Meet the member What are we


What do we want? Good design. When do we want it? Now! Says Dan Farrell BSc (Hons) MTech CEng FIED.


Dan Farrell


“There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only very few of them”, wrote Victor Papanek in 1971. He continued: “as long as design concerns itself … with ‘sexed-up” shrouds for typewriters, toasters, telephones, and computers, it has lost all reason to exist.” Despite studying industrial design for four years, I found it easier to agree with him after graduation than before – even though I loved the shapes of the typewriters and toasters he railed against. I felt that design should be much more than skin-deep, be underpinned by sound engineering, and offer real solutions to real needs.


I arrived at Brunel University in 1992 with a rucksack and a bicycle. It had not been a difficult choice – Brunel’s BSc industrial design course appeared to be a happier marriage of the technical and the creative disciplines than most. There were excellent workshop facilities and the ‘thin-sandwich’ structure meant that everyone graduated with relevant experience – Brunel staff were not shy about talking about employment statistics. Crucially, the course was academic and practical – so as well as the restless bedfellows of form and function, we had to deal with making things, and making them work as intended. University inspired me in a way that school never had, a reflection on the course content and the standard of teaching. Almost all the material was relevant and the staff were highly competent, firm but fair, and they pulled no punches. In some cases, their dedication in getting the best out of people was exemplary. Some of them are still there – take a bow, Paul Turnock.


I graduated with first class honours in 1996 and, as the admissions tutor had all but promised in 1992, walked straight into a design engineering job. I had two half-year placements under my belt – both at Pashley Cycles, my new employer. I pitched my tent near Stratford-upon-Avon, worked hard and learned a lot about the devilish business of manufacturing. There is


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something very special in this, and I see it in both the creative ‘making things’ field and also in the more spiritual sense – the relationship between a product and its maker. The continuing trend of off-shoring manufacturing jobs is distressing enough from economic and employment point of view, but also results in a damaging disconnection between designer, maker and end-user.


In 1997 I was employed by Brunel University on a two-year ‘Teaching Company Scheme’ (TCS) programme – the partner company being Pashley Cycles. Supervised and taught by Paul Neville of Brunel’s Design Research Centre, I developed expertise in design management, tools and methodologies, as well as business processes and controlling risk factors.


Putting this into practice in a manufacturing environment proved to be a challenge, but our scheme was short-listed (top ten) for ‘Programme of the Year’ 1999. As a result of this work, I earned a ‘Master of Technology’ (MTech) degree in design management. I saw professional recognition as my next step. I had previously been a student member of the Chartered Society of Designers, but saw myself as a design engineer. The IED seemed to be a more relevant Institution.


Brunel senior lecturer (mechanics) Dr George


The continuing trend of off- shoring manufacturing jobs is


distressing enough from economic and employment points of view, but also results in a damaging disconnection between designer, maker and end-user


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