Studio Spotlight: Factorydesign

Factorydesign is one of the world’s leading aviation design agencies. Based in London it’s been part of some of the most iconic cabin designs and has helped shape today’s passenger experience across the globe. With almost three decades in the industry, I take some time ahead of AIX 2024 to talk with Peter Tennent, one of the directors at the agency.

Peter, can you tell us a little bit about Factorydesign’s history and where your roots lay?

Founded 27 years ago, Factorydesign is a multi-award-winning design agency based in West London, serving the aviation industry, designing cabin interiors and products with years of experience. In short, everything from forks to first class seats. The Directors all served time at Pentagram Design – the unrivalled powerhouse of design consultancy in the eighties and nineties – and some also spent time at Seymour Powell, where there seemed to be no boundaries to three-dimensional design.

Our expert and highly experienced team have evolved over the years from designers with qualifications in product design, automotive and design engineering. While the personal attention we provide is vital, the company was deliberately given a generic name – so many years ago – to support the approach of a focus on the ‘business’ of design not just the ‘personality’.

Successful implementation of design requires a careful balance between design purity, commercial reality and an understanding of our customers’ business and brand ambitions. Design can only make an impact on business if it goes to market, and we pride ourselves on negotiating and managing the complex journey from design ambition all the way through to implementation.

Sounds like an epic legacy, can you tell us a little bit about the brands you have worked with in the past, anything we would know?

Our work has taken us all over the world, working for airlines from start-ups to the biggest in the industry, as well as supporting the supply chain network designing products. Some previous customers include British Airways, Etihad Airways, China Eastern, LATAM, Qatar Airways, Scandinavian Airlines, and Jet Zero.

What brands have you worked with most recently

We pride ourselves on the fact that many of our customers are brands (and people) we have worked with for many years. We strive to establish long-term relationships with our clients, where the ongoing and embedded delivery of design services, plus the business and personal relationships we build, all serve to help make the programs we work on efficient, effective and enjoyable. Well, nearly all… ongoing and long-term customers include : Delta Air Lines, Singapore Airlines, Thompson Aero Seating, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic, Jiatai, Ipeco Holdings, and Deutsche Aircraft.

Sounds like a busy time! Can you tell us more about one or two of your latest projects… what did you work on, what was the process and what was the outcome?

Some examples of our work, here to highlight particular aspects and advantages of the successful application of design include:

Innovation 

Thompson Vantage SOLO – the first all-aisle access, lie-flat business class seat for narrow-body aircraft. Inspiring many others.

Delta Air Lines DeltaOne – the Crystal Cabin Award-winning first all door business class cabin. Inspiring many more.

Acro Aircraft Seating Superlight – the first bespoke economy seat designed specifically short-haul, lightest in its class and inspiring many.

Brand Integration 

Virgin Atlantic A330 – embedded brand integration, careful attention brand continuity and passenger experience, close successful collaboration with their in-house design team. Greater than the sum of the parts.

Passenger Experience 

The on-board experience should be viewed from two angles – one, meeting expectations of the international aviation market, making sure the passenger experience is relevant, appealing, and current. The other is the passenger experience of the brand; embedding clues, touch points and connections that support the brand attributes, ambitions, and values, as well as the relationship between the passenger and the airline.

Truly, every program we work on has this thread running through it; the needs of the passenger (or user, such as crew, maintenance engineer, and cleaner), are always in our heads.

Sustainability 

The waking consciousness of the flying public is driving scrutiny of why, when, and how we fly. As such, the need to rigorously develop cabins which have sustainability at their hearts has never been so strong, and contributions from organisations like the Green Cabin Alliance (of which we are members) are becoming an essential part of the Designer’s Toolkit.

BermudAir – Aisle Class Suite – supporting a start-up airline with the conversion of a pair of conventional economy seat, by removing part from the inboard seat, keeping 70 % of the existing product, and by adding furniture and an aisle privacy screen, creating a truly memorable, premium seat product with impeccable environmental credentials.

Deutsche Aircraft – D328eco – complete cabin interior design, from cockpit to rear bulkhead, applying environmental advances to sustainable regional travel.  

Customisation 

Delta Air Lines – Domestic First Class – highly customised Recaro CL4710

Kuwait Airways – Buiness class and premium economy class seat customisation.

Product Design 

Jiatai – new product development of economy and premium economy seating

Ipeco – galley inserts, real, back-of-house product development

There are many agencies out there, but what is Factorydesign’s approach to design? How do you differ from other agencies? What’s your USP?

You say there are ‘many’ agencies out there, but in truth, in the world of aviation design – particularly all aspects of cabin interiors from the definition and delivery of brand relevant, appropriate passenger experiences, to the design of new products such as seating – there are not that many of us. We are proud to be part of an aviation design industry that has emerged over the last two decades, and which has a nucleus in the UK, particularly London.

We are similar to some but differentiate ourselves from many through our absolute experience and understand of cabin interiors, product and aircraft. Aviation is riddled with regulations, certification requirements and constraints, so navigating a way through these without destroying the design ambition, requires knowledge, experience and, crucially, tolerance and sometimes compromise. 

When it comes to creativity, we believe, against the backbone of centred and meticulous, empirical design, there is room for left-field opportunities and to change the occasional paradigm now and then.

And from the day we started, back in 1997, we were determined to adopt a collaborative approach. Collaboration with our clients, with suppliers, and with other skilled agencies.  This was a word not much used back then but has been at our core since the beginning.

Airlines are trying to stand out from their competitors, but often the kit of parts they can work with is the same… What do you see the biggest challenges for airlines today and how can your studio help them?

If we look at seating as an example, being the most critical point of physical interaction between the passenger and the airline, there has been a huge amount of innovation over the past 20 years. 

Looking at the premium classes, we were privileged to design British Airways first premium economy World Traveller Plus seat, which at the time was only the third cabin of its type to fly. There are now over 60 airlines with premium economy cabin. In business class, where innovations come more easily due to the space and budgets available, there has been a significant consolidation, essentially in format, which in terms drives commonality in features and opportunities in the physical design.

Due, in part to the appropriation of new ideas and the nature of the best designs bubbling to the top, difference in configurations and layouts are becoming rare. Future opportunities are likely to found in material developments, technology enhancements and a careful focus on the requirements of one airline over another… and the unique needs of their passengers.

What are your dream projects to work on in the near future?

We love aviation and every program we work on is exciting and enjoyable in different ways. We take great pride in having been part of the development of start-up companies which are now mainstream suppliers such as Thompson Aero and Acro Aircraft Seating, as well as the excitement of start-up airlines such as BermudAir. And we are hugely privileged to have worked, and continue to work for legacy Tier 1 established airlines, such as Singapore Airlines, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines.

One area that is growing, that we are part of, and that we watch with interest, is the emergence of new aircraft. In future, the silhouettes in the sky could well be very different with conventional tube and wing aircraft mixed with small, silently ‘buzzing’ electric taxis, blended-wing-body triangular shadows, and supersonic ‘bullets’.

Finally, what is your top tip to airlines embarking on the design process?

Be thoughtful. Work out your design brief; being, the practicalities of specification, constraints, opportunities, brand ambition, need, budget and timing. Don’t spend six months on the procurement process, then give the selected designer a month to hit the first deadline. And be selective. Don’t trawl the entire industry for possible design teams and then ask them all to do free work in a month to persuade you they are the right team. Look at expertise, experience, cost, and trust track-record. Maybe, if you don’t already have one, hire an experienced, aviation design manager to support the selection and decision-making process; potentially saving everyone in the industry, and the airline, much wasted time.

www.factorydesign.co.uk

Images courtesy of Aer Lingus, BermudAir, Delta Air Lines, Deutsche Aircraft, Jet Zero, Jiatai, Kuwait Airways, Singapore Airlines, Thompson Aero, Virgin Atlantic