Richard Seymour

"The Shape of Things to Come: Wrangling Innovation into the Future"
Richard Seymour and Dick Powell are Europe's best-known product design duo.

Since forming their design constancy in 1984, they have built Seymour Powell into one of the most powerful "change engines" in the design business. Working with clients as diverse as Casio, they created the iconoclastic Baby G watches in 1996, Tefal, they created the world's first Cordless Kettle in 1985. With Nokia, they have helped to develop the Finnish company from a manufacturer of Wellington boots to the 5th most valuable brand in the world, and Ford's Premier Automobile Division, where they have helped develop the "genome" of some of the world's best-known vehicle brands.

At least half of Seymour Powell's output is never seen by the general public, as it is focused on "deep futures" development for many of the world's best known brand names; work which forms a future for companies as far as 8 years ahead.

To do this, Richard and Dick have had to build a very special kind of company. One that, literally, lives in the future.

It's fair to say that authors, journalists, filmmakers and pundits imagine the future. But designers, working at the level that Richard and Dick do, create the future. They know what the railway trains of 2004, the cellular telephones of 2003, the kitchen appliances of 2002 and the wristwatches of the day after tomorrow look like'because they've already designed them.

And because they're privy to the "internal futures" that the corporations they work for imagine, they know their proposals for the future too.

A privileged and unique perspective that goes well beyond most academic forecasting in terms of accuracy and variety.

They are, if you like, the Skunkworks of the design world

However, British people (and Swedes and Indians) probably know them best through their television series Designs on your and Better by Design, which ran through the summers of 1998, 1999 and 2000. These programmes followed the duo though a series of extremely taxing design projects, each one aimed at redesigning the everyday objects that blight us on a daily basis, from home security and kitchen bins to lavatories and female underwear. As an unexpected bonus their bra concept, the BioForm for Charnos, became a runaway market success, becoming Britain's fastest-selling bra on the run-up to Christmas 2000.

The chances are that you have at least one thing they designed in your home, on your wrist, in your pocket or under your blouse'You just didn't know it.

RICHARD SEYMOUR AND DICK POWELL profiles

But there is one thing that unites all the kitchen appliances, watches, motorcycles, brassieres and aircraft interiors they create: Each one began by looking at people: how we think, how we behave, how we dream and how we live. Anthropology comes before Technology, both in the dictionary and in the company's credo.

Making things better for People is Seymour Powell's mantra.

To do this, again and again, for companies of such extraordinary diversity of culture and discipline has required a robust and revolutionary approach to innovation and creativity in an industrial context.
It doesn't matter how brilliant an idea is if it can't be technically realised. It doesn't matter how exciting a new technology is if it has no human relevance. Balancing these factors deftly at the early stage of a product's genesis is the make or break of a better product or service.

The life support system necessary to convey a fragile, new idea through the violent environment of bean-counting, cost engineering and market forces has to be extremely sophisticated. It is in this particular respect that Seymour Powell excels. They have created a crucible in which the most exciting and radical ideas can become real, and it is upon this subject that they speak most fluently and passionately: How to establish the environment that fosters creative thought whilst applying techniques and processes which accelerate the innovation process.

What makes their process different is that it was forged in the white heat of actual design projects, from Tokyo to New Jersey, rather than hatched by a businessman, analyst or author. Although it is highly structured and logically defined, it actually combines many techniques which Richard and Dick learned whilst working for Japanese companies, with the less team-based, more entrepreneurially-organised systems of the West.

Creativity isn't a noun; it's a verb. A process, not a definable, mathematical-proscribed entity.

Richard and Dick, both together and individually, have many years experience portraying their approach to problem solving in an entertaining, engaging and dynamic fashion, both on network television and in live speeches and workshops. They combine state-of-the-art multimedia presentation material with compelling narrative to stimulate and educate at the same time, to audiences as diverse as secondary school children and battle-hardened corporate mandarins. Each presentation is specifically targeted, both in terms of content and delivery, to the specific audience requirements.

Format
Typically, this takes the form of a speech that lasts anything from 30 minutes to 90 minutes (although the content normally requires at least 40 minutes to develop adequately). Both Richard and Dick are equally fluent in all the presentation issues, although each one, clearly, has a different way of expressing it. Larger events, such as conference after-dinner engagements, normally benefit from having both partners there, to allow the two-way badinage of their teamwork to become evident. Where a specific subject needs to be focussed on, it is normally more appropriate if one of the partners undertakes this. Audience questions during the process is welcome where the numbers are no more than about 20 people, beyond that number it becomes disruptive. In that case, a Q&A session following the speech is normally appropriate. Presentation equipment and content is partially supplied by Seymour Powell (see Equipment Requirements).

Language
Generally speaking, the normal delivery language is English. Dick Powell speaks French as a second language if required. Both speakers are sensitive to regional and cultural variation in their delivery and speak to be understood by the least able in the room. Any audience, which contains individuals who are particularly sensitive to frank discussions on particular subjects (war, hygiene, inter-racial issues, etc), should be carefully analysed in advance to allow the speakers to convey their views without causing offence.

Recent Public Speaking Engagements and Television Appearances

Richard Seymour
BBC "Top Gear Design Awards" Mar 2000
-Better by Design 6 x part TV series Mid 2000
BBC "Top Gear" Motorshow Special Oct 2000
Keynote Speaker, Detroit Motor Show, Detroit. Jan 2001
-Emotional Ergonomics keynote speech, Marrakech Feb 2001
-The Road to Hell D&AD President's Lecture, London Feb 2001
-Better by Design keynote speech, Stockholm Mar 2001
SuperHumanism Conference (convenor and keynote speaker). May 2001
SuperHumanism keynote speech, Beijing. May 2001

Dick Powell
-Use the Force keynote speech, Singapore Sep 2000
Better by Design 6 x part TV series Mid 2000
BBC "Top Gear" Motorshow Special Oct 2000
-Better by Design keynote speech, Stockholm Mar 2001