Rural Centre, 12:00-13:30 Sat 27 Oct

Lunch provided!

From iPhones to luxury cars, aircraft interiors to electric toothbrushes, design is at the heart of modern life.

Steve is a product designer and head of research at the Cardiff School of Art & Design.  His early work included litter bins that could withstand IRA bombs and Friday night drunks (not sure which was more challenging), the bollards at the Crossapol chicane and identical looking ram-raid proof bollards that a Transit bounces off (Steve has the video to prove it!).  Now-a-days product design is a hi-tech business from CAD workstations to 3D printers that can make a real working gearbox or titanium skull plate, and many products, such as digital cameras or mobile phones, include both physical and digital aspects.  Although as you walk through the studios at Cardiff, there is still plenty of cardboard, blue-foam and plywood!

Steve will tell us about some of these changes and the kinds of work that he and his colleagues do today including consultancy for phone companies, aids for the blind and building people new body parts.