Designed for Life

Six years ago, Lynne Elvins and some of her designer friends and colleagues were discussing life, work and, specifically, the challenges of onboarding juniors into their business.  All agreed that some amazing young people were looking to enter the profession. Equally, all agreed that young people were, more often than not, not fully prepared for studio life when they entered employment; they brought energy, enthusiasm and often subject knowledge and skills but had minimal experience of putting all of this from theory into action. 
 
 This conversation was different because this small group of professionals didn't just moan and then go back to the day job; instead, they decided to act, and Werkhouse was born. https://www.werkhouse.co.uk
 
 Werkhouse provides a live studio experience for thirty young people currently held at Taxi studio in Bristol. Nine South West studios pool their own money to provide food and refreshments over the weekend as they work alongside young people to tackle a live brief provided by a national or local charity. The young people work on the brief over the weekend and then present their solutions to the client on Sunday. Many of these young people then go on to successfully take roles within the industry. 
 
 In this podcast, we talk to Lynne about her career and current role and discuss Werkhouse in some depth. This year's programme runs on the 19th and 20th of November, and without revealing the brief (which is a highly guarded secret until the first day), we discuss the experience that the selected young people will experience. 
 
 This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge.
 
 We are indebted to The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

https://www.werkhouse.co.uk/
https://www.ted.com/talks/lynne_elvins_the_myths_of_gay_adoption?language=en

In this episode, we are delighted to be in conversation with architect, entrepreneur and co-founder of PrintLab, a 3D printing business focused on providing hardware and curriculum content to educators within the UK and indeed worldwide. https://weareprintlab.com/

This is a podcast that we have been chasing for a while now. PrintLabs curriculum content and resources are exceptional, and we have seen so many schools excited about what a well-constructed CAD/Manufacturing curriculum can do for their students. 

As always, we follow Jason from school as he transitioned to the architect he always thought he would be. Sometimes that final destination pays well and ticks many boxes for a 'creative career for life' but doesn't quite excite you and make you want more. Passion for what you do is such an important part of working life.

Jason turned his back on architecture as a career and instead moved into a field he knew very little about in 3D design and printing. A couple of years later and circumstance threw up the opportunity to co-found his own business; this felt like a natural progression and PrintLab was born. 

We discuss the challenges faced and the progress of PrintLab and how you head up a fast-growing company when you are a self-confessed introvert who hates being centre stage. 

I loved this conversation, and I think you will too. 

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge.

We are indebted to The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

This episode of Designed for Life was recorded live at the V&A London as part of the London Design Festival 2022. 

Yewande Akinola is one of the foremost design engineers in the UK today. Born and raised in Western Nigeria, she describes her interest in the built environment and bridges from an early age, intrigued by the beauty and structure of buildings around her. 

Her father was a Government Minister in Nigeria. He sadly passed when Yewande was very young, and her mother took over the task of ensuring that her children received the best education possible; this required grit, tenacity and hard work as money was tight and private education was the only way to chase the dream realistically. 

At 17, Yewande moved to the UK and Warwick University to start her journey into design and engineering. On graduation, she took up a post as a mechanical engineer for Thames Water before later moving to the Arup Group and continuing her development with a Master's Degree at Cranfield University. She currently holds the role of Principal Engineer and Innovation Lead at Laing O'Rourke. 

Yewande successfully balances the prominent roles of engineer, innovator, and visiting Professor at the University of Westminster. She is an Innovate UK Ambassador for clean growth and infrastructure. She is developing a growing reputation within media and public engagement, promoting engineering and challenging narrow stereotypes of who engineers are and the positive difference that they make in the world. 

This was a fantastic conversation with an engineer with an untold passion for the role of innovation, creativity and engineering. 

So pull up a comfy chair, pour a coffee, put the earbuds in and walk the dog or go to the gym...wherever you listen to your podcasts, make sure you find the time to listen to Designed for Life Live - In conversation with Yewande Akinola MBE. 

Please note this podcast has also been recorded on video and will be released imminently (we will post a link here when it goes live). Huge thanks to The London Design Festival and the V&A for presenting us with this opportunity and to Yewande for taking time out of a busy schedule. Should you wish to find out more about Yewande, do visit her website http://yewandeakinola.co.uk/

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge.

We are indebted to The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

We were fortunate to bump into Kialy at Young Designers this year and knew there and then that she had a story to tell that made her a perfect guest for this podcast.

In this episode, we hear how Kialy set her heart and soul on working in fashion at a very young age, and when she secured a place on the foundation course at Central St. Martin's, this set the stage for her dream to come true. For many reasons, this did not provide the experience she sought, and she endured the course rather than thriving within it. Kialy moved on with a friend to a Fashion degree course at Kingston University in London.

Again this did not flick the switch for Kialy, and she found herself slowly disengaging from the course; in the second year, she finally left the course. This brought Kialy to a dark place as she tried to work out what it was about her that made her unsuitable for studying a subject that had been her dream for years. "The more I analysed it, I realised that it wasn't the courses, it was me; I was the common denominator".

At this stage, Kialy took any job that helped pay the bills and worked in retail, recruitment and even door-to-door sales for a charity. At a loose end, she took a friend's advice and, without a plan, moved to Glasgow. Again, after several non-creative roles, she found a job as an assistant to a Milner and found her inner-creative self. Within this role, she thrived and grew in confidence as she saw a hard-working, creative boss make a good living from doing something she loved.

Kialy then successfully applied to a Textiles degree course at Glasgow School of Art and, on graduation, almost immediately set up as a freelancer. Today she sits somewhere between designer and artist and flits reasonably seamlessly between the two. This was an effortless, casual and honest conversation with a designer/artist at the very start of her professional journey but already with a powerful story behind her.

So grab a cool drink, pull up a chair, find a quiet space, take us to the gym, take the dog for a walk, put those air pods in, and enjoy Designed for Life - In conversation with Kialy Tihngang.

Selected past projects:

‘Useless Machines’ 2021 - moving fabric-covered wooden panels exploring environmental racism and electronic waste

Selected upcoming projects:

‘Fetissoes’, 2023 - solo show at God’s House Tower, Southampton, speculating on precolonial African religion through sculpture and moving image

'Toghu', 2024 - an animated embroidered film about queer Cameroonian identity

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge

We are indebted to The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

In this episode, we are delighted to be in conversation with Sustainable Futures Educator and Interpreter Carra Santos https://www.carrasantos.com 

Carra came from a rural upbringing in Northern Ireland. She was 'promoted' a year aged only four years old, a decision that, when played forward, saw her heading off to Leeds and a foundation course aged seventeen with a suitcase full of clothes and belongings and a bag of art brushes! 

In this podcast, we follow her journey from this rural upbringing to her current position influencing and educating business leaders to see their role in creating a sustainable future by not only reducing their negative impact on the environment; but also increasing their positive impact. 

The power to change our collective habits and start to reverse the damage inflicted on our planet is in our hands, we know what to do and I guess most of us are aware of the urgency of action, but for some, the leap to another way of thinking, acting and living is a step too far, they need to be helped through a series of small positive steps that collectively add up to substantive positive impact. In a nutshell, that's what Carra does as she works with business leaders both in the UK and internationally to change mindsets and encourage positive actions. 

Carra wants business success to be measured on more than growth and profit made, but instead wants new criteria to be introduced, such as the concept of business contentment...when is enough, enough? When do staff well-being and retention become key success criteria? Carra challenges the concept of capitalism and suggests that there are deeper, more important success measures that we should all be using. 

I found this to be a very thought-provoking podcast, I found I had as many questions as I had answers at the end of it but it has encouraged me to want to dig deeper. I don't run a multi-national company but small individual change matters. Carra mentions the book 'Citizens' by Jon Alexander and Ariane Conrad within the podcast, a book that I am now avidly consuming. 

You are on your holidays, so pull up a sunlounger, pour yourself something long and cold and enjoy Designed for Life, in conversation with Carra Santos. 

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge

We are indebted to The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

In this episode, I am delighted to be in conversation with award-winning British inventor, YouTube Channel host, presenter and professional speaker Ruth Amos.

Ruth's future took a massive diversion when she was tasked with designing a mobility aid for a member of her design and technology teachers' family who had suffered a stroke. The task quickly escalated from a school GCSE project to a potential business as it became evident that there was no equivalent solution on the market, and Ruth started to receive requests to buy a product that, at this stage, was in prototype form only. 

On the back of this project, Ruth was  named Young Engineer for Britain in 2006, and the decision was made to abandon any thoughts of university and instead set up her company to manufacture and sell https://stairsteady.net/

Over the coming years, Ruth built on her initial success and became involved in several companies, at one point acting as an advisor to the UK government. 

More recently, Ruth has teamed up with her colleague and fellow Young Engineer for Britain Shawn Brown, to start a YouTube Channel aimed at harnessing and embracing the creativity of young people, and Kids Invent stuff was born https://www.youtube.com/c/KidsInventStuff

The channel has been featured on local and international news outlets as well as primetime TV and, to date, has received over two million views. Take a look...It's madness personified, but I love it!

It was an absolute pleasure to talk with Ruth as she shared her journey from D&T GCSE project to inventor and business entrepreneur. So grab an hour of me time, walk the dog, take us to the gym, or simply pull up a comfy chair, and enjoy Designed for Life in conversation with Ruth Amos.

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge

We are indebted to The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

How do you move from 'table 6', the table at the back of the classroom for the lowest achievers, to being recognised in the New Year Honours List for "services to apprenticeships and STEM education"?

Listen to the latest episode of Designed for Life, and you will find out! 

Ian Green is currently Learning Specialist at British Volt and a Professor of Practice at Newcastle University. These roles follow thirty years as Head of Global Training for Nissan. As part of his work, Ian set up one of the most impactful Industry/education programmes in the UK, positively impacting over 70,000 students. 

Ian's primary school experience left him woefully lacking skill and confidence in mathematics. He was delivered a timetable that included art every day, "I still can't draw", and maths only once every two weeks. In secondary school, Ian realised the value of a good teacher as his maths teacher took the time to explain problems and mathematical solutions differently. He made progress fast, leaving school with eleven GCEs and a CSE Grade 1 in mathematics. 

Ian moved onto an engineering degree programme and progressed rapidly as his newfound thirst for knowledge served him well.    

A major car crash changed his direction as his recovery was slow, and he realised he could no longer stay on his feet all day. A shift to Training and a Masters in HR followed as he side-stepped into his new career. 

The outreach programme he started at Nissan has grown from small beginnings to a comprehensive offer from the Japanese manufacturer to education in the North East. Ian nurtured this programme from vision to the entity that it is today. 

Ian left Nissan earlier this year, and good people aren't allowed to retire, as he was swiftly picked up to work with British Volt. The possibility of helping build a major engineering project from scratch was too good to turn down. At the same time, Ian is completing his professional Doctorate as he explores ways to make engineering more attractive to young women. 

This was a fantastic conversation with an engineer with a brilliant tale; I know you will love it!

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge

We are indebted to The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

We are delighted to bounce back with this episode in conversation with Dyson Institute graduate Oyemen Okes after a short break. 

Oyemen's journey to Dyson was serendipitous. She overheard a conversation between a fellow student and a teacher and set off to learn more about what Dyson had to offer. We talk with her about her journey to the institute, navigating the detailed application process and what the experience has offered her in her professional journey to date. 

For those unfamiliar with the Dyson Institute, the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology is now a higher education institute in its own right, offering a unique experience for students with a passion for problem-solving and a fascination for how things work. Set up in 2017 and based at the Dyson technology campus in Malmsbury, it offers a unique degree experience with two days a week spent studying and three days on-site working with the Dyson engineering team. Initially accredited by Warwick University, the Institute is now recognised in its own right and is now empowered to accredit its degree course. 

Oyemen talks us through her journey from A Level D&T, Physics and Maths to her current position as she reaches the end of her degree studies and enters full-time employment with Dyson as a qualified engineer.

I loved Oyemen's quiet confidence and humility as she describes her journey and looks forward to finding her "mission" with Dyson. I just know you are going to enjoy this one! So sit back and listen to Designed for Life in conversation with Oyemen Okes.

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge

We are indebted to both The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

In late February, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) released a research paper on the current plight of design and technology education in England, 'A spotlight on design and technology study in England'.

The Design and Technology Association is proud to be one of the facilitating partners for this research alongside The IET, ERA Foundation, Foster and Partners Architects and the James Dyson Foundation.   

In truth, the paper does not tell us much that we did not already know or suspect of the subject's current position in English schools; what it does do is provide a sound, data-driven evidence base for conversation, projection and growth. The subject needed this foundation on which to examine the issues in-depth and plan a strategy for development.

In this podcast, we temporarily abandon the usual format of Designed for Life, and I spend some time discussing the paper and its possible implications for the subject with Dr Alison Hardy, Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University.  Many of you will know Alison, but for those that do not, she is steeped in design and technology experience and has taught and led the subject in schools before moving on to teach and research D&T at Nottingham. She is also the founder and host of the Talking D&T podcast, which I highly recommend.

This conversation forms a small part of the Design and Technology Association's plans to bring a debate about the future of D&T to teachers, subject leaders, senior staff, headteachers and governors, business and industry leaders and policymakers before we bring a clear message and potential solutions to the issues that exist to Party Conferences this autumn.

So put those headphones on, sit back and enjoy Designed for Life - In conversation with Dr Alison Hardy. 

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge

We are indebted to both The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support. 

In this episode, we are privileged to be in conversation with independent strategic design consultant Matthew Cockerill. 

Matthew concentrates on helping companies accurately position their future direction and focus by identifying what he terms their 'near future' opportunities.  Not crystal ball gazing into the future and predicting what lies ahead, more pinning a destination down to what is possible within a given time frame (normally 6/8 years) and then working back from point. 

Using his expertise and insight, Matthew has helped some of the world's biggest brands and some of the most ambitious startups solve complex and ambiguous design challenges. 

We follow Matthew's journey from school through his degree to foundation years at DCA Design International, Samsung Electronics (in Seoul), Seymourpowell, to his current role as an independent consultant. 

In the pod Matthew talks of the importance of working "left of brief", really identifying a problem and setting a brief that is accurate and liberating for the work that follows. This work is set within a  strong belief that many potentially successful design projects are scuppered at an early stage through a poorly identified brief. 

Matthew also talks to us about how he now uses his gained experience to lead workshops helping fellow designers to more comfortably fit into leadership roles and how he is working with MyBigCareer to inspire school-aged students to want to learn more about the world of design. 

This podcast is a little longer than normal at sixty-five minutes as it was really hard to cut the good stuff! We are delighted with the outcome and know you are going to enjoy and learn through this podcast with plenty of thought nuggets to make you want to dig deeper. You can find out more about Matthew, including his latest thought pieces and examples of his work through his website https://www.matthew-cockerill.com/

This podcast has been recorded with the help of our sponsors, The Edge Foundation https://www.edge.co.uk/ inspiring the education system to give all young people across the UK the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to flourish in their future life and work, and PTC Onshape Providing industry-standard cloud-based CAD to education  https://www.ptc.com/en/news/2020/ptc-onshape-education-enterprise-plan-available-free-of-charge

We are indebted to both The Edge and PTC Onshape for their continued support.