Designed for Life

Apprentice turned Masterchef!

Jamaar, by his own admission, struggled at school. But through a combination of his mum, who led him to explore cooking at home and teachers who recognised his engagement and enthusiasm for the subject, Jamaar left school aged 16 and started a chef apprenticeship with study at  Bristol City College. 

Jamaar is currently Junior Sous Chef at Michelin Starred Lucknam Park Hotel Restaurant and earlier this year was a Masterchef semifinalist at the age of 22. 

In this conversation, we follow Jamaar's journey from school, where a desire to work professionally with food drove him to buckle down and work closely with his teachers to achieve the grades that he required for college entrance.  Thus proving the importance of destination and context to student engagement. 

For the last three years, Jamaar has worked under Hywel Jones, Head chef at Lucknam Park Hotel and Spa who has held a Michelin Star here since 2006. Hywel has a reputation for spotting talent and promoting it through Masterchef, with three previous chefs also reaching Masterchef finals. The head chef stating "Jamaar's natural talent as a chef is evident for all to see, but it's his dedication, commitment and application that sets him apart". 

Jamaar had entered and experienced success since his earliest days at college when he won South West Chef of the Year at apprentice level and later in the professional chef category. This prepared him well for his appearance earlier this year in MasterChef, where he was the youngest contender in the competition and reached the semi-final. 

Chef Jones is demonstrating his confidence in Jamaar's ability by handing the Michelin Starred restaurant over for two evenings for 'An Evening with Jamaar Semper' an opportunity for Jamaar to lead the kitchen for two evenings on 19th and 26th of May, presenting a menu that he has designed and will supervise on the evening. 

This is the first of two podcasts over five days covering two personal journeys from school to professional kitchens, demonstrating the breadth and range of design and technology education. 

Remember the name, Jamaar is a star in the making!

Ella Podmore is still young but has already crammed an awful lot of professional experience into her short career. In this podcast, we track her journey from school to her current role as Materials Engineer at McLaren Automotive, a position that she convinced McLaren, needed to be created. 

Ella is involved in all material investigations, from first drawings through to the final product, Ella has worked on the McLaren 765LT, the Elva roadster and the recently revealed McLaren Artura, the first series-production, high-performance hybrid from the luxury, high-performance supercar company.

Ella joined McLaren Automotive as an intern engineer in 2016, having completed a degree in materials engineering at the University of Manchester before securing a full-time role two years later. Since then she has progressed rapidly, creating her department from the ground up and balancing her time between experiments and leading technical meetings.

As one of more than 100 McLaren STEM ambassadors, Ella is passionate about encouraging more young people of all ages to take up science, technology and maths careers. On winning IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2021 she said  “I am absolutely honoured to have been chosen by the IET and the judges to be this year’s winner,” says Ella. “Those who know and work with me recognise how passionate I am about my science and, being able to talk about that and the amazing supercars I get to work on at McLaren, I want to encourage the next generation of engineers and scientists to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

As well as talking to young people around the world about her role, last year Ella was one of McLaren’s expert judges on the BBC Blue Peter ‘Supercar of the Future’ children’s design competition. Since then, Ella has participated in the global reveal of the Artura and featured in a film to mark the launch of the LEGO Technic McLaren Senna GTR model, the real version of which she worked on.

This was an amazing conversation with an engineer who clearly loves her job and is using her position recently gained with the IET to actively encourage the next generation of young women scientists, designers and engineers to pick up the mantle.  I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did!

In this, the second episode of Designed for Life released around a food theme in five days, we talk with Spencer Metzger Premier Sous Chef at the Ritz, London. 

In this conversation we follow Spencers journey from school where he enjoyed food design and preparation in his Food technology lessons making jam roly poly, to a work experience placement at the Ritz obtained by cold calling the restaurant and asking nicely if they would take a 'young lad' on a weeks placement. To his current role as Premier Sous Chef at one of the highest profile restaurants in the world and Roux Scholar 2019. 

This is an amazing story of opportunity, the need for hard work and self belief and the need for self evaluation and assessment, to quote Spencer "I know the Roux Scholarship is the pinnacle competition for chefs, I wasn't going to enter until I thought I had a chance of winning, I didn't enter with expectation but I knew I had a chance". 

I know that you will enjoy this conversation as we speak with a chef that I think everyone will have heard of in the not too distant future. 

Torri describes himself as a 'multi-disciplined creative chameleon' with over 16 years experience of working with some of the worlds biggest brands across a wide range of media. 

In this wide-ranging and for me deeply fascinating discussion, Torri talks us through his journey from school where Art and creativity was a key outlet for him, how his art teacher worked to convince his parents that following his passion into a creative degree course would not be time wasted, to creating his first major music video using a shopping trolley as a camera dolly (which won an MTV award by the way)!

Torri describes the surreal world that his career led him to as he created an advert for a Bond film while still living with his parents (all created from his bedroom). And the proud and surreal moment where he took his parents to the cinema to see what had kept him busy upstairs for months.

Torri has worked (and continues to work) with and for some of the biggest brands in the world. But his company name 'Misfit' alludes to a desire to use his high-level skills to achieve a little more than "selling stuff to people who often didn't need the items, and possibly can't really afford them anyway".  

Torri has worked hard to add a social mission to his work and is perhaps close to finding a balance between working on big brand items and using his talents to help to make the world a better place. 

I loved this conversation, Torri was so open and honest throughout and provided a fascinating insight into his industry, the need to be brave and back yourself, and the need to also be honest with yourself and the type of work that makes you want to get up in the mornings. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

https://misfit.work/ 

Lolo Jones is chair of ELS, a company that describes itself as the expert in "experience learning". The company uses the latest technologies in XR, VR and AR to measure learners as they are experiencing learning, enabling better metrics and better learning outcomes. 

Lolo has founded a number of companies, including Sutton Jones Multimedia, leading system integrator Interactive 1, online video pioneer Narrowstep, and was most recently Chair of rights management cloud specialists, Rights Tracker. Lolo has degrees in Radio, Film & TV and Educational Broadcasting and sat on the Course Board at film & TV college Ravensbourne for nearly a decade.

In this conversation, we discuss how technology can be used to transform the learning experience for students, explore the type of curriculum content required for success in a technology-rich world and discuss a new learning platform that ESL were on the verge of delivering when we recorded this podcast.

Please note that this podcast was recorded before Christmas 2020 and therefore has a couple of dated references to the Brexit vote (days after recording) and the Christmas season!  

ELS can be found at https://www.e-learningstudios.com/ 

Hayley Roy is the founder and owner of Harp Design https://www.harpdesign.co.uk an interior design company working across residential and commercial sectors. 

Hayley left school at sixteen and decided to travel and see the world while working as a hostess on private yachts, including almost three years working on Sir Philip Green's yacht Lionheart. 

On her return to the UK, aged 21, she joined the family business and was trained as a buyer, importing furniture from across the world; she was a Director of the business aged 22. Hayley spent fourteen years in this role, learning and expanding her repertoire of skills before setting up Harp Design which she launched at the end of 2013. In the seven-plus years that it has been in existence, Harp Design has successfully tackled a range of complex briefs for both residential and commercial clients; the company can tackle every aspect of design and construction from branding, through the design process and project management to final hand-over, their website contains some impressive case studies. 

Hayley has recently set up another stand-alone business, Symphony Furniture, which will service Harp Design as well as standing in its own right. 

In this podcast, Hayley talks us through her journey, in the process explaining how she has grown her business acumen and expertise, learning from both the highs and the challenges that she has faced.  This was a delightful and open conversation with a very astute business owner and entrepreneur; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  

Nicola Lawler has been designing shoes for over 20 years. 

The London born and based designer co-founded Lawler Duffy Shoes with Lori Duffy, while still at Cordwainers College and began her career by creating shoes for Joe Casely- Hayford. She has collaborated with many designers including Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and Katharine Hamnett. 

Having consulted for a diverse portfolio of clients from Louis Vuitton & John Lobb (Hermes Group) to Marks and Spencer, Ghost and WGSN. Lawler has extensive experience across the Fashion and Footwear industries, from Luxury to high street and is equally confident designing for both men and women. With a natural attention to detail and a highly developed aesthetic sensibility, her practice is underpinned by a broad understanding of craft and construction from Artisan Bespoke Product, to Performance Sports Footwear. 

Known in the 1990s for working with the waste material Salmon Skin, the environmental impact of the fashion industry plays an integral role in her design approach.

Nicky is currently in-house at Vivienne Westwood as Senior Designer and Head of Footwear. Coupling a uniquely creative eye with in-depth technical understanding, she is passionate about turning ideas into beautiful products. 

This was a very enjoyable and enlightening conversation with a very humble designer with a passion for what she does, I am sure this is a conversation that you will enjoy. Give yourself fifty minutes, sit back and enjoy!

This podcast takes Designed for Life in a slightly different direction as we seek to track the journey of a product from its original 'ideas phase' through product development, to manufacture, marketing and sales...All covered through https://pantee.co.uk/  Sustainable womens underwear made from surplus T-Shirts. 

Amanda McCourt and her sister Katie have spent the last 18 months bringing an idea to make comfortable, fashionable underwear made from unsold t-shirts to market. Along the way they met numerous challenges, but have remained true to their initial vision of what they believed possible and are set to fully launch their first collection. All of this has been achieved with the sisters living in different continents and not being able to meet due to COVID travel restrictions. 

So sit back, pour a coffee and relax as we are in conversation with Amanda McCourt Co-founder of Pantee. 

Robin Wight was a co-founder of the advertising agency Wight, Collins, Rutherford, Scott (WCRS) in 1979 and was President of its parent company Engine until 2019. 

WCRS and Robin were responsible for some of the most memorable advertising campaigns of the 80s and 90s including campaigns for Orange telecommunications "The future is bright, the future is Orange,"  the 118 118 adverts that people either loved or loathed at the time...either way there is no doubt they were memorable and effective. BMW sales in the UK overtook Audi for the first time as a result of a targeted advertising campaign that labelled BMW's as 'the ultimate driving machine' and those of us of a certain age will fondly remember the 1990 Carling Black Label 'Dambusters' adverts that have achieved legendary status within the industry. 

WCRS was one of the most successful marketing and advertising agencies of its time and both the agency and Robin have achieved iconic status within the industry.  In 2004 Robin was part of the WCRS management team that led the buyout from parent company Havas Advertising. He was subsequently made joint chairman of WCRS under the new structure and then President of Engine in 2008. In 2010 Wight stood down from the board of Engine to focus on his charitable interests.

Robin was Chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh Award's Charter for Business and in this role helped to raise over £50 Million to support the Duke of Edinburgh Award. In 2003 Robin founded the Ideas Foundation a charity that helps identify and nurture creatively gifted young people from some of the countries most deprived social groups. 

It was an absolute pleasure to talk to such an iconic figure within the advertising industry, someone with a lifetime of experience within the industry who for a number of years has concentrated on paying back.  So pull up a chair, sit back with a coffee and listen to Designed for Life in conversation with Robin Wight CBE. 

Zoe is a British artist, maker, self-confessed tinkerer and materials engineer.  Perhaps best known to design and technology teachers for her part in the iconic BBC2 series 'Big Life Fix' this is only one of many TV appearances over the years including 'This Morning' with Philip Scofield and Holly Willoughby, The secret of landfill (2018), The secret story of stuff (2018) and most recently 'How to Make' first aired April 2020. Zoe is also the resident materials expert on BBC Radio 4's 'The Kitchen Cabinet'. 

In this podcast, Zoe's absolute obsession with the beauty and intrigue of materials comes across loud and clear. Her PhD work explores how materials might affect the taste of food (how she describes a gold spoon's taste has to be heard to be believed).  Zoe went on to co-create The Institute of Making, a multidisciplinary research club based at University College London. 

As with all our guests, we take Zoe back to school and follow her journey to the design inspiration that she is today. I promise you will not be disappointed and you may never look at a tin rod quite the same ever again!