design management
Design director Aivar Habakukk talks about the mentality prevalent at Balteco.
Who is a design director?
The task of the design director is to manage the whole: the image and product development of the company. In addition to the product design, the design director is also engaged in many other things, for example designing a fair booth and retail spaces both in Estonia and at its distributors’ locations.
awards
Best Design Implementer
Business Award
Excellent Design Management
Bruno Design Prize
Best Product Design
Bruno Design Prize
What are you guided by when creating a new product?
Product designer is not an artist who creates in a blaze of creativity. Developing a new product in a manufacturing company is a deliberate activity. The necessity is defined by the target country, sales statistics, trends in interior architecture and design and governing technologies. The properties of a new bathtub are determined in the course of a background study.
How is a new product or collection completed?
It is important to take note of what is happening in our field of activity and also in design and architecture. Observing and interpreting moods helps to find the direction. Or we collaborate with external designers who give us momentum. The process has to be managed one way or another, because product design is teamwork.
The product development team starts out with and ends with a weekly product development meeting. Once a year, we talk about our strategic plans. The most important thing for us is that people feel comfortable in the bathtub. We will not make any compromises in that! We check ergonomic measurements that ensure this.
How do you select designers from outside the company?
The design director notices a designer whose style and creations fit the brand. In the collaboration, Balteco takes care of the technical design and the designer can concentrate on the idea. A technologist and designers collaborate under the watchful eye of the design manager.
How do you develop a product or product range?
Case by case. Things may change in the course of the process. We don’t forcefully hold on to the initial task. If we have new ideas, we will modify the initial task and be flexible.
“The most important thing for us is that people feel comfortable. We will not make any compromises in that!”