Portraits in Leadership
Duncan Paul
Duncan Paul is the associate director of design for the personal beauty care division at P&G Beauty. He has been with P&G for 11 years. His responsibilities include helping to define the design strategy for the Olay, Old Spice, Secret, Venus, and Gillette brands.
Paul is passionate about carrying out P&G’s mission of building its internal design capabilities. Recently, he helped lead an experimental training event in Colorado that enabled experienced P&G designers from around the world to learn about and practice using new tools.
“Package design, especially in the beauty industry, is about so much more than just providing a functional package,” says Paul. “Learning how to connect with the consumer emotionally, particularly through packaging, is the challenge. It’s about speaking to her heart and mind. We have to create an experience that she wants, rather than needs,” he explains.
Paul knew he wanted to work in the design field since the age of 13, growing up in the UK. “I customized bicycles and sold them. My dad thought I was absolutely mad,” he says. Paul studied industrial design in London and received his master’s degree. He set up his own design firm, working on everything from cell phones and toys to petrol stations. At that time, a large consumer products company was one of Paul’s clients. The projects he worked on allowed him to gain insight as to how the packaging and design processes work within a large corporation. “They loved what we designed, but there was a strong disconnect between the original design concept and the package that ended up on the shelf,” says Paul.
This led Paul to become a true advocate for design. Now, he continually faces the challenge of making sure P&G’s packaging stays true to the original design intent. He strives to maintain the look and feel that P&G’s designers intend to convey, all the way through to the execution of the packaging and the launch of the product.
Paul first joined P&G’s team in Brussels, Belgium, in 1996 and worked there for nine years. His early achievements include setting up P&G’s industrial design group in Western Europe for its Fabric and Home Care division. “I quickly learned that integrating the use of virtual technology with design was necessary in order to launch new products more quickly,” he says. Paul relocated to P&G’s Cincinnati location two years ago to lead design for its new business development group, FutureWorks. One year ago, Paul took on his current role and now leads a design team of five industrial designers, each with diverse skills, expertise, and passions.
“It takes a strong sense of intuition and courage to be successful. I learn so much from my three-year-old daughter. I continue to be amazed by her intuition and courage as she does new things every day, without even knowing any boundaries exist,” he says.
Paul describes some of the changes that have happened within P&G during the last decade. “Ten years ago, new products were nearly on their way out the door and suddenly people were asking us if we could make the package look pretty,” Paul says. “It felt as if we were the last ‘decoration station’ on the way to market.” Now, Paul says that designers are involved so early in the process that sometimes the products they are working on don’t even exist yet.
“Honestly, looking back at the company I joined 10 years ago, it feels like an entirely different company today,” he says.