If you’re into the design of mobile phones, or high-end watches, there’s a good chance you will have read about Ulysse Nardin’s launch of a ‘hybrid’ cell phone recently. Developed in partnership with SCI Innovations, the Chairman is aimed at the luxury end of the market currently inhabited by Vertu and a few smaller industry players. Unlike those manufacturers however, Ulysse Nardin has a huge amount of experience and brand heritage, and is widely respected for it’s ability to combine traditional watchmaking skills with technological advancements (Ulysse Nardin has been granted more patents in mechanical watchmaking than any other manufacturer). This product represents a significant milestone for Ulysse Nardin – not only is it the first digital product they have made, it is also the first time they have partnered with another company. It is also significant for me personally, given that the industrial design of the product was carried out by my consultancy, Matt Sinclair Design.

Ulysse Nardin Chairman in rose gold © Ulysse Nardin / SCI Innovations

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So far I have looked at ways in which rapid manufacturing technologies might become available to consumers, and the reasons why product design for rapid manufacturing is easier than for mass manufacturing. In the final part of this extended post I want to address the only other remaining hurdle to consumers designing and manufacturing their own products: the tools they will use to design with.

Consumer co-design, sometimes called co-creation, is a topic that’s been written about at length by design researchers. At it’s purest it involves the end user, or typical representatives of end users, entering the design process and creating products or services as part of a design team. In practice though, co-design is often little more than an enhanced customer research exercise. End users might be asked about their needs and desires, encouraged to offer suggestions, and even invited to critique proposed solutions. But there is no doubt it is the designers who are expert, and who make the final decision.

As a designer myself, I confess I find it difficult to break free of this mindset – surely my training and experience mean I am able to understand what a market of consumers will want better than an individual consumer themself might? But the point is, what I think will end up being irrelevant if consumers are able to design their own products. Why should a consumer care that I think their product is crass or crude, if it’s exactly what they want, and they’ve made it? At the moment though, I have one trick up my sleeve – I can use CAD, to design a product and to communicate that design to the means of production, in a way that no non-designer can. All the time designers and design engineers can monopolise the expertise needed to create CAD data, consumer created products will not happen.

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PingMag is a dual-language (japanese-english) online magazine design based in Tokyo. It recently ran an interview I made with Brendan Walker, an ex-aeronautical engineer whose company Aerial specialises in the creation of ‘thrilling experiences’. The published article was changed slightly from the one I submitted, so here it is as originally intended:

Jo riding the Tristar

Do you remember how, as a child, some jobs seemed so cool you couldn’t believe people got paid to do them? Like working in a chocolate factory or as a test driver for Ferrari? I was reminded of that when I first met Brendan Walker, who started his career designing jet fighters but now works with some of the world’s top theme parks, designing future rides I talked to Brendan, who New Scientist dubbed the “Thrill Engineer,” about home-made fireworks, his fascination with aircraft crashes, and the difference between being thrilled and being frightened.

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