- You can account for function but not for taste
- Vision & theme
- Variety of objects—a complete line
- Your fingerprint on the line is unmistakable, even if it is divergent
- Create a “Style”
One fact that a product designer must reckon with immediately is that there is no accounting for taste, and function will always matter.
I have seen product design launches succeed, and I have seen them fail. I have had items within my own lines that did exceptionally well and items that we could not give away. The key is to ensure that a good 75% of the line hits and goes into multiple production runs. That is success. The challenge exists in that there is no accounting for taste, and if one creates without finesse, verve, and pizzazz, the line could fall on its own weight of ordinariness.
The second thing to know before you start designing a product line is that vision is imperative. Anyone can say, ‘Let’s do a chair that looks like this one, but change it up a bit.’ The designer of vision is not as easy to discover. They are born and self-made. Notoriety in the field of home furnishings and décor does not mean a person is a product designer. I started my object design business in the realm of furniture in 2015. No, I did not invent the wheel. I placed my art on the surface of metal-fabricated furniture. My vision succeeded. My most significant achievement in this line was the Ping Pong Diner, which featured my art on the surface with a removable metal-fabricated net that, when removed, exposed an excellent dining area for ten people. There was enough of a flare in the metal-fabricated furniture with my art that John-Richard selected to run a line of the concept for seven years.
As we know, one product alone is no line. My next step was to place my art on lampshades, lamp bases, and the fronts of furniture items, among other applications, for StyleCraft. Thus, a line was born, which brings me to point number three: design a variety of functional objects to create a complete line that applies your vision. Pillows are not a line. Lamps are not a line. Diversity in function leads to a line. Let your vision and theme run through a line of furniture, lighting, and decor. That sets vision in motion and is ultimately what makes it on the shelves and the “virtual shelves” of retailers. Yes, brick and mortar is changing before our eyes. It will not go away, and the business is forever being altered through tariffs, online opportunities, AI, and the increasing lack of human ambition to interact with other humans. All of this is to say, get ahead of the curve.
Use your unique qualities to create vision. Use your strength and conviction to create a theme within your design that is, at its core, who you are. I am a unique product designer in that I am a published poet, artist, and professor. Regarding my poetry, StyleCraft and I will begin to place “happy snippets” of my verse on pillows and perhaps lampshades and furniture items for future markets.
My subsequent line will not use my art. The vision and theme will be derived from items in nature and human inventions that are thematically related. It isn’t art. It isn’t poetry. But it is still me. Do not think that you must limit yourself by designing, in essence, for yourself. We are reborn often, and so is our art. Perhaps in the future, I will leave nature behind and design with AI and technology in mind. Perhaps you will. We will see. A NYC gallery owner once advised me to “simplify, simplify, simplify.” He is a genius. I now pass this advice on to product designers. Clarify your theme and vision while preserving their uniqueness.
My fourth and fifth things to consider before I start a line are closely related. Be sure your fingerprints are unmistakably on the design, even if the design is divergent from items you have designed in the past. Also, create a “style.” Create something that no one has experienced or seen before. Have I developed such a line? No. Will I? Maybe. I possess several strengths: I am creative, I have a massive work ethic, I never quit, and I find vision in simple places. I also love to learn through mistakes. As you design, learn by making mistakes. Success only happened because I learned through mistakes—not from them. They stick with you, urging you to the next level. As you design your line, consider how your vision flows through the functional products in-theme to create a “style.” Yes, that is a tall order. I challenge myself with this feat every time I design. I have not won my Pulitzer yet either. I am hot on both trials.
Design with finesse, verve, and joy. This will flow through the theme and vision of your physical manifestations. These attributes will lead to a line with objects that run repeatedly like a Broadway hit— season after season.
