Scottish-based product designer Neil Poulton was in Sydney last week, presenting his award-winning work to an audience of enthusiastic DIA members and guests.

Poulton, who works mainly in lighting and hardware design, has recently added to his already large collection of international design awards. He was awarded two ‘Etoile de l’Observeur du Design 2008’ from the French Association for the Promotion of Industrial Design, for his work with hardware manufacturer LaCie.

Finding inspiration for his work has never been an issue for Neil. For one of his winning designs, ‘FireWire Speakers’, he found simple inspiration in the curves of air conditioning ducts. His ‘FireWire External Hard Drive’ has an even more obscure influence: the black monolith seen in 2001, A Space Odyssey.

“When I was a kid, I was fascinated by science fiction… I always loved the spaceships and everything,” he says.

His fascination with the future has stayed with him, and now, Poulton is looking forward to continuing to work improving his designs.

“There will be some pretty radical things happening in the future. You will see me doing things you haven’t seen me doing up to now.”

www.neilpoulton.com

www.dia.org.au