Thanks for the feedback guys.
Yeah, Fitch and Frog are pretty well known and respected. Checked out their sites a few days ago. Today I also re-found a site I stumbled upon last Friday,
http://www.designdirectory.com which seems like a very good resource for both clients (like me) as well as designers.
Found two designers which have worked on Rio products, including the Carbon. They're on my initial short-list right now. I don't know how closely other customers normally work with their design team, but I've already got some very specific ideas of what I want, so in addition to being talented, they have to be able to work well with my requirements/ideas and above all, get along with me (yeah, I hear sometimes that can be hard
)
I'm also in the process of interviewing contract-manufacturing partners so I have to be sure that everthing/everyone fits together nicely.
Bruno