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[January 2004]
Portmeirion and Design Led Business 24/7
Portmeirion Potteries (Stoke-on-Trent, England) is among leading designers and manufacturers lifting the lid on lessons they learnt during their involvement in a unique project to show how design can help boost business profits, during two seminars taking place on 4 February 2004 at the Birmingham Spring Fair (NEC, Birmingham, England).
A Design Council initiative, called 'Design Led Business 24/7', this ongoing project aims to demonstrate how the effective use of design can improve the way companies work and add value to the products they produce.
Portmeirion's Managing Director Alan Miles will be talking about the project and the company's latest launch - Soho - a new range of tableware that has been the outcome of the project. He said: "Design is not just an issue - it is the issue. Design is vital to manufacturing and retail. It improves performance, increases profits and boosts competitiveness".
Soho is Portmeirion's first full new collection of tableware shapes for over five years and is said to continue to push the boundaries of modern tableware design, both in concept and manufacture. Added the company: "Soho is yet another dynamic and progressive move for Portmeirion, who are continuing to re-establish themselves as the UK's foremost producer of affordable and practical design-led table and giftware".
World renowned designers David Queensberry and Martin Hunt were encouraged to work alongside Portmeirion to create the new Soho shapes as part of Design Led Business 24/7. Acknowledging the strong British design heritage that world famous patterns such as Botanic Garden and Pomona have created for the Portmeirion brand, it was decided that the company needed to create a new shape that kept abreast of the dramatic changes in dining trends, both in terms of access to global foods and the need for function and immediacy within modern leisure culture.
The first outcome of this new working partnership between Portmeirion and Queensberry Hunt was the Sovereign shape. The shape, which includes serving items such as bowls and platters and two vase shapes, was launched across all of Portmeirion's main product lines during 2003. Soho is the first full collection of Queensberry Hunt shapes, addressing a truly new modern lifestyle ethic, and will be launched world-wide in stores from March 2004.
Anyone wishing to register for the seminar at the Spring Fair should e-mail the following address - seminar@designcouncil.org.uk - with 'Spring Fair BB04' in the subject line and attach their business card, or include their name, job title and company name in the message.
ENDS