Ross Lovegrove is an industrial designer, best known for his work on the Sony Walkman and Apple iMac, and is responsible for the London Design Festival VIP Lounge this year. He is also the official Design Ambassador and travels the globe to promote British talent. Ross lives and works in London and has just invested in a new high tech design studio that he says “looks like Star Trek”.

Where’s design going?

“It’s superficial to concentrate on design for the sake of design – designers need to engage with global issues. We need to improve things or make them more relevant, and we have a responsibility to do just that. I’m working a lot with solar energy and alternative energies for that reason. Environmentalism is not a new thing for me – I’ve been interested since the age of fourteen.

“I’m uncomfortable with pure design. Doing sofas is not my mandate. Design needs a reappraisal and a renaissance. The products we use reflect our civilisation. The future of aviation is the train - or it should be.”

What do you wish you had designed?

“Historically, designers did less and had more impact. I work with form and I’m interested in lightness. I admire Buckminster-Fuller – there’s a photo of him with a car in front of a building, and he’d designed both.

“I would love to design an intelligent car. Something that could be integrated with urban transport. There’s not enough change in car design – cars should be beautiful philosophically as well as beautiful to look at. People like me need to lead the way.

“There’s an eco-opportunity. It’s not a depressing thing. Everything’s open for reinterpretation so it’s a good time to be a designer. We’ve got a high tolerance of change in the 21st century.”

Are we doing enough to promote design in the UK?

“I worry about the quality of graduates produced by the UK – they’re really not skilled. German graduates are better – they’re taught to look at all aspects of life and bring a very balanced approach. I don’t hire British designers but I make an exception for British engineers, who are the best.”

Where do you get your inspiration from?

“I get inspiration from scientific journals and publications, including books by Richard Dawkins. I never stop – I’m lucky to have a high personal energy. Art forms in nature are inspiring, especially those from the deep primordial – things that have evolved over eons. Nature should be the model for good design – there’s no pretence in nature. The question is how to take that and converge it into products for the everyday.

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