Taking shape: Nectar Design has thrived with an unconventional approach to concepts ranging from musical instrument cases to storage bins.

WHEN Stephen Morrish needed to come up with a rooftop enclosure for a wireless transmission device his company was developing, most of the design houses wanted to draw up plans based on pre-existing templates. That wouldn't work, he knew, because the optical transmitter had unusual needs (its temperature had to be maintained within a certain range, for instance) so he approached a high-end firm. Their message was clear: "We will tell you what you need."

Morrish wound up choosing Nectar Design, a 12-year-old industrial design house that has a vegetarian bent and a refreshing pitch. Nectar designers sat him down in their Long Beach studios, a former furniture factory, and offered him some fruit drinks.

"They said, 'We don't know exactly what you need, but we will work with you,'" said Morrish, the supply chain manager for Omnilux Inc., an Idealab startup. "We were looking for somebody to say that."

There's not much about Nectar that is typical. The firm was founded by Darren Saravis, a former punk rocker and jazz guitarist who still sports a goatee tied with a rubber band.

Nectar has found success by putting design principles ahead of appearances. Since founding the company in 1992, Saravis has built an impressive list of product designs for national companies, including storage bins for Newell Rubbermaid Inc., and a photo printer for Seiko Epson Corp.

"Typically, a client has more expertise in-house than anybody, but they are stuck in a particular mindset," said Saravis. "We say we don't know anything but let's learn."

Now, the 12-member design house, which grosses about $2 million annually, awaits the U.S. debut of a new storage system that it not only designed but is manufacturing through a subsidiary.

Humble roots

Nectar got its start when Saravis, a 1989 industrial design graduate of Cal State Northridge, tired of freelancing for local firms and wanted to go it alone.

Having played guitar since his youth, he had an idea for a board that would rest on the floor and serve as platform for all the pedals that guitarists use to create various sounds. He brought a handcrafted prototype to a music convention where Larry Thomas, chief executive of Guitar Center Inc., was impressed by the idea, though not the execution.

He suggested that Saravis meet Dave Sanderson, owner of SKB, an Orange County case manufacturing firm that was a big supplier for Guitar Center.

The result was a best-selling pedal board, variations of which SKB manufactures and Guitar Center still sells today. It also was the first of an ongoing collaboration that has produced three dozen types of cases for instruments and other uses.

"Darren is really an artist, and that can be frustrating. Darren starts late and stays late," said Sanderson (Saravis is just off his second divorce, which he partially blames on his intense devotion to his business).

The firm started in Saravis' Long Beach house before moving, several times to regular offices that have grown over the years. That progress is reflected in the work on display: everything from huge instrument cases for SKB to an anatomically correct dress model for Liz Claiborne Inc., to a computer peripheral for Belkin Corp. Several of the products have won national design awards, including a telescoping hands-free cell phone headset honored at the annual Consumer Electronics Show.

Having a dozen employees (freelancers are used when needed) makes Nectar a medium-sized design house in what has essentially remained a cottage industry, aided by powerful new computers and software that allow small groups of designers to work on complex projects.

Work at Nectar is project oriented, with the company charging a set design fee that can range from $30,000 to as much as $100,000.

Generally, industrial design focuses on the exterior of a product, but some firms such as Nectar also include engineers who understand electronics and other technical matters. "I kind of work from the inside out," said John Duval, a key engineer who has been with Saravis from the start.

There's also the sidelight. Three years ago, the company accepted $2 million in venture capital funding after Saravis patented an idea for a product called Snaps, a plastic connector that allow various pieces of wood or other material to be connected in various shapes and sizes for use as storage devices.

Rather than selling just the connectors, Saravis used the funding to set up a subsidiary that has contracted with Chinese manufacturers to build the storage modules. Saravis displayed them last year at a Hong Kong housewares show and the products are now on the market in Japan.

Ryuzo Tomoi, chief executive of Entrex Inc., a Tokyo-based distributor, saw the product and decided to buy $100,000 worth. "I have been in this business for five years, and it's so unique," said Tomoi. "We are getting a good reception."

The product is selling for the equivalent of $90 at high-end, trendy retailers, he said. Prices in the U.S. haven't been established, but the company has an agreement with two major American retailers to roll out the product in more than 2,000 stores.

"This is kind of the next step, but we really just want to do more of the same," said Saravis, who still plays music every day, but is now concentrating on learning to play the sitar.

PROFILE

Nectar Design

Year Founded: 1992

Core Business: Industrial product design

Revenues in 2002:$2 million

Revenues in 2003:$2 million

Employees in 2002:12

Employees in 2003:12

Goal: Incremental growth of its core industrial design business and success for its Snaps modular storage products

Driving Force: Providing integrated industrial design customized to the needs of its clients