Richard Whitehall

Director of Industrial Design

Smart Design

Richard’s diverse background and multi-disciplinary perspective help Smart Design fuse innovative Engineering, Industrial Design and Research to produce breakthrough products for high profile clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Imation, and OXO. He is part of Smart Design’s sustainable design task force and helps lead the Industrial Design practice from the New York office.

Richard graduated from the Industrial Design Engineering program at the Royal College of Art in 1992. His work there focused on the design of electronic products and systems. Whilst at the Royal College, Richard collaborated with NEC Design Center in Tokyo, developing a range of concepts for personal communication devices, culminating in a design for one of NEC’s mobile phones. Richard holds a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol.

After graduation, Richard worked at Isis, a London-based Product Development group, on a range of consumer products, furniture and equipment. His work on hi-fi speakers for Impulse received the British Design and Art Directors award in 1995. During this time, he collaborated with (Interbrand) Newell & Sorrell, on the 3 dimensional aspects of branding programs such as the 1996 British Airways identity. Prior to Smart Design, Richard was Design Director at Human Factors Industrial Design (now Product Genesis) where he specialized in the development of clinical and consumer healthcare products. Richard led multi-disciplinary projects for companies such as Sunbeam, BD, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Unilever, PerkinElmer, Dentsply and DuPont.