There are two things I love most: creating things and being outdoors. As a product designer who spends most of his life in front of a screen, that might sound like a contradiction, but for me, those two passions have always shaped who I am and how I work.
I’ve always been into design and making things work. Early on in my career, I was dragged into the 1990s tech sector where product design was all about making ideas look great. But as I gained experience, I realised that was only a small part of it. What really motivates me is the challenge of solving problems. I love taking a set of constraints (often conflicting) and shaping them into a product that is functional, beautiful and useful. That process is what gets me out of bed every morning.
Another huge part of my motivation comes from the people I work with. I love meeting you, our clients who are driven by passion and possibility. Seeing someone light up as they talk about their idea and knowing I can help bring that idea to life is incredibly energising. Their enthusiasm becomes my fuel.
My second great love, the outdoors, has been with me since childhood. I grew up hiking and camping, pretty standard for our family. In my teens, I discovered faster, more exhilarating ways to explore the world: skiing, kayaking and mountain biking.
At university, everything started to come together when I began designing outdoor gear. That eventually led me deep into whitewater kayaking, where I spent years designing kayaks and competing internationally.
This period taught me a huge amount—work gave me more exposure to tooling than most designers ever experience, and competition taught me discipline, determination and resilience.
But success came with intensity. Training, testing, travelling and thinking about kayaking consumed every moment. In the middle of all of that, I realised I missed the broader world of product design. Designing kayaks, as exciting as it was, became repetitive with limited technologies to explore. I wanted variety, bigger challenges and more creative scope.
So I shifted back into wider product design, public space hygiene, interior design hardware and eventually a role as global design manager for a marketing and display company. That took me deeper into manufacturing, bigger budgets and more ambitious projects. I even moved to Asia to spend more time in factories, working closely with teams and developing products hands-on.
Today, I’m back in North Wales with the outdoors on my doorstep. I still kayak and mountain bike whenever I can, and the landscape around me provides endless inspiration. It helps clear my head, keeps me grounded and gives me the chance to share the outdoors with my kids. I’m still very much a gear enthusiast, not because I chase every new release, but because I love seeing how other designers approach their challenges.
If you’ve got an idea you’re excited about, or even just the spark of one, I’d love to help you explore it. Reach out, and let’s create something exceptional together.
