About
Tandem Design is an award-winning California industrial design/product development firm trusted by global brands and high-growth innovators to bring category-defining products to market. Founded in 2009 by former Gateway Computers lead designer Michael Hong, Tandem has a proven track record of developing products that define the category and scale to millions and earn global recognition.
Our goal is to maximize the market impact for your products. We start our design process by understanding the needs of the customers and the market. We can take an innovative idea from ID concept to final product.
Our industry know-how can give you the competitive edge of bringing your products to the market faster than your competition.
full stack design & Product Strategy
What We Do
Industrial Design
Consumer Research
Brand & Product Design Strategy
Mechanical Engineering
User Interface & Web
Electrical Engineering
Prototyping
Retail Experience Design
Small Volume Production (Made in USA)
Our Story
Founded in 2009 by Michael Hong in Irvine, California, Tandem was created to redefine product design by uniting innovation, form, function, and manufacturability. Before launching Tandem Design, Michael was already shaping the consumer electronics world—designing the Gateway FX Gaming PC and the Gateway ZX All-in-One, the top-selling AIO computer of 2010, with 1 million units sold in its first year. Just one month after leaving Gateway, Michael founded Tandem and delivered the company’s first project: the VIZIO SoundBar, a product line that helped define the global consumer soundbar category and reached 1 million units sold per year.
At Tandem, we take a holistic approach in product development: design products inside out and outside in—simultaneously, like visualizing the egg and the chicken together. This approach ensures every product is meaningful, human-centric, and delightful to use.
Designs That Drive Sales and Win Awards
In 2022, Tandem won 2 Red Dot Design Awards, the Most Prestigious Global Design Awards. In the same year, Tandem was engaged by SENSEI, a Santa Monica company at the forefront of the tech wellness movement, founded by Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle.
Tandem’s designs helped start-ups with 7 consecutive successful Kickstarter & Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns, with ROI of 1500%, turning early ideas into market-ready products. Tandem helped clients win 11 CES Innovation Awards, highlighting our commitment to impactful and award-winning design.
Tandem collaborated closely with the VIZIO team and its manufacturer Foxconn to design and engineer the 70″ and 80″ M‑Series large screen LCD TVs. These were part of VIZIO’s flagship extra large screen lineup and were among the largest consumer LCD TVs at the time.
Here are some tech startup & fortune 500 level companies Tandem has worked with:
Startups/Crowdfunding
Ridge
Somabar
COMHEAR
Ajnalens
Rufus Labs
Computers
HP
Gateway
Acer
Information Technology
InFocus
ClearOne
FellowRobots
Consumer Technology
Pioneer
VIZIO
Samsung
Industrial /Manufacturing
Covestro
Foxconn
Aerospace
Meggitt
ITT
Automotive/Clean Energy
Honda
Security Technology
Morpho Safran
Medical & Wellness
Kaiser Permanente
Sensei
Retail & Consumer Services
Sonic
Coinstar
Our Mission
We aim to make technology disappear, letting people engage effortlessly with our products. At Tandem, we craft designs that enhance everyday life, delivering experiences that are intuitive, beautiful, and lasting.
Bring joy to users by turning innovative ideas into reality.
Maximize market impact through the Holistic design: visualization, design & engineering.
