5 minute read
Studio William
Undeniably a man driven by a true creative luminosity, award-winning designer William Welch is also passionate about purity in products – both his own and others. He speaks with Tableware International’s Mairead Wilmot about how he and his team marry good design with running a successful company…
Did you know?
Studio William has a new 6,500sqft showroom in Bicester, England where chefs can “absorb creative concepts and nurture their thought process toward inspired tableware selection”.
William your business has many different facets – Studio William, Charingworth Cutlery, and Studio Wonder Works which is your UK foodservice distribution business – where does your passion truly lie, is it William the designer or William the businessman? We supply airlines, retail, hospitality and consumers, my passion is creating and suppling beautiful products that either, we have designed, or designs from other companies.
Which facet of the business takes up most of your time? The hospitality side, the design side or retail? We love creativity and we try to apply this ethos across the business. Design is an important daily activity, as you would naturally assume. However, what people often don’t realise is you can apply creativity across the entire business. Creativity can reshape and repurpose operations within a company. In short, creativity drives everything.
Do you think you need several strings to your bow to be successful in this industry? All businesses need many strings to their bows to be a successful global company. Design and uniqueness – the DNA code of a product becomes the soul of a company.
What are your high-end hospitality clients looking for – design or functionality? High-end hospitality is trying to carve a unique journey and unique memorable experience. The materials, the interior and architectural aura of the restaurant sets the tempo for their customers’ senses – eyes, ears, palate and olfactory experience. For chef’s food concept to be complete, the tableware must support the menu, interior and architecture – the overall restaurant concept.
In our new 6,500sqft showroom in Bicester, England, we have created a wondrous design workshop of beautiful global tableware brands, allowing chefs to absorb creative concepts and nurture their thought process toward inspired tableware selection.
And the same question applies to retail – is design or functionality more of a draw for retail buyers? Retail buyers are essentially looking to support their retail brand position by sourcing product with appeal, aesthetic and price point to suit their target audience. The design and function from a buyer’s
sustainability
Studio William has designed a new collection of 100 per cent compostable packaging with Braille for the Studio William Cutlery brand – a first, they say, in the tableware industry.
On the design process…
“As brand ambassador, my eyes are like sponges absorbing globally as I travel the world. I love nature and in particular trees. We combine all information which helps to stimulate creative art direction. We design using sketches, CAD and rapid prototyping for model making to realise with speed new concept development.
The development of new designs for the company is applied into two brands: Studio William and Charingworth Cutlery, both have different brand objectives. Studio William is our design-led premium brand, designing product for this brand is driven by our expansion of sculptural forms. For Charingworth, the design style is transitional – old meets new.”
perspective could also include the manufacturing quality and longevity of product, as well as the environmental impact.
Essentially if we make products that last for two years and we make products that last for 10+ years you are either buying a long-term commitment with less consumption and better life cycle for a product, or you are choosing a fashion short-term product, as you want the customer back in two years to purchase the same item. Responsibility versus commercialism – there is a balance between buying well, and buying with consideration. To feed this debate, we have designed a new collection 100 per cent compostable packaging with Braille for our Studio William Cutlery brand, a first in the tableware industry.
Do you pay any heed to the zeitgeist and what is in vogue? The spirit of products is driven by the world we are in, and most designers are naturally influenced by technology, social change and the materials available at any point of time. We are extremely proud that we have won more international cutlery design awards than any other company on the planet, and it is a testament that we are in permanent museum collections around the world. We create timeless forms and the two aspirational words that support our brand mission are elegant and beautiful.
How many Michelin star restaurants use Studio William Cutlery now? (And have you eaten in every single one of them?!) Studio William is found in many amazing global restaurants including Michelin, San Pellegrino Top 100 and Chef Hat Awards and I am really fortunate to get to dine at some of these exceptional restaurants!
In terms of being an innovator in the sector, do you feel pressure to continuously evolve your offering? Our new cutlery range Okina, we have recently launched, is the most minimal cutlery design we have done to date. The mission was to cut and strip out and to create the most striking minimal architecturally expression that cutlery could have on the table. Our future is the challenge of good design, and this always leads our new product development. Finally, where do you see your brand in five years time? We have grown our business to be a globally recognised flatware company and brand associated with good design. In the next five years we would like to also explore collaborations and partnerships bringing together minds and brands, I am great believer in collaborative creativity.
Olive (in a chocolate colourway)
