Smart Design

Richard lives for the moments when a big idea comes into focus. Equally, he is passionate about transforming that big idea into reality.

As Partner and Vice President at Smart Design, Richard is committed to delivering results across Smart’s key areas of expertise. He is a driving force behind the organization’s exploration of emerging areas of design and is an influential mentor in thought-leadership. Richard’s recent work focuses on developing product-service systems, which address the needs of people, society, and business. Additionally, he oversaw the design practices and the company-wide initiative on sustainability.

Richard serves on the Design Management Institute’s Advisory Board and Co-chaired DMI’s Design at Scale Conference in New York. Richard has spoken at events across the US and in the EU and received numerous awards for his work, including IDEA Gold and D&AD Product Design Awards. Richard graduated from the Industrial Design Engineering program at the Royal College of Art in London, holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol, and practiced as a Product Designer in the UK and Japan before moving to New York.

Follow him on Twitter: @whitehall