Hasta La Ideas

Hecht in Industrial Facility’s London office. Photo by Hello Design.

Name: Sam Hecht

Occupation: I’m a designer.

Location: London

Current projects: We’re working on a new paradigm of the office—so that’s office furniture. We started working on that about three years ago, and we’re still working in that area. We’re also working on some new electronics and domestic appliances, and some reinterpretations for the home, like chairs and those sorts of things. And we’re now also involved in some medical devices.

Mission: To serve people, primarily. We design partly autobiographically but primarily for other people. And we see companies and industry as a relevant conduit to people. We tend not to design for galleries or limited-edition scenarios but much more for mass production, which means that, invariably, the complexities are very big because the responsibilities are multiplied. Just one improvement in this world can be hugely impactful.

Industrial Facility’s Formwork series of desk accessories, designed for Herman Miller, debuted at last month’s London Design Festival. Photo by Milo Reid.

Hecht and his partner, Kim Colin. Photo by Hello Design.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? Well, I was not very good at school. But I was always very good with my hands. My father had a business selling electrical products. I started to work for him very early as a child, repairing things that customers brought back—everything from kettles to toasters to irons to radios, from all different types of manufacturers. And I enjoyed that very much. I was very good at it; I understood everything about components and soldering and boards and these sorts of things. And then my mother came home one day with a book on industrial design, and I found that maybe that is my entry point into the world. So that’s why I started to think about going into design. But I was told I had to go to art school, so I studied art first.

Education: I studied fine art first of all, and then I studied industrial design at Central Saint Martin’s and then at the Royal College of Art.

First design job: Making instruction manuals for flat-pack furniture. It was a job where I was still at a drafting table—there were no computers. I wore a shirt and a tie, and it was all very, very boring. Incredibly boring. I can’t even describe to you how boring it was. People from the design office were not allowed to go into the factory, and they told me to leave after I was found there too often. I only lasted six months.

Who is your design hero? I don’t really have design heroes as such; certainly I don’t have design heroes that are alive. Not that that means there aren’t any great designers; there’s some fantastic ones. But I tend to move toward architecture, where I’m fascinated by architects such as Peter Zumthor and Wiel Arets. I don’t really have a feeling that I’m moved by the world of design as much as by some other disciplines.

The Passport Memo for Muji. Photo by Industrial Facility.

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