FRONT - A Strategy, Design and Technology Studio

So having folks such as INI help raise the profile of design can only be good for Northern Irish business. The agenda included an interesting lineup of local and national design advocates who took an appropriately high-level look at their experience of design effectiveness.

Wayne Hemingway, Founder of Red or Dead and Hemingway Design

Wayne’s conversational story telling goes some way to proving that some speakers don’t need a lot of structure to their presentations. Tangents, rambling and the occasional snipe only make Wayne more interesting and endearing.

We were given a light-hearted and frank potted history of Wayne’s fashion brand Red or Dead. A true brand ‘of the people’, Red or Dead started from humble beginnings on a market stall, to being front-page news and media darling. This helped project Wayne into the limelight as a respected fashion and design expert (even securing his own ‘culture’ segment on C4’s Big Breakfast show with Denise Van Outen. Ahem…).

Since the late nineties Wayne’s attention has turned to design problems far removed from fashion. Focusing on areas such as housing and architecture, Hemingway Design is now tackling issues that effect more fundamental social concerns. Using the example of tower blocks built in the 60s and 70s, Wayne posed the question of whether or not the modern mind has been failed by greed and mathematics?. Bean counting alone has proved to be a road to nowhere. So creative thinking is the likely future of business and social success.

Wayne points out that the most successful brands have designers at board level whose job it is to stick pins in and ask questions that would otherwise be neglected.

And Wayne is one man who is not afraid of asking difficult questions. Some of Hemingway Design’s latest undertakings (such as the Staiths South Bank in Gateshead) have involved trying but successful collaboration between designers and councils to create better living and social spaces. These properties are even selling out off-plan which goes to prove that even in recession, good design is valuable.

But despite the more serious nature of Hemingway’s latest projects, it is good to see Wayne is still happy exploring the playful side of design. You may have noticed him having fun with themes and ideas such as his popular garden shed range for B&Q and his new garden home office titled “Shed Quarters”.

Dan Germain, Creative Director, Innocent

It is hard to avoid being charmed off your feet by the Innocent brand. After just 10 years, the health conscious food brand is a household name and a heavily cited success story in business marketing circles. Although difficult for most consumers to articulate, Innocent have a ‘likeability’ factor that has alluded and mystified most other food brands.

I am sure there are many food manufacturers who have asked themselves “how can we become more like Innocent?”. But this is missing the point. People like this brand because it is unique and personal. If Coca Cola where to copy Innocent’s packaging, ingredients and marketing techniques tomorrow, would the average consumer believe that they care any more about our health? Probably not.

As long-standing creative director, Dan Germain gave us some insight into what makes a remarkable brand

According to Dan the business began when a group of friends decided to start something based on a simple idea:

“Make life a little bit better and a little bit easier”

Only after realizing that some of their initial ideas weren’t going to go anywhere (such as “The Amazing Electric Bath”), the group became interested in ways to make ordinary people more healthy. Without having any experience in this field, the guys began crushing fruit to make smoothies and testing the results with the general public outside their local pub.

Dan made the point that testing the product with real people on the street and in cafes gave them huge insight into what their customers thought. And, regardless of having no money, was a sure-fire way to rapidly prototype and refine their recipes. The by-product of this entrepreneurial face-to-face activity was that people began to talk about the Innocent smoothies, and through a viral effect the word spread about what they were doing. The combined effect was that Innocent quickly became a company that made great product for people who felt they were being listened to. Innocent still invite the general public to visit them in their London offices anytime.

The personality that Innocent have created can be partly attributed to good design. The company’s playful and experimental nature is apparent in the the small but important details that people remember them for. Their approach to packaging has influenced just about every other smoothie maker out there and the tone of their writing is clever and memorable. This just wouldn’t work without absolute consistency of quality.

What’s Next for Innocent?

Not satisfied with success so far, Innocent are showing no signs of fatigue. Quite the opposite, in fact. They already have product in 14 countries and are growing faster than anyone else in their space. Dan is convinced that most of what we buy in the supermarket is not actually good for us, and the opportunity for Innocent is to change that by making better, healthier food for everyone. They are setting their sights on becoming “the earths favorite little food company” and there is no reason to suggest that they don’t have the energy, passion and USP to do just that.

More images of the INI Design event can be found on our flickr stream
Hemingway Design
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