Johnny Grey is urging manufacturers and retailers to show more creativity in their products and designs. As part of a new partnership with Miele, Grey is about to launch his Kitchen Creative Index which aims to translate high-end design into the middle market. Tim Wallace found out more...  

Q: Has kitchen design become too formulaic?
A: I've been railed against by the American kitchen community for saying that kitchens are mostly really boring. They're sadly soulless in a way. The Americans are much safer than we are. Here in the UK, we've got a more open mentality to creativity. The British have a mixture of confidence, arrogance and self-doubt and that's a good basis for creativity.

Q: But isn't your average kitchen customer either looking for something cheap and cheerful from the sheds or a status symbol from Germany or Italy?
A: I don't think that's true. They don't care what it is, they want something that suits them. I don't think we serve people terribly well. We could but we treat them as a commercial contract.

Q: So has product and showroom design lost its way?
A: The people selling and creating kitchens aren't given enough training and opportunity to use their creativity. They need to be passionate about what they do in the showroom. I'm talking here from the low end to the top. They need to give their staff more scope and to learn to be more passionate. We have an incredible reservoir of artisan skills that aren't being utilised. There's a terrific book about this by Sir Ken Robinson called the Element which is all about how people can discover their passion. I encourage employers and employees to read it.

Q: Tell us more about the Kitchen Creative Index
A: It works in two ways - It creates a capacity for creativity in the kitchen industry and allows the consumer to demand more creativity from us. It provides a checklist for significantly improved, and yet affordable, kitchen environments. In financially-straightened times, creative thinking isn't a luxury but essential to producing kitchens that work and feel better. My kind of creativity involves listening to the customer, inventive thinking and meticulous refining of the design. Equal attention is paid to value for money, sustainability and ergonomics, not just artistic and style elements. It involves new planning ideas, unusual furniture configurations, eco-materials, sustainable appliances, lighting design and a more effective arrangement of the architecture. A customer shouldn't be treated as if buying off-the-shelf products, the service should be more personal than that.

Q: And you include manufacturers in your ideas?
A: Yes, they need to design systems to allow for creativity. It's all about customisation. With new manufacturing techniques there should be more opportunity for that.

Q: Can you give specific examples of what you mean?
A: There are loads of artists out there that could customise panels on kitchens. They're not expensive, it's a complete myth, and it alters the whole look of the place. Suddenly it looks like your place. It's about manufacturing that fits people's lifestyles, not the other way round.
With big manufacturers it all becomes about selling the product and not about serving the client. That's why Smallbone was so incredibly successful, they were doing things that were predicted to be total failures. People were really shocked by the first hand painted kitchens but they couldn't make enough of them, and they weren't even very well made, in fact they were badly made!
I think it's apathy and lack of cultural change that they can't handle. What we need to do is find a way that customers can introduce an element of ownership into the design. A vintage clock or old piece of furniture must be included if that's what they want. The customer should be encouraged to bring something of their own into the kitchen. It gives it individuality.

Q: So there's a basic lack of creativity in the showroom?
A: God, yes. That doesn't mean nobody is doing good work, but I've been sent some plans from one particular company and I'm really shocked. They're just straight lines! What's going on? You don't have to have long linear lines everywhere. Corners of the room define a space. If you block up every corner you don't have a room left. There are also loads of elements you can manufacture in terms of curved doors.

Q: But don't curves come at a cost?
A: Not in volume. You don't need curves everywhere but there are certain places, particularly on central islands, where it's not that much more expensive. You can pre-make these things. Bendy ply is no more expensive than ordinary ply. There's also an ergonomic advantage. You can increase the ratio of countertop to floor area so it's easier to move around. For most people curves are all about look but for me that's not the case.

Q: But you say yourself that this might all sound "a bit ambitious for commercial kitchen companies". Can these ideas work in the mass market?
A: Part of the revival of the Italian kitchen industry is because they embraced unfitted about four or five years ago. There was one Eurocucina, four or five yers ago, where instead of creating furniture they created blocks of units which gives an unfitted appearance.

Q: So you're trying to bring ideas from the luxury end to the mass market?
A: Yes, in modest ways. I want to make a plea for quite a lot of things. Like, for goodness sake, sell people less cabinetry but better value. Instead of selling rows of cabinetry just sell one, a really nice central island and put all your storage into a larder.

Q: Could kitchens be better marketed?
A: Yes, alienation comes about when we don't identify with our environments. Dull, copycat, brochure-led kitchens are a case in point. I've been looking at the brochures for one store and the photography is just dreadful. It's completely product led. You've got this deathly combination of the store saying it's got to look the same as previous brochures and a kitchen manufacturer directing the photography. You can't do that. When I first arrived at Smallbone the creative director was at least 50% responsible for the incredible sales success. He was given freedom to do what he wanted and they looked like human places, not product led. You need to show kitchens with a bit of mess; be a bit edgy. Find a photographer who's just left art school and give him freedom. You'd be amazed.

Q: Does the Index represent a change of tack for you? Are you becoming bored of the luxury end of the market?
A: I'm never bored of it, but I'm slightly irritated by the behaviour of some of my very wealthy clients. There's a changed atmosphere. I used to do things in a slightly amateur manner but the clients were tolerant because they could see the energy. But now they're much more interested in service than in original design. It's partly that there's an element of status to the kitchen, as you said, and people are more empowered by money. They feel money should buy them service.

Johnny Grey will launch the Creative Index at a number of public events sponsored by Miele UK as part of their Creative Living campaign starting with the kbbreview Kitchen Conference on September 12. To book your place and for the latest information on speakers go to: www.kbbreview.com/kitcon