What inspires our designers

Barnaby Ward

Industrial Designer

Everything is inspiration to me. Looking at an image or the detail on the side of a building might trigger a thought on a new detail in a product.

A product design, in essence, should only do what it needs to do, nothing more nothing less. I take a lot of inspiration from the design ethos of Dieter Rams. He was a brilliant designer who developed timeless products in the 80s that are still in production today.

I think a lot of my inspiration can stem back to using Lego when I was young. It gave me the tools to build something from nothing. It fascinated me how so many small parts can come together to make something beautiful. Once I started studying, I found a passion for model making, prototyping, and digital fabrication. Most ideas are derived from something already in existance so it's important to be original. My greatest inspiration is my pen and paper.

Daniel Fletcher

Managing Director

As someone who thinks about audio all the time, my inspiration comes from the sounds that people create in music, film, online, and thinking about how we can listen to them better. Working with Orbitsound products and Airsound technology is so exciting because it offers the possibility to transform people’s listening experiences in new ways. Finding the best audio solution within the boundaries of a particular situation has always been my challenge. My inspiration is the audio experience of the studio - and striving to deliver this in everyday life.

Whilst my background is not in design, I have always found myself drawn to minimalist products and machines that do not add a plethora of features to try to be a better product than their neighbour. For me, the hardest thing in product design is leaving things out, and making products that are true to what they are. This is something that took me a long time to realise. Apple have (nearly) always done well at this; making products with cleaner lines, fewer buttons and ‘less’, yet as a user the products excel, delivering fewer things superbly well. The iPod is a fantastic example, being launched amongst a load of more capable mp3 players, yet changing the world.

I spent many years rowing, and more recently cycling. The ultra lightweight rowing boats and bicycles I have rowed and ridden share a purely functional approach to design. They are as light as possible, carrying only parts and details that have some function, and yet they are beautiful. A product that tries too hard to please everybody will not likely work. A product that is designed to deliver on it’s purpose and is unafraid to divide opinion is a bolder product, and will likely succeed.