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Finding the light solution

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The challenges that designers face throughout their careers require creative solutions that can lead to market breakthroughs. As senior design director of Philips Hong Kong, Sean Hughes steers a multidisciplinary team towards innovation that is breaking new ground

I joined Philips in 1992 in Holland, and moved to Hong Kong 12 years ago. I started out as a product designer and began working with Philips Lighting about seven years ago, designing products such as light bulbs and luminaires, which are lighting units or fixtures. There's a whole range of things that I do as a senior design director.

The work is project-based so I have multiple projects to oversee. The design work includes product design and interface design.

I work every day with different teams to find solutions to varying projects. It's interesting working with an international workforce. Having so many different backgrounds help us to understand how to apply lighting products to different settings.

Solutions often lead to market breakthroughs and that's one of the most rewarding parts of the job. We've recently made headway on solid state lighting. There were many problems with domestic lighting. So, we created 'Living Colours', a new energy-efficient lighting product whereby you can control lighting effects and add any colour you want, and also wash a wall with dimmable light.

That's one side of selling a lighting solution that I need to work on with product designers. The other is designing new hardware. For example, we produced a halogen bulb that was put on the market as an energy saving light bulb called 'Super Compact'. It proved to be a breakthrough and won an industrial design award in Japan.

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