Royaldesigners

Sarah Ackland is a recent PhD graduate studying women's bodies in public space her practice is informed by her experiences of running in the city. She is an architect at muf architecture/art, founder of Taking Space, a feminist research platform and is a strategist for Nike Women.

Working where the physical and digital meet, I am passionate about challenging how we interact with technology creating products and experiences that make it more understandable, accessible, and playful.

Lapsed structural engineer seeks collaborators with good sense of humour to help reverse the negative impacts (and supercharge the positive ones) caused by the use of materials in the construction of buildings. Must like dogs.

A London based designer, designing objects for the home which explore the borders and boundaries between social and planetary territories, from national identities to non-human ecologies, focusing on the “in-between” spaces where overlap and friction occur.

Jacques is a Paris-based designer whose practice is wide-ranging, with a focus primarily on urban objects.

Oliver Beetschen is an Architect and Venue Designer based in London. He is Director of Architecture (EMEA) at Live Nation, leading their rapid expansion and development of the next generation of music venues.

I’m interested in exploring how best to turn the good intentions of many designers and clients within the construction industry into meaningful action.

Kate Blee was born in London, and studied at Edinburgh College of Art between 1980 and 1984. She lives and works in London. Her paintings onto textiles are internationally known through exhibitions, installations and commissions. Her designs have been translated into rugs and tapestries, screen print, and weave fabrics and wallpaper. She has been Lead Artist for public buildings both for installations, colour work and art-commissioning. She is a passionate materialist and colourist, working in clay and timber, as well as onto paper and cloth. Her work has a close relationship and reference to domestic life and site specificity. It is robust, tactile and active; and challenges the idea that the art-work and the viewer should be separated. In 2015 she was awarded Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts. She is currently the Welcome Space artist for the new 3Ts hospital in Brighton now in construction, and developing a new body of studio work in clay, cloth and on paper.

Freya is a Director at Mitre & Mondays, a London-based design studio and workshop, designing and manufacturing spatial projects that help connect people to the material world around them.

William Bradlow is a cardiologist focused on transforming clinical networks into engines for better care and research using design.

Royal Designers Faculty Manager, design archivist and artist-ceramicist

I am interested in the power of art and design to transform individuals, companies and places.

London-based Irish architect, working primarily on the adaptive reuse of existing buildings as part of Tuckey Design Studio; interested in questioning how we value material, maintenance and practices of repair, and seeing how processes of care can ultimately bring more creativity and joy to the work.

Dinah Casson set up her design practice in 1970 and her partnership with Roger Mann in 1984. Since 1992, Casson Mann has focused most of its work on the design of museums and exhibitions. They have designed permanent galleries for the V&A (including the British Galleries), Imperial War Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and National Maritime Museum, amongst others. The consultancy has also worked in Russia, the US and extensively in France, including La Cite du Vin in Bordeaux and Le Centre International de l’Art Parietal at Lascaux. Its work has won numerous awards. Dinah has been involved in design education all her working life - as a visiting tutor, lecturer, and external examiner and was course leader of Architecture and Interior Design at the RCA (1993 – 1995). She is currently on the board of the Royal Society of Arts and is a trustee of the Supreme Court Arts Trust. She was a trustee of Towner Eastbourne (2014 – 2024). With her partner Roger Mann, she was elected to the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry in 2006, of which she was Master from 2011-2013. She is a member of the RDI Summer Sessions panel. In 2018, she was awarded the CBE for services to design and was included in the Design Week inaugural Hall of Fame in 2015. She retired from Casson Mann in 2017 and wrote ‘Closed on Mondays – Behind the Scenes at the Museum’, published by Lund Humphries in 2020.

Multidisciplinary designer based in South London, tackling diverse projects with a focus on creating positive and progressive outcomes, currently working at a purpose-led creative agency.

Peruvian architect and Design & Make alumni practicing in the UK with IDOM London. Former PUCP tutor and current AA School of Architecture tutor, he explores sustainable, human-centred timber architecture through experimental making and material innovation.

Kim Colin was born in California where she earned a BA from UCLA and a MArch from SCI-Arc. She co-founded Industrial Facility with her partner Sam Hecht in 2002, bringing her architectural perspective to the practice of industrial design. In 2016, they co-founded Future Facility to reduce friction between technology and people. Her work reflects both a meticulous attention to detail, and a thoughtful consideration of context; creating beauty out of utility. She develops projects for international companies including Herman Miller, Emeco, Wästberg, Santa and Cole, &Tradition, +Halle and Mattiazzi. Her work has received six IF Gold Awards and is in permanent design collections including MoMA, the Centre Pompidou and the Design Museum, London. Kim has taught at the AA, the Royal College of Art and ÉCAL. Writing is an important part of her practice, where she clarifies a contextual narrative beyond the physical object. Industrial Facility’s first complete monograph was published in 2019 by Phaidon Press. Photo: Lucy Shortman.

Potter, designer and materials researcher I am interested in the intersections between craft and industry, art and science, and in more sustainable ways of designing making and building things.

Passionate about high quality design, I thrive on compositions which inspire and delight; with experience in multiple award winning architecture practices, my working processes are creative and sustainable approaches to design with an emphasis on user experience.

After a decade in publishing, Mike Dempsey formed the highly successful design consultancy Carroll, Dempsey & Thirkell (CDT) in 1979, which he ran for twenty-seven years. In 2007, he left to set up Studio Dempsey. Mike’s awards include the New York Art Director’s Club Silver Cube, the CSD Minerva Award, ten D&AD Silvers, the coveted Gold award; and in 2012 he received a special D&AD, Black Pencil for one of the most awarded designers in their fifty-year history. He is a member of Alliance Graphic International, a past President of D&AD, a Past Master of The Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry, and in 1994 he was made a Royal Designer for Industry. He lives and works in London and Dorset. 

I work as Lead Innovation Engineer for Hexr, a bike helmet technology company, helping to design and prototype our RLS technology and its production methods.

A designer and a circular fashion explorer by the sea.

Rush Drayton is a sculptor and design engineer whose transdisciplinary practice dissolves boundaries between humans and the natural world through ecological inquiry.

Co-founder of London-based architecture studio 8FOLD, teaching a design & build studio in Nottingham, advisor to NGO Education Africa, building creches in South Africa - where I was born & raised.

Johanna is a Landscape Architect, Founding Partner of J&L Gibbons established in 1986 and Founding Director of social enterprise Landscape Learn. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art. She is a Fellow of the Landscape Institute and the RSA, and a Research Partner of Urban Mind with Kings College London with an international profile as design panellist, juror and speaker. Jo was awarded Royal Designer for Industry for her ‘pioneering and influential work combining design with activism, education and professional practice’. She is respected for routinely and seamlessly incorporating ecology, organismal biology, urban planning, conservation, community organising, the arts, and pedagogy, being driven by a keen awareness of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social need. Her many award-winning, collaborative and innovative designs span over four decades of practice, mostly within the cultural and public realm sector. They range from urban regeneration, heritage and estate planning to artist collaboration and the landscapes of cathedrals and museums, including the Natural History Museum London, Inger Munch Pier Oslo, Horniman Museum and Gardens, St Albans Cathedral and The British Library.

www.jlg-london.com

I am a proud father of two, I love playing the trombone, football and cycling, and I am passionate about my work which focuses on decarbonising the built environment through learning, up-skilling, advocacy, and implementation of low carbon designs.

Designer, engineer & maker. A problem solver at heart, I take concepts and figure out how to bring them into the real world; experiencing an idea always beats describing one.

I design and analyse structures, usually buildings.

Disillusioned, optimistic, angry, passionate, exhausted & determined

Amelia is a London-based designer working at Pentagram developing products such as consumer and children's electronics, cookware and packaging.

Designing public services and experiences that are inclusive, trauma-informed, and built with the communities they serve. I often wonder: how do we take everyone along to challenge the status quo, but with care?

Jeff is a product and furniture designer with a background in making, who is interested in how things are produced, repaired and disposed of

A Naval Officer by training and experience who has been a charity CEO for the past 12 years and is definitely exploring the boundaries of his comfort zone this weekend.

I design modern structures inspired by origami, commonly known as the art of paper folding, and explore their applications in robotics.

Tom Lloyd is an industrial designer and founding partner (with Luke Pearson RDI) of the London design studio Pearson Lloyd. Through design, Pearson Lloyd transform the way in which people use and experience public spaces and services, and delivers products that are relevant, efficient and beautiful. The studio offers design services and strategic thinking in environments that have demanding spatial, ergonomic and social needs, such as transport, workplace, healthcare and cities. Working with a range of international clients, Pearson Lloyd prides itself on developing long-term relationships with clients including consumer brands, manufacturers and the public sector. Key clients include Lufthansa, The City of Bath, InterContinental Hotels, The Department of Health, Bene, TAKT and Joseph Joseph. Tom trained in Furniture Design at Trent Polytechnic, (BA Hons 1991, 1stClass) before completing a master’s degree MA (RCA Distinction) in Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art in 1993. In 1993 he joined Pentagram in London working with Daniel Weil, before founding Pearson Lloyd with Luke in 1997. Tom was awarded the distinction of Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts in 2008.

I help organisations to articulate how and why they do what they do.

Hello, I'm Ben founder of e5 bakehouse in Hackney and Fellows Farm in Suffolk.

Seeking opportunities to explore cross-disciplinary ideas that are transformative and grounded in community.

A happy explorer of the unknown

Rooted in community and culture, joyfully rebellious in challenging the ordinary, and regenerative in creating systems that give back, reimagining food as a vibrant celebration of connection and renewal.

I am an architect, design researcher and a participatory designer, exploring ways in which people, cities and nature come together.

Lucy Musgrave OBE is the founding director of Publica, the research-led urban design and public realm practice that has led major policy initiatives and designed award-winning public realm projects across London. She is also a director of Publica’s Community Interest Company which promotes a vision for inclusive and collaborative city-making. Lucy was previously the director of the Architecture Foundation and co-founder of General Publica Agency. She is a Design Advocate for the Mayor of London, an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the Cross-Cutting Committee on Sustainability and Design for Homes England, and a trustee of Grand Plan.

Swedish/Iranian multidisciplinary artist based in London, working across sculpture, textile, and performance

Inspired by how our world is shaped by the materials, cultures and systems that we are intertwined with, Georgina has evolved a practice that spans art, design research and strategic foresight.

I use art and technology to breath life into data and aim to make abstract information tangible

Aarti has worked in the Built Environment industry for 8 years with a focus on sustainability, bridging the performance gap between predicted and actual operational energy in buildings.

Charlie Paton is a product developer, maker, designer and forester. His early success was the invention and development of motorised lighting for theatre, TV and concerts. For the past twenty years, he has been developing his Seawater Greenhouse concept, designed to produce food and water on barren land, in hot and arid coastal regions. It harnesses sunlight and seawater in a unique and inspired way, to create a virtuous cycle that produces fresh food and fresh water, in locations where shortages of both are a significant problem. Charlie has designed and built projects in five locations around the world; simple and elegant it is potentially life-changing for huge numbers of people living in deprived coastal regions. The design has received many awards; most recently the national winner of the 2018 Shell Springboard Award for low-carbon design.

Josafinni is a designer, facilitator, and researcher blending community, sustainability, and playfulness in her spatial projects, originally from Liverpool and now living in Glasgow.

I’m a designer and engineer inspired by the people I create for and driven by environmental responsibility.

I act as a bridge between designers and curators to develop visitor experiences with audience needs in mind.

Structural engineering designer passionate about creating postive outcomes beyond project boundaries.

I'm a designer who creates narratives, objects and visual languages, often inspired by the social and historical contexts surrounding food.

London-based designer and researcher, working as a UX/UI Designer at The Helix Centre, part of Imperial College London's Institute for Global Health innovation. Currently working on projects in dementia and healthy ageing, I’m interested in leveraging my background in social data science to design towards a more caring and inclusive society.

I am Director of a not-for-profit initiative (co-founded with my husband, Tom) called The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health which incorporates a unique living ‘plant library’ and provides workshops for schools, as well as gardening and art therapy groups.

Tom Stuart-Smith is a landscape architect and garden designer whose work combines naturalism with modernity and built forms with romantic planting based on close observation of nature. He read Zoology at the University of Cambridge before completing a postgraduate degree in Landscape Design at Manchester University. Tom has since designed gardens, parks and landscapes throughout the world. Tom has also designed nine award winning gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, all of which were presented with gold medals and three ‘Best in Show’, between the years 1998 to 2024. Tom is a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society, a Trustee of the Garden Museum, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the Landscape Institute, and a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers. Tom was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2023.

Sandy Vile is an Architect with a focus on hands-on making and a carefully crafted, tectonic and contextually aware approach to architecture grounded in a deep understanding of materials, construction, detail and adaptive re-use

Born in Peru in 1955 to English-Prussian parents and raised in South America until the age of five, Georgina Von Etzdorf trained at Camberwell College of Art. The Georgina von Etzdorf Partnership was founded in 1981, as a silk screen printing workshop, based in a garage and stable at Georgina’s parents’ house. In 1984 the label made its first preview appearance in London. The following year, the partnership produced its first full clothing collection. In 1986 Georgina opened her first store in London’s Burlington Arcade. By the mid-1990s the company was selling globally. In 2006 the partnership was honoured by a 25-year retrospective exhibition at Manchester City Art Gallery. In 2017 she formed vE&Co with Jonathan Docherty. In 1996 Georgina was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Design by Winchester School of Art. In 1999 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of the Arts, London.

I’m a senior environmental consultant and design manager at Arup, with a passion for bridging the gap between “technical” design and solutions which are based on environmentally and socially led outcomes.

Chris Wise graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in Civil engineering. He co-founded Expedition in 1999. Working with leading architects including Rogers, Foster, Hopkins and Piano, Chris has led the engineering of projects including the 2012 Olympic Velodrome; the American Air Museum, Duxford; London Millennium Bridge; and Channel 4 HQ and the SNF National Opera House and Library, Athens. Chris was Design Professor at Imperial College, London, where he co-founded the Constructionarium, later at Yale, and from 2012-15 at UCL, London. He is an 1851 Royal Commissioner, and Visiting Professor at Cambridge’s School of Architecture. From 2007-09 Chris was Master of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA. In October 2012 he was awarded an unprecedented double, winning Gold Medals for his outstanding contribution to the engineering profession from both the IStructE and the ICE.