Simon graduated from RMIT University Industrial design in 1996, and it was during his final year that he met Jack and Steve who were lecturing while in the early stages of founding their consultancy; Cobalt Design. The following year, while still completing his honours degree, Simon starting working for Cobalt on a freelance basis, and soon became the consultancy’s first employee. In September, Simon will achieve 10 years of service with CobaltNiche design. We thought it would be good excuse to ask him a few questions and to reflect on the last 10 years….

What are some of the products you have designed?

Heart defibrillator & medical devices, scientific anaylsis equipment, scuba diving hardware, drill bit boxes, and a range of homewares.

Longest running project?

House renovation - 7 years (also project with greatest budget overrun!)

How would you sum up the last 10 years of working at CobaltNiche?

It doesn’t feel like I have worked at the one place for 10 years, I think that as I started just as the company was founded I have had plenty of opportunities to develop and grow as the company evolved and expanded. This constant ‘state of change’ has also pushed me to develop skills and adapt as quickly as possible in order to keep up which has provided new challenges. Having performed every role within the consultancy up to my current role as Design Manager, I believe I have been given an insight into and appreciation of the different aspects of each job. In a consultancy role we are able to work with a wide range of products and people, so in some ways it is like having different job nearly every day!

My ultimate holiday is…

Managing to get my 9’2” longboard to Noosa undamaged - just in time for 2 weeks of clean swell at First Point.

What are you reading at the moment?

I have actually just finished the ‘Art of Innovation’ (which Jack lent to me) an even though it is a few years old now it still has a lot of relevance to what we do on a day-to-day basis. It definitely fired me up to look for new and better ways to generate ideas.

My new year's resolution for work is…

To stay receptive to new ideas, and learn as many new things as possible.