Internationally acclaimed industrial designer Ravi K. Sawhney will share his insights for success at the latest presentation of Cal State Northridge’s Commerce of Creativity Distinguished Speaker Series on Thursday, Oct. 25, at the university.

Ravi K. Sawhney

Sawhney, who’s creativity helped launched more than 100 award-winning product lines and is a Cal State Northridge alumnus, will speak at 7 p.m. in the Kurland Lecture Hall of the Valley Performing Arts Center located at the south end of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

Sawhney is president and chief executive officer of RKS, formerly RKS Design, an innovative industrial design firm based in Thousand Oaks. RKS has won dozens of awards, including five Industrial Design Excellence Awards from the Industrial Design Society of America.

He graduated from CSUN with a bachelor’s degree in art in 1978 and began his career as an instructor of industrial design at the university. He moved on to a job at Xerox, where he worked on several projects, including those involving first-generation touch screens.

Sawhney also co-founded RKS Guitars with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dave Mason. The company designs and manufactures unique open-architecture guitars. In 2005, one these guitars graced the cover of BusinessWeek, one of only two products to ever be put on the magazine’s cover. The other was an iPod.

In addition to RKS, Sawhney has helped start several other businesses and is a licensor of numerous products and design innovations, as well as being named on more than 200 patents worldwide and receiving more than 140 awards.

In 2010, Sawhney co-authored “Predictable Magic,” which explores his unique design methodology knows as Psycho-Aesthetics®. This technique is used to create new designs for products ranging from mass spectrometers to cheese graters and cellular phones to downhill sleds. A book signing will follow the lecture.

The Commerce of Creativity Distinguished Lecture Speaker Series, produced by CSUN’s Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication, began in the fall of 2011 as a way to connect members of the campus and the San Fernando Valley business community with compelling and provocative storytellers who have made significant contributions to global business achievement.

“California State University, Northridge is committed to educating students who go on to successful careers in creative industries,” said Robert Bucker, dean of the Mike Curb College. “We are investing in their future leadership by exploring and celebrating the creative problem solving occurring right her in the Valley.”

The lecture series is free and open to the public. Reservations are recommended. To make a reservation, visit the website http://www.c2speakers/ or call Jennifer Reifsneider at (818) 677-7038.

Cal State Northridge’s Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication is inspired by the shared belief that art is communication, that communication is an art and that art and communication are essential pillars for building and maintaining community. Many of its programs, including those in art, music, theater, cinema and television arts and journalism, have an international reputation for graduating skilled professionals who go on and make names for themselves in their respected fields.

Arts and Culture, Lectures, Mike Curb College of Arts Media and Communication, Valley Performing Arts Center