Can I make a suggestion?

BAA could be tempting fate by asking its customers to comment on the airport experience, but the policy has led to a neat design by Priestman Goode which is set to grace all the authority’s airports.

Just touching down for a trial at London Heathrow airport, the wall-mounted ‘feedback boxes’ are moulded in glass-reinforced plastic with a convincingly metallic finish.

The project is part of an initiative to foster dialogue with customers, says BAA’s Nicky Wade. Customers can put their comments on BAA airports in the boxes and get feedback on what BAA is doing via posters, designed by David Hughes at Alter Ego, applied to the front.

A freestanding money-collecting version of the box is to be introduced in security areas, to encourage passengers passing through X-ray machines to deposit their loose change. Proceeds will go to the charity Project Hope.

According to Priestman Goode founder Paul Priestman, the new designs will replace ‘slab-like, boxy’ units. ‘We tried to get more form into them,’ he says. Hence the choice of grp.

‘It’s a bit daring for BAA, a bit curvy,’ he says. ‘But you can get real quality (with grp) through attention to detail.’

To achieve this quality the London product design group has been closely involved in the manufacture of the 400-500 boxes through its new manufacturing subsidiary Plant. Plant ‘runs in parallel to Priestman Goode’, says Priestman. ‘It’s a natural progression for design (to be involved in manufacture). You can get the details just right.’

Designers: Priestman Goode (product);

Alter Ego (graphics)

Client: BAA