From humble beginnings in a north London terraced house, the Tangerine design agency is now regarded as a global player in the creative industry. At the helm of offices in London, Seoul and Porto Alegre, founder and CEO, Martin Darbyshire, has steered the agency over a 25-year journey in which the world has changed immeasurably.
Reflecting on the change, Darbyshire recalls, “Our first capital expenditure was two drawing boards at £500 each, a lot of money in 1989. Now there isn’t a drawing board in sight, but plenty of CAD stations manned by top designers!”
It’s not just the practice of design that has changed though, the very means by which we as consumers now buy and use goods and services has been revolutionized.
“The definition of industrial design in the developed world has increasingly become defined by the ‘experience economy’, dictated by the power of the brand, and how people define themselves; it is no longer about the pure design of a product. Put simply, experience is king,” says Darbyshire.
To mark its quarter century, Tangerine is publishing a book ‘tangerine: 25 extraordinary insights into innovation and design’. The book is not only a celebration of the agency’s most iconic work, it answers the question: how small design agencies can transform what is offered by the world’s largest corporations, and how that in turn can transform their financial performance. Tangerine’s design of the world’s first lie-flat bed for British Airways is an example of how product innovation can create new spaces for businesses to own, defining new products and services.
Through seven key attributes and over 25 case studies, the book aims to show how even the smallest change can create a huge benefit to business and revolutionize the way in which people think, place value and behave.
The book is available for pre-order on Amazon at:
www.amazon.co.uk/Tangerine-Insights-extraordinary-innovation-Design/dp/1783130075
