Design models: what’s behind the innovation in methods for companies
Design is often the key to success for many companies, especially in furniture and lighting. That model has worked for years, but now, some outsiders are innovating not only the product but the method: in how they design, produce, distribute, and communicate. Let’s explore some new design models.
Have you ever analyzed the design models that brands use to develop and sell a product?
When we talk about design models, we refer to the overall method – sometimes strategic, sometimes instinctive – that companies and design studios use to bring a product to market. This includes how they structure collaborations, define production, manage distribution, and shape communication. It’s not just about what they design, but how they make it all happen.
There’s a “standard method” that has been around for years and is pretty easy to recognize:
A brand finds one or more designers, develops a collection with them, presents it at a trade fair. Visitors and buyers come by, then shops distribute the products. Communication supports it all, traditionally through design magazines, and today more and more online with beautiful images and curated text.
This, in very few words, is how a product is launched in the design field. Of course, there are exceptions – but overall, it follows this rhythm.
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This process hasn’t only shaped companies, it has influenced designers too, who had to navigate within that model. In the past, studios like Grcic, Bouroullec, or Jasper Morrison followed similar business patterns when working with clients and launching new products.
But now, the game is changing.
Some outsiders are questioning this approach, finding new ways to take advantage of platforms, communication tools, and production methods. These new design models are more aligned with contemporary habits – where experimentation, storytelling, and community engagement matter as much as the product itself.
The old model is creaking for most. These new approaches are gaining ground. Let’s look at some examples and note: some are brands, some are design studios that turned into brands. The line is increasingly blurred, and that’s part of the story.
Design Models – Here some benchmarks:
HIRO
Hiro is a design brand focused on metal home accessories, founded in 2020 by Manuele Perlati (you can read his interview on DesignWanted here).
From the beginning, Hiro understood that making good products wouldn’t be enough. They invested heavily in building a community around the brand, starting with designers. They launched calls and contests, forming a creative group that designed mostly metal pieces with accessible pricing.
Hiro sells exclusively online, and their promotion strategy is built around ads, influencers, creators, and reviewers.
Based on how things “have always been done” in Italy, this approach was brave. But the results are clear: Hiro has carved out a space in the design landscape with a new kind of model: brand-first, community-driven, and digitally native.
TIPTOE
Tiptoe calls itself a “furniture design studio,” but it’s much more than that.
They launched with a single, unexpected product: a table leg – just the leg. Not exactly what you’d call a safe bet ten years ago.
But it worked. They designed it, produced it, and sold it. Today, Tiptoe is a €16M+ company (according to public sources) with a full catalog of well-designed furniture.
Everything is managed in-house from Paris: design, material sourcing, manufacturing, logistics. This gives them complete control of the process, and it shows in the coherence between their product, messaging, and identity. That’s likely the key to their success: harmony across every stage, from idea to market.
teenage enginering
If you’re part of the DesignWanted community, you may have already read my article about Teenage Engineering and their legendary OP-1. And yes – being crazy might be their business plan.
Here’s a small company with a big impact.
Design, engineering, and production are deeply integrated, creating products that truly couldn’t be made anywhere else.
Remember the OP-1? They reinvented sound manipulation by breaking away from traditional knobs and sliders, using visual interfaces. You could drive a car across the display or move Karl Marx to shape a tone. It was wild and brilliant – we have talked about it here.
Recently, they even designed a computer case and gave the files away for free. It sold out, but you can still build your own.
Their approach may remind some of Apple – tight control, strong identity – but there’s a twist: they collaborate with other brands like a design studio. It’s a hybrid model: not limited editions or gallery pieces, but industrial-scale design with total creative independence. Rare and powerful.
ONE TO ONE
This company has a great story, one that starts with designers and becomes possible thanks to enlightened entrepreneurship.
One to One produces a single product: a flat-pack chair made from post-industrial recycled plastic, designed by Stabile+MartinelliVenezia.
What’s interesting is that this wasn’t even a commissioned product.
It began as an idea that no one wanted to produce. So the designers built a prototype and shared it online. It went viral, especially within the Italian design community.
From there, they found not a producer, but an investor, someone who believed so much in the idea that they created a brand around it.
What’s even more fascinating is that the art direction remains in the hands of the original designers. Despite being a “real” company now, the project still feels deeply personal and intentional. You can feel it in the visuals, the tone, the communication, all clearly design-led.
It’s still early days, but the story is strong. Let’s see where it goes.
(We’ve also covered this in our interview with Alessandro Stabile on DesignWanted.)
So what do we learn from these Design Models?
There’s a traditional method for how products are born, presented, and sold in the design industry – but today, alternative models are taking shape, driven by bold individuals, fresh strategies, and new tools.
Some models are startup-like, others closer to craftsmanship, and some are hybrids.
Some are led by designers, others by entrepreneurial visionaries.
Some are all-in-house, others are based on open collaboration.
What they have in common is intentionality: a desire to rethink not just the product, but the way design and business intertwine.
About the author
Mario Alessiani, founder and creative director of the Italian namesake design studio, specializes in product, lighting, and furniture design. His clients include companies such as Umbra, Fabbian, and Axolight. Mario also teaches at the University of Camerino, IED Rome and Sichuan Normal University in China. His work has been exhibited at prestigious events like the ADI Design Museum in Milan, Eindhoven Design Week, and Milan Design Week, earning him awards like the IF Design Award and Archiproducts Design Award.
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