Jay Blades
Jay Blades is a BBC TV Presenter & Social Entrepreneur. I first became aware of him and his bold and vivid design style due to his work with Out Of The Dark, a charity organisation that gave youngsters skills in furniture repairers to offer them an alternative to petty crime.
Website = jayand.co
If they were to make a toy action figure of you, what would your accessory be?
A paint brush that could paint a shape that isn’t there, then the power goes into the paint, and makes it come alive.
To what degree have you actually controlled the course your design life has taken?
I always say to the young people I support “walk like you have somewhere to go” and sadly I haven’t done this with my design life. I have been very fortunate to be allowed to have fun and create some wonderful redesigned classic icons. But my design life is allowing me to help, support and show young people from my neck of the woods, this life is an option.
What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
I am very organised and precise with my ironing and folding my clothes, the extent I fold my shirts with the plastic collar in like they were fresh from the store. I hasten to add I find this very satisfying.
What product or event inspired you to be a designer?
Milk bottle crates from the 70s is what did it for me. I used these to make so many different makeshift furniture things, from a wardrobe, DJ desk, chest of drawers, stool, bed and even a dinning table. The ideas just kept coming I have to say I got the bug from there. When i had my 1st flat I had no normal furniture it was all made from things that had another use.
If you could become the designer of any existing item, what would you choose?
The G Plan 6250 Armchair is the one for me, I’ve always wanted one and when I got the chance to work on one then sit on it, All I said was WOW because this chair was so comfy and is one on the timeless classics I love
If you could go back in time and speak to your adolescent self, what advice would you give them about the design world?
This is a really good question and to tell the truth I don’t thing I would say anything to my younger self, really because everything I have done has got me to where I am today. Plus I believe everyones path is mapped out for a reason.