Who we are.
We are an award-winning design innovation and product development company, taking on life saving challenges through Human-centred design (HCD) research to produce game-changing solutions.
Our team brings together a breadth of experience in architecture, spatial design, information experience design, service design, design research, engineering, product design, coding and robotics. We pride ourselves on the diversity of our skills that enable us to create the perfect solution to design briefs. We believe that no problem is too big or too small to deserve innovation.
We operate with a core team, and bring in specialists within our network to support niche projects to ensure the highest quality outputs are created.
Josh Chidwick
MEng Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London
Skills
User centred design, Mechanical Engineering, Design for Manufacture. Model Making, Iterative Design, Rapid Prototyping, CAD, Parametric Design, Product Design, Research, Testing, Data Analysis, Electronics Prototyping, Project management.
Favourite Project
I’m torn between HELM Innovation and Mitt, as both of them have a huge impact on people’s lives. Working on both the dangerous process of pilot embarkation and the inaccessibility of prostheses have shown me the importance of collaborating with those who know the most – the end user. These projects also reinforced the power of rapid, lean development methods, and I have incorporated and built on these methods with every project since.
Dream Project
Making a measurable difference to quality of life is vital, both in the short and long term. This includes everything from accessibility to essential goods, to addressing the pressing issues like climate change and pollution. It is a significant, but necessary, challenge to consider as much as possible at the same time in everything we do, and everything we create.
Leaving our world a fairer, better place than when we found it is essential to me, and everyone has ideas to help. Translating these ideas into ethical, usable, effective, and practical solutions is my passion.
Madelaine Dowd
BA Interior and Spatial Design, University of the Arts London
MA Information Experience Design, Royal College of Art
Skills
User centred design, Research, Design, Social Innovation Design, Sustainability, Resilience Design, Raising investment & Grant applications, Business planning, Business strategy, R&D strategy, Project management.
Favourite Project
My favourite projects are the most challenging ones. I was asked to work with a team in translating an artist design concept of puddles in a desert. With a strict budget and the Saudi desert as the location, we used prefabricated sewage tunnels (clean new ones) as a cost effective solution to house the interactive design components and electrics for the night time display. This was a truly collaborative project with many intelligent minds coming together to realise this permanent art installation. My career started in spatial design so I enjoy seeing the joy that this project brought to the users.
Dream Project
I believe we have a big responsibility to make a change in the world for the better. I have focused my career so far on providing resilience to communities post disaster. There are many disasters occurring like plastic pollution, pandemics, isolation, poverty, unsustainable practices and many more. These are the challenges that I hope to tackle and I continue to advocate the need for design thinking to address these challenges with our workshops and lecturing at universities across the UK.