DESIGNER SPEAK
From the most popular chopping board to the famous square colanders and the award winning waste management system, twins Richard Joseph and Antony Joseph share their huge success story in kitchenware design
Words of wisdom from Richard Joseph and Antony Joseph
How did Joseph Joseph happen?
We worked together to design few products for our father’s glass manufacturing business and both of us enjoyed working thoroughly. That’s when the idea of working together was brought to life. The glass chopping board was our very first and by far the most popular product till now. After having good collaboration with large and respected retailers, the brand started developing products to extend the range in cleaning and organisation, chopping boards, waste management, storage, gadgets and food preparation.
What motivated you both to step into designing?
Born and brought up in a creative family, both of us had an early exposure with design and the passion just grew after that. We used to spend the school holidays in our workshop in home building
and creating products. After studying design at university, we started our design career. For us, design is our passion and we try to get this ethos across in all the products we create under Joseph Joseph.
What were the challenges faced?
Getting the first product designed and getting it to the market. The most important aspect of any product is its functionality and we invested a lot of time and resource in designing and testing the initial ideas. Only when we were happy did we package and market our ideas.
Please tell us about your design philosophy?
Our focus is on identifying everyday problems and solving them with functional design. Everything we create should be brilliantly useful in the home and we really aim to create innovation in the household space.
Do you decide colours first or the design of the product?
We strongly believe that form follows function and that simplicity lends itself to elegance. So we very much focus on getting the design right then the rest will follow. It’s only towards the end of the design process that we consider the aesthetic of the product. Colour can be used to strengthen a design, for example, making pieces that work together, easily locatable and to show sizes and types of components.
Are you more design oriented or technicality oriented?
We have a collaborative mix of talents in our design team. We have a team of designers internally and externally to ensure we source the most exciting and fresh ideas. These ideas are taken and honed by our team of industrial designers as well as by cooperating with buyers and quality control managers who ensure that every product has the best materials and stands up to rigorous testing.
Which has been your most exciting project so far as a duo?
Our Intelligent Waste category was four years in the making and resulted in our Totem waste management system that won the Red Dot Design Award for ‘Best of the Best’. It was a new category and a big change from our previous products so that was very exciting for the business.
Two people think differently; does this apply to you both while working on a project together?
Definitely. We don’t always agree and being brothers we often disagree! It’s important that we both have our say and listen to each other. Often this means we have to think further around a problem, think of more solutions to solve an issue and sometimes that is where we can have a real breakthrough.