Design Case: Industrial Facility

Design Case: Designers with Worldly Style

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Sam Hecht, Royal Designer for Industry (RDI), and Kim Colin founded the London design office, Industrial Facility, in 2002.

Their area of expertise and innovation covers products for sectors including the domestic, office, technology, medical, watch and exhibition. This includes the stackable desk furniture (shown above) the company created for Herman Miller, the US furtuniture manufacturer.

The office has created a global reputation for its clear, useable, rational and aspirational approach to design. Almost all of its design work is for overseas clients - primarily in the USA, Japan, and Scandinavia, with works having been selected by almost all major museums and collections of Industrial Design, including MoMA New York, SFMOMA (the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), the Finlandia Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Industrial Facility has won the British Design of the Year award three times from Elle Decoration, and was the recipient of the Furniture Design of the year in 2011 from the Design Museum, London. It has received the IF Hannover Gold Award an unprecedented five times. Several solo exhibitions have been held of its work. In 2015 it will curate the major design exhibition of St. Etienne in France.

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Given its international client base and global reputation, why did the company choose London as its base? The duo, pictured below, says its location allows it to service the world of industry “most creatively, professionally and effectively”.

“There is no other country (like the UK) that excels in the combination of both commerce and culture in equal measure. This has led to a wealth of creative talent that is enticed to our shores and allows Industrial Facility to gain a worldly view on design.”

Asked to nominate a designer they think is leading the work on innovative design in the UK today, they suggest the designer and engineer, Mark Saunders.

“He (Mark) has consistently pushed the boundaries of cycling technology and interfaced with the complexities of foreign manufacturers and markets."

Industrial Facility has long-standing partnerships including Herman Miller of the USA, BlackBerry of Canada, Muji of Japan, Novo Nordisk of Denmark, Geneva Sound of Switzerland; and Mattiazzi of Italy.