, and now AI have pushed the complexity of physical product designs. The next thirty years will look nothing like the last thirty, and that's exactly why this work stays interesting."

With a seasoned team of over 30 experts and a proven methodology refined over 1,200 successful product launches, the Ottawa firm is not just celebrating a history of innovation but is actively engineering the tangible products of tomorrow. Its journey underscores the enduring power of physical design in a world increasingly dominated by the intangible, proving that even the most advanced digital services often need a well-built device to call home.