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MAY 2005 |
Abbey’s ‘Designer Day’
Delegates were provided with overnight accommodation which enabled an early start to the day with a presentation of Abbey brands products including Abbeyflex and Abbeyscreen together with barrier coated products.
Later, delegates were split into two teams and each given a brief; one for a counter top display to merchandise hand made wedding stationery and which had to be user friendly so that it could be erected by shop assistants, the other for a software mail order company.
The second brief required the team to find a solution to the high incidence of damage to an existing pack caused by bad handling.
Having produced a solution, the teams had to present their design ideas to other delegates.
The afternoon session was devoted to a presentation by Tom Serpell of Obsidian, the strategic marketing consultancy. Tom was previously a director of the, then, Metal Box and Elopack.
The presentation dealt with the link between innovation and profit and the use of a project checklist which allowed for stage reviews of a design development to assess the probability of success.
“It gives designers a plan to present to sales and management that argues the case for design to be part of a co-ordinated business plan with an assessed value,” said Tom.
Abbey’s Cameron Gray who was responsible for co-ordinating the ‘Designer Day’ said that other designer days are planned and that in 2006, management of the participating companies would be invited to review feedback on the results. “Our industry needs to be more proactive and use the creative skills that exist to add value and increase business. We also need to be more pragmatic and accept that you can’t measure cost simply on a piece of packaging.”
The second of a series of ‘Designer Days’ was staged at Abbey’s Kettering plant during April and was attended by designers from sheet plants, merchants and display and print companies which included McFarlane, Remploy, Delta Display, Derwent Packaging and Smithpack.
