My Professional Experience.
2008 - 2012
Loughborough University: Design School
Product Design & Technology (BSc) + DPS
1st Class Honours Degree with a Diploma in Professional Studies.
Loughborough University is consistently ranked one of the top 5 universities in the UK and the Design School is renowned as one of the best.
My 4 year BSc course (including 1 year in industry) incorporated fundamental product design skills including: ideation, research, sketching, CAD, testing and model making; along with more practical modules including: mechanics, electronics and materials science. All these elements together gave a full 360 degree appreciation for not only the beauty and form of products but also the function and manufacture.
The final year of the course culminated in a year long project, a dissertation and also an optional module, in which I had my first introduction into entrepreneurship. I chose to incorporate this into my dissertation titled: The relationship between the level of entrepreneurship measured within design students and its effect on their approach to design.
My final year project, which can be seen here, was called SecO; an intuitive and eco-friendly indoor clothes dryer.
To learn more about the Loughborough Design School and it's world class courses, click below.
2010 - 2011
Ideaworks UK Ltd.
Junior Design Assistant
As part of my design course I spend a year out in industry working for Ideaworks, the market leading custom installation company, specialising in home cinema, audio-visual systems.
As a junior design assistant, my role included designing custom installation solutions and producing high quality drawings for professionals, clients and manufacturing companies. I was also involved in most areas of the company including: working closely with project managers, fellow designers, engineers and programmers on live multi-million pound projects.
Being given this level of responsibility was an invaluable experience and a crash course into working in the professional design industry. As part of this I also designed, managed and coordinated an exhibition stand for the company at the Business Design Centre in London, which was a great success.
Learn more about Ideaworks and what they offer in the link below.
2012 - 2014
Loan A Lifeguard Ltd.
Co-Founder & Company Director
Loan A Lifeguard offers private lifeguard hire for events, functions and swimming pool / hotel cover.
I started Loan A Lifeguard, after finishing my degree, with my friend and co-founder. Together we created our own brand, acquired funding and quickly became a successful profitable business with the mission to save lives.
We were both driven to set-up the company after discovering that drowning is the 2nd leading cause of death in children aged 1-9 years old and is the 3rd leading cause of death in children aged 10-17. 50% of these drownings occur in private pools.
With this in mind we combined my knowledge in design and entrepreneurship with my co-founder's knowledge of lifeguarding and the leisure industry, to form Loan A Lifeguard.
We grew the company from nothing to become profitable within months and had fantastic clients from filming companies, hospitality companies and even working with well known organisations such as: ITV, Butlins, Haven and Soho House.
We sold the company in 2014 to focus on new challenges and further our professional careers but I am happy that the company still operates today and is providing quality lifeguards across the UK to help save lives.
Check them out below.
2015 - 2020
Design Bridge Ltd.
Senior 3D Designer
Design Bridge is an international branding design agency with over 30 years experience in creating designs with attention to detail, story telling and craft.
With offices in London, Amsterdam, Singapore, New York and Shanghai, Design Bridge brings true excellence and originality to iconic brands across the world. They are also one of the few agencies to specialise in providing a full 360 look at the brand and its touch points. With experts in strategy, 3D design, graphic design, production and an in-house workshop - they can ignite that harmonious blend of the physical and graphical together to produce beautiful and thought provoking designs.
During my 5 years at Design Bridge I worked with some of the most recognisable and global FMCG brands. I specialise in bringing conceptual ideas to life through design development, testing and prototyping.
The kind of projects I was involved in range from cardboard packaging, glassware, bottle designs, point of sale, beer founts to branded spaces, pop-up events and digital interactive displays.
Please go ahead and check out some of the project I was involved below, as well as Design Bridge itself.
2013 - 2015
Yale Door and Window Solutions
Project Engineer
As a project engineer I was responsible for not only the design and engineering of the products, but also the project management of the process in its entirety. From cradle to grave, I took project briefs to a finished and fully tested saleable product.
During my two years I successfully brought my own product to market and was also heavily involved in the development of the department as well as a revolutionary new window lock which was nominated for most innovative product of the year 2014.
The product I developed over my 2 years at Yale was an innovative new value engineered window handle. Despite being a simple product on the face of things, a lot of research, development, testing, ergonomics, colour and finish development was undertaken in order to produce a product aimed at the more economical end of the market.
Within the first year of the project, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to Ningbo in China where they were producing the first-off samples of the product. Despite being the sole representative for Yale, it was invaluable for progressing the project and problem solving issues quickly and collaboratively.
I am proud that the product is part of the Yale Window portfolio and can be bought wholesale or in stores such as B&Q.
See more of Yale here.
