Design Background

Trained in Industrial Design at Leicester, attaining BA 1st Class Hons, followed by Industrial Ceramic Design studies to MA level at Stoke-on-Trent.

Work experience spent at Josiah Wedgwood and Staffordshire Potteries was formative, with three designs for tableware ranges being put into production.

The early experiences of design discipline with 3D shape and surface pattern are relevant today when handling projects with products made of other materials, be they of glass, plastic or paper etc.

Achievements

Entries to the Royal Society of Arts Design Bursary competition on two occasions resulted in double wins. The travel monies and letters of introduction opened the doors to the Olivetti design studios in Milan - and their design guru head, Ettorie Sotsass's private studio nearby - thus providing substance to aspirational dreams.

Four years working in Germany for Earthenware and Porcelain manufactures were key experiences. Rosenthal Porzellan, whose design standards were universally regarded as being the most modern and cutting edge, was a dream goal attained. The custom built design studios, modelling workshops and exhibition space were but a short walk from their modern factory production unit, Rotbhul, which was designed by Walter Gropius. The clean Bauhaus influence, combined with extravagantly fresh, original surface decoration, inspired the most exciting tableware, glassware and decorative objects that a coterie of top international designers and their in-house team could produce.

A new-build Doctors' Surgery project was influenced to consider sustainability as part of the design brief. Collaboration with the Doctors and Architect resulted in one of the most innovative Community buildings in the UK for which an RSA £1,000 Coffeehouse Challenge Award was made. This has funded the design of a large Graphic Board showing the groundsource heating system etc., for display in the lower Surgery entrance area.

Work

SixSix Design provides consultancy to clients who need new design focus and development. Two case studies of companies who benefited greatly are:

• Ulster Ceramics, Northern Ireland, who produce cookware. From a disparate hotchpotch range of items being sold piecemeal in various catalogues, a modern cohesive shape range was developed with fresh new glaze colour combinations. This resulted in the range being successfully listed with BHS and Habitat etc., and the company's reputation and sales being raised.
• CH Branham, a terracotta factory in Devon, whose products were languishing in low end garden centres, were given a corporate re-brand, highlighting their royal warrant. Simply pulling the pieces together and giving them a desirable image, brought them into the high street with resulting sales success.

Service Offered

Rigid Plastic Packaging and Vending products.

Extensive experience in this area over the last few years with UK and European manufacturers with assured project handling for many top suppliers to the Retail trade eg. Unilever, Uniq, Muller, Geest, Nestle and Yeo Valley.

This includes project management from retail artwork supply, print viability consultancy, customer proofing and reproduction. For more complex new range launches, colour matching and press approvals are also undertaken.

3D shape design, surface decoration

For such items as tableware, giftware and rigid packaging - which includes working with existing supplied artwork or generating new concepts from the client's brief.

Final approved artwork can be set up and supplied according to the print process ie. direct printing, applied labels or shrink sleeves. Artwork can also be curved to suit the wall angle of most 'tub' shapes, to provide superb mock-up samples for business development purposes or promotional pre-launch photography etc.

Design solutions for brand creation and support marketing material such as product flyers, newsletters, pop-up banners, corporate stationary and literature is also a core service strength.