Happy 18th Birthday to HD!

Haughton Design was ‘officially’ incorporated on 7th November 2002, making the company 18 years old tomorrow – and what an 18 years it’s been!

Although HD were somewhat operating for 12 years prior to this, with David working on his own, it wasn’t until demand in the Aerospace industry grew and we hired our first employee that HD was truly born.

Managing Director, David, has previously shared the project challenges and successes HD has faced over the years. All of which he has somehow overcome whilst raising a young family and navigating global challenges such as 9/11, the 2008 Financial Crash and now COVID-19!

In 18 years, we have managed to squeeze in a somewhat daunting amount of work and development of the company. Starting off working in the aerospace industry, this had to change fast in the early years. Employing our now Design & Ops Director, Lee Smith, as a Design Development Consultant allowed us to venture into New Product Development and continue to grow. Many projects were started and completed across a number of industries during this period, and in 2012 we started working in the Medical Device industry, committing to achieve ISO: 13485 certification by 2013.

Since then we have left behind a lot of our old areas of work to focus on Medical Device Development, although they still hold a special place in HD’s heart. After all, we wouldn’t be where we are today without a lot of our earlier projects and industries, and we like to think the lessons learned then, help us massively in today’s work.

Internally, we have seen the team grow, the introduction of a workshop, prototyping space and new design studio and now an innovation room. We continue to reinvest in the latest software and training, as well as introducing a network of Associate Consultants. Teamed with a  number of awards, plenty of talks and presentations and a few questionable Christmas jumper choices (check out the photos below), HD continue to improve year on year.

MD David had the following to say about the past 18 years of Haughton Design, and what he hopes from the next 18.

“It’s been a really challenging but incredibly rewarding time, it’s taken a while, but things are going well at the moment. There’s still COVID-19 and Brexit to navigate but we’ve just posted our best ever month and quarter, so I know we’ll do even better as time goes by. It’s a testament to the hard work and effort from the whole team. I am really looking forward to the next few years, we’ve got some excellent people at HD, so I hope I will be have been sent on my way to retirement well before another 18 pass by!”.

None of the past 18 years would have been possible without the support from clients both old and new, the understanding and adaptability of our world-class team and the continuing dedication of the management team to ensure HD is a success, no matter how tough times get.

Happy 18^th HD – we hope you enjoy the below selection of photos from the archives.