How does it feel to receive an Excellence Award?
“It’s really cool because my wife and fellow alumnus nominated me without me knowing. I tell people all the time to stop and take stock of all the cool things you’ve done, but I have never done it myself until now.”
Have you always been innovative?
“I have enjoyed building bits and bobs for as long as I can remember. My granddad had a lorry yard and diggers, so I’ve always been around heavy-duty machinery, and I developed an interest in cars, bicycles, motorbikes, diggers and things.
“My decision to study product design at Edinburgh Napier was strategic. I wanted to learn more about critical design thinking, I knew I could learn the engineering side later”
Your final year project got you a job. Tell us more about it.
“I built a motorbike for my fourth-year major project.
“It started as a sustainability project but got a little out of hand. I wanted to do something about the unnecessary waste the automotive industry produces as I discovered that 90% of motorbikes are scrapped due to frame damage even if the rest of the vehicle is fine. This prompted me to create ‘Tinker’.
“Tinker was an open-source motorbike design. Users could download the specs and get them manufactured at a workshop local to them and could use parts salvaged from damaged vehicles to complete it. This eliminates much of the waste and the need for shipping which lowers the carbon footprint.
“I took my project to New Designers in London. This is an annual showcase for design graduates of UK universities. My work garnered massive interest, and I was awarded the overall prize for New Designer of the Year.
“I received lots of job offers but I was really interested in an opportunity that came from a special effects supervisor. He was working on the new Wonder Women film and needed a design apprentice. I got the job and started a couple of weeks later.”
Tell us more about your career journey.
“After graduating in 2015 my only goal was to do interesting things and do them fast. I wanted to gain as much experience as I could.
“For the first few years of my career, I worked in near London but my base was in Scotland. I would stay down south during the week and then drive up every weekend. People questioned my choice, but I like to look at things differently. People move to London but live so far away from their work they spend 90 minutes commuting each way. I stayed in hotels next to the studio and walked home at night. I then did a larger drive at the end of the week. During this time, I started a Masters degree and I converted my books to audio using a text-to-speech app. I was then able to listen to them whilst driving.
“I worked solidly for 18 months and then took four months off to work for my now-wife's dad’s building business. I was really interested in learning how that worked, and it was a really good experience. I then returned to special effects, and I’ve not stopped working since.
“My work spans some of the biggest films in cinema and I’ve worked for all the major Hollywood studios including Marvel, Netflix, Warner Bros. and Universal. I’ve designed rigs for spaceships to fly on and large-scale destruction sequences for blockbuster action films and designed large animatronic dinosaurs for Jurassic Park”
How did you get these roles?
“Working hard and developing a good reputation allows me to make lots of contacts which in turn results in job opportunities.
“The industry can be tough, and I try to help others navigate it where I can. My phone is always on. It’s a demanding and ever-changing industry and I want to ensure the next generation of engineers are equipped for the challenge should they choose to face it.”
You and your wife run We Are Makers. Tell us more about this!
“We Are Makers is a coffee-table magazine and podcast that celebrates the stories of makers, craftspeople and artists around the globe.
“My wife, Kate, and I met as students on the Product Design course. Kate founded a furniture design company after graduating and I also had a side-hustle making high-end leather belts. However, we both faced the same struggle: How does a maker tell their story to the outside world that largely undervalues craftsmanship? This was how We Are Makers was born.
“The magazine was started by Kate, and I got involved later. Initially the magazine was published biannually, but we now do four editions a year due to demand. We have recently brought someone in to digitalise back editions because we have sold out of everything.
“Three years ago, we launched a podcast to allow us to further champion makers and dig deeper into their stories. We have produced over 100 episodes on our YouTube channel and have travelled the world. For example, we spent 35 days in the USA and produced over thirty episodes from that trip alone, we were then invited by the Victoria state government to travel to Australia to cover an event not long after. Now we work with a whole host of big named brands on this mission, including the likes of shipping company Ebiss to Rolls Royce motor cars.
“We built We Are Makers because we felt underrepresented as craftspeople. We are committed to ensuring no-one else feels the same way and have just launched and awarded our first grant fund to help makers move their business forward.”