MAXIMALDesign

  MAXIMALdesign in Antwerp tells us what “industrial design” and “brand environment” are. From an interview with Gert Verschueren you will learn how designers work in Belgium and whether it is beneficial to be self-employed.

Maximal Design deals with industrial design, and also with interior design, so I would like to talk about former factory buildings. Hypothetically, you get a contract for a project/revitalization of an old factory – where do you start from? Suppose the place were to be somehow connected with art, culture. Would you preserve the industrial character of the building or would you rather change its mass? Why?

First of all I would like to say that we rather call our interior activities the design of ‘branded’ environments. That’s something completely different than interior design. We don’t shape spaces, we build brands. In everything we do – new product development, brand identity design and branded environments – the main objective is always to build a strong and differentiating brand by giving customers a unique and compelling user experience. At the moment we’re working on a branded environment for the Deloitte headquarters in Belgium. We called the project ‘Live the Deloitte Brand’. The challenge was to create an aspiring, inspiring and motivating interior concept that expresses the Deloitte brand values, identity and company culture. That’s a lot more than designing an interior! That’s designing a brand experience...

About your hypothesis, we sure would preserve the industrial character of the building. In everything we do or create, we strive for authenticity: authenticity in materials, shapes, construction, cultural heritage, etc.. Authenticity is a strong and important value to us.

And the interior? What style, what kind of furniture should it have?

Well, that depends on the brand values and identity of our client. We don’t see ourselves as artists, we’re designers and we’re commissioned by our clients to create a unique and differentiating identity for their brand, not ours. So we start by analyzing the brand strategy (mission, values, personality,...) before creating the brand identity, image and attributes. It is all about communication and experience. Every brand or product has a story to tell and that story should be consistent and be in line with the strategy, based on unique customer insights.

While designing interiors of large public buildings do you consider the character of the city, the neighbourhood?

Sure, the environment is always part of the design brief. In our design process and methodology we start from value opportunities. In fact what we do is value creation, for both end customers and our clients/commissioners. There are functional, emotional and economical value categories from a customer’s point of view. And the environment can be a part in all three categories.

„Purpose for Europe” (and „Purpose – Enterprise in Culture”) offices are located in Lodz. Lodz used to be an industrial city - wherever you go here you come across an old factory building or a factory complex. At the moment, more and more companies and institutions decide to invest in the revitalization of those buildings: we have modern lofts adapted for living in a huge factory, galleries and shops in smaller ones, Manufaktura - the largest store in Europe located in a large factory complex, the Foundation of World Art, whose one of the founders was David Lynch, in an old heat and power station. Do you think that these places should highlight „their origins” or rather modernize their factory style?

That’s about the same question as question 1. So the answer is authenticity, have respect for the cultural heritage and the building’s origin. You can sure strip the entire interior and redesign it in a different way, as long as you respect the authenticity of the construction and architectural attributes.

What does „industrial design” mean?

I guess there are as many definitions as there are designers [smile]. For MAXIMALdesign industrial design is a strategic tool, a business strategy in order to create a competitive advantage in the global marketplace for products and services. What makes design unique and useful in a corporate environment, is the design approach: the design process and methodology, because it is based on customer insight and understanding with the objective to differentiate and create a competitive advantage.
In short a definition of (industrial) design could be: Design identifies and builds value based on a deep understanding of customer needs and desires.

Could you tell us something about your company? It has been operating for 15 years now, what has changed during those years? What do you do to make your projects always „up-to-date”?  

That’s a misunderstanding, MAXIMALdesign was founded in 2004. But both founders, Maxime Szyf and Gert Verschueren, have more than 15 years of professional experience in brand building and industrial design in several other agencies.

In my view a lot has changed in our profession over the last decades. For the last 10 years we’ve seen a tremendous professionalization of design and new product development. Design has become more and more important in a global competitive environment in order to roll out innovative and differentiating products and services. Product lifecycles are much shorter, industrial products become more fashionable and we have technical solutions to personalize consumer goods on a almost individual scale with techniques as rapid prototyping and manufacturing. The role of designers thus will become more and more important, both in-house designers as independent design consultancies. There’s a bright future for those who can make a difference.
 
What does work in Maximal Design look like? How many people do you employ? How do you work on projects?

MAXIMALdesign in fact is a young and small agency, about 6 designers, but our people have a lot of experience. That’s what counts, it’s a people’s business. The reason why we can do so many – and big - projects with a limited number of people is that we only focus on what we’re really good at, and that’s the front-end of the design process: strategy and conceptualization of new product opportunities. We believe an open innovation culture is the future: focus on your own core competencies and work close together, partner with companies that complement your own offer. With that business model we can offer our clients a one-stop-solution: from strategy to conceptualization, detailed design and engineering to production planning.

Could you tell us how it is to run a company in Belgium? What legal requirements do you have to meet to own a company? How to start it? Is it difficult?

Starting a company in Belgium also has changed a lot past years. MAXIMALdesign is already my fifth start-up company, so I have a lot of experience with launching a company. The administration for starting a company has been simplified a lot over the past years, you can launch a company within a few days. The difficulty is in defining a differentiating offer and business model for your company. The key to success is always the business strategy and the way you put it into the market. Segment the market, target and find a unique positioning.

Do you get satisfaction from being self-employed? What advice would you give to others who want to start their own design company?

Absolutely, it’s a great satisfaction. I have been working on the payroll for only 1 year after I graduated. I have launched several companies that were successful, so I guess I’ve been lucky. But luck don’t come by its own, the basics of the company should be in place and therefore I would like to refer to the previous question.

And to those who would like to go to Belgium to start one? 

The key success factors of launching a successful company are the same all over the world. We live in a global village!
Finally, I would like to ask you whether there is something like “enterprise in culture” in your country and what does it mean?
What is enterprise in culture? I'm not aware of such...

Do you consider yourselves resourceful? Why?

Of course we consider ourselves resourceful, otherwise we wouldn't be in this kind of business. The most important resource we have are people, our creative designers. Another one is our methodology, in fact it is a way to manage creative people and the creative process. Vision, people and process, that are the key factors of a successful business.

Thank you very much.