Design: Influencing Lifestyle and Wellbeing
3:45pm - 4:45pm
Over the last two years in particular, we have seen enormous pressures put on the NHS and individually faced a diversity of challenges around our mental health and wellbeing. This has forced many of us to think differently about our lives, our relationship with work and how we look after ourselves in general. This fascination discussion will look at how design can influence changes in lifestyle. With leading designers covering product design, service design, digital design and architecture, this is an opportunity to hear first-hand about work in the US and UK and how design makes a difference.
Speakers
Sarah Drummond
Design Leader & Co-Founder with Snook
Dr Sarah Drummond, Mdes, h.c. Sarah is a design leader, with a specialism in service and strategic design focusing on balancing the needs of people and planet. She co-foundedSnook, an award winning global design studio and led the company as CEO for over 12 years and went on to take a role as the Chief Digital Officer at NEC. Sarah was given an honorary doctorate from the Glasgow School of Art for services to design in 2019, awarded a Google Fellowship for her work in technology and democratic innovation and was named asGood magazine’s 100 extraordinary individuals tackling global issues in creative ways for CycleHack, an initiative to reduce barriers to cycling. Sarah sits on the board of Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park and previously held trustee positions at Withyou, a mental health, drug and alcohol charity. She is currently directing a film on Section 28, a law that banned the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities from 1988 - 2003.
Karen Anderson
Karen Anderson B’Arch. (Hons), Dip. Arch. FRIAS, RIBA; FRSE
Karen is an architect and founding partner of architectural design practice Anderson Bell Christie. She has won awards for architecture and urban design and worked in rural and urban Scotland on community-driven regeneration and design projects. Karen is currently Visiting Professor at Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and the Built Environment, where she is working with Masters Students on proposals for Sustainable Community Futures in the Western Isles. She is a former chair of Architecture and Design Scotland and previously a Royal Fine Art Commissioner. She is an active proponent of community participation and best practice in design, and chaired the Project Board of a Design PROJECT for Scotland, advocating for a Design Policy for Scotland; viewing that responsibly focused, good, design will play a key part in a more su
Nichole Rouillac
Founder and Creative Director at level
Nichole is the Founder and Creative Director at level. She has deep experience taking complex new technologies and shaping them into forms that foster emotional connections between consumers and brands.
Nichole’s expertise in manufacturing means production feasibility is considered from day one, and her minimalistic approach leads to timeless designs that delight users and live seamlessly in their environments. Her work has helped create new industry categories and propelled products into the global spotlight.
As a mother and female leader, Nichole strives to bring balance to her own business and to the practice of industrial design at large. The products designers create touch millions of lives - women must have a bigger impact on shaping them. Her passion for creating a diverse and inclusive industry led her to serve as Chair of IDSA’s Women in Design SF for a number of years.
level was listed as #03 in FastCompany’s Most Innovative Design Companies of 2021 and Nichole and level’s work has garnered wide recognition, including design awards such as IDEA Gold, Red Dot, iF and Spark Platinum. Before founding level, Nichole was Creative Director at HTC, and led teams at One & Co. and NewDealDesign. www.leveldesignsf.com
Irene McAra-McWilliam
Irene McAra-McWilliam has international experience of creative leadership having worked as Director of Design Research for multinational Philips Electronics. She is currently Deputy Director Research & Innovation at The Glasgow School of Art and was responsible for establishing GSA’s Highlands and Islands Campus in Moray and the GSA’s new Innovation School. Irene was awarded an OBE in recognition of her work in Higher Education, Innovation and Design.
