Ignition History

1985 - Douglas Laube launched Douglas Laube Industrial Design in the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas. From the beginning, he wanted to infuse his practice with a prototyping philosophy. Realizing that execution and communication were as important to the product development process as creativity and ideation, Doug established Engineering and Prototyping as core disciplines in his young company.

Doug was determined to make great products for his clients by creating an environment that was optimized for producing results. So he struck a delicate balance between traditionally conflicting disciplines. He nurtured three distinct groups of people — designers, engineers and model makers. While he reinforced their individual values, he also fostered mutual familiarity and respect. In doing so, the company as a whole could work together to solve complex product development problems.

1994 - We knew the time had come to change the firm’s name to reflect a company that, while still a reflection of the founder’s principles, was much bigger than one person. So we changed the company’s name to Ignition.  Ignition captured the energy of the company and its people, as well as Doug’s passion for pushing clients beyond their own expectations and their competition.

1996 - Consumer behaviors were changing faster than ever. The explosion of the Internet and wireless communications changed the way people looked at products, services and content. Ignition changed too. Though our designers and engineers had always done informal user research, we now added user research as a formal in-house competency.

2000 - Having outgrown three separate facilities in downtown Plano, Ignition moved to a custom-designed, 27,000 square-foot facility in the epicenter of the North Texas Research and Technology Corridor.

2005 - Ignition added two new offices in Asia — one in Taiwan, and one in Hong Kong. This Asian presence helps Ignition streamline the development and production process, and gives the company unique access to global manufacturing and distribution channels.

Twenty years and more than a thousand products later, Doug Laube’s design and product development firm still ignites immense passion among its people and its clients.