Key Staff
Gavin Cawood, Operations Director
After gaining a degree in industrial design Gavin became a partner in a product design consultancy with clients as diverse as the Early Learning Centre, Marconi and Xerox.
With the opportunity to develop his skills further he took up an offer to work for Xerox where he became responsible for the product design aspects of all Xerox products manufactured in Europe.
In order to understand further how design fits into a practical business context he gained an MBA and subsequently developed the services of Design Wales to become an internationally recognised business support programme. His current focus is developing a portfolio of activities to offer design support services directly to industry and on behalf of regional economic development offices - where ever they may be.
Particular current interests lie in how the service sector can make use of design to create innovative and appropriate offerings to customers.
cawood-iidps@uwic.ac.uk
Gisele Raulik-Murphy, Senior Researcher
Gisele gained her degree in Graphic Design from the Federal University of Parana (Brazil) and obtained a Masters in Design Strategy and Innovation from Brunel University (UK). Besides the experience as a graphic designer she has worked for design centres in Brazil and the UK. Between 2005 and 2007 she coordinated the EU funded programme SEEdesign – Sharing Experience on Design Support for SMEs.
Gisele is currently completing a PhD at UWIC, a comparative analysis of strategies for design in different national contexts. Her research is the study of national design policies and the structure of design organisations with an emphasis on models for design support serving the SME sector and economic development.
raulik-iidps@uwic.ac.uk
Victoria Jones, Design Wales Forum Coordinator
Victoria leads the Design Wales Forum. After gaining a degree in Fine Art from Camberwell College of Art she retrained as a designer. She has subsequently gained an MA in Design by Practice. Victoria set up her first company in London in the late nineties. She has worked on a broad range of projects in a variety of sectors for clients as diverse as Easyjet, New Look, Penguin Books, CAFOD and University College London.
In 2006 became a brand and graphic design advisor at Design Wales. Through this work, Victoria supported Welsh companies of all scales of business through the development of their brand. She has extensive experience of presenting workshops in design and marketing issues to the Welsh business community. Victoria has also lectured Brand Development, Contextual Studies and Professional Practice with design undergraduates in Wales.
Victoria is currently looking at sustainable business models for design fora.
jones-iipds@uwic.ac.uk
Paul Thurston, Service Design Advisor
Paul leads our Service Design Programme at Design Wales. Since graduating from Central St.Martins School of Art & Design, Paul has worked at a number of design, brand and advertising agencies in London. For the past five years Paul has been head of design at the social innovation agency, thinkpublic. Whilst at thinkpublic Paul worked on projects that improved patient, staff and management communications and brought about new services and products for the UK public sector.
Paul has continued to build expertise in the field of service design by lecturing at several universities, including The Royal College of Art, London College of Communication and Kingston University. As well as consulting for organisations such as NESTA, The NHS and The Alzheimer's Society.
Recently Paul contributed his experience of public sector service design to the book 'Designing Services Using Innovative Methods' (Mittien/Koivisto 2009). He is currently focused on building a hub of service design activity in Wales and has a particular interest in the advanced manufacturing sector.
thurston-iidps@uwic.ac.uk
Anna Whicher, Research Officer
After finishing her undergraduate studies in French and History, specialising in European integration, at the University of Reading, Anna went on to gain an MSc in European Public Policy at UCL. She hopes to build on her experience by supporting the Design Wales team in drafting policy recommendations to promote design and innovation at a regional, national and European level.
Her other experiences include interning for her local MP, acting as student ambassador and working as assistant marketing and communication manager at Siemens in Paris as part of her year abroad. Anna is keen to apply her theoretical course knowledge in a practical context and further the capacity of Design Wales and the SEE project.
whicher-iidps@uwic.ac.uk
Prof. Robert Brown, Director IIDPS
Robert undertook postgraduate research in industrial Design at the Royal College of Art, London. Previous roles have included Dean of Faculty of Art, Design & Engineering at UWIC, and Director of Rehabilitation Engineering at Brunel Institute for Bioengineering, Brunel University.
Current interests include the strategic role of product development in manufacturing in the SME sector, the integration of CAD/CAM in product design, manufacture and innovation capture and management in new product development.
Previous experience relevant to IIDPS includes:
- Founding Director of PDR
- Founding Partner of Designers in Production (London), (a company specialising in the design & production of batch manufactured products).
- Director of Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS(Cymru)) 2002 - 2005
Robert has supervised 20 PhDs and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships in the area of new product development & manufacture and produced over 60 publications in the above areas.
Matthew Taylor, Board Member IIDPS
As the Head of Enterprise and Third Mission for UWIC, Matthew ensures that all of the activities of IIDPS are complimentary to the wider activities of UWIC and comply with rigorous procedures for purchasing and quality control.
Internships
IIDPS welcome requests for internship placements from students and researchers in disciplines related to design management and regional policy.
This post is currently filled by Maryline Danielou from the Lycee Sainte-Therese in Quimper, Brittany, France (which explains te picture above).
Previously this post has been held by Sophie Puddu from Paris, France, Sarah Dauphine, studiyng to be a Manager's Assistant at Quimper in Britanny, France; and Virginie Toullec, a Master Degree student in European Project Management (Montage et Gestion de Projets Européens) and Regional Economic Development (Economie Appliquée aux Territories) from the University of Western Brittany (Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO), Brest, France).