Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Jesper Kouthoofd, founder, CEO, and head of design at Teenage Engineering, as part of the Elisava Masters' talks cycle, and learned some valuable insights from his design process and how the company works. I found it extremely interesting and I would like to share with you my key takeaways:

📐 Work in 2D: Jesper highlighted the work in 2D when designing a product, something that stands out when you see Teenage Engineering's portfolio. His background in graphic design allows him to achieve great results playing with proportions and graphic elements, resulting in well structured products from every angle.

🚫 Emphasize restrictions: Kouthoofd pointed out the importance of restrictions when starting to design to avoid having too many options. For example, he uses down-selected RAL color palettes to optimize time and effort while maintaining consistency across products.
 
⚙️ Follow a system: Teenage Engineering follows the "2.5 rule” to create their products. This rule covers everything from the radius of physical products to the construction of the logo, resulting in great consistency across the portfolio, as well as to increase efficiency without losing time thinking about it.

🔁 Avoid endless iterations: Jesper opts for being true to the original idea and avoiding countless iterations. In the other hand, he also emphasized the importance of research and the time spent on it.

🛠️ Good engineering is essential: He also highlighted that there is no good design without good engineering. These two elements must work together to create consistent and effective products.

Jesper's talk was truly inspiring, providing a chronological review of some of Teenage Engineering's most iconic products, from their beginnings in a garage to their collaborations as partners with brands such as Nothing. I personally found this talk really helpful, and I plan to incorporate some of these ideas into my process.