Design has the potential to help us solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. But few designers and entrepreneurs recognize that potential. 

Paul Lambert, co-founder and CEO of Quilt, sees design as a tool to drive the adoption of climate change mitigation technologies. That’s why he’s partnered with industrial designers Maaike Evers and Mike Simonian who are helping the team at Quilt rethink how we heat and cool our homes, a major contributor to the average home’s carbon footprint.

We spoke with Maaike, Mike, and Paul about how they approached the challenge of designing a process as well as a product, bringing fresh eyes to familiar problems, and how they collaborated with engineers to create a product that is both beautiful and highly functional.

Find the full episode, transcript and bonus content on our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/quilt-mike-and-maaike

Bios

Mike & Maaike

Mike & Maaike is a progressive industrial design studio led by Mike Simonian and Maaike Evers.

Formed as a design laboratory, the San Francisco studio works both independently and with clients to create new opportunities through products, technology, furniture, environments and transportation.

Maaike Evers is Dutch, Mike Simonian, Californian. These distinct backgrounds inform a diverse body of work marked by experimentation, substance and strong conceptual narratives.

Collaborations include: Google, Sonos, Headspace, Haworth, Artifort, Incase, Belkin, Xbox, Blankblank, Council, Coalesse, Quilt, Steelcase, and the City of San Francisco.

Paul Lambert

Paul founded Quilt after committing himself to designing a company that he could spend the rest of his life on. A breakthrough came in 2022 after realizing the answer was working on whatever problem was most threatening to the next generation of humans and that the problem today is climate change. Paul built his first internet business as a teenager, founded Learndot, an education platform, and was a Partner at Google’s Area 120.

***

Premium Episodes on Design Better

This ad-supported episode is available to everyone. If you’d like to hear it ad-free, upgrade to our premium subscription, where you’ll get an additional 2 ad-free episodes per month (4 total). Premium subscribers also get access to our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, early and discounted access to workshops, and our new enhanced newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show.  

Upgrade to paid

***

Visiting the links below is one of the best ways to support our show:

Methodical Coffee: Roasted, blended, brewed, served and perfected by verified coffee nerds 🤓. We have our very own Design Better roast at Methodical, grab some here to fuel your creativity: https://methodicalcoffee.com/products/design-better-coffee

Zeplin: Few things frustrate designers quite as much as seeing the UI they’ve meticulously designed, botched when built out. But Zeplin can help you make every design-to-dev handoff efficient and accurate so you nail every release on time and on budget. Design Better listeners can get their first month of the Basic Plan free. Just go to zeplin.io and use code DESIGNBETTER to get your first month of the Basic Plan free.

Greenlight: Years ago, Aarron and Eli set up their kids with Greenlight, a debit card and money app made for families. Their allowance is automatically deposited into their account and is divided into three buckets: spending, saving, and giving. With Greenlight’s investing tools, we’ve helped our kids learn how to invest in stocks and mutual funds and they can see those investments grow. Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free: http://greenlight.com/designbetter