“The opportunity for invention”: Pentagram New York welcomes its first product design partner, Piotr Woronkowicz

Piotr Woronkowicz has officially joined Pentagram as a partner, marking the first time the New York office has appointed someone with a dedicated focus on product and industrial design. It’s a significant milestone, not just for the international design studio, but for what it represents: a growing demand for design that considers the entire lifecycle of an object, from sketch to shelf to disposal.

A long-time collaborator with several of Pentagram’s partners, Piotr has spent the past decade working at the intersection of disciplines with a distinctly human-centred approach, designing with utility in mind and sustainability at the centre. Often, Piotr can be found challenging inherited assumptions around how everyday things should look, feel, and function.

His appointment reflects a broader shift across both the design industry and consumer culture. With rising awareness around waste, material impact, and the value of durability, product design is being appreciated for its problem-solving capabilities. For Piotr, that means questioning the logic behind every handle, hinge, and label – building things people (especially his mum) actually want to keep.

This move also opens the door to deeper cross-disciplinary collaboration within Pentagram. With access to world-class graphic, brand, and experience designers only a few desks across, Piotr joins a global network that’s uniquely equipped to bring a more holistic kind of product thinking into the world, just as people are finally more ready to engage with it.

In an interview with It’s Nice That, Piotr shares his thoughts on the changing role of product design, the problems he’s most excited to solve, and what it means to create things people will cherish.

HB:Well, that brings me to quite a good point. I was surprised to know that Pentagram New York has never had a product designer as a partner, despite that being quite an integral discipline to Pentagram’s history. Why do you think now is the time for Pentagram New York to get a product designer partner on board, and why do you think now is the right time for you in your career?

PW:Yeah, that’s a pretty good question. Thank you. I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit myself, you know. Early on, when I was initially approached to consider this partner track I thought: you know, what could I add to this? I’m already working on things with them. 

Pentagram New York, has been doing industrial design, but again, a little bit more in the back end of things. And then, obviously, there’s Jon Marshall in London. Jon Marshall also worked a little bit with the New York office, and there just wasn’t an abundance of industrial design coming into New York.  

So there was always a good capability, we had a good network getting industrial design done. But more and more there are requests for it. There’s a little bit of a change in the product design world lately, where there is a lot of opportunity. We’ve had many talks about this, and we think there are these gaps in the industry that we could really fulfil. There’s a huge opportunity that we’re starting to see, and we really want to go for those. We think we could go for them stronger, together.

HB: So, out of those problems that you’re tackling, which do you think is the biggest or maybe most regular one that you’re facing?

PW: The sustainability and the waste aspect of a lot of things. The quick for production, value engineering things. Sometimes the quality isn’t there, so these things expire, especially when you’re talking at the furniture level, packaging or manufacturing in the long term. You have these opportunities to use better materials that might be considered almost like home goods. If you’re buying something in a container, maybe you can reuse that container a little bit. So, really, it’s tackling sustainability, but on a bunch of different levels. 

It’s not just about using an eco-friendly material, you know. If you’re going to make something out of glass, you have to think about, you know, the way it’s transported, the weight, how it packs, and all those details from the start to the finish. Those are the problem-solving skills that I love. I mean, I think about when Paula and I did the packaging for Dr.Jart. What drove that square design was actually shipping and the organisation in your cabinets and medicine. When you’re shipping square bottles, you’re not shipping any empty air anymore, so you can get much tighter boxes and things like that. So that alone was a huge sustainability success in less shipping around the world.

HB: I can imagine that those sorts of challenges can actually make the end result a lot more interesting. I saw the wine bottle packaging that you did with Matt Willey. That was obviously quite sustainably led, right? But the actual design is so compelling and interesting and adds to the experience of it, rather than it just being a practical solution.

PW: I always try to design with the non-designer in mind. I’m not designing for other designers, and that’s key here. When I was in the furniture design industry, I saw a lot of designers that wanted to impress other designers. Whereas, I think, with these sorts of things we’re able to think about how someone off the street will see your product. Does it make their lives a little better, a little easier? Does it work better? Is it environmentally friendly? Those types of things. 

I don’t even have a prescription of my process and how I do this, I just really look at the project, and I disassociate any grandfathered ideas that made it like it is. Like a paint can. The paint project with Eddie Opara is a good example. We totally threw the idea of a paint can away. They’re terrible. They’re horrible to hold. They’re horrible to use. They’re horrible to ship. All of it! They’re unsustainable. It’s just a nightmare. So we said no, no paint cans. It wasn’t even in our realm. We were like: how can we carry paint differently? We understand how someone uses, and that’s what we really take into account. So those are the problems that we love to solve.

HB: So you touched on your process, or rather your lack of one. If you don’t have a process, do you have a defining philosophy in how you approach things?

PW: Yeah, very much so. We really listen and ask who the client is and who the audience is – it’s really about those two things the most. You need to understand what you are going to solve, and you need to communicate a lot. And, mostly, it’s about problem solving and really understanding what the issues are – following the user experience bit by bit and seeing if you can simplify that process. 

I went to ArtCenter College of Design and learned a traditional industrial design kind of process. ArtCentre has a very successful, very tried and true process. But what I learned is to take a lot of those tools in a way, and apply those to whatever the problem is, whether it’s, again, packaging, interiors, exteriors. That’s pretty much my philosophy: problem solving, understanding your client, and then understanding the materials you’re working with. Then, create a process for that challenge. So it’s different every time.

HB: That’s really cool. So, we’ve talked about the problems that you’re dealing with everyday. But what is exciting to you most about product design right now?

PW: What’s exciting? Well, this opportunity for one. Consumers and people are now really starting to pay attention to what they’re buying and where it’s going. There’s this overabundance of everything, especially in this country [the US], to the point where it’s almost devaluing products. You’re finding stuff that people are almost disposing of that do have a lot of value, and it’s a shame – especially given the economics of this country too. People are a little nervous at the moment, so they are thinking even more about consumer consumption. 

So I feel like there’s this opportunity to create products with real meaning, a real story again, and a real function that I don’t think I’ve seen in the last five or ten years. You know, maybe it was due to the Instagram days. You can see 100 beautiful designs within 30 seconds, but you have no idea where they came from or where they’re going. I think that time has passed, and I think now people are looking for context again, and that’s really exciting to me.

HB: So, you’d say you’re quite optimistic at the moment about product design then?

PW: I am. It’s more and more expensive to make things, there’s more attention on waste. There’s all of these elements that not only the companies and clients are paying attention to, but also the consumer, finally! Especially in the cities. But even elsewhere. My family lives near Washington, DC and Baltimore – in the suburbs a little bit. And you’re seeing this awareness in places that haven’t really experienced that five years ago. People are buying maybe more glass bottles than plastic. Now there, you’re starting to see that transition, and people are thinking about what they’re consuming again.

You couldn’t pigeonhole me or stereotype me as a traditional industrial designer. I do a little bit of everything, and I want to continue to do that. I’m so interested in multiple industries. I’ve worked with many other agencies as well, so I was able to work in other industries across interiors and furniture. I love that world. I think there’s a lot of opportunity as well to consolidate all of these design studios and manufacturers, especially the small boutique ones.

So there needs to be a fresh perspective of how that might work. And I think that needs to be, not just a furniture designer and not just a graphics designer, but a much more holistic approach of the vision of how these industries kind of grow and shape. Especially with the world in this drastic transition that we’re in at the moment. So, I’m optimistic. We’re definitely in a transitional period, so there’s opportunity for invention again. 

I went to ArtCenter – it’s a school very famous for industrial design, but mostly transportation design – and that’s what initially brought me there. I’m a crazy car guy, so I’ve always loved tinkering and fixing cars and motorcycles. The amount of things that I do within that world since I was a little kid, it’s just non stop. So that brought me to ArtCenter and then that opened up the world to all of these other disciplines, and I continually still do that. Transportation, furniture. I’d love to get into beauty and fashion a little bit, add more substance there, less throw away. Yeah, the list goes on and on and on, but I love doing everything.

HB: So, little boy Piotr, who’s obsessed with cars. What would he think of what you’re doing now?

PW: Oh, wow. I think about that sometimes, and it makes me feel grateful for where I am. I couldn’t imagine being able to do this for a living. I almost don’t even know how it worked out. I just worked really hard at the things I love to do, and everything kind of fell into place. 

So yeah, I think that the fact that I do get to work with some cars and transportation, and that I found my own little path is great. I’ve had a tonne of mentors, but I’ve never tried to mimic or imitate, you know, I’ve tried to learn from them. I’ve worked with, honestly, some of the greatest people, and I’ve gotten to learn so much from them. Having that company too and their personalities, and just realising that, in order to do a great job, you have to enjoy everyone you’re working with and enjoy the process. 

So, if I thought that I would be working with these various teams on different projects and solving problems for people – whether it’s from a bottle design to, I don’t know, a fire extinguisher, I would be blown away by the excitement of it. Like, my mom going into a store and buying a toothbrush and her not even knowing I did it. You know that, to me, is kind of like, ah, that’s exactly what I was shooting to do in my life.

HB: I think that’s a really nice moment to end on. That’s lovely. Thank you!

PW: Thank you so much. My pleasure, Harry!