Insights

Designer of the month 1: Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang graduated from Napier University of Edinburgh with a degree in Industrial Design and went on to gain an MA in Industrial Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art. He spent 10 years working with various design consultancies before establishing Andrew Lang Product Design Ltd in 2003.

How’s business?

Business is good, over the past few years we have moved away from focusing solely on consultancy work and now a good proportion of our income comes from taking our own products to market.

Fortunately one of these, the Cycloc for storing or displaying bicycles, has flown to the point that a single product is rapidly becoming a global brand with a range of products.

Has the nature of your work changed during the recession?

Our focus had begun to change before the recession - I graduated in Industrial Design during the last recession. I recall the uneasy feeling of not being in total control of my destiny and this was one of the reasons we started to manufacture our products.

Running a design consultancy, the workload is often cyclical in nature: sometime we have lots on, other times we’re just ticking over – and this is reflected in the income stream. Manufacturing our own products has helped us to even this out.

Do you find yourself having to justify the value design brings to a project?

Occasionally, yes, but more often, no. I would rather the objects we create validate themselves - and from recent experience if you produce something that is good and relevant the effect it has is hugely powerful. It is a delight to be at, for instance, a tradeshow and watch people stop and look and feel compelled to touch. Often they will grab a friend or partner and the process is repeated. In these instances the design of a product justifies itself.

Where does design fit within a full product strategy?

Good design is at the very core of a product - and good, relevant design draws on experience, knowledge and understanding. The ability to marshal and integrate the various and often conflicting aspects of a project is fundamental to a well considered and appropriate outcome.

What is the role of design in addressing environmental concerns?

So much has been written about sustainability and environmental issues in the recent past that we have all probably reached saturation point. The truth is that these issues are a matter of common sense. Environmental issues should be one of the main aspects of any design brief. To have practices, companies and brands popping up and using this as a means of differentiating themselves is misguided. Design teams and clients must understand they are in a powerful and influential position with the ability to effect change. They must also be prepared to be accountable and responsible for their actions.

What are your primary considerations when starting out on a new design project?

Relevance, need and to develop an understanding of all impinging issues as part of the preparatory work

What design technology do you use?

SolidWorks is the main modelling software coupled with the usual suspects by Adobe.

Is CAD an enabler or simply a tool?

CAD can be used in a multitude of different ways throughout the design process. However, the most important ability as a designer is to know what to ask of it. Once you have clarity of vision - and CAD can help you achieve this - a huge amount can be achieved with relatively little. CAD is not a panacea it must be used intelligently but once this is understood the resource that CAD can provide to a designer is astounding. From nothing but an idea and a little tenacity an individual with CAD capacity now has the power to create new product typologies and forge new markets sectors that can make traditional industry players within a market sector sit up and take notice.

How do you see the design industry changing over the next five years?

Design and the manufacturing industries are to a large extent inseparable - and to a larger extent driven by powerful external commercial influences. Good designers are resourceful and bestowed with ever-increasing capability through the power of CAD. Coupled with the fact that many investors are not receiving adequate returns by traditional means it is inevitable that there will be a convergence here and more self-starters with an entrepreneurial spirit striking out to achieve their own goals.

As manufacturing processes and technologies change, the huge amounts of capital once needed to realise a product are becoming less significant, to the point that it is relatively straightforward to commercially produce a new product and for that product to be manufactured local to the market in which it is sold. Depending on production technologies it is perfectly possible to have several of these operations placed globally.

We have embarked on this model ourselves with one production operation in the Midlands to cater for the UK and EU market (taking advantage of free trade across EU borders) and another in Ohio serving the US and Canadian markets. It is perfectly viable and customers are receptive to products produced locally. And makes a nice change from the accepted norm that Asian production is the only way forward.

www.andrewlang.co.uk

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