Designing For Change

Benjamin Hubert talks about embracing change and designing for people’s needs.

- Benjamin Hubert

Six years ago, Benjamin Hubert launched an eponymous practice, after working as an industrial designer for a number of corporate agencies in the UK. The studio ranged from a two-to three man team located in East London. He did not bring clients from his previous companies onboard as is commonly done but instead started from scratch.

“I am a hardworking person,” says Hubert, somewhat modestly, “And I think that’s basically what it takes in the industry.”

He explains that while working for some of UK’s largest corporations, he was also learning a lot about design and business. The passion to learn equipped him with a strong foundation but Hubert cites a certain kind of attitude as the key to push forward. “If there is one attribute that helps in the design arena, it is being tenacious and it’s always something I encourage other people to do and be. Just be a little bloody-minded, really.”

In a short span, Hubert has managed to work with some of the world’s most well-known brands, including Nike, Braun, BMW and Samsung, and among top names in the furniture business such as Fritz Hansen, Herman Miller and Moroso.

Less than two years ago, he rebranded from his eponymous design atelier to Layer. While Layer is still located in East London, what’s changed is that Hubert’s two-man team grew in strength – it became a 20-member team, and in true Hubert fashion, the change was strategic and analytic and backed up by numbers.

Hubert says that before the rebranding, the team worked on a number of projects under his name but soon enough that became repetitive and one dimensional. “People were coming to us for my sense of taste or style which is fine but it’s not what I think design is.”