Wills Watson+Associates

ApproachWills Watson+Associates are specialist product designers whose work can be found from Heathrow Airport to the British Museum, from hospital operating theatres to flagship office developments, and ranges in scale from micro medical products to streetscape infrastructures. Our products are designed with an understanding of the context in which they will function and an equal emphasis on the strategic overview and the refinement of the smallest detail.Our work spans the contract furniture, architectural product and medical device sectors but shares a common approach. From their background at the architectural practice DEGW, Tony Wills and Brian Watson learned the discipline of deeply questioning the brief and challenging any assumptions at the start of the design process. This has led to a rigorous design method that might be termed ‘rationalist’ and summed up by the phrase ‘form follows reason’. Reason and logic alone can result in a sterile image but, when used appropriately, an integral beauty evolves which is more than skin deep and goes right back to the core of the design thinking. Neither image nor function are compromised and they become balanced and mutually supportive – essential criteria for a product that transcends the whims of fashion and a ‘here today gone tomorrow’ approach.All stages of our design process have a highly practical flavour – not surprising since our backgrounds are in engineering and manufacturing. We complement computer-based design with tangible models and prototypes, and cross-fertilise ideas across the different sectors in which we work. Between us we have many years of real-world experience to help turn our design concepts into reality.We are also happy to collaborate with the client’s in-house design & engineering teams or with other specialist consultants. We are not design prima donnas – our way of working is that the best idea prevails, regardless of who comes up with it.