Alex Milton

Yesterday we met multi talented Alex Milton who came to talk to us about design and its place in Ireland.

The most interesting thing I found about Alex was how diverse his design career has been. He studied automotive design and worked in the design of cars and public transport before he decided he was interested in a more contemporary style of design and has since worked in the line of fashion, furniture, and architecture. I found it encouraging how much he could achieve with such a specified basis of design. Obviously Alex is a very motivated and inspired person to have such confidence and interest to delve into such a foreign area of design. I cannot imagine how one would adapt from the process of designing such an object as a car to having to learn the foundations of the fashion world, and to then have to teach it.

Alex was the Programme Director for Irish Design 2015, a massive attempt to promote Irish design both nationally and internationally, to raise awareness for local crafts and produce and generate jobs in the area. Firstly, I realised that I was not very familiar with the programme. I had seen the posters in Dublin airport in January and wondered what it was about. Being a student in the Design Industry I was surprised to find I had not heard of it. In any case the promotional ads and exhibitions he showed us looked very good.

We were tasked to come up with a slogan and manifesto for what we thought would be the future of Irish Design. I didn't enjoy this task very much as I didn't really understand the brief. Anyway, Alex really managed to make us think about the importance of Irish design in today's industry.