On-board cutlery designed by Eight and Jamie McLellan takes top honour

Hong Kong, April 4, 2017 - Eight and product designer Jamie McLellan have won Germany’s prestigious Red Dot award for product design for their work with Cathay Pacific on the airline’s inflight Premium Economy cutlery. Based on a nesting design that celebrates space efficiency, the three-piece cutlery set plays on the airline’s contemporary Asian design influences.

“We drew inspiration from the curvature of traditional Chinese soup spoons,” explains McLellan. “Each individual cutlery piece starts from a solid, flat, geometric base and is formed with a gradual and seamless depression that runs along the length of each piece. As a result, the matching curvature creates a natural stacking order that enable all pieces to align atop one another, while accentuating elegance and clean lines.”

The cutlery is part of the new dining collection, introduced in 2016, which was designed by Eight in collaboration with the New Zealand-based McLellan, for use in the Premium Economy and Economy class cabins on Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon.

“The whole collection is a direct reflection of the brand design ethos, so improving the customer experience was at the forefront of our minds as we tackled the design,” says Jonathan Magee, Group Account Director at Eight. “It is a real honour to be recognised by Red Dot for the work we’ve done with Jamie and Cathay Pacific’s Product and Catering teams.”

With an average of 130,000 meals served per day across the two airlines, meeting the challenges of high volumes and tight space limitations were key requirements. Like the nesting cutlery design, the entire dining collection features an arrangement of refined, simply shaped dishes that fit neatly with one another, a configuration inspired by the compact utility of Japanese ‘bento’ boxes.

Eight’s role in developing the collection is a continuation of an ongoing brand refresh and realignment process started with Cathay Pacific in 2014.