designer icons

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want to say a bit about what you do ? just email us and we will ask you some ( not actually all that ) searching questions

says who ? Anzir Boodoo , founder , designer icons

about...

what do you do ? run spiced apple and bramley apple, providing services and design led products to a discerning Mac ( and sometimes PC ) based clientèle

media ? dabbling on the web really , I have also done some product design , process design and I write poetry

what drives you to design ? probably opportunism . just seeing something I want to do and going out to do it . a certain amount of inspiration , I suppose , which is never really there when you want it

do you have a " message " ? probably that if I can do it , anyone can . I have no training and probably not a lot of talent , so I hope that inspires people rather than annoying those who've grafted for years with little payback

how do you see the role of design in the world ? as making things beautiful and useful , but not being pretentious about it

icons

who are your favourite designers ?

product design - Jonathan Ive has a wonderful approach to simple , functional beauty , which in some ways seems almost traditionally Japanese , I also love James Dyson's daring use of new technology and simple boldness , and Clive Sinclair's futuristic boxyness . Hemingway Design produce fun and quirky products , even if the price of them is sometimes at odds with Wayne Hemingway's ideals of good design for all .

furniture - Tom Dixon has been getting a lot of attention with good reason , although my favourite chair is not one of his ( the Panton chair by Verner Panton ) . Ikea is probably where good design is most accessible ( read affordable ) for mere mortals .

architecture - although I dislike the cult of the " superstar architect " , Will Alsop's playfulness has grown on me a little after first hating it . my favourite modern buildings include Future Systems' Selfridges Birmingham ( especially with the original interior design ) , Midsummer Place in Milton Keynes , which is one of the most sensitive designs to its surroundings I have ever some across , and the concourse at Manchester Piccadilly station , which has breathed a whole new life into what was a dreary space . is there any coincidence that they are all retail spaces ? other architects I admire are Louis de Soissons , Frederick Gibberd , Frank Lloyd-Wright , Le Corbusier and George Gilbert-Scott .

urban design - I am a great fan of Garden City design principles , from Ebenezer Howard's visions in " Garden Cities of Tomorrow " to Cadbury's Bournville and the integration of old and new in places like Bradwell in Milton Keynes .

writing - favourite authors include Douglas Adams and Arthur C Clarke . Although I am very much into horror as a genre , I read very little . Mark Gwynne-Jones is possibly the finest poet around today in the UK , while Bruce Barnes uses sound to great effect , and Ronald Arthur Dewhurst is raw and very funny .

illustration & painting - I love the richness of Manga art , though illustration styles are pretty similar between artists . Alphonse Mucha's illustration style bears some parallels with my own vain attempts ( although far better ) . I love the surrealism of Salvador Dali's works , executed with such technical brilliance it is hard to fault them , and am a great fan of the Pre-Raphaelites ( particularly Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Wiliam Morris ) , whose passion and ideals of beauty and accessibility have probably influenced me a great deal .

who has had the most influence on you and why ? it's quite difficult to answer ... my Mum probably got me onto drawing long sinuous shapes , a book called " Bracknell : The making of our New Town " got me into the Garden Cities / New Towns ideal , which later led to me learning a lot about urban design and architecture and joining the Urban Morphology Research Group . at one point I actually wanted to become an architect , but the amount of study involved put me off . following my University housemate's attempts to get a product he designed off the ground inspired me to think about product design , though I have always had a love of simple form , probably inspired by Japanese design and hours wandering round John Lewis .

what are your design icons ?

product design - I am still attached to my iMac G4 : a round computer , who would have thought it ? my favourite things include a Microplane grater , my Rowenta Equinox steel kettle ( click on " Inspiration " on their site ) and Muji's gel pens . all share simple , uncluttered forms that enhance their functions . Apple's compact power adaptor for the PowerBooks probably has the biggest positive impact on my life at the moment , as I spend a lot of time travelling with my PowerBook .

furniture - Verner Panton's one piece plastic chair , which also embodies the one thing I hate most about " design " (that's design in quotes ) , which is something that cannot be worth the asking price by any stretch of the imagination ( around US$ 250 ) and should by rights be cheap and ubiquitous .

architecture - the Victorian Gothic masterpiece that is London's St. Pancras station has to be one of my all time favourite buildings , although my tastes are usually more modernist , like Birmingham's Selfridges , and Milton Keynes' Midsummer Place . Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent is both functionally brilliant ( with its triangular form ) and has some interesting embellishments .

urban design - Milton Keynes ... have a walk around the city centre and into some of the housing areas around . having grown up in a New Town , I am actually quite a fan of the idealistic visions that inspired then , and of the modernist execution of many of them , not to mention the open spaces and birdsong ...

illustration & painting - Alphonse Mucha's series of four paintings , the four seasons , the four arts etc. I find visually beautiful and remind me of the kind of romantic musings I find quite inspiring .

inspired ?

what are your favourite places to find inspiration ?

I love train journeys ... staring out of the window with a pencil and a notepad on the table ( these days I often type notes and thoughts into my PowerBook, but there is something wonderful about paper ) . I love walking around towns and cities , my favourite places being my home towns of Bracknell and Leeds , Reading , which has a surprisingly rich heritage despite only coming to real prominence fairly recently , Birmingham , which continually delights and surprises , Milton Keynes , which has wonderful open spaces and monumental buildings , Nottingham , which is bustling and trendy , and Bradford and Leicester , both of which are very much underrated as cities , have many fantastic buildings and streets , and a relaxed , easy going café culture . my favourite open spaces for relaxing , doodling and catching up with the world are Crowthorne Wood in Bracknell , Telford Town Park , Kirkstall Abbey Grounds and the Aire Valley in Leeds , and the banks of the Thames in Reading . open mic events are also great places to pick up words , phrases and moods from others' work - the best I've found are OpenMind in Leeds , Bright Side Speakeasy in Nottingham and Bohemian Night in Reading .

what about films and music ?

I like watching films , but if they inspire me it's hard to pin down any in particular , though I am a fan of horror as a genre ( favourites including Dawn of the Dead , Ginger Snaps ... ) . As far as music goes , I find Nick Cave , Pulp and The Arcade Fire get me " in the mood " so to speak at the moment . actually I find that because of the places I am often in and that sometimes being able to listen in the environment is great , I sometimes don't listen to a great deal of music .

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