Interview with Roohollah Merrikhpour

Roohollah Merrikhpour ("RM") interviewed on Monday, 2 April.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

RM : I am working as an industrial designer for almost 10 years in the industry. I started as an industrial packaging designer designing plastic bottles and ended up being the head designer of my design studio RITOON. It’s about 8 years that we are busy with designing, producing and selling our design-oriented products in the Iranian market and partially in the international market.

How did you become a designer?

RM : At the very first, I studied civil engineering to become an engineer but soon, after I got familiar with the industrial design, I realized that I want to spend the rest of my professional life in industrial design. Industrial design in my point of view is a kayak that makes you able to go and see the whole ocean of majors and professions. From the engineering when designing a blender to medical science when you are involved in the project of designing a surgery instrument.And even more exciting about design is that most of the time when you start a design project you don't know what result would look like. That's why I love design. I love to be surprised by my design every time I design something!

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

RM : Most of my designs bring a little smile on audiences' lips. I always try to have a WOW factor hidden in my design. There should be something special in my design. Something like a sarcasm, a metaphor or even a joke. Something that make audiences think about it, discover it and enjoy this discovery.

Which emotions do you feel when designing?

RM : I am full of passion while I am designing. When I am in the middle of ideation phase, I become a child and I explore the world of non-existence. By trying to bring something new to the world, It's like you are sitting on the creator's throne! Which is great and full of pride!

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

RM : First, being curious about almost everything unknown or unfamiliar and second, insisting to change and fix "things" and make them "better things". These two are what lead me to become a designer. As a child I always was looking for broke things, damaged things, problems and questions, and then It was my duty to fix them, solve them and answer them. I believe the main aspect of designing is problem solving. This was the quality inside me that made me designer.

What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?

RM : As I mentioned before at first I wanted to become a civil engineer. I even got my bachelor in civil engineering. But after I got familiar with industrial design, I went to school and got my second bachelor in industrial design. I started my career as a packaging designer in a well-known company. The company was producing home-care, hair-care and other products and my duty was to design plastic bottles for those products. I worked there for 3 years and at the same time while I was studding in industrial design master program, I found my home studio RITOON. I moved to the US in 2013 to get another Masters degree to improve my knowledge about business and design. After Finishing my study I partnered up with my friend and we raise RITOON to a more professional design studio. Now I am working with my friend in our studio designing idea oriented products. We outsource our products production and we sell them.About the future plan, I would say that I plan to improve our studio to an international design studio. I want our products to be found in all countries around the world.My dream design project is to design a prefab wooden hut.

What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?

RM : Have a plan. Write your plan and follow it step by step. Don't think wanting to become a great designer is enough. Although hardworking, remaining excited and being enthusiastic are necessary factors, but they are not enough. Having a realistic plan is as important as they are.

You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?

RM : The key point I want to mention is "knowing what you don't want to do is far more important than knowing what you want to do". Life is too short to becoming successful in few fields. Remove all other unnecessary paths and focus on what you really want. Don't let things distract you from your main path which is becoming a great designer.

What is your day to day look like?

RM : Since we are not a very big company I have many things to do every day. I personally may be busy with design, sale, negotiation with business partners, etc.. But my favorite task is when I am busy with detail-design of our products. Detail-design makes my brain busy one hundred percent. This stage which is very important in the design process makes my brain fully engaged. Being fully focused on design is really satisfying and relaxing.And of course having a day with a good sale is always makes us happy!

How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?

RM : Staying up-to-date is really important in the design world, from reading design news every day to learning about new technologies and software. Knowing design trends and more than that finding out future trends forecasting from credible sources, for a designer is as vital as knowing language for a writer.I believe designers should pay attention to what audiences wants. Trends are always important. As a designer I need to reflect my style via my design language in my design, at the same time I have to deliver what customers and market expect. And the best reference for market expectations are trends. So I try to find an optimum point between my style and design trends.

How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?

RM : In my point of view good design should meet 5 main criteria:1- It has to convey right messages to user according to use of it.2- It must do perfectly what it is designed for.3- The product must be comfortable for user while using, physically and mentally.4- Style of the product has to be beautiful from the user's point of view.5- And finally, the design should bring a souvenir for user. Something new, exciting and unexpected which makes user excited and happy. This part refers to the creativity of the design.The first four parts are expectations and the fifth is the gift.

How do you decide if your design is ready?

RM : A perfect design does not exist. You may develop your design for weeks and weeks and you still can say "that could be a better design". There is always space for development. The point of reaching to the final design is defined by time, energy and money you have for your project. The more you have time the better design you deliver.But sometimes during the process you reach to a solution and you just know that this is the one, and you are sure that even if you spend lots of time and energy on the project, no outcome can compete with it. In this situations only gifted designers can choose confidently and they take the risk.

What is your biggest design work?

RM : My biggest design work which I hope can rock in the market is a product in IOT field. My friends and I are working on the project and you will hear about it from Kickstarter.com in the near future.

Who is your favourite designer?

RM : Dieter Rams is my favorite designer. Comparing all other designers after 1950, I believe he has the most impact on today's product design. His definition of good design is a road map for every single contemporary designer. His principles of good-design also has influenced UI-design very much.Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to meet him but if I meet him, I would ask him to give me one of his products with his signature on it. If I have chance to select the product, I would choose Braun SK_2 Radio which is my favorite.

Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?

RM : I am from IRAN. The culture I came from, is the culture of Iran which is also known as culture of Persia and is among the oldest in the world. As an Iranian I love Iranian ceremonies, traditions, arts and architecture. Iranian culture and arts are very decorative. It means that we Iranians bring so many details in our everyday life just for decorating our lives. In Iranian architecture, you can see very delicate and beautiful details like well-known Iranian mosaic art, while in our everyday-life speaking in Persian we use so many metaphors, analogies, sarcasm and jokes to decorate our talk and make it more interesting for each other.Iranian culture is the culture of families, friends, foods, party and poetry. We love talking, joking, reading old poetry books and hearing each others' memories, until midnight.

Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?

RM : We believe in sustainable development. We improve slowly but sustainable.About products we keep it simple. We design cool products and we sell them to people who love cool products!Our products added-value is the idea behind them. Each and every RITOON's product has to have an unexpected cool message for the user. In this way our customers are always sure that each time they buy a new product, we have a surprise for them.About our business partners, we see them as our friends. We are easy to deal with and we keep everything transparent and friendly. While doing business, we make sure our partners feel winning as well as we do. Although sometimes we face problems, but all problems are solving by friendly and honest negotiation.

What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?

RM : We try to be faithful to certain principles. One of those is to be green. We try to manage our designs, production methods, advertising and whatever we do, as green as possible. We always try to design and produce our products sustainably and green. We specially avoid plastics in our products as much as possible.About the quality also we have rules. We don't produce low quality products. Although our products are sometimes a bit expensive, but we are proud that customers feedback shows they are satisfied with what they paid for.

What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?

RM : The fact that A' Design Award is examining your work before the final judgment and tells strengths and weaknesses of your work, makes the competition more fair. That is the nicest thing A' design Award does and I haven't seen this in any other award. A' Design award is also a well-known media for design professionals, young designers and even students who want to be seen.

Roohollah Merrikhpour Profile