The image of a light bulb going on is the classic metaphor for a good idea: it signifies that inspiration can strike at the speed of light, but that’s only the beginning. Designing a successful product takes months, sometimes years, of hard work, something designer Samuel Wilkinson, whose Plumen 001 energy-saving light bulb won last year’s Designs of the Year Award, knows well.
In 2009 Wilkinson teamed up with product design company Hulger to redesign the energy-saving CFL light bulb – a worthy product, but one that was never going to win any prizes for its looks. He soon found that the technology did not exist to manufacture his innovative design. ‘We took it to the manufacturers and they said, "We can’t do that",’ Wilkinson tells me when I meet him in a cafe close to his studio in Shoreditch, east London. There followed almost a year of presenting concepts and having them rejected before design and technology finally came together and the Plumen 001 was born.
Wilkinson’s striking design, which involved twisting the bulb’s glass tubes into a shape he describes as ‘organised complexity’, created a product that is desirable yet attainable, and earned it a nomination in the product design category for the Designs of the Year Award (then the Brit Insurance Design Awards). The Plumen 001 went on to win its category, beating products including Apple’s iPad and Dyson’s Air Multiplier Fan, before going up against designs from six other categories – architecture, fashion, furniture, interactive, transport and graphics – to win the competition outright. Since then, the Plumen 001 has entered the permanent collection of the V&A in London.
One year on, I ask Wilkinson if he is surprised at how well the product has been received. ‘It’s done amazingly well,’ he says, ‘far better than we thought it would.’
Credit is due, of course, to Hulger, whose team Wilkinson says put everything it had into the project. ‘Not all manufacturers are up for pushing the boundaries, like Hulger was,’ he says. ‘But with products like this you have to be prepared to step out and be different.’
Wilkinson studied furniture and related product design at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, graduating in 2002. After freelancing for several years for leading consultancies, including Tangerine, Fitch:London, and PearsonLloyd, he founded his own practice in 2007. The body of work he has produced since then is remarkable in its scope, including large public projects such as a 16m-tall sculptural metal tree in a town square in Lausanne, Switzerland, and much smaller, more personal, items such as the Plumen 001. In between there is his furniture, including a modular chair designed for Decode and an affordable, compact desk for Case.
This wide-ranging approach comes naturally, he explains, and is driven by a strong design philosophy. ‘I was trained in furniture design so I have an ergonomic way of designing, but I think when you get to know your own process you can apply the same principles to any project.’
Wilkinson believes form should follow function, but in his work the two are never far apart. He says: ‘My natural way is to follow the example set by the Bauhaus where no detail is superfluous, but that doesn’t mean things can’t still be beautiful. Take the Apple products, for example. I think it helped every designer to have those products out there. It has shown that very simple, pure, well-designed objects can also be very desirable.’
So what does he think of the contenders for this year’s Designs of the Year competition, a characteristically eclectic collection including the wedding dress worn by the Duchess of Cambridge and designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, and a wind-powered landmine-clearing device by Afghan-born designer Massoud Hassani?
‘I think it’s very difficult to compare architecture with fashion or product design, but I think it’s great to celebrate the plurality of these objects,’ he says. ‘On the one hand you have things like the Olympic torch by BarberOsgerby, and the wedding dress – things that people can relate to. On the other, you’ve got designs which are a bit more specialist, more like art installations that people may not have heard about. So I think you can draw the public in and get people interested in different kinds of design. I think that’s brilliant.’
Speaking after the Plumen 001 took ¬ first prize in last year’s competition, the novelist and journalist Will Self, who was one of the judges, said: ‘2011 was not a year to reward high-end design devised purely for conceptual reasons or added-value results.’ I suggest that this year’s crop, which included an ethical fashion range by Vivienne Westwood and an earthquake-proof table, seems to be indicative of a similar trend towards meaningful or socially responsible design.
‘Yes, I think that’s true, and I think that was maybe forgotten about for a while,’ says Wilkinson. ‘It’s important to remind people that design can offer a lot, especially in a recession. As a designer you look at something, whether that’s a piece of furniture or a building, and deconstruct it and try to come up with ways to do it more efficiently. That’s why the light bulb worked so well, because it’s an eco product that gives a little bit of joy and doesn’t cost much.’
Sustainability is integral to Wilkinson’s work, but he says he tries to design products that will last rather than ones that have a short life but can be recycled easily. ‘Some people put tag lines on their products saying it’s "eco" or whatever, but that’s not always justified,’ he says. ‘You could have a product that’s made of recycled and recyclable material, or you could have a product that lasts much longer and that may well be more sustainable because of the amount of energy used over its lifetime compared with something that gets recycled four times.’ He adds: ‘I like things that are very well made and have something exciting about them that will make you look after them better.’
Winning Design of the Year has brought Wilkinson plenty of attention. He has since won awards including Eco Designer of the Year 2011, acquired speaking engagements including the Made North design conference in Liverpool, and gained a seat on the judging panel at the D&AD’s 50th anniversary awards. ‘I’m in a good position,’ he says, reflecting on the past couple of years, ‘but I still feel like I’m at the start of my career, and there’s still so much I’d like to achieve.’
