Teroforma: Defying Convention

Teroforma is a new tableware company, launching in January, bringing artists, craftsmen and designers together to create exclusively-designed tableware that means more. Believing that an object is just an object until one knows the story behind it and about the people involved in its creation, educating their customers on the creative process behind the products they are acquiring is of utmost importance to the multi-faceted start-up. Teroforma's creative director, Hugo Eccles, took some time out with Behance to discuss the company's motivations, inspirations and sometimes non-conventional practices.

It's clear that this project -- in both business structure and design processes -- is well thought-out, from start to finish. "It’s important to realise that design is just part of the picture and not the whole picture. A lot of designs fail not because the design and the thinking behind them are bad, but because the designer lost view of the other factors that affect the success of a design. We’ve all seen designs that are great, only to be let down by the manufacturing. If a designer doesn’t consider the opportunities, and the restrictions, of a manufacturing process the results are less than ideal."

Realizing that good design is only the beginning, Teroforma has chosen to adopt a virtual medium to reach the largest audience possible for their products. "There are so many great ideas that are designed well and manufactured well, but fail because no-one ever gets to see them. We decided very early on that to best compliment Teroforma’s designs we would need to get them to as many people as possible and for us, that meant the internet. That in itself poses a challenge to give our customers the best possible, tactile, experience in a virtual medium. We’ve been working with a great digital media company called Poke who are helping us to make this a reality."

Eccles looks past the traditional application of collaboration, appreciating the different viewpoints multiple players can bring to the mix. "Collaboration is key for generating new ideas as it presents the opportunity for debate which always improves the design ‘conversation’. Inspiration comes from all sorts of places -- it might be something you see in the street, or a material or process that is particularly interesting, or a particular gesture that someone makes. Often I am inspired by how people really use objects which, in reality, means the way they misuse them. For example, a chair isn’t ‘designed’ to be a step stool or a door stop, but often this is how people actually use a chair. A shoe wasn’t designed to be a hammer, but many of us will have used a shoe to hammer in a nail to hang a picture." The same thought process applies to the company's internal operations. "I couldn’t do my job without the rest of the Teroforma team - there’s no way you could do this alone as there’s no way an individual could accumulate the collective experience that we, as a team, have. All of our collective experience is brought to bear on what we do."

The team let their line develop organically, and seeks to compliment and facilitate human interaction through their line. "The phrase “design is a verb, not a noun” is instrumental in how we approach what we do. We didn’t set out to design and manufacture tableware, but to allow our customers to have real, meaningful experiences with the people they love; tableware just turns out to be the best way for us to help achieve that. Design is only really useful when it blends seamlessly into a person’s life and the way they want to lead their life. We are there to facilitate a great experience but not to be the great experience itself- our customers create their own experiences with their friends, their family. We’re there in the background, almost like the perfect waiter, helping the experience to be the best it can, but without interrupting."

The ability - and willingness - to defy tradition to solely benefit their customers is not only admirable, but intelligent. "At Teroforma, we find ourselves doing a lot of things that are, from a conventional business perspective, ‘wrong,’ but they are absolutely right for our customer. This often leads to us doing things that are a lot of work for us because we believe that it’s our responsibility to do these things and not the responsibility of our customer."

Their simple motivations and positive intentions for their products seems to be positioning the company for nothing but longevity and success. "Our mission is relatively simple on the surface: to create beautifully designed, thoughtful, tableware that allows our customers to experience something special every day. What we are exposed to on a daily basis directly affects the way we perceive the world and we believe that what we do is a small but important step in the right direction. Our perception of the world has direct implications on how we approach the world and we believe that the rich tapestry of different people, cultures, and traditions are worth celebrating and preserving."