February 10th, 2021
Joseph Joseph’s tagline, Brilliantly Useful Design, tells you pretty much all you need to know about the brand and their mission from the word ‘go’. They have built their business on fulfilling one responsibility: to improve the lives of their customers through a distinct measure of personality and performance that makes Joseph Joseph synonymous with innovative homeware products.
The company was started in 2003 and is helmed by twins Richard and Antony Joseph, who made their start injecting a new lease of life into £10,000 worth of stock from their father’s industrial glass manufacturing company.
Their relatively humble beginnings, reengineering glass chopping boards, organically evolved into a wide range of homeware products that satisfy their aim to improve the functionality of everyday items. And, henceforth, their ideology – a duty to solve problems through intentional products – was born.
Right from the start, Joseph Joseph was as savvy and ingenious with their business management as they were with their products. The innate yin and yang of the two founders, with Richard coming from a business background and Antony from design, meant their purpose and problem-solving pursuit never waivered.
This coherent and deep-rooted identity is what helped them become one of the fastest-growing companies in the world.
By penetrating worldwide markets and creating products responsibly, with style, Joseph Joseph continued to grow and become an instantly recognised symbol of quality and function in kitchen and bathroom products.
A cognizant willingness to practice environmentally-responsible manufacturing processes also purveys throughout many of Joseph Joseph’s products. Many components, such as the inner buckets of the Split™ 6L Steel Waste & Recycling Bin, are made from recycled plastic, which shows a consciousness for sustainability. There are also some products in their range that show an awareness of the importance of reducing waste and managing it responsibly, serving as hope their business and manufacturing practices will be as innovative as their products for the benefit of the environment moving forward.
There is an integrity to Joseph Joseph that drives their decisions; it’s why they have only slowly ventured to bathroom products from their original kitchenware range, and are still yet to design for the entire household as they may well in the future. By considering their responsibility to solve problems for customers in an irreverent and ergonomic fashion, all Joseph Joseph products are an instantly recognisable hallmark for ingenuity, and there have been no diluted offerings to date.
With an attentive and measured design process, Joseph Joseph ensures that their products are principled with the responsibility they defined from their inception.
In modern life, space and time are expensive commodities, so products that take up too much of either are likely to be forgotten or passed over. The challenge with practical products is how to address these issues and appeal to the consumer’s inherent aesthetic desire. Joseph Joseph products are designed with purpose, to fulfil their given task efficiently and even take it to the next level in many instances. Still, they always remember to do so with the character and charm we have come to expect.
A vested interest in genuinely improving the lives of their consumers’ has been omnipresent in Joseph Joseph’s offerings right from the beginning. Their knack for incrementally innovating in subtle, yet almost revolutionary, ways has delivered products such as their range of hygienic soap dispensers, which are designed to be easily pumped using your wrist/forearm when your hands are messy. The first time you see or use a Joseph Joseph product, in many cases, evokes a ‘lightbulb’ moment of sorts for the consumer; you never want to go back to using your old soap dispenser again.
There is a symbiosis between Joseph Joseph as a company and the consumers they look to appeal to. The understanding and appreciation are mutual, reciprocated by simple acts such as storing your Joseph Joseph chopping boards proudly, which is an honour that not many others are bestowed.
The founders, Joseph and Joseph, have spoken in the past about their adoration for brands like Apple and Dyson (whom Richard worked for before going onto undertaking a Master’s in business at Cambridge University), and the connection is clear in the way all three stick to their guns to meet the needs of their customers innovatively.
Written by Jack Morris, Writer.
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