With a career spanning more than 35 years in design and product development at Fisher & Paykel Appliances, Mark leads a design team that takes our human-centered design and premium end-to-end brand experience to a global audience.
Mark is responsible for all aspects of design across the organization, including spatial, industrial design, and global brand, ensuring our unique design philosophy is reflected globally across every brand touchpoint.
Awarded the John Britten Black Pin by the Design Institute of New Zealand for significant achievement in the field of New Zealand design, both nationally and internationally, Mark Elmore’s contribution to Fisher & Paykel’s visual brand language and design aesthetic is considerable.
Mark is a graduate of the Massey University College of Creative Arts, and was inducted into the Massey University College of Creative Arts Hall of Fame, for contribution to New Zealand’s economy and identity through design.
Mark Elmore, General Manager Design at Fisher & Paykel, originally wanted to become an architect.
Growing up in New Zealand, industrial design was a small, highly specialized field that focused on industrial products – architecture, being much more prevalent, seemed a more obvious choice. Choosing to study industrial design at the last minute, he never looked back, discovering a field in which he could explore his keen curiosity about people and how design impacts on our lives.
Mark Elmore says ‘Our focus right from the outset of our design process is to delve deep into the insights around user behavior and how we can enrich the life lived around appliances. The kitchen is no longer just a place where food is prepared. It is where people come together to socialize and to spend time with family and friends. For us, great design is about making that experience a more beautiful one, not just aesthetically but in the way we interact with the kitchen.
‘The fascinating things about industrial design’, says Mark, ‘is that you get to walk in the customer’s shoes. While technology has advanced at startling speed since Mark began working with Fisher & Paykel over 30 years ago, it is his focus on people, and how they live and use their products, that is at the heart of Mark’s design process.
Mark and his team, therefore, spend a lot of time in real people’s kitchens, observing how they use the space, and talking to them about why they do the things they do. The fact it is not just the practical problems that industrial design must look to solve – the aesthetic look and feel of our appliances is equally important. As the role of the kitchen has evolved, Mark notes the change toward “the kitchen as furniture”.
In the last decade, this has also encompassed the drive to find sustainable solutions to the problem of home energy use and consumer waste. “A kitchen has a long life, and we expect the appliances to last for the life of the kitchen. We’re clear about using enduring materials in our products”, he explains.
In this sense, while the idea of ‘innovation’ can call to mind radical leaps forward, especially in a field like industrial design, the reality is far more nuanced. The shift in the role and use of the kitchen may have been a radical one, but the greatest product innovations have been based on considered iterations, refinements and observations about the way people live. This approach has seen Fisher & Paykel grow into a global brand and one that Mark sees leading the way in the future.
