Designer, founder, and Creative Director in Melbourne, Australia
- Philippe Guichard is an industrial and product designer based in Melbourne, Australia. He is the founder and owner of D2 Design and Development, a new practice he launched in 2013 as the sole proprietor and consultant, with a singular focus on the custom creation and development of products that improve people's lives. After marrying his Australian wife, Guichard moved to Melbourne in 2011. Prior to this, Guichard, 43, had met with early success as a young designer in his native country. Born in Rouen, France, he was lured to industrial and product design at the age of 18, completing a mechanical engineering degree before studying industrial design overseas at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. At 23, he opened his own design studio, which he ran successfully for eight years before being recruited as an in-house designer for a French luxury brand and then for an international corporation. Guichard’s extraordinarily portfolio reflects the diversity his design approach affords: a pistol-grip spectrophotometer device for accurate matching of dental implants; an aquarium with invisible filtration and lighting mechanisms; a handbag concept design for the luxury brand Louis Vuitton, and a consulting role as a design trainer for Salomon, the French sporting equipment manufacturer. The variety of the projects may be impressive but, according to Guichard, this is largely the consequence of what his clients have in common—a willingness to embrace the full spectrum of resources a product designer offers.