Magnus. Maldon, where the salt comes from. Unglamorous sea, mud-flats, real boats, the best beer I’ve ever had. A family story for another time. Mum kept us openminded and allowed us to get bored. Dad could build almost anything, cars to sailboats. I had access to lots of tools, probably from too young, and always made things. Currently inspired by the endless creativity in children, the light underwater and Lina Bo Bardi (always). Compassion is good, sometimes you need to meet people where they are, not where you want to them to be. Happy in the groove, when working is playing.

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Gala. Born London Town in an unmarried mother’s ward of a hospital that’s now a luxury hotel. Named Gala, Starshine, (a middle name so cliched I hid it for decades) thanks to parents in a hippy phase. On the plus side this phase meant lengthy 70’s summers in Greece with no modern conveniences. Cooking, building and making things with limited resources was playtime, setting the stage for resourcefulness to grow. School was a progressive boarding school called St. Christopher's. It was a special place - you could turn up for sports day in pyjamas. I had fun.

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Miraculously (St Chris students didn't do Oxbridge) I was accepted at Oxford for Oriental Studies, then switched to Physics and Philosophy. The course and culture was a challenge. I burnt out and left for a gap year in Paris. Working in a late night bar meant really late nights dancing and afternoons for cinema, galleries, flea markets and parks. I moved back to London, culturally enriched, to finish my Bsc. The fiercely academic degree trains the brain well for design, an intuitive understanding of materials and processes came easily when I needed it later.

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A stint in the film industry brought experience of being creative in a visual medium. Still searching for my happy place, I returned to study. Furniture design was an attempt to marry the scientist and artist in me, the right and left side brain. Tom gave me a job at Habitat while I was still in college. It was a crash course in production and value-engineering. Shortly after, one of my college designs was picked up by an Italian manufacturer and a decade in design followed.

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Now, I find myself juggling projects. Science has re-emerged, neuroscience and emerging technologies in particular. The lockdown was a reminder that I thrive on trying new things. Right now, I’ve got ‘Brainstorms' to focus on, alongside design projects and the other plates that demand my attention. Ultimately everything weaves together. Life has been anything but linear, but it’s the possibility of continuing to learn and problem-solve that drives all I do, at least while my brain works well-enough.