The firm of Douglas Ball Inc. was created in 1969, to specialize in the field of Industrial Design.

In 1960, Douglas Ball joined a small manufacturer in Waterloo, Ontario as a staff designer. Sunshine Office Equipment became Sunar and went on to become one of Canada's major exporters of office furniture systems until the company's demise in 1990. In 1978, when Sunar was acquired by Cleveland based Hauserman Inc., Ball became Director of Design for the years 1979 to 1986. During the 1980's thecompany earned an international reputation for leading edge design.

Principal efforts have centered around product design in the areas of office furniture, seating, and systems designs for both steel and wood manufacturing. Past work also includes research and development of transportation aids for the disabled as well as exhibition and showroom design.

Some of the most noteworthy projects include the design of the Race System for Sunar in 1980, the design and fabrication of a bed and wheelchair specially built for the Queen Mother of the Sultanate of Oman in 1993, and in 1994 the Clipper CS-1, a capsule design computer workstation which has been selected for the permanent design collection of the Design Museum in the UK.

Numerous design awards have been received including, in 1978 a clean sweep at the IBD / Contract Product Design Competition Awards in New York City; four gold and one silver award besides "best of competition" for the Sunar Race System.