The late Sir Terence Conran could claim to have done more to bring good design to post-war Britain than any other individual. He was a genuine believer in the power of good design to make life better and never lost his zeal despite going on to father a vast business empire. He believed everyone had the right to good design and the pleasure and enjoyment it could bring. No design ascetic, he enjoyed comfort, convenience, food, drink and a whole lot more to the full. For me, he represented so m...
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The late Sir Terence Conran could claim to have done more to bring good design to post-war Britain than any other individual. He was a genuine believer in the power of good design to make life better and never lost his zeal despite going on to father a vast business empire. He believed everyone had the right to good design and the pleasure and enjoyment it could bring. No design ascetic, he enjoyed comfort, convenience, food, drink and a whole lot more to the full. For me, he represented so m...
The late Sir Terence Conran could claim to have done more to bring good design to post-war Britain than any other individual. He was a genuine believer in the power of good design to make life better and never lost his zeal despite going on to father a vast business empire. He believed everyone had the right to good design and the pleasure and enjoyment it could bring. No design ascetic, he enjoyed comfort, convenience, food, drink and a whole lot more to the full. For me, he represented so m...
Light, natural and artificial, are essential tools in a designer's armoury. This podcast looks at natural light: how it illuminates buildings and the spaces within, and why orientation and the time of year can radically change it. A later episode will deal with natural light.
An interview with Rhona Warnock, veterinary surgeon specialising in rehabilitation and sports medicine who is also an accomplished mountaineer and martial arts instructor. We discuss her take on designing better lives for animals, but also those that look after them
There are lots of really useful sources of information that will tell you how to do something. In this episode I suggest that with the end goal firmly in mind, there may be different ways to achieve that goal. The resources you need may appear quite unexpectedly. Don't be dogmatic; stay flexible and you may still Make Life Better. By Design.
Most people acknowledge that there is a housing crisis in this country. There is less agreement on why and how it should be tackled. Kevin Drayton sets out some thoughts on a number of possible causes for this long standing problem.
How can we all be the same but different at once? Every coin has two sides and there are no guarantees in life - except death and taxes. This episode looks at the paradoxes involved in trying to make life better and why there's no point worrying about getting things wrong.
What you have is up to you. But do you know where all of it is, and can you put your hand on it quickly when you need to? Everything needs a home, but what and where that home is can greatly help or hinder your day to day life. A quick reminder of the basics of storage.
Hearing loss continues to carry a whiff of stigma. People happy to wear glasses, get their teeth fixed and exercise regularly may still be reluctant to adopt hearing aids. But design came to the rescue some time ago. The dramatic take up of earbuds means that having something shoved in your lugs no longer shouts 'disabled'. Design development has also moved hearing aids into the chic accessories or 'wearables' market; which if it means you can seek help for your hearing loss without fee...
Before we can apply ourselves to making our lives better, we need to understand exactly what that means for us. It is likely that we'll need to look behind the simple response of 'more money' or something similar. Until we can be specific about what a better life will look, sound and taste like, it is unlikely we'll get far in reaching it.
Keen to get a graphic designer's take on if and how design can make life better, I set up an interview with Nathan Clegg, only to find that I must have made a schoolboy error setting up my mike. Unwilling to throw away Nathan's comments, I tried to salvage my part of the interview, with little success. Mea culpa.
Following on from Episode 11, this time taking a quick look at the development of writing, printing and electronic communication: how they relate to signage and how they all affect our quality of life.
Good signage is the perfect combination of form and function. Tracing the Roman origins of classic letterforms and why they continue to be relevant today. First of a short series.
We all encounter doors and the handles, hinges and their other associated paraphenalia every day of our lives. But how much thought do we give them? A perhaps unconsidered opportunity to Make Life Better. By Design.
A conversation with personal training business expert and blogger Matt Robinson. Quickly finding common ground in good design as problem-solving, we discover just how close our different interests are.
Packaging is ubiquitous. For something so short-lived it nonetheless has an important job and consumes a lot of resources. In this episode, Kevin Drayton looks at the design and lifecycle of packaging, particularly relevant with the surge in internet shopping and concern with recycling and plastics. What is your relationship with packaging? Have you a considered attitude to the stuff or is it just an inevitable part of consumer culture?
Design often asks us to reconcile what initially may seem to be antithetical requirements. Architecture in particular needs to blend art and science, intuition and analysis, emotion and logic. But the proposition holds true in all design to varying degrees. In this episode Kevin Drayton references E M Forster's much-quoted line: "Only connect the prose and the passion" as shorthand for this aspect of design
The late Sir Terence Conran could claim to have done more to bring good design to post-war Britain than any other individual. He was a genuine believer in the power of good design to make life better and never lost his zeal despite going on to father a vast business empire. He believed everyone had the right to good design and the pleasure and enjoyment it could bring. No design ascetic, he enjoyed comfort, convenience, food, drink and a whole lot more to the full. For me, he represented so m...
