Simon Who?
For the more formal version, please download my CV (46 Kb PDF file). For the less formal, read on...
If there's been a theme in my life so far it's been working out how things work and then making innovative stuff as a result. Like most, I started early with Lego. Soon tiring of the models suggested on the boxes, being more interested in making up my own (including weird creations wheeled out at family gatherings - a Lego egg-laying hen is still mentioned).
A year's misdirection into geography in Aberystwyth became more about having fun DJ-ing for the Rock Society than learning and, unsurprisingly, they booted me out. But perhaps every fresh-faced eighteen year old needs a shake to get them to focus on their direction and I chose the audio and video equipment I'd been fiddling with all along.
After knuckling down and getting some qualifications under my belt (an HND and B.Eng) I worked with audio and video technologies for several years. And whilst working at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television I also had the opportunity to 'work out' Photography, broadcast television and web design.
It got to the point where, to go any further, I needed to specialize. The web was a fast-paced, hyped-up place in 1999 (remember the dot com boom?) and I joined the, then fledgling, ISP Freeserve. I stayed with them for over three years and, as the company grew, going from project managing individual web projects to managing a team of fourteen web developers. But management was taking me too far away from the creative aspects that originally enthused me about the web - fiddling about with code to make cool stuff.
What could I do that combined my interest in working out things with making? And not just limited to the web or audio and video technologies? Design proved the answer, or more specifically design research. I've moved from the operation, implementation and development of technology to investigating the innovation of technologies themselves. My research is taking me into exciting areas. New technology can be cool, but only if it addresses people's real needs - so how do we do this?
To relax from all this 'working out' I generally disappear off into the hills (either on foot, but lately on a bicycle too) or head off to explore foreign climes. But the 'working out things' theme even extends into my personal life - namely food. It's not enough for me to enjoy eating it, I need to be able to prepare and cook it too!