IN LIKE THIN; THOUSAND OAKS FIRM GOES TO GREAT LENGTHS, OR NARROW COMPONENTS, TO KEEP ITS DESIGN FRESH.

Byline: Jeremy Bagott Staff Writer

The technology is an inch deep and a mile wide, but at RKS Design, wafer-thin is in.

A pair of flat-panel multimedia speakers, designed by RKS recently received Business Week's 1999 Industrial Design Excellence Gold Award. And while the look may be flat, the depth of its design is anything but.

``It's the most prestigious award in the U.S.,'' said Chuck Pelly, president of Newbury Park-based Design Works/USA, which also won an IDE award in an unrelated category. ``Business Week hosts the award, but the judging is done by the Industrial Designers Society of America.''

The project came about when Industry-based peripherals maker Benwin/Kwongquest called on RKS to create a flagship speaker to help establish its presence in the U.S. market.

The speakers are different because they're not housed in a typical speaker box. The technology employs an exciter - a magnet and voice coil - placed on a membrane, which becomes the speaker.

The thin-speaker technology was thrust into the design firm's lap by Benwin, which has been a cutting-edge developer of flat-panel speakers as a lincensee of a company in Britain.

``In June and July of 1998, we looked at several industrial design firms,'' said Jason Chao, director of sales and marketing for Benwin.

``RKS has done prototypes for Harman/JBL. Their designs seemed somehow more innovative than the others.''

That innovation stems directly from the mind of Ravi Sawhney, a former Xerox employee who began RKS Design 18 years ago as a one-man operation in a house-cum-design studio in Reseda.

RKS now occupies an 18,000-square-foot studio with a cappuccino bar in its lobby and mountain bike trails outside its door. Its 30 employees are encouraged to take pedal breaks when the spirit moves them.

Inside, extensive security keeps projects under lock and key in special ``war rooms.'' Otherwise, employees come and go under dramatic vaulted ceilings and between curved walls, where products like the Benwin speakers are conceptualized.

``I wanted our new facility to scream design,'' said Sawhney. ``The best designers want to be surrounded by a complete design environment. It doesn't have to be expensive or fancy. It just has to scream creativity.''

At the firm's former digs in the San Fernando Valley, staff members were beginning to step all over each other, said Sawhney.

``Some days we had to set up and break down our conference room three times to accommodate different client meetings.''

Despite such humble beginnings, RKS has managed to compile a impressive client list: Panavision, Sega of America, Price Pfister, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, Smith Corona, Rubbermaid and Harman/JBL.

Its client list is impressive: Panavision, Sega of America, Price Pfister Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, Smith Corona, Rubbermaid and Harman/JBL.

And like Benwin, there are a good number of up-and-coming names that turn to RKS for prototyping.

West Los Angeles-based Discus Dental wanted to launch an at-home tooth-whitening system that included a syringe applicator. The quandary: designing the syringe so it looked professional enough to turn on dentists - who would be recommending the product - but not so much so that it looked like a medical device, which the company feared would turn off consumers.

``The finished product,'' said Sawhney, ``was immediately distinguishable from a hypodermic. We added features like a contoured thumb depression, dimples for the fingertips and cool colors. It was a product you would probably never conceive of using an industrial designer on.''

The company's approach toward design focuses on the intuitive, said Sawhney.

``Do the speakers look like they will sound good? Or if I pick up a telephone, does it feel good in my hand?''

More tangible are the computer aids the company uses. RKS ascribes much of its growth to computers, which have sped the design process at RKS and elsewhere.

``There really has been a revolution in our industry,'' said David Hawkins, director of business development at Portland, Ore.-based Ziba Design. ``The deliverables that clients ask for are increasingly digital. Time-to-market is probably a third of what it used to be. Computer-assisted design has been a big tool in that; the client can take the digital documentation and hand it off directly to the manufacturer.''

Included in the company's million-dollar investment in computer-aided design technology is a series of machines that allow digitally designed products up to 80 by 60 by 40 inches in size to be fabricated on the spot.

``These aren't just polyurethane-foam study models--though we can make those too--but fully functional prototypes machined in the production material,'' says RKS Vice President Cary Chow. Having the equipment on site means fast project turnaround.

``It's the competitive nature of business,'' said Hawkins. ``Everyone wants to get their product out first, and there are advantages to being first.''

Although no plans are in the works to go public any time in the foreseeable future, RKS has taken an equity stake in several clients that have.

``We are invited into partnerships and derive some of the same benefits of going public ourselves,'' said Sawhney, who says revenue climbed to $6 million last year.

``The company is in a great position,'' he said. ``We have a fantastic team assembled, and these people have a hunger to keep pushing design and design technology.''

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) no caption (flat panel speakers)

(2 -- 3 color) Above, RKS Designs President Ravi Sawhney shows off the EX-4, a flat-panel speaker, backed up by, from left, Vice Presidents Hirotomi Teranishi, Lance Hussey and Cary Chow. At left, the 18,000-square-foot RKS studio features vaulted ceilings, curved walls, a cappuccino bar in its lobby and mountain bike trail outside.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer