Work In Design Kieron Bakewell

Today I’m joined by Dr Lynn Jones. A doctor of furniture no less as Lynn holds a Phd in furniture design. Lynn’s business, ‘Lynn Jones Associates’ specialises in career advice for the furniture industry and searching for specialist staff.

Lynn spent spent 30 years as a furniture design educator, running the Masters level furniture design course at Buckinghamshire University.

Lynn has also been a practicing designer, previously to teaching and as part of gaining her Phd, one output being an award winning chair that has been in production for 20 years.

It’s fair to say that Lynn knows a lot about learning creativity and starting a career in furniture design. Lynn has 2 young creative daughters herself and is passionate about supporting graduates in their first career steps.

Today I’m joined by Michael Omotosho. Michael is an Industrial Designer based in Bradford, Yorkshire. He’s worked as a freelance designer, launched his own products and now works for Jaguar Land Rover in innovation.

Michael was educated in Nigeria before moving to the UK and has experience with convincing his support network that design is a ‘proper job’!

I’m excited to hear how Michael has overcome barriers and built his career in design.

This episode was recorded live at New Designers 2023 exhibition in London.

Today I’m joined by Zoe De Pass. Zoe has worked across interior design, furniture design, trend analysis and fashion.

Today, Zoe’s known predominantly for her work on social media as ‘dress like a mum’, working with big brands such as Marks & Spencer and Samsung. Zoe also squeezes in running her own eyewear brand and being a mum of 3!

This episode was recorded live at New Designers 2023 exhibition in London, where Zoe exhibited in 2002 after studying 3D design at University. I’m excited to hear about how she’s turned her design education to a wide variety of job roles and her own business.

Today I’m joined by Fiona Kennedy. Fiona’s been working in design for over 20 years and is currently a leader in design at Education First (EF). EF operates schools in over 100 countries and has over 50,000 employees. I’m excited to hear about what role design plays in such a huge organisation and of course I want to know how Fiona got design in the first place.

Today I’m joined by Stefan Bench. Stefan is a Senior Industrial Designer at one of the most iconic Architectural practices in the World. Foster and Partners have changed the urban landscape globally with buildings ranging from stadiums, to airports, museums and skyscrapers. There are too many to iconic buildings to name but perhaps people will recognise buildings such as the gherkin in London, various Apple stores worldwide and the Lusail stadium that hosted the final of the recent football world cup.

As well as architecture, Foster and Partners design products for their own buildings and also for manufacturing clients. This is where Stefan comes in.

Stefan has worked as a designer for over 20 years, beginning with his own furniture business and then working as a designer for a number of other business before making his way to Fosters.
I consider Stefan to be a true designer who has followed his passion to organisations where he can focus solely on design. I’m excited to find out how Stefan has navigated his career and of course how he got started.

Today I’m joined by Kirsty Whyte. Kirsty has been working for over 10 years in various disciplines in design. She is currently a Brand and Design Director and has held previous roles as Director of product innovation and Creative Director. On top of all of this Kirsty has also founded her own luxury watch brand and Design studio.
Kirsty has had a busy and varied career so far, I’m looking forward to hearing about how she has turned creativity into a job.