I have a very difficult brief for a new product developemnt/design, possibly even a new product category and I am looking for companies that can make that brief a product reality. Must have expertise in consumer goods, preferably electronics and or personal accessories and Europe-based.
Any recomendations for out-of-the-box minds?
me
European Designers NOT You’re-a-peein’ Designers.
oh 
SEymore Powell is one of the best ones in europe. You’ve reminded me of my college days when we were brought there to visit. One of other places would be Philips in Einhoven. Anyway, the guy at Seymore Powell graduated from the Manchester polytechnic, which used to be the top college in the UK then. So was Ross Lovegrove (now the Manchester Metropolitan University) Now I think the top one is the university of northumbria. the other one is Sheffield Hallam University. In any case most of the best designers come from the Royal College of Art if they happen to do a postgrad.
I am from the EU but not a consumer electronis designer so…
You may want at:
look at Kiska in Austria they do all the work for KTM
http://www.kiskadesign.com/index.1.0.html
Spark in Holland.
http://www.sparkdesign.nl/en/index.html
But You should be able to find some one in Switserland I guess.
Regards B-art
http://www.marcelwanders.com/ He’s done some fantastic consumer electronics
http://www.formuswithlove.se A Swedish Group of youngsters doing great stuff with furniture
http://www.luiseslava.com/ Luis Eslava is Spanish designer who I find extremely competent and lots of fun
http://mr-jones.org/ Also, Crispin Jones is a UK designer with a lot of consumer product experience with teeth