Time for a Redesign

If you are reading this, then first of all my sincere apologies. This is shaping up to be a self-reflective ramble about my journey from an Industrial Designer to a climate-tech entrepreneur. If at any point you realize that there are far better things you can do with your time - I get it, feel free to move on - no hard feelings. If you persist though - thank you kindly, hopefully we'll have a good time.

Before I start, thank you Marjo Palanee for inspiring me to do this (Read Marjo's much better written journal here), and thank you Donna Egan & Josh Piddock sh for further establishing that inspiration with their own.

So...

Trying to explain the fascinating journey I am now on requires more than one chapter. So for today I'll focus on why we're here, and where we are going-ish. And I'll start with addressing the essence of the title - Redesign.

A redesign can mean a lot of things (especially for designers). For me at the moment, it means mainly two:

1. Redefining and realigning myself professionally & personally.
2. Using that change and momentum to hopefully create a positive impact on our environment, to make it healthier, more sustainable, and better for our society and generations to come - big words I know.

These meanings are now guiding me on this incredible journey that I share with a group of extremely talented and smart people as part of the Zinc Venture builder to eliminate environmental risks to our health. A 6-12 months program that if successful, will put me along with a co-founder(s) at the helm of a mission led startup trying to do some good, and hopefully pay the bills while doing so.

But how did this happen?

Some background. I have been working as a creative all my life, and have probably dabbled in pretty much any outlet possible under that terminology - creative writing, performance, film, visual arts, architecture, design and more. I always loved creative work, and had the feeling that every discipline is another piece of one big personal-professional puzzle.

Industrial Design was probably where I felt most at home, merging a fascination with technology, an addiction for technical problem solving, a great passion for story telling, and a relentless (borderline annoying) love for asking questions.

I've spent about eight years working as an ID (industrial designer), the last 5.5 of those, at the amazing London office of Pentagram , under the very inspiring and talented Jon Marshall - who has facilitated my growth as a designer and allowed me to learn and evolve my craft, alongside some really really talented designers such as Amelia Kociolkowska Chifen Cheng Adam Huxley-Khng Shing Lo Vincent Fan Harc Lee Stephanie Hamilton-Jones Tom Gent & Yemima Lorberbaum (still no LinkedIn?!). I will likely write about those years separately someday - but today, is not this day.

September '23 was my last at Pentagram. It was time for a change - time for a redesign (see what I did there?). I have been feeling that need for a while, and was struggling with finding a new ID job that will feel right. I was at home at Pentagram, and didn't like the idea of going somewhere else to do the same job without the people I love working with, even for the sake of career / financial progression. Then my first child was born.

For whoever made it this far, I should note that I'm not yet sure where this is going exactly. However since that is the main theme in my professional life at the moment, it's probably a good theme here as well.

Surely there's a point though...

I should hope so. While on parental leave my Instagram feed decided to hit me with its best shot, powered by the Zinc venture builder targeting. An opportunity to make an impact, to start my own business, and to do so as part of a larger team, a community, a group of people gathered around a purpose that's way bigger than themselves. Facing massive challenges really excites me, and diving into a long term process to do so is exactly what I was after - I knew that this was the thing I was looking for - a true leap of faith.

The application process was demanding, but unlike previous failed job interviews, I decided to change tactics for this one - minimum preparation, maximum intuition. Somehow that actually worked. I implore no one to use this as advice, unless you are a horrific over-thinker such as myself, in which case do so at your own peril - but being yourself does matter, and is worth it.

Thank you for everyone at the Zinc team that will one day be blamed for this Paul Kirby Ella Goldner (Levy) Luke Charbonnier-Bevan, PhD Eleanor Ford Hawo Hussein I'm truly honored for this vote of confidence (and sorry for the noise :).

Getting to the Point.

It's been really amazing so far. Like WOW. Three weeks have gone by like a bullet train, since I first entered the room with 67 unbelievably talented and intelligent cohort members that appear as if they were part of some weird fantasy league draft for tackling climate and health, such as Louise Thomas Dr Karim Sandid Agnes Agyepong Jon Besga Dr Abhinav Bhansali Alexandra Oti Alex Revill Govin Murugachandran Gopal J. Cyrus Ordoobadi Oliver Knight Marek Chalupnik Joss Rogers Liza Levy Tara Mahboub (&Pashmak) Ben Wall Veronika Bridgman Clarissa Battaglino Dan Shone Mike Semenov Torbjörn Maaherra Tom King Mac Van Dam and many more who will be further glorified in future chapters.

Filled with talks, workshops, brainstorming, learning, and a manure-ton of mingling, I am still overwhelmed at this process and how incredibly powerful it is. Not often in our careers do we get a chance to truly look into ourselves, and ask who are we? what do we bring to the table? what do we want to do and be? how big of an impact can we make?

And of course who would we go on this journey with?

Hard questions, requiring total honesty, endless self-reflection, and being wide open with the people around you who are with you on this journey. It must be for that reason, and the strong vibes of a hunger games-reality-dating-show, that relationships build fast. Francisco Morejón Mehrnaz Ghojeh have already become partners in crime, sharing amazing ideas and visions for the future. Josh Piddock Natalia Baltazar Dee Korab - haven't had this much boozy, mystical fun since kindergarten, and you are all to thank for that. Gal Moore thank you for some hearty late night talks in the cold that I will cherish greatly.

The Point

Now it's on for real. Boot camp is over. No more hand holding. This week we are starting to work towards hashing out first problem domains and possible solutions within the mission space, in the form of one-day sprints with potential co-founders developed through personal preferences, along with an analytical, skills and domain based matching process facilitated by the Zinc team. As we dive deeper into the sprints, and have more working relationships formed, we will start doing problem and user research, ideation, applying design thinking methodologies and forming clear guidelines to measure the potential of those ideas to become prolific businesses that can actually earn the money they need to make the impact they aim for.

The work starts now, and everyone is extremely hyped to get into it. Looking forward to sharing a bit about how this went in the next chapter of this unnecessary newsletter-blog-ramble-thing. I honestly have not been this excited - and terrified - in a long time, so I know I am where I need to be.

Endless appreciation to the wonderful Zinc team working tirelessly to make this happen - Diellza Ramadani Hannah Abdel-Hadi Rosie Webster Rozlyn Redd Caitlin Scheybeler Bernadette Behnke - your efforts do not go unnoticed as I have pointed out several times last week - it's okay to rest occasionally.

For anyone that actually read this, and still is, some action points:

• Do you know experts in energy?
• Do you know experts in recycling / waste / circular economy?
• Do you know experts in bio materials?

Point me in their direction please.

There's so much more to say, but I'll leave it for next time.

Ciao!