A code of color

Robert Sharoff

Function and color, color and function.

It's what Antony Joseph thinks about all day long.

Joseph is co-founder, along with his twin brother, Richard, of Joseph Joseph, a London-based housewares firm that works with designers around the world to create sleek, modern kitchen items in trendy colors like pink, lime green and yellow. Joseph Joseph boasts products that are a mainstay at better design stores and museum gift shops in America and abroad.

"Function is key," he says "There's a story you can tell with function - you can say this chopping board or mixing bowl makes your life easier and people respond to that. But color draws the eye - it's what makes people cross the room and pick something up in the first place." A good example, he adds, is the company's award-winning Nest line of molded plastic mixing bowls and measuring cups that fit together for easy storage. The company initially offered both plain and multi-colored sets but found, "the multi-colored sets sold 10 times better than the white sets," Joseph explains.

It's a point worth stressing: Color sells, particularly when you're dealing with areas where consumers have so many choices.

Joseph Joseph began in 2002 when Antony, fresh out of college, designed a line of cutting boards for his family's industrial glass company. The line was so successful that he decided to go out on his own, and he recruited his brother to handle the business side of the new firm.

"We're industrial designers," he says. "We come to the industry thinking in terms of function and problem-solving. Useful and practical definitely come first for us but we've also come to realize the importance of color. You've got to have both."

Joseph Joseph's best-selling item is a folding chopping board by noted designer Mark Sanders. First introduced in the late 1980s by another firm, it flopped and was discontinued. The design was so innovative, however, that it eventually wound up in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which is where the Josephs first saw it and decided to revive it.

"We took it on, made it a little more comfortable to hold and then manufactured it in many different colors," Joseph says. "It took off in a big way."

One final observation: "Products that stay out on display like toasters and tea kettles sell better in neutral colors while products that get put away sell better in brighter colors."