ASSOCIATED CO-CREATORS

ALASDAIR MCPHAIL

Chief Industrial Designer

After graduating from MA Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art, I have worked with various design consultancies in London as a designer / engineer on a wide range of projects from medical to aeronautical and consumer goods. Since, I have worked as part of the in-house design teams for global brands including Samsung, Nokia and Microsoft. From 2016 I headed the cross discipline, global design team at HMD Global, responsible for building on Nokia’s brand heritage in devices.

Washing Machine 2005 Prototype

Type: In house – Samsung 2005 Three principles guided this concept. First that it should be exceptionally simple to operate, which we achieved through clear text prompts and a digital dial interface, Second that the large load capacity should be celebrated, and third it should be recognisable and differentiated. The washer was not mass produced, but remains one of my favourite projects.

Project: Nokia 3310

Role: Head of design / Designer Nokia is one of the few companies which have truly iconic products which evoke emotions for many people. The 3310 is one of those, remembered for its distinct visual style, its simplicity and its resilience. We re-imagined the 3310, keeping those values at the core. The design was actually done in 2009, and after a few tries, I finally managed to convince the board of directors at HMD that our launch was the right time to launch.

Project: Samsung SGH e870 2004

Type: In house – Samsung Role: Designer Year: 2004 From the days before smartphones we were looking to create something that was elegant, comfortable and very easy to use, with a European design point of view.

Project: Bodyzone

Type: collaboration Role: Designer / consultant Year: 1999 Working with renowned architect Nigel Coates we were responsible for the translation of the Bodyzone project in the Millenium dome, from sketch to reality. The number of 300 mm2 lenticular tiles which they hoped to use was unknown, so we created an accurate model and created scripts to calculate. We also created all the visuals which were used in the national news papers.

Project: Nokia portfolio

Type: In house – HMD Role: Head of design/ Designer Year: 2017 As head of design at HMD I was very proud to lead the small team which have delivered all of the Nokia branded devices since 2016. To achieve the portfolios, my role covered brand development, design consistency, portfolio planning, technology planning, specification, pricing, as well as hands on design and detailed manufacturing discussion.

Project: Nokia 6.1

Type: In house – HMD Role: Designer / Head of Design Year: 2017 We were lucky to have Foxconn as our partner at HMD and the Nokia 6 showcases Nokia’s legendary build quality with its solid aluminium machined chassis, only achievable through Foxconn’s CNC capability. This was the first phone to dual annodise and we used it as a signature for the range.

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