James Melia, founder and director of award-winning Blond design studio. Since 2015, Melia’s London based, strategic industrial design firm Blond has been the go-to brain trust that innovative global brands like Sony, LG, Revolut and Rapha keep in their rolodex for when they need a product to disrupt their market. From water bottles to home tech, future-forward companies keep Melia in their inner circle because they need a product that will be a game changer in their customer’s life. The differentiator between Melia and other design outfits lies in his starting point for a project. He’s a naturally keen observer of human behaviour and has always taken notice of things that most would not. “I was an industrial designer before I knew I was one”, Melia says. When he was a child he remembers going to Amsterdam and marveling at the highly resolved methods of household garbage disposal. “I was fascinated to see how the Dutch households didn’t have typical rubbish bins, they put their waste outside in collective containers within the ground, and then trucks with cranes took them away. It’s these types of simple and innovative solutions that were of interest to me from as early as I can remember.” Thanks for tuning in, be on the lookout for our next podcast! Send us a DM or email at hello@advdes.org to provide us with your thoughts and comments on our dialogue with designers!