Sex shops don't exactly have the highest reputation. Neon lights and blacked-out windows create an air of sleaze. The only thing sleazier is being a patron. Ashamed. Dirty. Not wanting to be seen, or to make eye contact with your fellow consumers.

You walk in, as secretly as possible, only to see unrealistically sized products that leave you wondering what the hell you do with that, or even where you're supposed to put it. And how would you get it home? And where could you discreetly store it? Faced with a selection ranging from plastics that glitter to strange devices that resemble meat tenderizers, shopping for pleasure can be more embarrassing than satisfying.

And yet, over half of the female population uses autoerotic accessories, and nearly half of the male population has as well.

Unfortunately, social stigmas and sloppy design have created a commercial vacuum where form and function are largely ignored. After all, who is going to speak up and complain that their vibrator is too awkward to hold for long periods of time? Or that it doesn't rotate fast enough? Or worse yet, that they aren't sure how to use it? And who would they contact, anyway? With consumers in their unmentionable grip, the industry has hummed along in the same old status quo.

Fortunately for women (and men!) everywhere, some designers have heard the silence, and they are getting more intimately involved in starting a dialogue. Consumer conscious companies like Jimmyjane and designers like world-renowned Yves Behar (the brains behind San Francisco-based design and branding company fuseproject) are liberating sex toys from the night stand, elevating them to the mainstream and, in the process, pushing the boundaries of the discourse around sexuality.

Designing pleasure for the people

San Francisco's Jimmyjane, a cutting-edge adult toy company, is paving the way to a new future in the sex product category with its founder and chief creative officer, Ethan Imboden. He is bringing his extensive industrial design experience to our most intimate moments.

Having noticed the industry's tawdry branding, short life spans, loud vibrations and toxic materials, he sought to provide for our private gadgets the same valuable design that we'd expect from our public ones; replace the tacky with tactile, the clunky with ergonomic, the loud with subtle, and the slapdash with "stereo sensation." We may still be embarrassed about having a sex toy, but at least we can be proud of its sleek simplicity, intuitive design and durable functionality.

"Design across the board can effect positive change," says Imboden. "And we're fortunate to have found an area where there's (1) incredible importance and (2) so much change that can happen and needs to happen."

First came the silent Little Somethings — short waterproof batons of 24k gold, platinum or steel: elegant, sleek, versatile and made with medical-grade materials that won't flinch upon contact with mucus membranes. Then came the Little Chromas — the Something's anodized aluminum sister.

When the FORM 6 arrived, it shocked the market with its approachable aesthetic, two useable ends, seamless surface, and materials — like phthalate-free platinum silicone and stainless steel — that won't make your body wince.

The award-winning FORM 6 vibrator paired waterproof with rechargeable. But Imboden sought to expand the concept into an entire FORM line, bringing on-board friend and colleague Yves Behar to help him.

Having talked informally for two years about collaborating, the two finally joined forces and creative juices to completely reimagine the adult accessory space by putting pleasure first and creating provocative possibilities (at least in the bedroom).

"We didn't want to create a single vibrator that was like a Swiss Army knife and could do all sorts of things," says Imboden. "We wanted to create really specific and uniquely functional products."

Imboden and Behar originally set out to deliver one groundbreaking product that was simple, intuitive but superlative in what it set out to do, but they quickly discovered several powerful design possibilities. One product with its own unique "power to please" turned into three, and thus their "Pleasure to the People" campaign was born.

The new Rabbit

FORM 2, the first of the three vibrators, hit the market in November — a smooth and compact design with two flexible vibrating ears, each individually powered, that provides more than twice the intensity of anything else its size.

"Aesthetics, utility, and sustainability are exactly what we designed in FORM 2, in an expressive, simple form that says 'bunny,' with a bit of humor," says Behar.

And while the details of FORM 3 and 4 are still under wraps, Imboden reassures us that "each one of the products is completely unique unto itself. They are unified by using the same charging system and charging base. [In that sense], they create a great little set of vibrators, but they don't overlap in functionality. Each one has a very specific and innovative functional concept at its heart."

Stayed tuned tomorrow for part two of Anna Hennings's interviews with Ethan Imboden of Jimmyjane and award-winning designer Yves Behar. You'll discover how sex toys are going body-safe, how they're changing how we talk about sex and what to expect in the industry's future.

For more from Anna, you can check out her magnificent personal blog, TallAnna.com or follow her on Twitter as @tallanna.

All images © Jimmyjane