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.

Today I’m lucky to be joined by not only a designer but a degree and masters level educator. This is an important episode as we’ll get some perspective from working as a designer and also some insight into design education after school. Fabrizio Cocchiarella, Fab as most people call him studied design right through to Master’s level at the Royal College of Art in London before going on to work for various companies in the space of interior design, retail design, and furniture design. Fab then moved on to work at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He has lead the 3-dimensional design degree course and is currently a Senior lecturer on the masters level interiors program. I’ve known Fab for a very long time and regard him as one of the most creative people I know. I’m really interested to hear his perspective on how to go about turning creativity into a job. https://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/ Manchester School of Art

Ric Frampton has been working as a designer for the best part of 20 years. He’s worked at 2 of the leading furniture manufacturers in the UK and in 2018 he took the plunge and begin his own design consultancy. I’ve known Ric a long time and I’m excited to talk about his journey. Hopefully we can take some tips on a successful design career and starting your own business.

Today I’m joined by Zefa Mongan. Zefa is Associate Director at MCM, based in London. MCM is a design practice specialising in architecture, interior design, workplace strategy and behavioural change. Zefa is passionate about encouraging a new generation of designers, which is how we originally introduced. So … I’m excited to learn about Zefa’s career journey and what being a designer means to him. https://mcm-uk.com/

I’m Kieron Bakewell, the host and founder of the Work In Design podcast. During 2020 in my role as design director at naughtone, I was prompted to look at the diversity within the design department. Ultimately it was not a diverse group. I did not consider this intentional, rather a more accurate representation of those actually applying for roles in design. This got me thinking more broadly about the question: how does anyone find their way into design? Working in design has been immensely rewarding for me on so many levels. The people, travel, challenges and feeling like you can make a change all contribute in a meaningful way. If I can, I’d now like to help others find their way into and enjoy this fantastic vocation. Hopefully they’ll help solve tomorrow’s problems along the way. I hope this podcast inspires and educates you on the exciting world of design.