Designed for Life

This podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at The Royal Grammar School, Newcastle. This is the first of a series of live podcasts to come as we take Designed for Life on the road to meet not only our stunning guests but also teachers, students and their parents. In this podcast, I was fortunate to be in conversation with Charlotte Chapman, CEng. MIMechE. Charlotte is a project manager a...

Larry Sullivan is a serial entrepreneur, business founder, angel investor and social philanthropist. In this podcast, we track Larry's journey from humble beginnings growing up in Essex to a sudden awakening to academia in sixth form, leading him to be the first in his family to attend university.  A chance conversation led him to travel to America during his summer break with BUNAC https://b...

The joy of this podcast is that through it, we get to talk with designers, engineers and innovators at the very peak of their game and often informed by years or even decades of experience. At the same time, we have spoken with people at the very start of their careers, and are privileged to explore how they are shaping themselves and their careers for the future. In this episode of Designed for L...

Ben Edmonds is a designer, inventor, entrepreneur, engineer and self-confessed 'tinkerer'. In this episode, we follow Ben from school where aged twelve and asked what he wanted to do when he grew up; he answered, "I want to be a lead designer for Dyson".  Almost twenty years later, that's exactly what he did,  becoming a Principal Designer at Dyson. But Ben's story is...

In this episode of Designed for Life, we speak with Ifeoma Noelin Okolie. Ify is a Chartered, FSEng (SIS) Certified, Product Safety Manager, Choral Singer, Poet & Abstract Photographer.  Ify has 13 years experience delivering innovative state-of-the-art safety engineering solutions across a variety of safety-critical industries, where she has held various leadership positions.  She devotes her...

In this latest episode of Designed for Life, you get to meet the Young V&A’s first designer in ‘The Shed’, Clara Chu.  The Young V&A opened its doors on Saturday, 1 July 2023. Young V&A is a powerhouse of creativity for the young, from infants to early teens. It is a national museum dedicated to children and young people, a place to imagine, play, create, debate and design for tomorrow...

In this latest podcast, we are in conversation with Alex Knight, award-winning founder and CEO of the amazing STEMazing initiative. The best way to introduce you to STEMazing's mission and work is to take this quote directly from their website: "STEMAZING is a Call to Action to collectively amplify the voice of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths so we can create a more d...

This is the second part of a two-part series of podcasts, and the first of its kind recorded live in a school. We are excited to be able to bring you what we plan will be a series of spotlight sessions focused on D&T departments nationally. If you have stumbled across this episode without listening to Part One of the mini-series, I politely suggest you go back, as sequencing is quite essential...

This is the first in a two-part series of podcasts and the first recorded live in a school. We are excited to be able to bring you what we plan will be the first in a series of spotlight sessions focused on D&T departments nationally.  Baysgarth School is a Co-educational secondary school located in Barton-on-Humber, North Lincolnshire. The school was formed in 1975 through the merger of Barto...

In this episode, we follow Gill's journey from church school, where her dad was the local vicar and knew 'everyone', through to training as a structural engineer, a job that Gill loved and thought she would work in for the rest of her working life.  As a young graduate engineer with a degree in applied geology and engineering, Gill took the first tentative steps into the adult world...

Magway is a values-driven startup technology business situated in Wembley, North West London. Started in 2017, their staged vision is to take cargo off our roads and instead run the bulk of this cargo emissions-free on magnetic motor-driven 'trains' either set above or below ground.  They are working to drive an electrical revolution, unlock new economies and connect cities, towns and co...

This is the third and final episode in our short mini-series on Teachers in Residence, the initiative within the Design and Technology Association that places teachers in business and industry placements, within which they gain a detailed perspective of the company, learn more about the sector that the business works within, thus allowing them to return to school empowered with this experience and...

This is the second of three in our short mini-series on Teachers in Residence, the initiative within the Design and Technology Association that places teachers in business and industry placements, within which they gain a detailed perspective of the company, learn more about the sector that the business works within, thus allowing them to return to school empowered with this experience and with a...

Around three years ago, the Design and Technology Association recognised a problem which many teachers expressed. Many D&T teachers had entered the profession through the traditional route, school-university-school and as such had no experience of working in business or industry that could inform their teaching.  We tried a few trials with teacher placements into industry. We instantly saw tha...

In this episode, we are delighted to be in conversation with Nick Grey, founder and Managing Director of Grey Technologies, better known to most of us as GTech.  GTech manufactures cordless tools, with the range running from vacuum cleaners through to garden tools and equipment. In this podcast we follow Nick's journey from his earliest years and what sounds like a few idyllic years when his...

In this episode, we are delighted to be joined by Dr Lynne Bianchi. Lynne is Vice Dean for Social Responsibility, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Director of the Science & Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub & Senior Lecturer at Manchester University.  A staunch advocate of STEM and vocational education, we track Lynne's journey from her school days, wh...

Twin brothers Richard and Antony Joseph are founders and owners of one of the world's most iconic and innovative kitchenware brands.  In this podcast, we are fortunate to be in conversation with Richard Joseph, who takes us through his journey from school, where design and technology played a key role in setting his future direction as a designer, through the early days of Joseph Joseph selli...

It's that time of year again when we track back over the nineteen podcasts released so far this year (with more still to come before 2023) and pick out some of the best bits to string together into an end-of-year compilation. This is always a difficult task, but this year it has proved to be even more so, with some amazing guests providing brilliant thought pieces within the pods. That said,...

Welcome into 2023, and on behalf of everyone at the D&T Association, I would like to wish you all a happy, healthy and peaceful new year! The First episode of 2023 and the first in season three welcomes Matt Hewison as our guest. Matt is the Co-founding Director of Cyberwhite, a disruptive provider of security services and risk mitigation technologies based in the North East but working with S...

If you are intrigued by the art of leadership, especially how to lead an organisation through a period of profound change successfully, then you will love this podcast.  If you are fascinated by the sheer art and skill required to manufacture anything that is high in quality and is designed and built to last, then you will love this podcast. If you find yourself conflicted between a societal push...

If you are intrigued by the art of leadership, especially how to lead an organisation through a period of profound change successfully, then you will love this podcast.  If you are fascinated by the sheer art and skill required to manufacture anything that is high in quality and is designed and built to last, then you will love this podcast. If you find yourself conflicted between a societal push...

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 brou...

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 se...

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 Governme...

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. F...