Emotion, efficiency, innovation. More than 40 years after its establishment in the UK in 1978, Technicon Design has never deviated from this founding triptych. Integrated into the SEGULA Technologies Group in 2017, it is now a trusted partner – in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa – for major manufacturers and equipment suppliers in the transport, marine, aerospace, luxury and industrial design sectors.

Its promise? To bring its clients’ ideas to life by offering them an innovative approach that anticipates market trends. ‘The role of the designer is to push back boundaries to propose innovative solutions while placing the end user at the centre of the design process,’ explains Pierre Authier, Design Director at Technicon Design. Developing innovative products therefore requires reconciling the emotional aspects with usability and technical feasibility.

Whether strengthening its customers’ teams by bringing in in-house talent, or setting up a group of experts dedicated to a project, Technicon Design demonstrates every day its ability to offer tailor-made solutions to meet the specific needs of those it works with.

Perpetual adaptation

In a particularly competitive and constantly changing industrial world, Technicon Design stands out for its acute sense of adaptation. Our inhouse designers are just as capable of understanding the needs of a startup as those of a major, century-old international manufacturer.

They can design an entire vehicle or concentrate on creating a specific part. They excel at designing both mechanical components and digital applications. And they do all this while adapting to ever tighter schedules. ‘Manufacturers now renew their ranges every four or six years. So we have to be able to deliver highly complex projects quickly. Above all, our creative process must perfectly anticipate technological advances and social changes so that the part or vehicle delivered meets consumer expectations
when it is released.

In other words: creativity is strongly encouraged throughout the design process so that we are always one step ahead of market developments.

Pierre Authier, Design Director, Technicon Design, SEGULA Technologies Group

Working closely with customers

In practice, the projects carried out by Technicon Design follow a fairly standard pattern, moving through different phases from initial design to production.

What really sets the company apart, however, is the collaborative and transparent approach it preaches to its customers. This is a key success factor, according to Pierre Authier. ‘We systematically involve experts from our customers’ various departments in the creative process. In addition to the technical and engineering teams, we also involve our customers’ marketing and sales managers. This close collaboration between the teams must enable the designer’s vision to be aligned with the company’s objectives. The designer must remain receptive to suggestions while preserving their creative integrity’.

Depending on the assignment, budget and schedule constraints should, on the contrary, stimulate creativity and encourage innovation. In all cases, automotive projects require meticulous planning and efficient resource management.

AI, accelerating the creative process

Four decades after its creation, Technicon Design faces the future with serenity by committing to a process of continuous improvement of its design methods. Its vision for the future of automotive design emphasises innovation and sustainability.

From today, its teams are working to integrate environmental, social, and economic aspects into their projects. Among the major challenges of the moment, Technicon Design is currently integrating and developing the use of new tools integrating artificial intelligence. Innovative solutions that reinvent design methods without distorting them. “It’s not about replacing designers with AI-based tools. We are instead focusing our thinking on the use of artificial intelligence as an accelerator of our creative process, explains Pierre Authier. We want to preserve the human aspect of the work. That is to say this know-how, this passion and this pleasure of creating which animate our teams with each new mission.” Emotion, efficiency, innovation: no doubt, Technicon design knows the formula.