TALKING POINT

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Simon Moore

Design and commercialism: never the twain?

Simon Moore, design director at Darlington Crystal, debates modern design with freelance designer Jonathan Smith. Interview by Susan Fenton
CAN DESIGN RETAIN ITS INTEGRITY IN A COMMERCIAL WORLD? it's experimentation, with new materials and techniques, that brings new ideas. Experimentation may not pay the mortgage and many of those ideas may not be relevant to mass production, yet others will work well. I came up with the swirl relief on Dankotuwa's Vessel range by experimenting on a lathe and invented a process that enabled me to produce a free opening twist. DOES COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN HINDER REAL CREATIVITY? JS I would never have come up with the idea for the Vessel design working on CAD [computer-aided design]. The swirl can't be depicted on CAD and it can't be engineered, so it requires an element of handwork that makes each piece unique. SM The industry as a whole is saying to designers 'hurry up, we need this on the computer now'; designers need to be able to reply 'stop, 1 need time to get the design 1 want.' Colleges are educating designers to design without the process of experimentation, and as a result the industry is missing out on a very valuable quality. JS CAD is useful especially as a tool for communicating your ideas to a client by email - but it shouldn't be accepted as the only way to do design, because design's also about feeling. The craft element is very important I don't just sit at a desk, I get my hands dirty, using different materials and processes such as throwing on a wheel, wood turning, pencil sketching, plaster turning, foam modelling. I love using different materials and experiencing their unique qualities. SM When I'm designing I start off knowing what the spirit, the overall feeling is, that I am trying to achieve. I make maybe 15 pieces then pick the one I want and go away and then draw it on the computer. CAD should come at this stage in the design process, not at the beginning. Until then,

Simon Moore, aged 43, studied art and design and became an associate member of London's Glass House in 1982. He set up his own company, Simon Moore (London) in 1989 to make and distribute production ware and individual objects such as chandeliers. In 1999 he was appointed design director of Salviati and director of the firm's Murano factory. After 18 months in Murano. Moore returned to England as design director of Darlington Crystal, where he has helped develop the new Shaped for Flavour range of glasses, several collections of handmade vases intended for use with specific types of flowers; and a new cut crystal collection due for launch soon. He has exhibited in Europe, Asia and the USA and his influences include ^* early 20th century English glass and the broad spectrum of Venetian glass-making techniques.

SM Successful designers need to be commercially aware, very careful about how they cost things. The commercial imperatives are such that now I'm in charge of a design team I have to be quite assertive at times and say 'I like the design but it's not going to sell.' At the same time, I'm disturbed about the collusion that often takes place in this industry between the marketing and manufacturing functions in companies. It allows commercial imperatives, the manufacturing process, to take priority over the process of design, to the detriment of design skills that some companies can no longer afford to invest in. JS Yes, when designing for the mass market, there are such time pressures thai there isn't time to experiment - yet
Florabundance is one of Simon Moore's designs for Darlington

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design can be a very informal process - you can start off by scribbling on the back of a cigarette packet. IS ANYTHING REALLY NEW? SM Glasses and dmnerplates have been reinvented so many times - how do you keep creating products that will sit on the shelf at John Lewis and shout 'buy me!'? Yet competition forces change: you have to keep reinventing the wheel and that's part of the fun of design. JS It's like any artistic medium. Take photography - how many times can you photograph a face and make it interesting and different? The difference between a photograph and tableware is that this has a function, and technological change opens up opportunities for new techniques, newshapes and better quality. You shouldn't just reinvent the 1960s or whatever. But you can interpret it in a different way, by changing details and being open-minded to new ideas. At the same time you have to remember tableware is a functional item. You still have to be able to drink tea out of a cup. DOES A DESIGNER NEED TO KNOW THE MATERIAL? JS Knowing the manufacturing process and the material is fundamental to an industrial designer - it makes it far easier to iron out production problems. Craft potters can afford to make mistakes because they're not costing a client money. I don't have that freedom: I can design the most fantastic product but if it can't be manufactured the idea will go in the bin. SM Designers who know their material are worth their weight in gold. They've already been through the process of finding out that certain things can't be made. Many times I've been presented with a design that is just not technically possible to manufacture. I've seen designers show a complete lack of common sense. JS At the same time, though, you have to push your ideas forward, because a production department tends to opt for something that's easy to make. SM Yes, if you left it up to the production department, you'd end up with a plain round cylinder! JS Designers are increasingly challenging the way things have been made in the past, especially in terms of shape, and that's very exciting. We're seeing, for example, jewellery designers starting to design ceramics like Ted Muehling working for Nymphenburg - and that's leading to some very interesting ideas. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT 'CELEBRITY' DESIGNERS WORKING FOR TABLEWARE COMPANIES?

Jonathan Smith's new range for Dankotuwa

JS Jamie Oliver [the British celebrity chef] has been very good at raising awareness for Royal Worcester. If you had asked the average person in the street before to name a leading British ceramic company they probably would have said Royal Doulton or Wedgwood, but now Royal Worcester is much more of a household name. SM It's interesting to have a designer 'name' it can certainly be good for sales. But it's important for a company to keep its own identity - the company name should always be 'bigger' than that of the celebrity, or the company's own brand identity can be damaged. One company that has got it about right is Swedish glass firm Orrefors, which has a great heritage of designers working alongside the glassmakers, and developing a mutual influence over product development. DOES AN ELEMENT OF HANDWORK MAKE A PRODUCT MORE DESIRABLE? JS The job of the designer is to make something that really stands out and turns people's heads. Sculptural, handformed pieces can be very exciting. SM An element of hand work is certainly a selling point. Much of Dartington's range is hand-made. But even machine-made products have to be well-designed. The same effort should go into designing plastic cups as it does into hand-made crystal.

Jonathan Smith

HOW DOES DESIGN FIT INTO THE MARKETING MIX? SM Good design is about communicating your ideas to the people who are going to buy it. JS True: there's no point in having ideas if you can't communicate them. For a product to be successful you need to sell an idea. It's not just about design. It's about manufacturing, quality control and distribution, fl

Jonathan Smith, aged 39, studied industrial ceramics then worked for Hornsea Pottery and design consultancy Queensberry Hunt Levien. Most recently he was a senior shape designer for Royal Worcester, where he designed the successful Lunar shape. He went freelance in 2000 and major commissions since then include a dinnerware range, Vessel, for Sri Lankan ceramic producer Dankotuwa and British distributor Fairmont & Main, which was launched this spring after a threemonth development time. Smith puts this rapid development, said to be a record for the ceramics industry, down to his knowledge of the production process, his experience as a modeller and the use of plaster prototypes, full-time liaison on-site at the Sri Lankan factory and the commitment of the Sri Lankan workers. He is now working on a new dinnerware collection for Thai supplier Quality Ceramics.

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