Lorrin Windahl
Senior Project Designer at Cobalt Design + Blog Editor

Lorrin’s passion for socially responsible design stems from three major life experiences: working as an industrial designer; living & working in Africa; and studying a Master of Design. These experiences have culminated in her belief that we need to tread lightly in the world and to better the quality of our existence as a whole.

In developing this blog, Lorrin and her like-minded colleagues at Cobalt Design, hope to promote socially responsible design to a wider community.

Steve Martinuzzo
Principal + Managing Director at Cobalt Design

As well as being a practicing designer with Cobalt Design, Steve also actively represents the design profession to governments and industry groups. He has been an auditor with the highly acclaimed New Zealand-based Better By Design programme and served on various advisory boards. Steve has been an expert witness in the field of design and a judge within national design awards programs as well as providing  guest commentary on design on ABC Radio.

Steve is committed to social equity and justice. He believes that design is about improving lives and not contributing to the world’s problems. Design should be democratic, not decadent.

Giles Matthews
Senior Engineering Designer at Cobalt Design

Giles has a passion for systems thinking when it comes to sustainable product development. He’s worked in large and small companies struggling with their social responsibilities in product development. These experiences showed  the importance of a broader approach to sustainability thinking than just the product.
Broader – to make the idea stick with as many possible people within an organisation.
Systems thinking – to make it work throughout any organisation and passion to see it working.

Chris Morrish
Industrial Designer at Cobalt Design

Chris is an industrial designer with an interest in the psychology behind socially responsible design.

He believes sustainable design isn’t just about saving the dolphins, making things out of recycled nappies and eating loads of tofu. It’s about educating the consumer through innovative approaches and making a person think about their actions and their impact on the world around them.

Ethan Catt
Marketing and Communications Intern at Cobalt Design

Ethan is the current communications guru at Cobalt, and enjoys good design, long walks on the beach and writing descriptions of himself in the third person.

As an advertising student, he knows that design can change the way we interact with the world, and ultimately be used as a force for good; not just as a means of ensuring product sales or increasing the bottom line for big businesses.

Joe La Delfa
Former Product Design Intern at Cobalt Design

Joseph has an interest in shaping consumer behaviour as it is critical to solving issues not only around a product’s life cycle but around the individual’s mental and physical health. Above all he likes products that champion positive change through good design and sharp marketing, rather than fostering guilt within the consumer.

Joseph is currently studying Product Design Engineering, at Swinburne University.

Brett Capron
Former Associate Principal at Cobalt Design

Brett is an experienced product designer and design thinker. His tri-focused education in Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering and Business, underpins his pursuit of elegant solutions that exist in the cross-over between human desirability (design), technical feasibility (engineering) and economic viability (business).

Brett is a passionate advocate for; designers being deployed at the highest strategic level in business, and for the use of design thinking in solving a broad range of problems, not limited to product design.

Alex Fleming
Former Marketing Assistant at Cobalt Design

Alex is passionate about correcting all areas of social inequality and hopes that intelligent design will encourage people to adopt planet-saving changes sooner rather than later.

She loves writing and copy-editing, and hopes to help let the world know about the changes industrial designers and engineers are making to benefit us all.

Lucy Smith
Former Marketing Assistant Intern at Cobalt Design

When Lucy was with Cobalt Design she was a final year Communications student at RMIT University who possessed an interest in environmentalism and conservation from a young age.

It is Lucy’s belief that socially responsible development is the future of business and that ‘green-washing’ by large corporations is no longer enough. As a result, she chose to pursue a career in marketing and communications to influence companies and the general public about the importance of sustainable practice.

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

Heather McInnes (M HlthSc, BSc. OT, GradCert OT.)
Senior Occupational Therapist at Western Health

Heather has been working as an occupational therapist for 17 years. She has worked in various states in Australia and several countries around the world. Heather has a passion for working with older people to improve their quality of life and enjoys their stories.

Alistair McCaskill
Editor of The Switch Report and Managing Director of Assemblo

Alistair traces his interest in environmental issues back to childhood, begging at an early age to stay up late one night to see a documentary about pollution. His career path diversified a bit from there. After stints in medical research, R&D in the medical industry and financial planning he finally became active on the environmental front about a decade ago. Alistair met his current business partners while working for a solar power company and subsequently helped to establish Assemblo, a full service creative agency. He founded The Switch Report to provide a showcase for businesses helping to make the switch to a more sustainable economy and as a forum for discussion of issues concerning sustainability and business.