Susan Golton Design

Today we had a talk from top UK designer Nick Munro which was pretty inspirational and helped me feel a bit better about things. He graduated in ’86 from IDE with a shower design which combined engineering knowledge and style, but it was a simple idea which gained him his first foot in the door of the design world. The concept of using a bed spring as an egg cup provided a cheap and eye-catching way of making a name for himself. A piece of advice he passed on to us was “99.9 percent of people don’t know you exist. Do something about that.” He then went on to design in pewter, glass, steel, furniture and an entire collection for a cruise ship.

The problem with a KISS design is that it’s easy to copy, so one piece of advice Nick passed on is to expect that and move on. Secondly, when dealing with manufacturers, there is often an argument along the lines of the manufacturer saying “Your job is to sell what we make” and the designer saying “Your job is to make what I can sell.” Negotiation is a vital design skill.

He urged us to make the most of our time at the RCA, learn about everything you can to to with the history of design and the arts and go and visit the other departments. See what they’re up to. You’ll never know when having a basic understanding of something will come in handy. Having an engineering background helps when speaking to manufacturers too, as being able to say you understand a bit of how the factory works gives you a good card to play.

Another piece of advice was to go out and look in shops. See what’s selling, what’s new, explore the brands out there, because design is all about brand.

I was curious to know how Nick arrived at the concept of a spring as an egg cup, was it by analysing trends, seeing what the design world was doing and strategically designing the egg cup? Or was it by somehow feeling that the innovation “felt right” and taking advantage of its cheap and available manufacture? Nick replied that it had felt right. He said he wouldn’t bet on someone else’s prediction – if you can make something good you’ll lead the trends. His advice was to pick something relatively simple and do it really well to get started, get really good pictures and use the power of the press.

So I’ll make sure to keep all the simple ideas scribbled on my notes.

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