Desire engineering

Design is about making the Future fit better -for everyone.

I particularly love it because Design offers a real-world superpower: to make products and processes which really work (both aesthetically and functionally) so that they become desired, not just utilitarian.

As a discipline, Design challenges my artistic and analytical skills simultaneously -nothing else really offers the same state of ‘flow’ when I can sense that a design solution exists -often just beyond my grasp.

I grew up in a provincial culture where tired, derivative products were the only option for ordinary people (and usually just available in brown). As a young child, I wondered why sewing machines had to be made as grotesque, heavy castings and why every item in the new wave of electronics required such unintuitive, one-off controls. Then, one day, my cousins acquired a Mini Cooper. The engine was misplaced, the wheels minute and yet it was colourful, fun and fast -as well as affordable.

Suddenly, it was as if I had been granted advanced notice of the future.