Last month I opined that when the going gets tough, it's the innovators of the industry, rather than the duplicators, that are more likely to prosper. But, no sooner had I clicked send, than I began ruminating on where the industry is currently heading in terms of design and innovation.

Make no mistake, this sector has seen more than its fair share of original design and innovation - much, much more. Sure, you're never going to win the award for glamour and glitz in the soiree small talk stakes, but all things considered, the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom industry certainly punches above its weight. Always has, and, I believe, always will.

So, it's not the amount of design and innovation in the industry that I'm questioning, but the relationship between design and innovation. Until more recent times, aesthetic design has been the industry's dominant driver. However, we are undoubtedly seeing a transition and, without being immodest, I believe that Avilion's Triflow was part of a new generation of products that spearheaded a shift towards technical innovation being the main product development driving force. Aqualisa's digital showering technology was a similar breakthrough. Today, both these products and others are representative of the industry's shift towards accommodating the demand for products that not only look great, but also tick the technology, intelligence and, to some degree, greener lifestyle boxes.

Form and function

Increasingly, innovation is not linked exclusively to aesthetic design. Today's innovation and innovators identify just as much with technology and rethinking the route to market. At the KBB Show in March, some of the companies that impressed me the most were those that, while not essentially doing or manufacturing anything new, had the nous to present their products in an imaginative and exciting way. Without exception, these were organisations with five star marketing; businesses that while not claiming to deliver anything near new in design terms, ,and I say this in admiration, had found their innovative niche in the way they were selling their products.

Similarly, if we're not talking super slick sales and marketing, then we're talking technology. Yes, design and technology obviously go hand-in-hand, but understand that for the purpose of this prose, I'm talking design in the strictly aesthetic sense. Design that makes you stop and stare. The kind of design that - if you'd been a visitor to the Milanese trade shows at the beginning of the 1990s might have made you draw a sharp intake of breath. Not to mention tuck your elbows in, less you catch them on the acreage of sharp angles protruding from every Rubinetti stand. Design, which - and again, I know this will be contentious - we possibly haven't seen in recent times.

Don't get me wrong, there are some fantastically talented, cutting edge designers out there and I love what they're doing. But looking at the industry's middle layer, peering at its core, I no longer see the radical shapes that broke through 15 years ago. Long copied, over-replicated, shipped from China en masse and I note, rather amusingly, now the butt of jokes at the 'Plagiarius Awards', the taste of the industry has become 'conservative contemporary' to say the least. It's contemporary design that is clean, modern, unoffensive. In between, there's still the solid, traditional market, which will never go out of fashion and all of it sells in bucketloads. Why? Because it's safe. And from the consumer's point of view, they get something shiny or in stainless steel that, when they move on and up the property ladder in a few years time, won't look hideously out-of-date.

So, back to the design and innovation equation. I'm not suggesting the role of aesthetic design has been usurped - as if - but we are, without doubt, in a technology phase and it's one I see as enduring. Which, while it should be applauded on many levels, isn't necessarily a good thing, particularly for some smaller businesses.

I recently visited a small ceramics manufacturer; a company that - 10 or 15 years ago - would have had no problem being a profitable, going-places business. Not doing anything ground-breaking, just following the example of the big boys and raking in the rewards. Now? Not a chance. Today's technology and the innovation that drives it are so much more complex that, quite simply, it just cannot be copied. Looking at their attempts at integrating technology into their products brought home to me what a lengthy journey they would need to embark upon and just how much, as I have been contemplating, technology dictates the day.

Eco-friendly

The industry has stepped on a generation and where once pure design stood for innovation, the formula is now far more complex. So where is it all bound? And, of all the influences, which are strongest? Surely the environment much be one of them. Certainly with the Code for Sustainable Housing now making its presence felt, any designer-cum-innovator is going to be reaching for the green stick. Make no mistake, there are new stimuli in our industry, a new breed of consumer and when your plumber tells you he's spent two days on a solar energy and rainwater recovery training course, you know things are changing and changing fast.

But of course that's exactly the point of design and innovation. Innovation, just like anything else must follow its own evolution. Without a doubt, we have moved on. Flat taps? Forget them; hectares of stainless steel in the kitchen with matching McDonalds' style industrial appliances? Thanks, but no thanks. So perhaps finally, the balance is being found. And although it's taken us a while to get there, maybe, just maybe, the industry is starting to realise that true design and innovation is as much about what's on the inside as the outside.

Greg Rowe co-founded Avilion; he is now a director of Appleyard Rowe Ltd, management and innovation consultancy