Designworks featured in PackagingNews

Designworks was asked to contribute to this months PackagingNews article on packaging for personal care and cosmetic products. We gave our thoughts on how and why brands are willing to invest in packaging for personal care products, taking into account the needs of the consumer to buy into a lifestyle brand, not just a cosmetic product.

The article also included our talcum powder concept, Dri Sport, which was featured next to packaging for Prada, Karl Lagerfield and La Factory.

For the online version of the article, go here

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !


Designworks model making division’s latest festive themed project – commissioned by Harrods to assist with their Christmas window display in collaboration with Swarovski crystals.
Check out these photos of the dazzling enchanted crystal forest and look out for our white feathered friends – real doves, white peacocks, swans and beautiful barn owl ! (DEFRA approved)

Human Snap

With so many people working here with great fashion sense it can only be expected that on occasion great minds think alike.

Over the years we have collated a few images of the best cases of human snap in the office and as it’s nearly Christmas we can now share them with the world!. Thanks to everyone who has appeared in this hall of fame, keep up the good work!.

Bringing talcum powder into the 21st century…

At Designworks we like a challenge, and so we looked at improving one of the most recognisable personal care products around – talcum powder.

For too long, talcum powder has been perceived by consumers as messy, inconvenient and sold as a low value, commodity product; gradually losing shelf presence and disappearing from bathrooms in the UK. We believe that with new positioning, packaging and proposition, talc can become a high-value product again.

After exploring the market, gathering consumer insights and identifying some opportunities, we created DRI SPORT – a motion activated body powder that keeps you drier and fresher, reducing the risk of chaffing during sports and enhancing your performance.

The need we identified was that sportsmen and women need a product that can help reduce chaffing between sweaty skin and clothes, whilst being mess free, easy to use and portable.

Our solution – compressed talcum powder tablets that are crushed in the hand and then applied to the body. By using a tablet format, mess is vastly reduced in comparison to powder, while also allowing us to radically redesign the packaging into an easy to use, ergonomic dispenser.

We even developed the design into some high-quality aesthetic models, complete with branding.

DRI SPORT is a great example of how we can identify an opportunity and deliver a proposition that will disrupt the market – from consumer research, through to design and prototyping.

If you’d like to know more about how we got to the DRI SPORT proposition, or just want to talk about talcum powder, please contact either Ben or Pete at Designworks Windsor


End of the mo!

Alas, December is upon us, and therefore it’s the end of Movember… We’ve made quite the effort this year at Designworks, with one member of staff (ok, it was Martin…) even going as far as to use Just For Men to get the right look! We also had a real mix of styles, ranging from the well maintained to the intimidating – and frankly, we hope Chris never decides to grow facial hair like that again.

In all seriousness, a big thankyou to all those who took part – we’ve managed to raised hundreds of pounds so far, online and in the studio. All going towards raising awareness of prostate cancer, and other cancers that affect men.

To support us, please go here for the DW team effort.

Until next year!

What a weekend……..

You know that old saying “It’s all about who you know, not what you know….

Well last weekend was a great example, a very good friend rang from Vodafone and said did I fancy going to the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi? – Five minutes later with flights booked, hotel reservation made I was in a taxi heading for the airport. Nothing could have prepared me for the sights and sounds that followed. Watching the start from the pits was an earsplitting experience, from there we were taken to the nerve centre within the inner sanctum of Mclaren, the atmosphere may have been calm to start, but as the race unfolded and victory became a tangible reality the tension became electric. Lewis First, JB third !!!! what a result, champagne [well lemonade on the podium] and a lot of partying followed, the evening was rounded off by queuing for a modest curry with some amazing people – the team mechanics, all the logistics guys, wives, girlfriend [and a few hanger-on ers!!] team principles and even Jenson and Lewis – quite surreal asking Lewis to pass the salt and pepper!!!

Thank you Steve for the most amazing day.

Movember update

We’ve been busy cultivating, refining and stroking our facial hair for the last couple of weeks now, so thought we’d give you a status update. As you can see, some of us have have grown some eye-catching masterpieces, while others have struggled to grow anything at all…

Its all for a good cause, and we’d appreciate your support – you can donate here for the DW team effort.

We’ll update you again on the final day of movember, so watch this space!

The 12 hour challenge – Designworks does the BBC Junior apprentice in a night

How does a design consultancy cope with being given just twelve hours to create the prototype of a Junior Apprentice team’s concept? Find out as we film our process over one action packed night. Fuelled only by curry and energy drinks can our heroes rise to the challenge?

Check out our video here!

Designworks does Movember!

The Designworks team has got together to support mens health, by taking part in the annual ‘Movember’ event – lasting the whole month of November, men across the UK will be grooming a moustache to raise awareness of prostrate cancer. We hope that we’ll be able to raise some funds along the way too.

Our aim is to end up with a variety of styles in the studio – ranging from the sophisticated to the awful… Watch this space for updates on how we’re doing!

You can support us here!

Apprentice Series 7, Episode 9

It’s that time of year again and the fruits of an overnight stint will be unleased in front of millions of people on Wednesday night.

We, once again, worked through the night to transform the team’s ideas into a reality.  Although the task was a slightly different one for us we still had all the skills in house to complete each of the teams concepts to a high level.