Karin Hibma
http://cronan.com/karin.html
Design thinking is a potent strategic ingredient in any worthwhile endeavor.
Karin Hibma has a first hand understanding of the power of design and visual thinking in our economy and culture and works to see the world through the eyes of the customer. A strategic partner in : : CRONAN : : since its founding in 1980, Hibma brings deep listening, design thinking and creative insights into finding "the big idea" inherent in every client's projects. : : CRONAN : : creates memorable names and strategic brand identities; Hibma knows how to clarify problems and see opportunities, deep thinking for and with clients.
Born in Minnesota into an Air Force family, Hibma traveled extensively, lived and worked in Germany and France before completing her BA in Fine Art at California State University Sacramento while she freelanced as a design researcher. Moving to Berkeley in 1974, Hibma founded Design Resource, a creative research company, to work with illustrators, photographers and filmmakers on documentaries, advertising campaigns and commercials. Clients included the State of California, Landor Associates, top professional creatives in San Francisco/Los Angeles and Japanese production companies. She was commissioned in 1978 by The Burdick Group to research and write “Creativity: The Human Resource”, a centennial traveling museum exhibition funded by Chevron to examine the creative process of contemporary Americans who'd made major contributions in the arts and sciences, and to document and define their creative insights.
Hibma personally researched over one thousand candidates, profiled over two hundred, interviewed fifty and worked with artists John Cage, Judy Chicago, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Lawrence Halprin, George Nelson, Robert Rauschenberg and scientists Margaret Mead, Linus Pauling, and Jonas Salk to write and document exhibits on their work, while coordinating the research team for the overall project and defining the creative process. She became the model for artist Judy Chicago’s “Birth Project”, and a lifelong correspondent with Dr. Salk. Hibma has a deep understanding and connection with creativity!
Hibma served on the transformational advisory council of the International Design Conference in Aspen (IDCA) 2004-5, and Aspen Design Leadership Summit where she met Dr. Paul Polak (founder of IDE, an international organization concentrating on ending rural poverty) and strategized with him as he authored “Out of Poverty” and founded "Design for the Other 90%" and D-Rev.
Hibma founded and is the president of Cronan Artefact, a product development, manufacturing and marketing company incorporated in 1991 to market the Walking Man lifestyle "at home wherever you are" line of apparel designed by Michael Cronan and Hibma. They won International Design's 1992 Consumer Product Gold Award, presented at the United Nations and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and were invited into the New York Designers Collective.
In June of 2009, she and partner Michael Cronan were named two of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business.
Karin and Michael live and work in the Berkeley hills and have two sons; Shawn HibmaCronan is an accomplished sculptor and furniture designer, Nick Cronan is an award-winning industrial designer who, with his wife Analisa Goodin (founder, "Visual Catch") created Sophia, the first grand-daughter. Hibma's father, Sidney, lived with the family until he passed recently at age 93. Sid contributed the theme "Serenity" and a love of bird-watching to the HibmaCronan's lives and work.
Karin Hibma has a first hand understanding of the power of design and visual thinking in our economy and culture and works to see the world through the eyes of the customer. A strategic partner in : : CRONAN : : since its founding in 1980, Hibma brings deep listening, design thinking and creative insights into finding "the big idea" inherent in every client's projects. : : CRONAN : : creates memorable names and strategic brand identities; Hibma knows how to clarify problems and see opportunities, deep thinking for and with clients.
Born in Minnesota into an Air Force family, Hibma traveled extensively, lived and worked in Germany and France before completing her BA in Fine Art at California State University Sacramento while she freelanced as a design researcher. Moving to Berkeley in 1974, Hibma founded Design Resource, a creative research company, to work with illustrators, photographers and filmmakers on documentaries, advertising campaigns and commercials. Clients included the State of California, Landor Associates, top professional creatives in San Francisco/Los Angeles and Japanese production companies. She was commissioned in 1978 by The Burdick Group to research and write “Creativity: The Human Resource”, a centennial traveling museum exhibition funded by Chevron to examine the creative process of contemporary Americans who'd made major contributions in the arts and sciences, and to document and define their creative insights.
Hibma personally researched over one thousand candidates, profiled over two hundred, interviewed fifty and worked with artists John Cage, Judy Chicago, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Lawrence Halprin, George Nelson, Robert Rauschenberg and scientists Margaret Mead, Linus Pauling, and Jonas Salk to write and document exhibits on their work, while coordinating the research team for the overall project and defining the creative process. She became the model for artist Judy Chicago’s “Birth Project”, and a lifelong correspondent with Dr. Salk. Hibma has a deep understanding and connection with creativity!
Hibma served on the transformational advisory council of the International Design Conference in Aspen (IDCA) 2004-5, and Aspen Design Leadership Summit where she met Dr. Paul Polak (founder of IDE, an international organization concentrating on ending rural poverty) and strategized with him as he authored “Out of Poverty” and founded "Design for the Other 90%" and D-Rev.
Hibma founded and is the president of Cronan Artefact, a product development, manufacturing and marketing company incorporated in 1991 to market the Walking Man lifestyle "at home wherever you are" line of apparel designed by Michael Cronan and Hibma. They won International Design's 1992 Consumer Product Gold Award, presented at the United Nations and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and were invited into the New York Designers Collective.
In June of 2009, she and partner Michael Cronan were named two of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business.
Karin and Michael live and work in the Berkeley hills and have two sons; Shawn HibmaCronan is an accomplished sculptor and furniture designer, Nick Cronan is an award-winning industrial designer who, with his wife Analisa Goodin (founder, "Visual Catch") created Sophia, the first grand-daughter. Hibma's father, Sidney, lived with the family until he passed recently at age 93. Sid contributed the theme "Serenity" and a love of bird-watching to the HibmaCronan's lives and work.