In the workshop with Simon

Design is in the Omlet DNA. It’s where we began, and it’s a big part of what happens at HQ every day. We talked to Omlet Co-founder and Chief of Design Simon Nicholls about what design means to him, and how it has shaped Omlet’s ethos and journey. 

What got you into design?

I was one of those annoying kids; I think and visualise in 3d, so anything physical, I’m taking it apart. At heart I suppose I’m a problem solver, someone who wants to get everything in its proper place. Design is problem solving; it’s the itch I had to scratch. So, for me, it was a relatively straightforward trajectory to what we’re doing now. But there was definitely some luck and good fortune in there. 

I chose design tech at GCSE, then design tech at A level, then design and manufacture at uni. Then I went onto a postgraduate design course, which is where I met the guys (co-founders Hanns, James and Will). It was a natural path, and I’ve always been grateful for knowing what I wanted to do.

The other thing I’d add is that there are just too many things that don’t work very well, which makes me frustrated. Every time I encounter bad design, it makes me want to do a better job, because it’s a waste of resources.

What drives you each day?

I get massive satisfaction from seeing the great products the team has designed. This isn’t about one person; Omlet is just not like that. Omlet provides people with products they really enjoy, and animals with a better life. That is hugely satisfying. I don’t think it’s ever finished: it’s a continuous evolution. 

Why animals?

Well it definitely wasn’t going to be a chair. When you’re studying design, you see these books about chairs through the ages, and I didn’t quite get it at the time – probably because I couldn’t afford those chairs! But it felt like there were enough people doing that. With animals, it became clear to us that people love the idea of having pets, but end up getting frustrated, because it’s a lot of hard work to care for them properly. 

The idea initially came from James’ mum. She asked him to design her a better chicken coop. This was in our final year, and we each had to complete our own projects. But Jim’s chicken coop challenge just caught our collective imagination, so the four of us worked on it behind the scenes. We were all invested from the get go. 

We felt design in the pet industry had been really neglected; either people make their own things, like chicken coops or runs – and some people do it really well – but a lot of people end up with a compromise, because of cost and the skill needed. Then you have manufacturers who don’t design – they keep reproducing in ways that suit their machines. You might have factories innovating to save time and money, but not designers really considering the purpose and usefulness of the product. Factor in pet shops that need big profit margins to be viable, and the customer ends up paying too much for a basic, disappointing product. When we began creating the Eglu, twenty odd years ago, it coincided with the move to shopping online, which allowed us to get a better value proposition to the customer. 

So that’s from a design perspective, but aside from that, I’ve always loved animals. Rabbits. Gerbils. Chickens. But I’m not unique in that way – I think all kids are fascinated. Take an egg: it’s remarkable. Back in 2004, chickens had basically been forgotten about – in the UK at least. Keeping chickens had been a thing, but with the advent of supermarkets, refrigeration, that way of life had largely disappeared. 

When we got hold of the idea and started talking about chicken keeping to other people, we found that pretty much everyone had some connection to it in their past, and the questions just kept coming. It was easy to get excited about. When we were first prototyping and testing the Eglu (Classic), I had one in my back garden. We lived in a normal three bed semi – but there was nothing normal about keeping chickens in the garden! My niece came round – she must have been about five. She was fascinated, and kept interacting with the chickens and the coop, picking up the eggs. We knew we were onto something. 

All four of you are designers – why did you end up heading up the design team?

At first we were all deeply involved in everything. But we had to pick our responsibilities. And that came down to knowing your strengths and your limitations. The physical aspect of costing, problem solving, making a product real – that was what I wanted to do. There was so much going on, and each of us naturally gravitated towards something, and somehow there wasn’t a scrabble for any of the roles. It was all quite natural. 

As the business grew, people grew with their roles. It was organic. I think we all really respect each other too, so we were mindful of everyone having a purpose they felt good with. But also, we were so busy, we were just doing whatever was required. Trade shows, driving up and down the country to manufacturers, delivering chickens, answering the phone, assembling products, we were in startup mode and it was full on from day one. 

Why is the Omlet Young Designers Programme important? 

Well, I think there are benefits for us, and also for the people who join us. We recruit permanent engineers and one year placement students, who join us as part of their degree. I did one back in 1999, at Dyson. I was thrown in at the deep end and given bucketloads of responsibility, rubbing shoulders with people who had been doing it for 20 years. That was formative for me. There was massive respect for young people with the right attitude. It gave me an ‘anything is possible’ confidence. I wanted to make an impact and I worked really hard. I wanted to create something of my own, because I was inspired by James Dyson and by what he had done. That experience demystified the whole process a bit for me, so I think it’s really beneficial for aspiring designers.  

And so, when we began our own internship at Omlet, I always wanted experienced and inexperienced people working together, because it creates this real opportunity to learn and contribute. We get to see the people who are really good and passionate, and we can invite them back. It keeps the more experienced people on their toes too, because the young designers are capable! It benefits both sides, provided you have the right culture of support and teamwork. It can’t be antagonistic: yes it can be mildly competitive, but it has to be highly cooperative. There is a strong emphasis on learning, being open minded to new ideas, at Omlet – we’re all students in that way. We are always questioning and researching; it’s what lets us design better than what’s already been done. 

Why does customer feedback matter?

It’s incredibly important and we take it really, really seriously. We have all sorts of ways of collecting info and feeding it back to all areas of Omlet – from how we’re marketing to how we’re designing – and we need to be able to react to those things. 

The new ladder (on the Eglu Pro) is a great example. This came through really strongly from our customers all over the world and we spent a long time evaluating and interpreting feedback, and working with customers to get it right. In fact, I think that journey is true for the Eglu Pro as a whole. It exemplifies what we are doing well, because it has come into being through so much observation and communication with our customers. For example, people would take off the EggPort door, then not know what to do with it – that was an opportunity. So we developed the straps for the Eglu Pro that let you collect eggs hands free. 

Then there’s the LuxPanel. We saw a trend in the findings of researchers and scientists, about how chickens use their coop in the daytime. So we introduced a panel to let in enough daylight to make it a nicer environment by day, and encourage chickens out simultaneously, but without disrupting the privacy and sheltered environment of the coop.

You can’t design for one climate, one condition. Alaska, Sweden, Australia – there are all sorts of different needs. Of course, you can’t design on a case by case basis, but you can keep looking for trends around the edges, which have a broad benefit.

The Omlet design process takes a long time. Is it hard to communicate the value this creates? 

Often, it takes the most work to make something very, very simple. And whether or not people appreciate that, I don’t know! But you can’t get that simple, neat solution without spending the time, and we are relentless in trying to make the right product. We don’t want to make things that end up in landfill. We want to design products that make life better. Otherwise, it’s pointless. That’s our mindset. Companies that make products that break, or aren’t truly fit for purpose, have a short term vision. We are about the long term. 

This doesn’t just apply to our products – it’s how we view relationships with our suppliers, with our staff – it links through to animal welfare, to finding the best solutions for meeting our pets’ needs. Longevity and material usage and purpose go hand in hand. People might think plastic is awful, but it’s not: it’s an amazing material.  Lives have been saved by plastic – look at inhalers, defibrillators. It’s about appropriate use. So, if the products are throwaway, or end up in the bin because they’re not fit for purpose, then there’s no good material: it’s still a waste. 

You have to consider many factors: manufacturing process, usagage, packaging, storage… for example, if using a raw material means you can pack the product in a way that saves eight times the carbon volume, then it could be that in that instance, using a raw material is preferable to a recycled one. 

Take a dog bed cover that will get worn away, need replacing at some point – we use recycled material. But the bed filling, there is a virgin material that stays firm and keeps its shape and compresses far better than its recycled equivalent – and because it’s protected by the cover, it won’t need replacing. It’s about changing the mindset. Rather than ‘good’ or ‘bad’ materials, we need to look at many factors and focus on what’s fit for purpose, long term.

Which product is your personal favourite, and why?

Bloody hell. That’s like asking someone which is their favourite child. But OK. I think one of my favourites is the clip that holds our runs together. That solution, which we invented in 2007, has given us so much freedom. The anti tunnel skirt (on the runs) is another favourite – we got to that by talking to farmers. One guy had hacked something similar for foxes – we took the concept into the studio. Oh, and the slide out dropping tray (part of the Eglu design). It’s life changing.  

We don’t shy away from difficulties to make a product a reality. You have to live and breathe it and truly understand the animal. Our animals here (at Omlet HQ) are part of our design team. The Geo Feeder was born out of watching the budgies and seeing the husks all over the floor in the office. We realized these seed cases go everywhere! We used geometry to ensure that the feeder works with how the birds eat, and catches the husks.

Sum up good design in 3 words.

Satisfying. I want to say delightful. Invisible, maybe. Humble. Hmm, maybe. We have a little plaque in the studio. It has (Dieter Rams’) ten golden design principles engraved on it. He wrote those in the ‘80’s; those principles stand. So there’s three words for you: Dieter Rams’ principles. 

Omlet began with the Eglu Classic – now there’s a whole EGLU range. Was that the plan?

I think it was a natural evolution. We started with this idea that having a couple of chickens in your back garden was something all these suburban people were missing out on. We were students. We never expected it could go this far. But we found that what we were doing connected with far more people than we’d imagined. When a farmer told us they kept their domestic chickens in an Eglu, we realized people were using our coops on a bigger scale. And it just grew from there. Do the chicken math!

This entry was posted in Pets

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