About the Design Compass
Developed through a collaborative effort of designers, industry experts, and academics, the Design Compass—led by Bang Creations—represents over two decades of expertise in responsible product design.
Evolution and Commitment
- 2008: Stefan Knox, founder of Bang Creations, introduces the “Design for Market” model, forming the core of the Design Compass. This model becomes a staple in workshops for businesses, universities, and the British Library’s Business and IP Centre London.
- 2012: The team expands the model to include environmental considerations, introducing the “Planet” ring.
- 2021: Bang Creations achieves B Corp certification, aligning profit with people and planet.
“As a B Corp, we’re committed to sharing our expertise to drive improvement in industrial and product design. The Design Compass is our way of fulfilling this mission, used daily in our processes and shared with clients to evaluate sustainability and responsibility in design solutions.” Stefan Knox Founder Bang Creations
- 2021 – present: The Design Compass is integrated into coursework for second-year students in Sustainable Product Design at Falmouth University and Product Design at the University of Chester.
- 2022 – Lecturers Simon Andrews and Evy Dutheil from Falmouth and Rebecca Falcon from Chester work with Bang to integrate social responsibility into the design model.
- 2023 – present – working with industry experts to add further resources and insights.
Collaborative Development
The tool has evolved through partnerships with Falmouth and Chester universities, integrating academic insights with practical industry experience. We welcome collaboration from industry professionals and academics working in this space, believing that collective expertise can further advance responsible design practices. The Design Compass represents our ongoing commitment to innovation that balances commercial success with environmental and social responsibility.
Contributors
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Stefan Knox
Stefan is an award-winning designer, specialising in invention, product design, manufacture and bringing innovation to market.
Before establishing Bang Creations in 1999, he was responsible for boys’ toys at Hasbro EU, where he worked on brands including Action Man, Star Wars and Nerf. There Stefan learnt that ‘you can make anything, but only marketable products sell’ and went on to work with global teams to generate innovative, yet commercial product and has been instrumental in getting them to market.
Stefan qualified with a 1st Class Hons degree in Engineering Product Design, and diploma in Marketing and Business. He was awarded IED design award for sub sea electrical connector, German design Award for Colandish, MAX it award for best selling hobby product, 3 gold and 2 silver toy awards
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Sarah Cheetham
Sarah is an industrial designer with Bang Creations in Surrey, UK. Working for a design consultancy for many years has given her a well rounded experience of product design for many different sectors. By adapting learning in one area to solve problems in another she has been able to develop unique and successful products.
Before joining the team at Bang she studied at Coventry University where she attained a Master’s degree in Consumer Product Design.
Sarah is focused on sustainable design and strives to understand the impacts of products on people and planet and what we as designers can do to improve them. She completed sustainability courses at Surrey University on Life Cycle thinking and Life Cycle assessment.
Dr Simon Andrews
Course Leader, Sustainable Product Design
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Simon Andrews is Course Leader on the Sustainable Product Design programme at Falmouth University and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust. His research practice focuses on the relationship between design and health and wellbeing, in particular the opportunities to empower people through inclusive design. His past research projects include a collaboration with local charity, Cornwall Mobility, to design a beach wheelchair to make access to the Cornish coast more inclusive. Through his PhD research project, he worked with people at risk of falls to design clothes that motivate active lifestyles and provide protection from hip fractures.
Research Topics
- Sustainable Design
- Digital Design and Production
- Pedagogy
- Manufacturing
- Rapid Prototyping
- 3D Cad
Research interests and expertise
Interests and expertise, in no particular order:
Sustainable design strategies: design for disassembly, cradle-to-cradle, dematerialisation, service design, emotional design.
Design process/design thinking/design theory.
Design pedagogy.
Integration of digital tools within design teaching.
Life Cycle Assessment and application of LCA software.
Low carbon lifestyles.
Eco materials.
Furniture design (contract/industrial production).
Product design.
Exhibition design.
Manufacturing production detailing.
AutoCAD.
SolidWorks.
Rapid prototyping.
Sheet metal production.
Plastic injection moulding.
Évy Duthiel
Senior Lecturer, Sustainable Product Design
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Évy Dutheil, is an award winning eco-innovative designer working on design projects, research and curriculum into sustainable living, user behavior with focus on materials process, regenerative bio materials, product life cycle, social environmental impact assessment and circular business opportunities. She graduated from Ensaama, Paris and BIAD, Birmingham. Her work has been shown internationally including at the European capital design week: London, Paris, Milan and academic events such as IMES Cambridge UK, Cumulus Hong-Kong.
She presented work at conferences including Shenzhen University Biennale, Brighton University – European Cluster, UCA for the Sustainable Innovation for creative economy and industries. She has taught at the Open Electives Master level at National Institute of Design-India, UniLasalle- Rouen and the responsible Bachelor at Autograf-Paris. She is currently Senior Lecturer in the Ba(Hons) Sustainable Product Design at Falmouth University.
Évy also contributes through practice research based publications for the platform ‘EcoDesignObservatoire’.
She has an eclectic range of industry design collaborations centering on sustainable innovation and global design. Collaborations include working with Pimliko on eco-projects and packaging for SFR, XXM Architectures on bio-pilot project for Naturalia store, Lago for home design furniture; Bento to rethink restaurant global identity. She has collaborated in performance display design with British filmmaker for Wayne Mac Gregor CBE, on international ballets and creatively co-producing the archive filming of the Dance festival for La Biennale di Venizia.
