Sam Mytton solves 100 mini puzzles every day. At least, that’s how he describes the technical challenges of product design. Three years into his journey at Realise Design, he’s taken on the dual role of Product Designer and Sustainability Lead, proving that environmental responsibility and commercial success work brilliantly together.
Walk us through a typical day in your role at Realise
There’s no such thing as typical – and that’s what keeps it exciting. My favourite days are when I’m right in the thick of a project: sketching, CAD modelling and prototyping.
It’s often a circular process – create something, test and review it, think about improvements, then iterate. Working at a smaller agency you get involved with all aspects of a project, including getting to work with clients directly, not just working on a small section of the work, which I really enjoy.
How did you first become interested in product design?
I grew up around design as my parents run a graphic design agency. At university, I initially studied mechanical engineering before realising the bits I enjoyed most were the creative applications of engineering.
After switching to product design, I thought, “Oh yeah, this is what I like.” I did try to go in a different direction with engineering, but ended up veering back to design. One nice thing about it is that I can now chat to my parents about my work, and since they’re also in a design agency, they totally get it and have given me some great advice.
How does your work contribute to creating “Positive Products”?
When I first joined Realise during my placement year, Andrew was ready to push Positive Products as a bigger part of the company. It was lucky timing as I’d been researching a lot in the sustainable design space with the student group I had set up at university. I spent three months exploring, testing and helping implement sustainable practices into the Realise process.
These days, I’m still helping to champion sustainability in the business. It’s an ever-evolving field, and we’re always looking to review and update our process as we learn new ways to improve as well as working more to help our clients with their sustainability strategies.
What’s been your most interesting project?
One that really stands out is a project for the construction industry that should be launching soon. They came to us with a simple brief to create a simple, rugged storage container, but through research, prototyping and working closely with the client, we were able to evolve the brief completely.
The final design worked better, was cheaper to manufacture, and has a patented closure mechanism that is now a key selling point. It was exciting to push the initial idea into a space neither we nor they had originally thought possible.
What excites you about design in the marine, print and industrial sectors?
I’ve worked quite closely with the Fujifilm team on the HS series – this absolutely massive commercial printer. The scale is hard to comprehend, and there are so many people involved in the project, it’s amazing to think that some of the printed material I see in my day-to-day life has likely come from these printers.
What excites me about industrial work is the very technical, performance-based problems you’re solving, It’s really satisfying when it all comes together. Also many of the industrial projects we work on are part of core infrastructure that helps the world run better.
Rather than trying to sell as much as possible, the focus shifts to making sure this thing works as well as it can. You’re working on products that genuinely add value to the world which is a rewarding experience.
What advice would you give someone interested in building a career in product design?
It’s a tough industry to get into. Where I’ve got the most value has been doing ‘extra-curricular’ stuff. The sustainability group I set up at university was key to getting my placement at Realise, which led to my current job. Even getting onto the product design course originally, I was told I didn’t have the right A-level qualifications, so I put together a portfolio in my free time to show them my skills.
Having a strong portfolio is still going to be the number one thing, but having something that sets you apart can help. It’s one of those fields where you need to love it, and I think the passion shows through.
How do you keep the end-user at the heart of what you do?
It’s built into our design process at every stage. But I think what Realise does by focusing early on end-users at the strategy phase is key – deciding what value you’re bringing before even talking about the specific product. Asking: Who are you selling this to? What are the actual problems? You can make the most change right at the beginning.
If you could design a product to make maximum positive impact, what would it be?
For environmental impact, the biggest opportunity would be working with a company making products at a massive scale and then pushing the sustainability as far as it can go. Even small improvements at that level can have a huge compounding effect (reducing the weight of a Coca-Cola bottle by 0.1g might not seem like much, but when you’re making billions of them every year, it adds up). But ideally, I’d love to work with a company that’s open to rethinking things more radically to move towards circular systems and more sustainable products overall.
For social impact, I enjoy working on anything that helps with accessibility and disability. Even making a few people’s lives better and easier is one of the most important and rewarding impacts a designer can make. And if there’s a way to do that not at the expense of the planet, well, that’s the dream!
Outside of work, what keeps you busy?
I love a good adventure, especially hiking. After finishing university I walked from Land’s End to John O’Groats. I had to delay joining Realise and miss my graduation to get it done! I’m also into whittling spoons and life drawing, which are great since they feel like a very different kind of creativity from what I do at work.
I also run a non-profit group called Design&Assembly that hosts talks all about making more sustainable products. It’s a lot of work putting them together, but it’s been a nice way to connect with other local people in the industry, and I’ve learnt a lot from the speakers we’ve had.
