Landor has formally launched its partnership with London based northandsouth, creating a prototyping lab dubbed The Pod which will take ideas from paper to product in as little as 10 weeks.
The new dedicate space within Landor, which boasts 3D printers and advanced design tools, will act as a development lab for Landor clients seeking the push the envelope quickly in consumer engagement.
Dominic Walsh, managing director of Landor Sydney, said the joint venture had been designed to address the shortfalls in current product development cycles.
“In this marketplace there is a lack of end to end capability,” Walsh said.
“A lot of clients are saying to me they might get an ideation firm in to do lots of ideas but then not know what to do with them or not be able to get them to market.”
Tom Baker, industrial designer at northandsouth, said that over a period of years a company could see dozens of viable projects left “on the cutting room floor” because of a lack of a process to bring them to life.
“They have all these barriers that get in the way – consumer research and capital expenditure - there is a whole lot of reasons why things don't get to market.”
Walsh said a lot of the demand for fast paper-to-product development was being driven by retailers who wanted quick action.
“Within three months we need something on the shelves,” he said.
“So a lot of the thinking around the pod was we can fast track things to market but also rapid prototype with things like 3D printing and speed up the whole exercise.”
The Landor and northandsouth team have already managed to complete a number of fast-track projects using The Pod including a major one for Pernod Ricard's Jacobs Creek developing the Double Barrel line which utilised the drinks company's left-over whiskey barrels to create a new wine line.
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