Design Ambassador


better. With this, though, can come an almost obsessive level of sensitivity to anything less than perfect.


A recent obituary of Apple’s Steve Jobs explained that the spartan layout of his home, almost devoid of any furniture, was not some sort of post-modern statement in minimalism, but a result of the fact that Jobs couldn’t find a table, sofa or other household staples that he felt he loved enough to want to own. More function than Feng Shui! Here we have a modern day take on William Morris’ quote from 1880, “Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”


Perhaps not quite to the same level, but my own house contains a bespoke shelving unit, the compartments of which are meticulously measured out and built to perfectly house a jar of Marmite or my tallest wine glass with only millimetres to spare. This trait I have, undoubtedly, inherited from my father, another engineer, who would slave for hours over his workbench at home, crafting the most idiosyncratic storage systems for anything from his power tools to the family’s library tickets.


engineer brings with it a mindset – part nature, part nurture – from which it is hard to switch off at the end of the working day. We are more likely to turn our hand to problem solving after hours, often to help other non-engineering friends. While as humans we can all get frustrated with bad design on a daily basis, our breed are in the privileged position to be able to make a difference and change things for the


Morris’ dictum counters the anathema of recent times, that more is more. To realise this, however, is becoming increasing challenging in an era when supposedly technology driven innovators are too comfortable, drip-feeding us, the customer, with negligible improvements. Every year it seems digital cameras gain a megapixel, as razors gain a blade, but to what tangible benefit?


So we litter our lives and generate landfill as we dispose of last year’s ‘must haves’, acquiescing to compromised design as projects are rushed out of the door to keep up with the competition and bring home the company’s bacon.


Thankfully, other more holistic themes pervade in admirable work from recent project output from our many universities and colleges engaged in engineering design. We can see a genuine desire to pursue sustainability and


inclusive design and, in my visits to these courses, I have been struck by the natural enthusiasm of their students, not yet tarnished by the cynicism and ‘no-can-do’ attitudes which can all too often hold back these ambitions at a corporate level.


I encourage these individuals to harness and yet maintain this energy to positive gain wherever their careers should take them, and in this respect the future looks bright. On my desk has just landed the weighty tome that is the Engineering UK 2012 report (ecologically printed and I will be sure to recycle it!). In it the latest count shows 550,000 companies involved in engineering in the UK which are seeking to recruit their way out of the shortfall, as our Chairman mentioned in the previous edition of Engineering Designer. Clearly this augurs well for employment prospects with graduates’ average starting salaries comparing favourably to those of other sectors.


What’s more, our occupation can be great fun and from what I see, our future engineers and designers need little convincing of this. From my own experience, I wouldn’t claim to have leapt out of bed clicking my heels at the start of every working day, but as a career it certainly provides a sense of fulfilment and continues to bring moments of genuine unadulterated delight. We can’t all hope to invent the next wheel or even find the Higgs-Bosun particle down the back of the filing cabinet but solving problems and designing solutions, as is our wont, is a privilege of which others might be envious.


So look for the next time your colleague returns hurriedly from the workshop with a sheet of A4 or a battle-weary test rig and a knowing smile. Inside they are tearing their shirt open, punching their chest and sliding on their knees along the aisle of your office. Then you know they feel it too. Their algorithm finally churning out the right number, their prototype built as intended, their structure having borne the specified load, their patent granted, their product in the shops. The stuff of dreams! blair@ied.org.uk


twitter: @IEDAmbassador


Perhaps more than other jobs, being an engineer brings with it a mindset, part nature, part nurture, from which it is hard to switch off at the end of the working day.


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