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Published on: 8/16/2003
Last Visited: 3/28/2004
Sean Blair
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Sean Blair
Sean moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1985 to study ‘Design for Industry' at Newcastle Polytechnic.Whist a student, Sean won two major national competitions, the first was the RSA (Royal Society of Arts) bursary for the design of a Video Conference System.This bursary enabled Sean to work and travel in North America where he met and worked with some of North America's leading designers.In 1988, Sean was named the ‘Student Lighting designer of the Year'.The following year he graduated with a first class honours degree.After graduating, Sean studied at Durham University Business School on the Graduate Enterprise Programme and established Octo Design in 1989 where Octo was one of ‘Design Works‘ first tenants.In 1990 Sean was named the UK's "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" in the "LiveWire" scheme sponsored by Shell, run by Project North East.He also won the NDC Small Business of the Year in 1991.Octo Design grew to be the largest industrial design consultancy in the North East.In 1994 Sean was invited to serve on the board of the Design Council.In 1995 Sean sold Octo Design to its employees (it still trades to this day) to become the Design Council's first Design Director in fifty years.
Whilst at the Design Council, he was responsible for the Design Council's design strategy and looked after the Design Council's relationship with SME's.He advised Government Ministers on Business Link design policy.The President of the Board of Trade, invited Sean to serve on the Business Link Accreditation Advisory Board, which he did throughout the duration of the boards life.A year before leaving the Design Council Sean became Design and Communication Director responsible for a quarter of the Design Council budget (£1.2m) and staff.
In 1999 Sean was invited to become a Research Fellow at the University of Northumbria's Centre for Design Research where he has been undertaking a research project into the future of design education.He co-wrote with Dr Bob Young and Andrea Cooper the keynote speech, ‘"Redesigning Design Education - the Next Bauhaus?"for the 2001 ICSID conference ‘Exploring Emergent Design Paradigms' in Korea.The new design process outlined in this paper was tested with a student group working with Nokia in 2002, its impacts are the subject of a paper delivered to an international design conference in Spain spring 2003.
In 2000 Sean co-founded the Nowhere Group of Companies and in three years this has now become six companies with a turnover of c£2.4m.Nowhere Group was nominated one of the '50 to watch' growth companies by ‘Real Business' magazine.
In 2003 Sean sold his shareholdings in Nowhere to establish a new company, ‘Spirit of Creation' which aims to establish itself as the UK's foremost Service Design company
Sean is also a Fellow in Enterprise at Durham University, and sits on the Council of the Royal Society of Arts.Recently Sean has been invited to serve on the Mayor for London's Creative Industry Commission which aims to develop a creative strategy for the future of London.Sean has written, spoken and broadcast, on TV and radio on design, innovation and creativity in the UK and overseas.
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