Sophie Matthews, Thomas.Matthews
At Thomas Matthews, we define sustainability, and we’ve defined sustainable design as creating a product or a piece of print, or something that has maximum impact for our client but has minimum impact on the earth and its resources and for future use as well.
Robin Murray, Ekologica
The way we use materials, the way we produce is the dominant issue in this century and, just as design was absolutely at the core of the expansion of mass production in the 20th century, I think design should be at the core of the green industrial revolution that must mark the 21st century.
Dr Andrea Siodmok, Design Council
If you are a scientist, you will start with one idea and want to get from A to B as fast as possible and there is only one right answer. But for designers, there are so many different ideas that the design process has to allow you to explore those but then to bring them back and actually chose the very best possible solution.
Sebastian Conran, Studio Conran
It starts with briefing, then it goes on to an understanding phase and then exploring ideas. Then we refine these ideas into actual designs, and then we put those designs into production.
Nick Leon, Design London Design is that kind of crucial
bridge that exists between the kind of creative impulse and an idea that is then converted into social and economic impact. And design has got to have that kind of transformational capability, so it’s a journey to that. Sometimes a journey which will take you into new business models, sometimes it will take you into new services, new products, even new ideas from the original creative impulse. But it’s a bridge and that is the most important thing about it.
Joe Ferry, Virgin Atlantic
At the lowest ebb of recession, just after 2001, for the airline industry, cutbacks were being made very frequently. The majority of other airlines were stopping all investment in design. That’s exactly when we started ramping up our investment in design. We knew the market was going to come back, when it did we wanted to have the best product on the market, everything slotted into place. In 2003 we came back to the market with our new upper class suite, took the market by storm – it was a massive market share shift for us and we’ve never looked back.
Tom Dixon, Designer
The designer’s job with the client often is to take a part of the brief or the task and challenge it and rephrase it for the customer. I think, often responding to briefs, in my experience, has been the wrong thing to do, but challenging the brief and improving on the brief, or going beyond the expectation of the customer is what a good designer should try and do.
Ingrid Baron, IDEO
I think it’s about partnerships – good partnerships between designers, clients, people, users, all sorts of, you know, stakeholders coming together. I think that good design is informed design, design that has impact on people’s lives.
It is a process joining creativity and innovation and delivering value.
And it’s the work of good designers (and good clients).