WHY DESIGN?

• Designing Play: How Rémi Bigot Built Bitpong and a Creative Hardware Studio in Berlin

  What do furniture exhibitions, glowing tables, and digital design have in common? For Rémi, founder of Diplik, they’re all stops on a creative journey that ultimately led to Bitpong; a tech-enhanced, interactive ping-pong table that feels equal parts sport, art installation, and arcade. From early ambitions in car design to studying industrial design in northern France, to guest lecturing and building his own hardware studio in Berlin, Rémi’s story is a reminder that creative careers rarely move in straight lines. Bitpong didn’t emerge from a sudden idea. It came from years of exploring where technology meets physical experience. In this episode of Why Design, host Chris Whyte sits down with Rémi to explore the realities of building a hardware product in 2025, the compromises that shape every designer, and why the best ideas still begin with curiosity. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 💡 What You’ll Learn 🎨 Why design often begins as a “compromise” between art and engineering 💡 How a single furniture exhibition changed the trajectory of Rémi’s career 🎮 The design story behind Bitpong and what makes playful products so hard to build 🏓 Why running a small hardware company requires resilience, iteration and long-term thinking 🧰 The role of cross-functional collaboration in bringing interactive products to life 💬 Memorable Quotes “Design became the bridge between engineering and creativity, the compromise that made sense.” “You need inspiring things early on. A drill doesn’t make you want to become a designer.” “When I say I studied design, what I really mean is I found a way to mix creativity, technology and play.” “Building hardware isn’t just about the product. It’s about what it takes to keep going.” 🔗 Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 🔗 Connect with Rémi → https://www.linkedin.com/in/remi-bigot-03101a5/ 🔍 Explore Diplik → http://www.bit-pong.com/ 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → LinkedIn.com/in/mrchriswhyte About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. Through candid conversations with designers, engineers and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering and product leadership. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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• How FutureWave’s Joachim Blends Engineering, Intuition & Innovation Across Mobility, Tech & Robotics

  What connects electric bikes, mobility systems, high-end wellbeing devices and robotics? For Joachim, it’s the same mission: design technology that feels intuitive, human, and full of possibility. With a career spanning Brussels, Copenhagen and London, and now as co-founder of FutureWave, Joachim has spent the past six years building a 25-strong design and engineering studio working across mobility, consumer tech and deep electronics. From shaping early concepts for startup disruptors to helping global brands reimagine their five-to-ten-year vision, his work sits at the intersection of creativity, engineering, and intuition. In this episode of Why Design, Joachim joins host Chris Whyte to explore what happens when designers and engineers stop working in silos and start behaving like one organism. Together they unpack his “human generative design” philosophy, why intuition still matters in a world obsessed with data, and how FutureWave is helping clients design experiences fit for the next decade of hardware. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 💡 What You’ll Learn 🧠 Why great design blends poetry and industry, and why Joachim believes designers act as the “glue” between disciplines. 🌍 How FutureWave breaks hardware silos to deliver desirability, feasibility and viability in one loop. 🔁 What “human generative design” looks like, and why iteration and cross-functional filtering beats isolated brainstorming. 🚲 Lessons from working with startups vs. corporates from rapid prototyping to de-risking long-term innovation. 🚆 Where hardware is heading from mobility transformation to miniaturised wellbeing tech and robotics. 💭 Why intuition still matters in a world dominated by metrics, risk models and strategy decks. 💬 Memorable Quotes “Designers are never experts of anything… but they’re the glue.” “Intuition helps you build dreams, strategy and engineering help you de-risk them.” “You need diversity of minds to build a great product. It works like an organism.” “Sometimes the market doesn’t know what it wants until you show it the experience.” “The future of hardware is invisible tech; seamless, human, and meaningful.” 🔗 Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 🔗 Connect with Joachim → https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-froment-a1920456/ 🌐 FutureWave → https://www.futurewave.eu/ 📸 Instagram → @whydesignxkodu 🎥 Full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design,...

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• Designing at Scale: How Rich Thrush Turned Curiosity into a Career Across Brands

  What connects toy blasters, beauty tools, and musical instruments? For Rich Thrush, it’s all part of the same mission: to make products people love to use. With a career spanning Hasbro, Motorola, Helen of Troy, and now Guitar Center, Rich has led design and innovation teams across some of the world’s most recognisable brands. From developing Braun’s non-contact thermometer to Revlon’s One-Step Volumizer, his work has shaped how millions interact with everyday products. In this episode of Why Design, Rich joins host Chris Whyte to unpack the art and strategy of leading innovation across multiple brands, and why the best ideas start not with technology, but with people. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 💡 What You’ll Learn 🧠 How cross-functional curiosity fuels innovation in any industry 🎯 Why “asking why”, five times, leads to better design decisions ⚙️ Lessons from managing a portfolio of global consumer brands 📱 How Motorola’s success (and Apple’s disruption) shaped Rich’s leadership mindset 🎸 Why Guitar Center’s new era of product innovation is rooted in community and passion 💬 Memorable Quotes “Ideas come from people. The trick is knowing how to create the conditions for them to appear.” “Even if you have 90% market share, you still need to be inventing the next thing.” “Great design isn’t just about form, it’s about understanding what people actually need, even when they can’t say it.” “You don’t buy a drill. You buy a hole in the wall. But really, you’re buying what goes in that hole; meaning.” 🔗 Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 🔗 Connect with Rich Thrush → https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-thrush/ 📸 Follow @whydesignxkodu on Instagram 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → LinkedIn.com/in/mrchriswhyte About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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• Dr Vicky Lofthouse: Why Context Matters More Than ‘Less Plastic’ in Sustainable Design

  When it comes to sustainability, good intentions aren’t enough. For Dr Vicky Lofthouse, sustainability isn’t a checkbox or a materials swap, it’s a mindset shift. As a designer, educator and now founder of En-Able Sustainability, she’s spent over two decades helping companies move past the buzzwords and into the messy, meaningful reality of sustainable product design. In this episode of Why Design, Vicky joins Chris Whyte to explore what sustainability really looks like in practice; from balancing carbon impact with commercial constraints to understanding why context matters more than any single material choice. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events What You’ll Learn 🌍 Why “make it sustainable” is the wrong brief ⚙️ How context defines what “better” actually means 🔁 What circular design looks like in real product teams 🧠 Why less plastic isn’t always the right answer 📈 How evidence beats assumptions in sustainable decision-making 💡 The mindset shift every designer and engineer needs to make Memorable Quotes 💬 “Sustainability isn’t a checklist, it’s a mindset.” 💬 “Sometimes the right answer isn’t the obvious one.” 💬 “Context changes everything.” 💬 “I help companies integrate sustainability and circularity into what they do, not just what they make.” 💬 “Progress doesn’t start with perfection; it starts with questions.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 🌿 Learn more about Enable Sustainability → EN:ABLE Sustainability | Sustainability support for purpose driven manufacturers 👤 Connect with Dr Vicky Lofthouse → https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-vicky-lofthouse-41b4a6/ 🎥 Watch full episodes → YouTube.com/@whydesignpod 📸 Instagram → @whydesignxkodu 🎵 TikTok → _whydesign 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 📲 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or YouTube so you never miss an episode. 👥 Share this with a designer, engineer or founder rethinking what better really means. About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 🔗 Learn more →

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• From BBC to Newlane: How Dom Cotton Built What Everyone Said Was Impossible

  What makes someone leave a 20-year BBC career to build a helmet everyone said couldn’t exist? For Dom Cotton, it wasn’t a midlife pivot, it was a mission. After years spent covering stories about courage and competition, he decided to live one. Seven years, countless prototypes, and a steep learning curve later, Dom co-founded Newlane; the company behind the world’s first safety-certified, foldable commuter helmet. In this episode of Why Design, he shares how curiosity, persistence, and a touch of naivety helped him turn rejection into progress and an idea into reality. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events What You’ll Learn 👇 🧠 Why the “novice mindset” can be a hidden superpower in innovation ⚙️ How to stay resilient through failure, funding droughts, and endless testing 🔥 The difference between building a good idea and building a viable product 📢 Why storytelling sells your vision when prototypes can’t 💡 What every hardware founder can learn from starting over Memorable Quotes 💬 “One of the hardest things is believing in a thing when nobody else can see it yet.” 💬 “A novice’s mindset can achieve what experts say is impossible.” 💬 “Everyone wants innovation until you ask them to live through it.” 💬 “If you’ve got a great product but no story, you won’t sell any.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 🧠 Learn more about Newlane: https://newlane.co.uk 👤 Connect with Dom Cotton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-cotton/ 🎥 Watch full episodes on YouTube → youtube.com/@whydesignpod 📸 Follow on Instagram → @whydesignxkodu 🎵 TikTok → _whydesign 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 📲 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube so you never miss an episode. 👥 If this resonated, share it with a founder, designer, or team leader navigating their own creative leap. 🎬 About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com

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