Designer/inventor, Sebastian Conran leads his own product development studio. He is also is a visiting Professor of Design against crime at University of Arts London; leader of the Home Office’s ‘Design & Technology Alliance against crime’; as well as a founding trustee of the Design Museum; he also works with the Charities ICAN and ACID (Anti Copying In Design).

SEBASTIAN'S FAVOURITE SITES

Design Museum - Design Ventura gives young people direct experience of the design industry and empowers them to explore ideas from a creative and business perspective. It challenges 14-16 year olds to create a new product, then compete to present their ideas. The best idea will then be produced and sold in the Design Museum Shop.

TED - A series of really thought provoking talks, expressing ideas on a variety of pertinent subjects including design, technology and education. Each one is less than 18 minutes, and they are always relevant, often witty and downloadable as podcasts, which is useful whilst in travelling purgatory. Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 presentation on teaching creativity in schools [and it’s follow on blogs] is particularly inspirational and relevant.

ICAN - One of the hallmarks of a civilised society is that everyone should be given the equal opportunity to lead a happy and productive life. ICAN is an educational charity that helps children with hidden difficulties communicate overcome their frustrations. This may seem rather worthy in this context, but there is a great deal that might be learned from their successful approach.

Cool Hunter - I am constantly under pressure to come up with new, exciting and cool design ideas and need to be aware of what ideas are already ‘out there’ and emerging on the cutting edge. Although living in London helps, there are plenty of inspirational websites to visit and Cool Hunter is my first port of call. One must be aware that although the internet is a useful research tool, it is dangerous to look at the world through Google goggles - there is little substitute for travelling and looking.

The European Patent Office - This may seem a very dry place to seek inspiration, but it is good to be able to easily search for what has already been thought of (and protected) and find solutions in any particular field that you are interested in at the time. Again it is also interesting to see how others express and articulate their often quite complex ideas. Necessity may be the mother of invention but creativity is definitely the midwife.

Paperless Post - As we found preparing for our oldest son’s 21st birthday celebrations, the demands of printers, post and follow up replies is a tedious in addition to the complexity of having to organise the main event. Paperless Post is a simple and elegant solution to this often frustrating activity, even if you just use it as a ‘save the date’ place holder.

Old Jews Telling Jokes - As the late Humphry Lyttleton demonstrated, there are some advantages to getting old. One of them is the permission to get away with telling really quite risqué jokes. This irreverent collection of humorous anecdotes comes mainly from the senior Jewish community of Broklyn and is also available as downloadable podcasts - though do be careful not to bust out into convulsive laughter in the tube.

15 June 2010