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There are four public two-day workshops planned for 2015 as well as a ‘Deep Dive’ session that will intensively explore ethnographic research as a means of opening opportunities for innovation. Provision of HCD training is expanding in the UK and Europe and PDD is looking at introducing similar opportunities in China.

2014 proved a successful year for PDD across its three core sectors of work: consumer, medical, and industrial.

The industrial sector continued strongly with a balance of new business and ongoing work with well-established clients. Medical, meanwhile, enjoyed an active year in product development and usability work for clients. 2014, though, was a particularly exciting year for PDD in the consumer sector with, for the first time in the company’s history, over ten PDD designs entering the market in a single year.

Projects included the Pop Radio Range for

Pure, a stylish reimagining of the digital radio informed by user feedback; the Ministation Air for iBuffalo which incorporates a coherent design language and smart design solutions; the Sus line of breakfast products for Severin, a range that demonstrates elegance and great functionality; and a set of kitchen tools for the ZAK! brand that offer a fresh take on food preparation. These, alongside products in packaging, marine safety, and childcare, represent an extraordinarily productive and diverse year.

“All three sectors have been successful,” concludes Vassilios. “Furthermore, our capabilities have been customized and enhanced as is appropriate to the needs of the market. We are building our presence in different geographies: doing more work in Asia will be a large part of our growth in 2015, and we will continue to nurture our clients in Europe and grow further in USA.”

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PDD, the award-winning design and innovation consultancy, is highly regarded for developing world-class products and

experiences. 2014 was a busy and productive year across the company’s three key design sectors (namely consumer, medical/pharma, and industrial) and also for its human-centred design service, which expanded into more territories and developed new innovation training courses, as well as build its presence in new geographies.

“As an agency we are driven all the way from insight, through human factors to creativity, engineering and science, and down to delivery and production outsourcing,” says Vassilios Kanellopoulos, PDD business development director. “We are now serving clients globally and looking at how we can expand further in the sectors we work in and enhance our capabilities in new areas.”

The consultancy has premises in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai but is looking to expand its presence in South East Asia and enter new markets in the USA.

Through 2015 there are plans to double the size of PDD’s team in Shanghai as the Chinese market grows ever more significant. Vicky Hong, business development manager for China, explains that the huge expansion of the Chinese middle class with its increased purchasing power has made differentiation through design more important in this market.

“Take the home appliance industry for example, previously international brands (like Bosch and Siemens) positioned themselves in the premium

market, now international brands need to look at other tiers too,” she says. “At the same time, Chinese companies are no longer satisfied being just manufacturers and want to target the premium market. The gap between international and higher-end Chinese brands is no longer so massive.”

PDD can now boast an impressive list of clients in China and South East Asia, with some medical companies but predominantly consumer (in particular white goods and personal care) clients, and as such business development activities predominately focus on key account management.

The consultancy will also target a stronger presence in the USA. “Over the last two years we have established a strong partnership there but we are now putting more people on the ground,” adds Vassilios.

On top of building its presence across different geographies, PDD will continue to develop its external design training capability. PDD has been practising Human-Centred Design (HCD) since it began life as a design agency over three decades ago. In 2011 PDD developed a curriculum to help teach other people how to introduce HCD practice into their own businesses. Since then PDD has managed a series of public and private HCD workshops intended to help organisations build innovation programmes and change corporate cultures to be more creative.

Driving innovation across geographiesDesign & innovation consultancy PDD continues to expand its presence in Asia and its provision of human-centred design training all whilst producing exceptional design work for its clients

Opposite | Vassilios Kanellopoulos, business development director, Vicky

Hong, business development manager

This page, clockwise from left | Coffee machine for Severin | Ministation Air

for iBuffalo |Ocean Signal life jacket | Pure Pop radio | An HCD workshop in

progress