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We’ll be having a launch party for the Reee Chair on September 10, from 6.30 until 9.00 pm in central London. This is our chance to thank the many organisations that have helped us to bring this new product to the market, since we started planning it in 2006, and show the finished product to our customers, press and partners.
Reee Chair
We have now set up a Pli facebook group with the intention of creating an open forum for product development inspired by Cameron Sinclairs talk on ‘open source design’ which can be viewed in a previous post. Social networking can be a very effective tool for connecting designers with end users and so we aim to create a space where everyone can share views and ideas on Pli’s products. This could involve what people like about what we’re doing and what they feel could be improved as well as discussing product development, choosing colours/finishes and coming up with concepts for completely new products. The move towards a more collaborative design approach where consumers aid decision making right the way through the product development process is yet another step to improving our products.
Please feel free to join our group and post any ideas or thoughts you have to kick off our new open forum design group. To start off we’d like to know what colour frame you’d like to see on the Reee Chair? Choose from any of these RAL Colours and we’ll render and upload a chair with your frame.
A screen shot of Pli's Facebook group page
The ninth and final day (well maybe…there is a rescheduled day due to the fire on day 3) was delivered by Leigh Ashton, Managing director of The Sales Consultancy. Straight away she set the tone of the day with her positive and direct sales attitude which became slightly infectious after a while, even to a slightly cynical designer like myself. However we quickly realised her presentation style wasn’t by chance, it was a honed and highly developed sales tool.
Get yourself noticed
The first step in any successful marketing/sales plan is to define the key steps you need to reach a goal. Five seems to be the magic number, because as for the 5S system of Lean manufacture, Leigh had also settled on five keys ideas for success. They are as follows:
On Wednesday 25 June I followed my colleague Alex onto the New Product Development course organized by Furniture Works at London Metropolitan University. Alex had already briefed me on the format and content of the course so far - I’m the one who spends most time working with design consultants and we agreed I can use the training on that topic most.
NPD Day 3
Jodie Eastwood of Metropolitan Works spoke about how furniture developers and manufacturers can work more productively with designers by breaking down the different issues and expectations into manageable ideas.
We started by differentiating between conceptual design, commercial design and technical design (e.g. conceptual like the Campana Brothers, commercial like Simon Pengelly and technical like the anonymous designer who makes injection-moulded dustbins). What kind of product are you planning — therefore who do you want to brief for the design?
Then we moved on to the design project structure. This was very useful advice — the sort of training you think you already know, but it underlines how easy it is to stray from these intelligent project structures and allow things to get ad-hoc. The whole course group spent a while discussing the balance between creative freedom and hitting the brief on target. How much leeway should a designer get, and how much restraint should the client require? It’s a fuzzy issue and it’s great to discuss it with people who really understand both sides of the dilemna. We also discussed what motivates designers and how to bring out the best in them by learning how to be a ‘good’ client.
Finally, before the morning session finished, we focused on brief writing and we looked at the specific pieces of information a designer should need, in order to fulfil it and come back with usable concept drawings on schedule. We talked about production costs and margins and went down an interesting sidetrack to debate the merits of loss-leaders in the product range.
We broke for lunch. Then this happened…
Over the last two days I attended the first two parts of a pilot programme on New Product Development at the London Metropolitan University. It is a module style course that helps start-ups, furniture designer/makers, and manufacturers pin points weaknesses and develop strengths in their product development. Pli being a company that focuses on effective product development both Christopher and I jumped at the chance to attend the free pilot of this programme.
Day One: Product strategy
We started with an introduction, then quickly moved on to the first module focusing on product strategy. Delivered by Matthew Lewis, from Furniture Works, we went through different elements of product strategy including, market placement and adding value to products. Some of these elements I knew well while others were gems of knowledge that cleared up various confusions I had been “living with” up until now.
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Pli’s latest products are now available through the UK’s leading online sustainable furniture retailers. A group of new and established retailers are offering eco-friendly furniture and homeware for competitive prices and we are really pleased to have been chosen as a supplier to so many already this year.
You can find selected designs from our Grass, Reee, Hoop and Twist ranges at Nigel’s Eco Store, One Eco Home, The Greenhaus and Hidden Art. More retailers will be stocking our products soon and we will be announcing them over the next few weeks.
I’m interested in the Eden Project’s Waste Neutral initiative, which has formed the basis of the giant Cornish greenhouse and education centre’s waste and procurement strategy over the last couple of years. In fact the conferences and discussions we have attended at Eden have inspired us at Pli to think more systematically about how we can help ourselves and our customers, to balance the waste we produce with the waste we might be able to reuse.
It’s a tricky issue: there are so many sources of waste and it all goes off in different directions for disposal. Just about the only point where it could all come together to be quantified and evaluated is in our own home - hardly the ideal place. Sometimes my own kitchen feels like it’s overflowing with all the waste I’m carefully separating as I go, often to cram a lot of it back together in a big blue plastic box for Southwark Council to take away. I could hardly say I’m on top of it all.
So I was fascinated to learn in Time Magazine about RecycleBank - a pleasing example of some entrepreneurial person putting himself in my shoes and working out what he can do to help me out.
Pli has just brought out a longer version of the Grass media table, appropriately called the Long table. It’s 2.4 metres long (or wide, depending how you look at it) - that’s 2400 millimetres of media equipment, files, books, bottles, wedding presents, bowls and flatmates you can store on its unbroken bamboo surface. You can learn more about the design here (click on the image)…
Pli was invited to talk at the sustainable design seminar held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London on 4 March ‘08. I made a short presentation about the Reee chair to an audience of very well-informed and engaging product designers, design students, interior designers and manufacturers.
You can download all the presentations, including my slides, from the London Remade site (click on the logo).
We launched our new plidesign.co.uk website today, after about a month thinking, sketching, briefing and working out what kind of site we need in order to grow the way we want. Steve Taylor created it for us, built on a blog tool called Wordpress.
We want to make it as simple as possible to tell you about our products, our news and what inspires us. The main aim of the new site is to give you clear, accessible information about everything we’re working on. You are strongly encouraged to comment on our posts; we are very keen to share ideas and information among our visitors and staff.
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Recently I have found the joys of riding to work, it saves me about 1 hour a day in commuting and I get a free workout (so thats probably another 30 minutes as well). Not only that I am doing my little bit for the planet (and my wallet) at the same time.
I got my bike through the ‘Ride to work’ scheme at Evans Cycles. (Check it out, you can save up to 50% on the cost of a bike) Once I got my beautiful new matte-black ‘Scott’ I immediately reverted back to my 10 year-old days of skids and wheelies. Now I go everywhere on it, walking now seems pointless, and driving or catching the bus is just too time consuming and expensive.
So if you can handle a bead of sweat on your forehead when you get to work, and want to save time, money and keep trim, get a bike. If your not yet convinced read this article from Treehugger, and then try and get your car to do 600mpg.
Alex Whitney has joined Pli as Product Manager. Alex brings a wealth of experience in sustainable product design from Formway in New Zealand.
Pli is very happy to announce we have received a grant from the Enhance Capital Fund, administered by London Remade, to assist us with the product development, testing and tooling of the Reee® chair.
Inspiration posts