Transcript of the interview:
Antoine: Hello and welcome to our podcast series on innovation makers. Today, we're delighted to welcome Philippe Vallat, with whom we've been working for nearly 20 years. Philippe, you're a designer. Could you tell us about your rather unconventional background, which led you to head up Pilot Design?
Philippe: Hello Antoine, I'm glad to be here with you today.
I studied at the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne, then spent time at the European Institute of Design in Milan. After that, I worked for a few years at a company specialising in exhibition stands and retail spaces. That gave a new direction to my career, which was originally more rooted in product design and industrial design.
I worked primarily in those fields for watchmaking and various international brands, on projects carried out all over the world. Those experiences then led to boutiques and points of sale developed and installed for major brands.
I never abandoned product design, which remains the foundation of my craft. We've also had some wonderful collaborations together, notably with the launch of the Around Five brand.
What makes our studio distinctive is that we work across an enormous range of fields — from a small object to a large space. For exhibition stands, we're sometimes talking about three-storey structures, almost like buildings. So we're not ultra-specialised in a single domain, but that gives us an interesting perspective and a certain freshness in our approach.
Antoine: Speaking of innovation, which is the theme of our podcast — is there a particular challenge or innovation you could tell us about?
Philippe: I'd choose the Around Five clock project, which we worked on together. The idea was to reinvent the display of time based on a linear movement.
We arrived at the idea of the sun's path relative to the horizon: the sun rises, reaches its peak at noon, descends, and sits at its lowest at midnight. A horizon line cuts across this curve.
I like to wipe the slate clean and try to bring something new — but something that makes sense. Nothing should be arbitrary. There needs to be substance, and ideally, new substance.
Antoine: It really is a sculpture of time. It remains a timeless object. Congratulations on that stroke of genius.
How would you define innovation?
Philippe: For me, innovation is a state of mind. It's about managing to wipe the slate clean, to start from zero. It's also, in a way, a form of ignorance.
I like this idea: if you want to bring something new, you're forced to ignore certain rules. You sometimes have to ignore the fact that something might not be possible — and do it anyway.
There's also a notion of rupture. Things are done a certain way, but you choose to do them differently.
You see this in team dynamics. If you only bring in specialists from one industry, it becomes difficult to create a real revolution or push past certain limits. But if you involve people with different ways of thinking — even if those ways aren't validated by the specialists — you open up new possibilities.
So it's quite paradoxically linked to a form of ignorance, which I find fascinating.
Antoine: We were just talking about teams. Our two teams work very well together and genuinely enjoy collaborating. How would you describe the relationship between designer and engineer?
Philippe: An engineer and a designer inevitably have very different perspectives. For that relationship to be fruitful, you first need listening.
The first word, for me, is listening. It comes hand in hand with trust, which would be my second word. That trust is built over time. The dynamics of listening, exchanging, and trusting don't fall into place immediately.
When you manage to respect each other, truly listen, and trust one another, egos fade into the background. An idea can come from anywhere — it doesn't matter whether it comes from one person or the other. That's where you create real added value.
Two people who do roughly the same thing can produce something good, but it won't be as fertile as two people with very different approaches. When that chemistry takes hold, it becomes truly exciting.
Today, we also have remarkable tools for sharing 3D files, reworking designs, and collaborating seamlessly. It's almost magical.
Antoine: Respect, complementarity, and pleasure.
Philippe: Yes, pleasure is central. When you work with the feeling of a child playing with Lego, you're completely invested. And when you manage to do that as a team — with the desire to keep exchanging ideas even at the end of the day to improve the project — that's usually a sign that you're producing something worthwhile.
Antoine: We often talk about designers in a broad sense. What is your vision of the industrial designer?
Philippe: My vision of the industrial designer starts with moving away from the purely stylistic.
For me, design means listening to a brief and genuinely responding to what the client needs. You have to accept constraints. You're not doing auteur design — you need to deliver something that fits the brand's identity and universe, and within those constraints, produce the optimal response.
I'm less comfortable with approaches tied to trends or the very "fashion" side of things.
To go back to the Around Five clock — it ages well precisely because it doesn't correspond to a specific aesthetic movement. It's almost based on mathematics, proportions, formalised thinking. That allows you to create something whose value can, in a sense, be certified.
When you're talking purely about taste — rounded, blue, or whatever — it becomes much harder to manage.
Antoine: In this podcast, we ask every one of our innovation makers the same question. In a single word — what is innovation?
Philippe: Ignorance.
Antoine: I love it. A huge thank you for being here today. It's always a pleasure working with you. For those following along, you can find out more about Philippe's projects on the Pilot Design website.
Philippe: With great pleasure.