Cobalt Design – Australian Good Design Team of the Year

Published on: 23 September 2024

THIS ACCOLADE CELEBRATES A DESIGN TEAM WHO CONSISTENTLY PERFORMS AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL IN THE ANNUAL AUSTRALIAN GOOD DESIGN AWARDS AND HAS ESTABLISHED A TANGIBLE DESIGN-LED CULTURE WITHIN THEIR ORGANISATION.

THE AWARD AIMS TO INSPIRE COMPANIES TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN A DESIGN-LED CULTURE THROUGHOUT THE WORKPLACE.

The longstanding success of Cobalt Design (Cobalt) is a result of their culture. Cobalt’s founders have designed a place where failure is transformed into learning, students grow into mentors and respect is afforded to all. The creative design and engineering group adds the 2024 Good Design Team of the Year Award to their long list of well-deserved accolades.

Cobalt is based in inner-Melbourne and was founded in 1996 by Jack Magree and Steve Martinuzzo, who were later joined by Warwick Brown. Their team of over 30 people collaborates across a balance of international and Australian projects, infusing each with their signature innovation, accountability and integrity. One of their many achievements is designing the original reusable coffee cup, the KeepCup.

Whether you speak to their executive leaders, ‘Nextgen’ level or their most recent graduate hires, Cobalt’s design culture is tangible. They uplift each other at all points of the design process and care deeply about client relationships. This commitment results in excellent staff retention, contributions to the design industry and the satisfaction of knowing the full potential of an idea has been realised.

Founders Steve Martinuzzo and Jack Magree offered us a behind-the-scenes look at their award-winning culture.

GDA: How does your design-led culture show up at an executive level and also during everyday interactions at Cobalt Design?

Steve Martinuzzo: At the executive level, our job is to create the space where our team can be their best… There’s two sides to design culture. One is the culture that we have, that really gets the most out of every project, every opportunity, every brief.

There’s also the culture that we talk about with our clients. They are often very aligned, but that part of the culture is sometimes about convincing them why design is important, why they should be choosing us. Then the culture of, how do we manage the client’s expectations once the project gets underway?

Jack Magree: How to run a design-led culture at an executive level is one thing that we’re conscious of every time our team comes to a project. They have to be able to be creative, pragmatic, complement the client’s team and lead a client’s team…. Usually, our clients don’t have a designer on their own team.

At an executive level, we have an agenda to have a lot of variety in our work. We founded Cobalt on the basis that we wanted that variability in our work. The variation is what makes us motivated and tick. So, we try to inspire those we employ and we try to see it in them first, and then we try to foster it whilst they’re here.

GDA: Would you say the variation of the work you do is one of the main contributors to your excellent staff retention rate?

Steve Martinuzzo: Yes. I think that it’s very fulfilling being a designer or design engineer working in a company where there’s this sort of overlapping cycle of projects. Where you’re at the start of one, where everything’s possible and you’re excited by that, to the conclusion of another one where, where it’s really satisfying crossing that finishing line. And so you’ve always got that rolling excitement surrounded by peers.

One of the things that was a founding principle of Cobalt, was to have an environment where everyone feels like they’re part of that team. The point of not naming our design group, ‘Magree Martinuzzo’, or something like that, was we really wanted it to be not about the individual, but about the whole. That goes through everything we do.

We wanted everyone to feel respected no matter what their role is…. Hopefully that creates the sort of environment that people want to be part of.

GDA: When it comes to finding new team members, what do you look for in a designer?

Jack Magree: You’ve got to demonstrate to us that you can be part of a team. So, if we’re looking at graduates, we’ll be looking at their teamwork. For every product we’ve done, not one person can say, ‘That was just me.’ You definitely feel ownership over it, and you feel really proud of it. But, there’s so many hands along the way and collaboration from the team that we all feel a part of it.

We’re looking for talent. The ability to visualise, either be it by sketch or by some other form.

The main thing is, will they fit? We do think that we’ve got the best of the best working for us. That means you can have some pretty high powered people, some young and also expressive and some who are quieter, but they all have to fit in.

GDA: Can you tell us about your ‘Nextgen’ level of leadership and how that came about?

Steve Martinuzzo: We’ve been doing this for a number of years. It’s important that when we decide to, you know, hang up the markers or put down the mouse, or whatever the expression is these days, that the company itself continues on. As well as the systems and the relationships, the projects and the clients that rely on us…

We were both in our early thirties when we started Cobalt and started it from nothing. So there was, I suppose, no great risk… But now we’ve got a company that employs a lot of people… So for anyone taking up the ownership, it’s like they’re jumping onto a moving train, rather than starting something from scratch.

We don’t have an age base. It’s more about, do they have the capabilities and the ambition and the means to be potential leaders?

Jack Magree: We do pressure test them. They’ll take up project leader positions. They’ll guide projects to the point where they don’t necessarily need one of the founding Principles in there, other than mentoring… Failure is good as well. You learn from failure. We like to think that we allow people to succeed by letting them fail.

GDA: Your leadership team gives back to the design community through things like advisory panels, committees and media forums. What effect do you hope this will have on the Australian design industry?

Steve Martinuzzo: We’re very aware of our responsibility. Really, it’s a privilege to represent the design industry on different forums, committees and industry initiatives.

I suppose, with design literacy and awareness Australia doesn’t rank that high… We see that and think, how do we help to improve it?

Hopefully the companies and people that have dealt with us have a better understanding of that now, but I think the whole industry needs to do it. And obviously, what GDA does is part of that. What federal and state governments are trying to do is part of that too.

Jack Magree: Adding to that, when Steve and I were at university we went into our courses not knowing very much about industrial design at all. I had never encountered it before the year I went into it…

After we came out of university, Steve and I shared the same passion to go and teach. We didn’t know each other and we both had jobs as industrial designers in different companies. But we both went and taught teachers who taught art and design at high school. We would give sessions on how to teach industrial design… They had some interest, so we tried to foster that interest in them.

And the strangest thing was that I think maybe our third or fourth employee, actually was one of those students who we were showing how to use markers back when he was in year nine… He came back and he went on to become one of the best designers we know…

We try to then repeat the same process with our own staff, and get them to teach and get them to give back because they inspire others.

[KeepCup designed by Cobalt Design Image: Cobalt Design]

GDA: Can you tell us about some projects that were especially rewarding?

Steve Martinuzzo: The KeepCup is my go-to answer in terms of what we do. It really launched a whole new category, because before that there was nothing like it…

I think that for something to be really successful, you need probably four elements. One is the client. We really value our clients and value the fact that without them we can’t be designers… They come with a business strategy and the vision of what they want to achieve. The product design. The brand. And then there’s luck.

You could call it luck or good timing. [The KeepCup] was when the market was right for something like that. It was a need that people had, but they didn’t know they had… Maybe I should call it magic rather than luck, because there’s something in it that’s hard to pinpoint.

Jack Magree: Timing can be such a magical thing when it’s on your side… Another project would be MoyoAssist® alongside magAssist. It’s a product that can seamlessly go from maintaining people’s hearts when they’re waiting for heart surgery, to during surgery and after.

It’s a significant project. You don’t get much more life changing than something that literally keeps your heart pumping…. That persistence, and being sort of welcomed as part of [magAssist’s] development process, has been really satisfying from our point of view as a design partner. And then, the product itself… I mean, obviously, we’re biassed, but we think it’s a fantastic product and really does raise the standard.

GDA: Cobalt Design has been recognised for so many project and industry achievements since your beginnings in 1996 and now you’re being honoured as the 2024 Good Design Team of the Year. What effect does this kind of recognition have on your team behind-the-scenes?

Jack Magree: It shines a light on what we do. It makes you reflect on the impact you have and why you do it. We often think the things that motivate us to do this are more than the obvious. It’s made up of so many little things. Sometimes it’s just the joy of watching a smile spread across someone’s face when they’re using our product. Sometimes it’s just the sheer quantity of product you’ve impacted upon the marketplace, or a change of behaviour like with the KeepCup.

Cobalt’s design culture starts with a resilient leadership team and results in a better design industry. People are their greatest asset, yet they are selfless with their talent. Cobalt’s founders give their all into nurturing each team member towards their full potential as a designer. They speak of their alumni with incredible pride, because Cobalt is a place designed to support people and the Australian design industry.

Congratulations to Cobalt Design on being honoured with the 2024 Design Team of the Year Award.