We invite you to learn more about Bullseye Design Worx, and to meet Bullseye Design Worx’ principal and lead product designer and project manager Sean Flickinger. With 25+ years of experience in product design and industrial design services, Sean Flickinger is both a seasoned, expert product designer; an expert who’s well-versed in all aspects of the product design & development process, and also a professional who lives and breathes design.
It’s not often that someone can pinpoint the defining moment when they chose their career, but Sean Flickinger is that rare individual who knew what he was going to do with his life when he was very young.
His passion for design started with a single, identifiable experience when he was 9 years old. When Sean was visiting relatives on a family trip, his uncle proudly showed Sean his prized possession: a 1969 Corvette convertible with a 427-cubic-inch, V8 engine belting out ferocious rumbles from its side pipes. To top this off, Sean’s uncle had custom painted the car with red, white, and blue stripes in honor of the U.S. bicentennial, which had occurred a few years prior. Then his uncle offered to take Sean for a “ride” in the Corvette.
It sounded innocent enough. But what really occurred was a high-speed race on curving back-country mountain roads that Sean describes as riding a rocket. When they arrived back home, Sean was white as a sheet but grinning from ear to ear.
“The experience of that combination of the sleek lines of the car, its incredible performance, and the paint scheme lead me to the feeling that every product should give you an experience like that,” he said. “I now design more for the user and environment of the product rather than creating designs on pure adrenaline. I don’t know how many people want to have that same Corvette-ride experience with their kitchen appliances. But if it takes them three cups of coffee to get going in the morning, then maybe they do.”
Sean earned a Bachelor of Science in Transportation Design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He also went on to become certified as a New Product Development Professional from the Product Development Management Association.
When he was first out of school, Sean worked for GT Bicycles, where he designed the company’s first carbon-fiber mountain bike. After that, he worked for Black & Decker, designing a number of DeWalt brand cordless power tools.
Since then, Sean Flickinger has worked as a product designer for the Ford Motor Company, and then led the design team for Husqvarna which developed a sleek and efficient new replacement for Husqvarna’s popular leaf blower. He earned more experience serving as a senior product designer for Karcher North America, where he designed such a powerful, well-designed, high-performing commercial floor cleaner that sales were 200% more than projected in the first year of its introduction.
After his tenure with Karcher North America, Sean served as the Design Manager at Magpul industries, an American designer and manufacturer of high-quality consumer products, including firearms accessories and electronics cases.
In 2009, he started doing overflow product design work for design firms. In 2011, he officially launched Bullseye Design Worx, based in metro Denver, Colorado, to provide top-quality, affordable & efficient product design and development services to a wide variety of clients.
His hands-on, “can-do” attitude, coupled with strong business skills, project management skills, and design skills, has brought Bullseye Design Worx to the forefront as the “go-to” company for product concepting, product design, product prototyping, fabrication, and product sourcing – as well as offering the solid business planning and strategy that helps products succeed.
Sean Flickinger is an expert at Pro/E, Pro-Engineer/CREO CAD modeling software; SolidWorks; Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop; and on-the-fly sketching of product concepts. He also uses industry-standard product design and development methodologies, including Lean Product Development (LPD); Quality Function Deployment (QFD); and the New Product Development Process (NPD).
Sean Flickinger keeps up on design trends by attending product design industry trade shows, attending webinars on product design and development processes, reviewing design magazines, observing the natural world, the built environment, and staying on top of what’s possible based on evolving manufacturing methods.
“My interest is in the development of products that help people enjoy life more. My mind lives in a constant world of ‘How could this be better?’” I observe how people are using and interacting with products and watch how easily they use them (or not). And I’m constantly evaluating my own emotions and feelings as I research and test-drive products. This helps me evaluate what’s working and what’s not, and brainstorm how to improve products even further – either to improve the customer experience, to be more cost-effective to manufacture, or to provide new functionality.”
Contact Sean Flickinger and Bullseye Design Worx for a free, one-hour product consultation.