The Story:

Vessel was created by product designers Duane Smith and Stefane Barbeau as a place to incubate fragile young ideas close to their hearts. It all began in 1996, when Duane and Stefane drove through Boston on a trip to Provincetown. They decided that Boston was a pretty great town, and that they should live there. Over the next four years, they would work at no fewer than six industrial design firms before creating a hugely successful company of their own by listening to all the nagging, chirping product ideas that brimmed in their minds while designing for other people.

Exactly one year after Stefane and Duane gave up their full-time jobs to care for their offspring, the first shipments of bright new designs hit store shelves in the spring of 2002

[left: Duane and Stefane] [right: the Candella from Vessel can be transformed into an angel using just one sheet of paper, a pair of scissors, and some crafty skills]

After months of begging, Stefane finally caved and gave us this interview:

1. You have been honored with many awards and recognitions for your work. Do you ever think about an award as motivation while designing a product, or to ask it another way, are you ever excited by the prospect of knowing the design you are working on will be judged in a competition?

We actually don't think much about awards when we're designing our products. Of course it's great to be able to say "award-winning product" in our promo material, but I think if we focused on that when we're actually designing, we'd wind up with some duds! Award submissions are great things to do once the product is all done and on the market...it feels good to put the material together and think back on things after the fact. During the design process, though, what really motivates us is how great a certain product will be to use ourselves...

[the Toro Tissue Ring featured in O Magazine and the Guardian Night Light featured in the Boston Globe]

2. Have there been any obstacles in your quest to design or sell a product from Vessel?

Always. Most of what we design is new product types, so there always needs to be some educating in order for people to understand what the products are meant for. I think by keeping the design and function simple, though, we manage to pretty quicly communicate the intent of a new design. Plus, we have to be careful as a small company to make the most of our R&D money to get the most out of what we're spending, and to build off what is already successful rather than re-invent the wheel each time. We're perfectionists, too, so often products take longer than we would like to hit the market.

3. Did you always intend to manufacture your designs yourself?

Yes, but probably not as soon as we did...things tend to take on a life (and speed) of their own. Before we knew it, we had a whole line that we were orchestrating.

4. When do you get excited about a design you are working on? For example was there a moment when you were sketching for the Workplace Dish Set, and you realized that you had it? Can you describe that feeling?

Strangely enough, we know we have something when the 'manic' feeling goes away. Usually we get REALLY excited about something, and then go up and down a bit, and when all of that finally clears away, we feel like we've got the idea fleshed out and solid. When we're calm, that when the best solutions happen.

5. How many hours a week do you work?

We spend about 8 hours a day working, and 16 hours a day worrying (seriously). But that's getting better as we're more established, and we have proper mechanism in place to deal with all the aspects of running a business. That frees us up more to do the design work, too, which is why we started all of this in the first place.