Strategic Design for Products, Packaging, & Brands

Carrying insights through to manufacturing to create products with purpose.

Goods

Goods

Balancing empathy, aesthetics, and engineering to develop meaningful and desirable goods.

I make things look like what they do.

Max Knecht is a deeply empathetic and human-centric designer, consistently balancing the user needs with the needs of the brand, the business, and manufacturing.

Abundantly creative with an interdisciplinary skill set acquired through experiences across Research, Branding, Product Design, and Engineering.

Team working in laptop

Useful products don’t happen by accident.

Approach

0
0
0
0
1
2
3
4

Thinking Concurrently, Not Sequentially.

Most groups don't fail at finding insights or design execution, they fail at the handoffs. Research gets handed to strategy, strategy to design, design to engineering, and at each pass something essential is lost. By the time a product reaches manufacturing, the consumer need that justified the whole opportunity has quietly disappeared. 

I carry the work from early insight through to production, so nothing needs to be retranslated. No surprises at manufacturing, no timeline slippage, because the concepts created can actually be produced.

Thinking Concurrently, Not Sequentially.

Thinking Concurrently, Not Sequentially.

Most groups don't fail at finding insights or design execution, they fail at the handoffs. Research gets handed to strategy, strategy to design, design to engineering, and at each pass something essential is lost. By the time a product reaches manufacturing, the consumer need that justified the whole opportunity has quietly disappeared. 

I carry the work from early insight through to production, so nothing needs to be retranslated. No surprises at manufacturing, no timeline slippage, because the concepts created can actually be produced.

Thinking Concurrently, Not Sequentially.

Thinking Concurrently, Not Sequentially.

Most groups don't fail at finding insights or design execution, they fail at the handoffs. Research gets handed to strategy, strategy to design, design to engineering, and at each pass something essential is lost. By the time a product reaches manufacturing, the consumer need that justified the whole opportunity has quietly disappeared. 

I carry the work from early insight through to production, so nothing needs to be retranslated. No surprises at manufacturing, no timeline slippage, because the concepts created can actually be produced.

Thinking Concurrently, Not Sequentially.

High Output, Low Cost.

I use AI the way I use any other tool such as SolidWorks or Photoshop, as the execution of an idea that already exists, design never happens in the software. What it does is augment my capacity, the work that used to take days now takes minutes, without the overhead,  faster turnarounds, lower cost, and a single lead who can always be present.

High Output, Low Cost.

High Output, Low Cost.

I use AI the way I use any other tool such as SolidWorks or Photoshop, as the execution of an idea that already exists, design never happens in the software. What it does is augment my capacity, the work that used to take days now takes minutes, without the overhead,  faster turnarounds, lower cost, and a single lead who can always be present.

High Output, Low Cost.

High Output, Low Cost.

I use AI the way I use any other tool such as SolidWorks or Photoshop, as the execution of an idea that already exists, design never happens in the software. What it does is augment my capacity, the work that used to take days now takes minutes, without the overhead,  faster turnarounds, lower cost, and a single lead who can always be present.

High Output, Low Cost.

Enterprise Fluency

Legal, regulatory, engineering, marketing, and brand each have their own mandates and rarely talk to each other. Outside partners usually make this worse, over-promising at the pitch, delivering concepts that can't be manufactured, leaving internal teams to close the gap. My 15 years inside pharma, medical devices, and consumer health means I know which questions to ask and when.

Enterprise Fluency

Enterprise Fluency

Legal, regulatory, engineering, marketing, and brand each have their own mandates and rarely talk to each other. Outside partners usually make this worse, over-promising at the pitch, delivering concepts that can't be manufactured, leaving internal teams to close the gap. My 15 years inside pharma, medical devices, and consumer health means I know which questions to ask and when.

Enterprise Fluency

Enterprise Fluency

Legal, regulatory, engineering, marketing, and brand each have their own mandates and rarely talk to each other. Outside partners usually make this worse, over-promising at the pitch, delivering concepts that can't be manufactured, leaving internal teams to close the gap. My 15 years inside pharma, medical devices, and consumer health means I know which questions to ask and when.

Enterprise Fluency

Measurable Outcomes, Not Just Beautiful Objects.

Every design decision has a reason and purpose, and understanding if a design serves that purpose is how design can be measured. The hierarchy of what a consumer sees first, the cue that tells a hand where to touch, these are not styling choices. They are decisions grounded in how people actually perceive and respond to objects. Drawn from behavioral science frameworks and years of experience with qualitative studies.

Measurable Outcomes, Not Just Beautiful Objects.

Measurable Outcomes, Not Just Beautiful Objects.

Every design decision has a reason and purpose, and understanding if a design serves that purpose is how design can be measured. The hierarchy of what a consumer sees first, the cue that tells a hand where to touch, these are not styling choices. They are decisions grounded in how people actually perceive and respond to objects. Drawn from behavioral science frameworks and years of experience with qualitative studies.

Measurable Outcomes, Not Just Beautiful Objects.

Measurable Outcomes, Not Just Beautiful Objects.

Every design decision has a reason and purpose, and understanding if a design serves that purpose is how design can be measured. The hierarchy of what a consumer sees first, the cue that tells a hand where to touch, these are not styling choices. They are decisions grounded in how people actually perceive and respond to objects. Drawn from behavioral science frameworks and years of experience with qualitative studies.

Measurable Outcomes, Not Just Beautiful Objects.

Frequently Asked Questions

Radiant Flower Glow

Why yes, I did built this bicycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Radiant Flower Glow

Why yes, I did built this bicycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Radiant Flower Glow

Why yes, I did built this bicycle.

The challenge isn’t having an idea, it is keeping it intact.

Kiara Adams

Max Knecht

Design Strategist

Close-up of a Human Face with Green Eyes

The challenge isn’t having an idea, it is keeping it intact.

Kiara Adams

Max Knecht

Design Strategist

Close-up of a Human Face with Green Eyes

The challenge isn’t having an idea, it is keeping it intact.

Kiara Adams

Max Knecht

Design Strategist

Close-up of a Human Face with Green Eyes