Celebrating Fifty Years of Bally Design

Much has changed in the Industrial Design world since Bally Design’s founding in 1972. CEO Julie Gulick sees the most significant changes in the past five decades in how society views Industrial Design. In the company’s early years, Founder and original CEO Alex Bally would first convince his clients to do work with him and then negotiate prices once he provided the deliverables.

“People didn’t know what design was,” Gulick said. “They didn’t know the value and how it could impact not just the creativity in the form of what they were building but also their bottom line.” 

Gulick describes Bally as a “design evangelist” and sees this evangelizing as a contributing factor to society’s evolved view of Industrial Design. Fast forward 50 years, ergonomics are pivotal, human factors engineering is valued and a majority of people finally “get” design.

Bally Design has been a Pittsburgh mainstay for all its 50 years. Nestled in the historic Crane Building in the Strip District, Bally Design’s studio is a harmonious blend of the best of old and modern, with sleek furniture and massive screens against the building’s beautiful brick walls and ironwork. Many conference rooms have a striking view of the Allegheny River, and a variety of other Pittsburgh mainstays, including Wholey’s, Primanti Bros. and Kelly O’s Diner, located only a short walk away. 

This studio is Bally Design’s fourth, and Julie Gulick is its fourth CEO. A former Bally Design  client herself, Gulick says that Alex Bally’s vision and enthusiasm inspire her. Many of the company’s current principles are similar to those Alex Bally brought to the company (and to Pittsburgh) in 1972.

Recent years have also seen the change in how industrial designers, especially those employed at Bally Design, execute their work. Technology advances have led to a shift from pen and paper to digital. Designers used to carry a sizable physical portfolio to share their work, while the trend has now shifted to website links to online portfolios.

“So much has changed,” Gulick said. “The process of design first evolved from hand sketching using transparent paper repeatedly until the design was right. Now fast forward and it’s all digital on the Wacom. Similarly, products have gone from physical to on-screen to virtual or augmented reality. That transition from physical to digital is immense.”

What has remained unchanged is Bally Design’s focus on the human element of design. The company views human-centered design as humanity-focused rather than individualistic, so they value utilizing a variety of perspectives in their process. Putting themselves in many different shoes allows the designers to create holistic products. Bally Design utilizes its standardized process when working with clients, which includes establishing project scope, discovery, concept exploration, concept development and detail design. 

“It’s looking at an entire solution instead of just looking at a product,” Gulick explained. 

Building Relationships, Finding Passions

What may be Bally Design’s most significant success so far is the longevity of their client relationships – many lasting decades. According to Gulick, its clients place an outstanding level of trust in Bally Design’s deliverables and the impact of their designs.

“A lot of these client’s organizations have grown tremendously over those decades and their needs have changed, and we’ve evolved with them,” Gulick said. “We’ve been able to elevate design to new levels allowing our clients to dream bigger.”

Bally Design’s clients aren’t the only examples of longevity they have to offer; the average tenure of its employees is 18 years, and some of its designers have been with the company since Alex Bally was at the helm in the 1990s. Much like its harmonious Strip District studio, the staff is a blend of tried-and-true experience and fresh perspectives.  

“It’s very rare for people to find their passion so early and then stick together like glue, and that’s what happens here,” said Gulick.

Looking Forward: Bally Design’s Next Fifty Years

Just as the market and technology have changed significantly over the past several decades, Bally Design anticipates and is already seeing new changes in both trends and how they work. On the work side, Bally Design has been looking at working within augmented and virtual reality. Gulick noted that with the shift to remote work, its design practice is evolving, so things like virtual whiteboard sessions will allow employees and clients across the country and around the world to collaborate in real time.

On the trend end, Gulick has noticed that Bally’s solutions are moving more and more toward service design, with an emphasis on creating value in data. 

Robotics are also rapidly becoming a staple, especially so in Pittsburgh, which Gulick cites as one of the three robotics capitals in the United States (the others being Boston and Silicon Valley). A longtime belief was that robots will replace workers, but that’s not what Bally Design sees.

“It is a cooperation with robots,” Gulick said. “How do they work in your space? With people? They’re not behind a screen; they’re going to be in our midst and that impacts design.”

While recent decades have seen a shift from two-dimensional sketching to three-dimensional CAD, designers now must keep in mind even more dimensions. Designing a robot isn’t the same as designing a static product because how a robot engages with its environment and keeping this in mind is pivotal.

“It’s about gestures and movement…how does [the robot] approach you? How do you feel about it? How fast does it move and how close does it get to you? It’s a really different way to think about design. We talk about CMF, which is color-material-finish, and we think about interactions, but now we have to think about gestures and take the entire usability question to a new level.”

All these trends influence Bally Design’s practice, and they are always challenging themselves to rise to the clients’ new needs and future visions. 

“There will still be the heart of human-centered design. What we make may look different, but collaboration, relationships and people need to remain the center,” Gulick concluded.

Bally Design’s 50-Year Anniversary Celebration will be held on Thursday, September 29 from 3-7 p.m. at its Strip District studio located at 40 24th Street. The event is free, and registration information can be found on their homepage at ballydesign.com.