INDUSTRIOUS DESIGN COMPANY CHARTS COMPUTER-SAVVY COURSE.

Byline: P.J. Huffstutter Daily News Staff Writer

Step inside RKS Design's studio and the first thing you notice are the mountain bikes.

Sure, the tables are covered with computer screens and the walls are plastered with glossy digital images of the company's many creations. But grabbing your attention are the half-dozen bikes - caked with mud, seats and handle bars worn, leaning precariously against a railing in the middle of the room.

While young staffers at RKS have designed parts for these very mountain bikes, company President Ravi Sawhney plans to roll on to other favorite sports: ``Someday, I want to design the most sleek, hip snowboard around.''

If he did, the first rider would have to strap on a keyboard.

Like larger industrial design firms in Silicon Valley, this tiny company has thrown out most of its pencils and creates all of its products digitally.

As more corporations trim their budgets by phasing out their in-house design departments, computer savvy firms like RKS are filling the gap. With a staff of only 20, RKS has tackled projects for such multimillion-dollar companies as SEGA of America, Apple Computer, L.A. Gear and Rubbermaid Inc.

``It's a trend I've seen grow over the last few years,'' said Chuck Pelly, president of the Newbury Park-based firm Design Works/USA. ``These smaller companies are popping up all over Los Angeles.''

After leaving Xerox in the early '80s, Sawhney decided to form his own industrial design firm. In 1983, he bought a small house on Canoga Avenue and ``gutted it inside and out to build my dream studio.'' Sawhney then recruited a couple of designers and quietly began telling friends he was looking for clients.

``I've never hired a salesman and I never will,'' Sawhney said. Word of mouth, he says, works just fine.

RKS has designed parts of Teddy Ruxpin, the talking stuffed bear, for Worlds of Wonder Inc.; built a fetal monitoring system for Tokos Medical Corp.; and created high-end stereo speakers for JBL.

Looks really count

Today, the San Fernando Valley company focuses on the belief that people won't buy an ugly piece of equipment.

``Visual positioning is crucial when you're trying to get the consumer's attention,'' Sawhney said. ``What's the first thing people do when they go shopping? They look at an object, they pick it up and feel its weight. They're making instant decisions based on information they pick up from the design of a product.''

Many consumer electronic firms have lost their in-house design teams to corporate downsizing. In addition, the technology industry is feeling the competitive pinch to bring its products faster and cheaper to a market hungry for the latest, greatest invention.

Now, these firms are relying on design companies like RKS to translate vague concepts into pretty and workable products. That's the route taken by the staff at SyQuest, the Fremont-based company known for its removable hard-disk drives. When a competitor created a smaller, more aesthetically pleasing drive in 1993, SyQuest decided to revamp its look.

``We needed someone who knew what would sell to corporations and people who shop at CompUSA,'' said Ron Brown, vice president of marketing at SyQuest. ``We had a very aggressive timetable and RKS was able to work with that.''

Computers speed design

RKS attributes much of its success to computers, which improve the company's response time.

Traditionally, design firms sketch out several ideas of how a product could look. Each drawing is usually done by hand and, because of its two-dimensional nature, limited in its scope. A single drawing can't be rotated to show the breadth or depth of an object; nor can the color or size be changed with a single key stroke.

``Before computer-aided design (CAD) equipment, the process was open to interpretation,'' said Martin Bone, a designer at IDEO Product Development in Palo Alto, one of the country's largest industrial design firms.

``Your design is detailed in a two-dimensional drawing. But then someone else - the engineer, the modeler - would have to interpret the drawing. That could take time and, if there were any misinterpretations, cost a lot.''

At RKS, the firm combines computer-generated and hand-drawn designs to produce elaborate, photo-realistic renderings. Once the client agrees on a specific look, the firm goes back to the computer and literally builds the product - from the sculpting of its exterior to the nuts and bolts of its interior - on the screen.

This information is then passed on to a separate machine, which cuts out a foam copy of the product. If the client approves it, RKS again uses the computers to check whether the product will actually work. Does a lever on a bicycle brake fit or does it hit another piece of metal?

``It can take forever to draw some of these things, and to create some of these models without the help of a computer would be impossible,'' said RKS designer Juan Cilla. ``I don't know anyone in this field who doesn't use a computer.''

As opportunities for smaller firms like RKS grow, so does the cost of the computer-aided design equipment.

``We annually spend $300,000 to $400,000 on new technology,'' said Sohrab Vossoughi, president of Ziba Design of Portland, Ore. ``You have to match your system to each of your client's systems. You need to be compatible with everyone, and that costs money.''

Sawhney admits this pressure to update continually - as well as the cost of purchasing new equipment - has limited the staff size at RKS.

Still, Sawhney is determined to have the best technology on hand. Ten of the 21 workstations at RKS can create three-dimensional models, the key to the company's work. The company plans to add a couple more - at nearly $70,000 a pop.

The firm also is looking to move into larger quarters, while staying in the San Fernando Valley.

``This is home for me, my employees and RKS,'' Sawhney explained.

But, he adds, ``I will never let this company get so big that I lose track of what projects we're working on. If we're smaller than IDEO, so what? The computers help give us an edge, so we can perform as well as anyone else - big or small.''

RKS DESIGN

Industrial design firm, specializing in computer-aided design.

Home base: Canoga Park.

Office: A 5,000-square-foot converted house.

Employees: 20.

Sales for 1995: $2.5 million, with the average project costing $50,000.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Color) RKS founding President Ravi Sawhn ey, right, and members of his staff pride themselves on tackling big industrial-design projects.

(2--Color) This shows the design of SyQuest Technology's EZFlyer 230 MB removable hard disk drive.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News

Box: RKS DESIGN (See text)