British design studio Redman Whiteley Dixon talks superyachts, the future of design and how a team of talented designers all ended up on the same track.
The down-to-earth group of designers at Redman Whiteley Dixon has firmly established themselves as a household name in the superyacht design world, with industry-changing projects such as Vava II, Twizzle and Como all benefitting from their design handy work. SYT caught up with Justin Redman and Toby Ecuyer from the acclaimed studio based in Hampshire in the UK to find out what contributed to their past successes, the value of partnership within a modern design company, and what exactly driving around in old-school cars has to do with it all?
How did RWD start in 1993?
Justin: We founded RWD with two partners; Mark Whiteley and myself, and together we formed Redman Whiteley Design. We originally met when we were studying Industrial Design together at The Central School of Art & Design in London. Some years later, Mark had been working with Andrew Winch and I had likewise had been working with the great John Munford. Having very much kept in touch, there came a time to try going it alone, put our names on the door and so together we decided to set up shop! That was 23 years ago in Chelsea, London, just down the road from Mr. Bannenberg. Tony Dixon joined us in 2001 and our company name subsequently changed to Redman Whiteley Dixon.
You were designing mostly sailing yacht (and a few motor yacht) interiors when you started, was it difficult to land your first exterior project because of that initial specialism?
Justin: I guess so. We had added elements of exterior design to one or two sailing yachts we had been working on at the time, but really the major game changer for us, from an exterior design perspective was the exterior and interior commission for the 73 metre Amels built Ilona. She was all about innovation and our landscape very much changed following her launch. Every company seems to have 'significant’ yachts in its history and for us clearly, one was Ilona. From a size perspective, she was a notable calling card into the larger yacht arena, but she also introduced the exterior element of our business and gave us some of our trademarks and styling cues that we've evolved and developed since. We’ve had the most lovely relationship with that family, with perhaps five commissions over the years and we are now very proud to have designed the interior of a yacht for the next generation of the family, which was recently launched in New Zealand. As such, another very important commission for us and I think we have again achieved something really very personal and bespoke once more.
Vava II was also a very significant exterior design project, could you tell us more about her?
Justin: Yes, she was. This was an incredible opportunity for us, winning the commission over other wonderful designers who had been considered as well. We felt we won it because we developed not only a very unique looking profile for her owner, but one which incorporated key influences which he had brought to the table from sailboat racing. She is the largest private yacht ever to be built in England, a fact which made us very proud as a company, but also personally as she was constructed in a place where generations of my own naval family came from over the years. She was a phenomenally special and important commission for us and the final result was even better than we could have hoped for. Interestingly, the fact that hardly anybody has really seen her, because she spends her life all around the globe, is great testament to her owners vision, sense of adventure and intent to explore the oceans of the world, exactly what should happen to more of these yachts.
We don’t see many concepts done by RWD, is there a specific reason for that?
Justin: We are incredibly fortunate to be enormously busy actually building boats, to the point where concepts haven’t been a great priority for us. The Monaco Yacht Show is a wonderful showcase for such concepts, but I also think that gifted conceptual work can also get lost; you can walk around the show in Monaco, passing endless new and no doubt wonderful concepts, but perhaps they get a little lost, fighting for attention. I think if we were to imagine and offer a visionary RWD concept, a significant part of the challenge would be evolving an environment or occasion where that concept was noticed, allowed to breathe and therefore catch the imagination in a very different and unique way - maybe we should… watch this space!
Would you say the average size of the yachts you are working on is growing?
Justin: I do think it is fair to say there was a time, that with some exceptions, a lot of what we were designing perhaps averaged say 60 metres in length and now that average is probably more like 80 - 90 metres. It has definitely increased, but we have been very fortunate as it’s the sector of the market that we feel very comfortable in. Equally, if we were asked to design a 30 metre sailboat or a 10 metre tender for example, then we would enjoy those challenges just as much, with the ultimate quest being utter perfection for the owner, whatever the size. This is and will always be the absolute mainstay of our business and reason for doing what we do. Not that we must do bigger and bigger, that’s never ever been the ambition. That said, not many people are aware of our interior role within Al Said, until very recently, the largest yacht by volume in the world.
Are these projects both motor and sailing yachts? Or perhaps more motor yachts these days?
Justin: They are mainly motor yachts currently which is very good, but may I say I think it’s a great sadness that the large sailing yacht industry, which I always felt would remain a smaller but constant force, because it was more enthusiast driven, seems to be a sector of the market that has slowed right down. It’s a great shame for those of us with a passion for sailing and an appreciation of the technical grace of these vast and powerful machines, that this very specialised and innovative sector of our world is struggling somewhat. That said, the recently launched Elfje, with our interior, is the very opposite of that, a perfectly proportioned, stunningly conceived and technically brilliant project that really should inspire many.
Toby: Elfje was an immensely rewarding project. She is a fabulous yacht, and to work on the design of the boat with her owner, and with Royal Huisman, was just enormous fun. The fact that she was 51 metres, wouldn’t have been any better if she was 81 metres. Size isn’t actually important. Seemingly the slowing down of new builds in the sailboat industry is continuing and that seems very sad, but I can’t think it will be forever.
Has Twizzle been the only sailing yacht exterior which you have designed so far?
Justin: No, we designed a smaller ketch many years ago, but at 57.5 metres, Twizzle is by far the largest. It was a major project and something that came out of a relationship with an existing motor yacht owner, where we had collaborated on the interior. At the outset, our task was to focus entirely on how they wanted to live on board a sail boat, not what it looked like, not how many masts or indeed the length; it was really a study of how they liked to spend each day, interacting with each other as guests and with their crew and from that came an arrangement, but no exterior. So then and only then, did we start to 'clothe' the package in a form that, from an exterior viewpoint, was always to be very clean and elegant with very subtle surfacing. Our expression perhaps of how a pilot house configuration should look like. However, being rubbish at making things float or perform, we then asked our great friend Ed Dubois, if we might reverse roles from so many prior sailing yacht projects, and whether he could he help us turn this special vision into a sailing machine, which he charmingly and expertly did. It was a very respectful and wonderful collaboration, and we were humbled that the great Mr Dubois allowed us to shape the forms of this yacht. This would normally be his rightful task, but because of our great history with him, it was a “fabulous, why not?!” and a further example of the ethos of our company; it’s always a collaboration of minds.
You have also collaborated with Benetti to design the interior of the Benetti Veloce series, Cheers 46 for example?
Toby: Correct. We have designed a handful of 60-65 metre projects with this great and historic shipyard in the past and as a result have got a really good relationship with Benetti. They asked us if we could come up with three different schemes for an interior for a semi production boat so the client can then choose between them. The brief was essentially to design a modern, traditional and an in-between interior. Our approach was to design interiors where material choice was the key to creating a modern or traditional scheme, whilst the architecture of the design is contemporary in keeping with the exterior design.
Is dealing with clients directly easier when you have a few partners in the studio, where one partner might get along better with a certain client then another?
Justin: I think it can help on that level, yes. It also helps with a large order book, in that as an owner you’re not passed down to a project manager after the first meeting, and that you actually spend time with the principals of the company. That was one of the founding principles that Mark and I felt to be crucial when we first started. We’d seen examples of it before, where the principal comes along on the first morning and then isn’t seen until the launch. This doesn’t seem to be very appropriate to us, we felt it would be far more productive to deal with someone who’s a part of the company and all of the RWD Directors are always available for this. One of the most important elements for us at RWD is the personal relationships that we forge with our clients. It is also critical to us to ensure that designing and creating with that RWD partnership is a very, very enjoyable journey. So when visiting our unique studio, this might mean helicoptering in to stay in one of England's very best Country house spa hotels, the nearby Lime Wood, and perhaps enjoying riding in the New Forest, fly-fishing on one of the best chalk streams in the South, all things frankly which have nothing to do with yacht design, but add to the memories of the creation of that yacht. The more pleasurable we can make the whole design experience, the more valuable the journey is.
Tell us about the Auto Tour. How did that start?
Justin: It started by the three of us sitting in the pub, trying to decide the best way to get to the Monaco Yacht Show that first year, now eight years ago . We had just spent another year on planes, so why take yet another flight, why not just drive down!?! It would give us time to chat with each other, think about the show before we got there, a sort of calm before the storm if you like... We did drive down, in only four cars that year and yes, the first trip was very much like that. Since then, people have got to hear about it and it has built and built over the years. We started planning it better and staying in more beautiful hotels along the way and it kept growing to the point where we are now up to maybe 30 cars with perhaps 50 people on the road, driving either their classic or super cars, entirely as our guests, a sort of 'thank you' to friends and colleagues from the preceding year if you like.
Toby: It’s also about people that we’ve just enjoyed working with. It’s more like a 4 day super yachting dinner party on the road. The clients are getting something completely different that has nothing to do with boats, and what’s really interesting, is that no one talks about boats. There is very little conversation of yachts, instead people talk about their cars, they talk about their family, and they talk about pretty much everything but boats. Normally on the last day, we have a picnic lunch with amazing food and wine and it’s there where people say, I don’t want to go to the show, I want to carry on. This is something we would never have expected; you can’t predict these things.
The brand of a design company is always an interesting topic to discuss. Do you see a future for design without the founder-designers being present?
Justin: Yes, I very much do. The very last thing we want is for our company to wither on the vine and die just because we are either less involved or indeed not involved at all. I would regard this as failure. There has to be succession and evolution. Toby shares this vision as do many others in our 30 strong company and the future will come from within. We’ve been able to very successfully move on after Mark’s leaving, we still see him regularly, we are even working together and of course he’s now created his own company again. Why not? We’ve always looked at everything we do as a collaboration, it's just that the make-up of the team may and will change in the future, but the philosophy should not and that has greater potential. Ever since Mark and I set up the company, it’s been that way, and when Tony joined, the collaboration grew and so it did again when Toby joined. There is enough talent within to honour our history if you like, but definitely more than enough to continue to grow and develop the brand into many more sectors and we are thrilled to see that metamorphosis happening.
Toby: There are some people where the brand is that person. We’ve worked very hard to make that brand collaborative and independent of one person. The way we do things, the way we present ourselves and the effort we go to is right across the company, it’s not just the people at the front making the effort, it’s everybody. RWD has a great heritage of wonderful work and great people who have achieved that - the ambition is very much to carry this forward in to the future.
Do you also feel it is a saleable company, or rather a company that promotes young designers whom have joined to become partners of the company?
Justin: The interesting thing is that we’re just getting going now! The last thing we would want to do at the moment is sell! We have all the potential in the world; we have a wonderful site, wonderful designers, and wonderful partners. The potential is huge. I genuinely get excited to come in every day because it feels like we’re starting afresh. Do I think it's a saleable company? That’s not the question; the question is how we continue it and develop it and if we ever did sell, hopefully it would be to the people here in some way, shape or form. The people are the company, the people who started here as young designers and became a partner, just like Toby did, these are the people who have the drive for the future of 'their' company.