Founded by Jaime Moreno in 1998, Mormedi is a Spanish design consultancy that has expertise in design strategy and the design of services. It specialises in highly innovative, forward-looking projects. Based in Madrid, its multidisciplinary team works in many sectors, from telecommunications, banking, electronic consumer products and electrical appliances to the aeronautical and railway industries. Its projects are international, thanks to its network of clients in the US and Asia, including Airbus, Vodafone, Philips, Siemens, Toyota, BBVA and Airis. The company has received numerous, prestigious international prizes such as the Red Dot Award for design in 2013 for its personal mobile security device eNest and the iF Product Design Award for its radiators for Effisense in 2012, among other prizes.
Mormedi’s CEO and founder Jaime Moreno spoke to us about his consultancy’s work methodology, projects and experience outside Spain.
Interiors From Spain: Mormedi calls itself a design consultancy. What sets you apart from a traditional design studio or designer?
Mormedi: We treat design as a strategic tool. Mormedi specialises in innovating through the experience of the client, consistently delivering designs that are highly strategic. With every project, we see things from a global perspective and carry out every stage of it, from initial planning to execution.
Interiors From Spain: What’s your work methodology? Does designing many types of products for a variety of sectors define the way you work?
Mormedi: We’ve created a methodology that brings together “business thinking” and “design thinking”. We work closely with our clients, collaborating at every stage of the project. Our team is also multidisciplinary and cross-cultural — made up of designers, strategists, engineers, business development consultants and marketing specialists.
As for whether our work methodology defines how we approach our projects, on the contrary: it allows us to be flexible, which sets us apart from other companies. We believe wholeheartedly in what we call “cross innovation” and can implement this precisely because we’ve acquired expertise in different sectors.
Interiors From Spain: Your consultancy specialises in highly innovative, forward-looking work. What’s your understanding of innovation? Could you explain what you mean when you say your approach is forward-looking?
For us, innovating means designing products and offering services which give our clients a competitive edge in their particular market as well as helping them to add long-term value to their businesses. We collaborate with them to decide on feasible solutions while focusing on pleasing the end users and developing their business.
The forward-thinking aspect of our work is designed to help clients visualise the future. We live at a time of huge changes in which almost all industrial sectors are having to reinvent themselves and even rethink their business models. At Mormedi, we constantly monitor new trends in order to anticipate future problems.
Interiors From Spain: eNest, your security device for mobile phones, is one example of technology applied to people. How important do you think technology will be in design in the future?
Mormedi: Very. Technology facilitates change and allows innovation to be more accessible to everyone. It’s transforming many business models in very little time and even creating new business models and models of client relationships. It’s making companies more efficient and gives end users greater knowledge and purchasing power.
Interiors From Spain: With your design expertise in the transport sector, how do you see its future?
Mormedi: In one way, I think the automotive sector is changing. The traditional values that owning a car represented a decade ago have altered. Lots of young people no longer aspire to own their own car but are happy to share one or to use public transport. We think we’ll see far more shared, collective and sustainable public transport systems, and, increasingly, it will be harder to use cars in city centres.
As for the airline industry, this has been truly reinvigorated. Every day, you see news about some new airport lounge or innovative service introduced by an airline. Yet it continues to be a very traditional sector. We’re convinced that the first airline that embraces a collaborative approach between all its departments, connecting and paying attention to all aspects of the passenger’s experience, will have an enormous potential to innovate and become a leading company in its field.
As for the rail sector, its business model is still very traditional. While the airline industry is multifaceted, the rail sector isn’t and that’s the main difference between them. But the latter shouldn’t copy the airline industry but change the way it treats its own passengers, offering them services they increasingly want, and it should segment its goods in a way that meets the expectations of each type of customer.
Interiors From Spain: Mormedi has worked for Japanese, North American, Korean and German firms, among others. Tell us about your experiences of working internationally. What advice would you give Spanish designers to help them succeed abroad?
Mormedi: First of all, we think it’s necessary to undertake successful projects on a national level before taking on work abroad. With the latter, you need to be patient as this is a slow, expensive process which takes several years to bear fruit.
Interiors From Spain: You’ve undertaken projects for such leading brands in your sectors as Audi, Alstom, British Airways and Coca-Cola. What’s the secret of your success?
Mormedi: We’ve collaborated with Audi’s team on different occasions in developing various products which are now on the market. We began working with them originally thanks to our skills and the flexibility of our team who were able to move to Audi’s HQ in Ingolstadt and work long hours there for several months. We secured our collaboration with Alstom thanks to our experience of working with Spanish manufacturers. In the case of British Airways, they contacted us on the back of our successful collaboration with Iberia, while Coca-Cola approached us on the strength of our creativity and technical knowledge of relevant manufacturing methods.
Our clients benefit because we provide them with a complete solution, which always takes three key factors into account: the end user and his or her experience, the viability of the proposed solution and its potential to be profitable. Many projects we’ve worked on have both contributed to reinvigorating the industry and transformed our clients’ businesses, allowing these to become world-renowned in terms of design, adding value to them and making them more competitive.
Interiors From Spain: Your consultancy has won many internationally prestigious prizes in recent years. What have international judges appreciated most about your designs?
Mormedi: The quality of the final design, its execution, and the fact that each product is clearly innovative and different.
Interiors From Spain: What projects are you currently working on? Can you give us a sneak preview of one of your new projects abroad?
Mormedi: At Mormedi, we undertake 15 to 20 projects per year. Unfortunately, many take two to four years to come on to the market and are highly confidential until they do. We can’t give out many details about our projects until they’re launched, but, in general terms, I can reveal that we’re currently working in different sectors, such as banking, telecommunications, aeronautics, electronic consumer goods and a highly innovative product for the retail sector. We’re also designing an airplane cabin for a new aeroplane to be launched soon, and we’re working on various projects in the Middle East and Asia, including a number of new lorries, new mobile phones and computer tablets and various wearable devices.
