Interview with Corona

each team member has a different motivation for designing. However, we all share a need for creating new products that perform better and in that way, enhance the user's life or at least giving them the most beautiful option of the market. Aesthetics has also a function. It helps to improve life quality and makes intuitive products.

we really enjoy designing the everyday product for an everyday life for the everyman. We understand that our products become life partners. We design timeless style products which work better, look better and are affordable. We understand the user and market, the Latin-American context in a globalize world.

for a good designer, the design is something that you do from 8 am to 5 pm, it is a job... something more operational. For a great designer, the design is a lifestyle, a philosophy, it is the lent through you see the world. So, a great designer is not just talent, it is hard work, persistence, and focus.

when a design is a good design, it is holistic care. i.e. it is thought for production, sales, storage, logistic, environment, functionality and beauty. thus, Design is not just an aesthetic investment... it is complete solution

choice a design field or design skill you feel passion for, and start working hard to be the best one, as musicians and artist have to train constantly, it is not different for designers

Design is the process by which we provide long-lasting solutions for every family; Design allows us to translate insights into tangible products that are fun to use, easy to assemble and affordable for all.

Our biggest strength is team members knowledge. every person on the team has a different expertise that enriches the design final work. And the company is a design believer. Corona understands design as a product transformation engine and a key strategy for delivering better products with added value.

Design presentation is one of the main skills for a designer, how you sell your idea. For that reason we have in the team a person focuses on ongoing learning to improve design delivery and in this way guaranty the best reception by the sales team and marketing. Create delightful images, as far you can make them stunning and trendy. If you have the greatest design but it is badly communicated, it will probably fail.

in our market, people expect simple products with simple characteristic but hard to find together: beautiful, affordable (it means really cheap) and high quality and performance.

We use hand sketch combined with digital sketch using sketchbook pro, Photoshop and sometimes illustrator, for 3D development, we use CREO 4 for creation and KeyShot for rendering, we do quick prototyping on a makerbot and more serious prototyping on a CNC machine using PU foam as raw material, and PU paint to simulate some finishes.

Corona is a multinational company based mainly in Colombia, but now operating through out the Americas. It was established more than 130 years ago with the design and production of ceramic table ware, it expanded to sanitary ware and now it includes in its portfolio a complete range of solutions for the kitchen and bathroom, including construction materials and plumbing solutions.

Design is the process through which we provide long lasting solutions for every family; Design allows us to translate insights into tangible products that are fun to use, easy to assembly and affordable for all.

Kitchen and bathroom ware are our specialty; sometimes it is hard to imagine what could come next in terms of innovation and attractive designs; most people think shape follows function, but we are always challenging the current technologies and processes to push the industry forward and try to make a long lasting impact in every aspect of the product design and development.

Without any doubt, our favorites designs are those that make a true difference in the market place, those designs that defy all standards in terms of function and aesthetic, pushing always forward and pushing us to become better in what we do.

We base our design process in a wide range of technologies and techniques; we do our ideation process in digital sketching and then quickly move to a 3D platform, this allows us to be very precise and minimize uncertainty regarding design feasibility, here we can have a one to one conversation with engineers and technicians to find the best solutions and find a common ground to set our goals and challenges.

everybody on the team has a different way to get inspired. However, our design process begins with an ideation session and there is when designers come up with several creative ideas. This moment is when creative thinking is most demand.

This is a hard question; In the business we are in, we have to be aware of design trends and at the same time, we have to keep up with new technological developments in order to be competitive in the market place. During the design process, both aspects come into play to set boundaries and objectives, at the very beginning, the aesthetic and trendy aspect of the product takes the wheel, and as we move forward, the technology involve withing the development starts to shape the final outcome.

Dedication and passion. Design is what we breathe every day, and it is as a responsibility as an amusement. We take design seriously and everything is carefully thought, and at the same time, we enjoy doing what makes us happy.

Satisfaction and proud are the elicited emotions when we see our product at factory and market. It is like having a child in which we work carefully, going out to achieve its aim.

Success can be measure in many ways, depending on where you stand in the process; A design is successful when it has positively changed the way we did things. Meaning that it has shaped us to be more efficient, creative and analytical.

There is an aesthetic aspect to design that is impossible to dismiss, a design should be pleasant to the eye and should play with the surrounding environment it has been designed for. A design is good when it plays along with the environment from an aesthetics point of view, but it also serves a purpose and communicates this purpose to the user in an intuitive manner.

The designer has the responsibility of seeing the big picture, not only in terms of the product but also in terms of the user and the place it is going to be, these means a designer has to take into account the unspoken language that could either seduce or repeal the user; the product should serve a noble purpose and perform as it is expected and as it is promised.This big picture also includes the materials and processes that will shape the design, a designer has the responsibility of seeing beyond what's there and predict the environmental impact it may have.

With the digital age evolving rapidly and the world connecting in a more efficient way, the design field will undoubtedly become a multidisciplinary filed, it already is, but this time it will consider the management of data, energy deficiency, environmental impact and multicultural markets. The future of design lays at the very bottom of this, interconnecting different technologies to come up with innovative ways of solving every day problems and moving human boundaries further away, questioning what has been settled.

Inspiration can come at any time in any place and from anything, most of the time we look for inspiration in nature, where millions of years have optimized organism to survive the harshest conditions; This lead us to base our designs in already optimum systems and take only the best of them. We stay up to date with world design fares, not only from our industry but feeding our creativity from different points of view, blogs and magazines play an important role in our inspiration resources.

Our design style tends to be more fluid and organic than most of the companies in our industry, this style has been shaped from two different perspectives; from one side, we want to reflect the brand values in a way that the user can connect shapes in the object and the brand promises; on the other side, the nature of the materials we use, hints us towards a noble use of them, the heritage we have in the company, the nature of our existence in the ceramic business demand maturity and serenity in the design style we have adopted.

Our design team is based in Colombia, a very vibrant country with a beautiful heritage and a rich palette that enriches our inspiration. The culture mix we experience in an every day basis help us feed our creativity from different points of view, the indigenous patterns from the south, the Caribbean colors from the north, the never ending biodiversity from the west are just a small glimpse of the resources we have to differentiate us from the rest.

We are part of a company, Corona. Working in a large size company implies synergy between multidisciplinary teams. Each team is an important organ in a whole body, so it is relevant the relationships, communication, relevant insights and accurate guidelines.

We begin our design process by inquiring about the problem that is presented to us, is very important to understand the origin of the problem and question the goals and reach of every project, this will indicate us how we should approach the product and also help us define priorities.After having this things settled, we moved to the ideation stage, where we sketch as much as possible, we explore mostly the aesthetics and look of the product, slowly hinting towards functionality and integrating basic concepts of technology, materials and processes in 3D. Once the final look is settled with the stake holders through prototypes and renders, we pass the design to the engineering team, where a continuous conversation and iteration begins and we find a common ground where the design intent is feasible in mass production.

cultivate friendships, weave a large network of contacts and friends. Sharpen eyesight, a designer is a context reader and problem solver. Be persistent, sometimes to achieve a goal will take more than one attempt. Specialize in a topic, try to get out of the pile and stand out. And be a great team player.

We believe we must go from content to form, from idea to concept, from passion to expression.Design must be honest, truthful and meaningful. It must speak the language of the people it serves, it is convincing in form and functionality, it must show respect towards the user.

good context understanding, it means consumer´s needs to be translated into feasible and relevant solutions; representation skills which could be express by sketching or CAD; and aesthetic feeling, a good understanding of surfaces and how light plays with them... it is a hunt for a high-quality fit, feel and finish.

We use hand sketch combined with digital sketch using sketchbook pro, Photoshop and sometimes illustrator, for 3D development, we use CREO 4 for creation and KeyShot for rendering, we do quick prototyping on a makerbot and more serious prototyping on a CNC machine using PU foam as raw material, and PU paint to simulate some finishes.

Design not always ends with the product itself, the design process also includes communication and additional media material; It usually takes from one to two years from the very first brief definition to the product launch in the market, this duration varies depending on the amount of products to be develop in the collection.

We always work as a team, always sharing ideas and concerns; these give our design strength in character and help us being more critical and filter our thoughts towards really meaningful solutions. Our different backgrounds complement each other in a way that allow us to build ideas constructively thus giving every product a true meaning.

Design Director: Nicolas Ochoa nochoa@corona.com.co