“So who or what inspires you?” This used to be a regular question wheeled out for art college assessments or job interviews. As a graphic designer
I was always expected to respond with a pre-selected luminary from the same field – Brody, Carson, Olins, however, my influences always gravitated towards something more substantial, a love of all things Apple, therefore Ive, quirky – Starck, or automotive – Callum.

Call me shallow, but if I can touch and interact with something in a third dimension, I’m hooked
(I’ve always been a sucker for a soft-eject tape deck).

So how and why did I end up as a graphic designer? When I was a kid, I used to love to draw and paint but in the 1980s, at the age of 12, I stumbled across the Sinclair ZX Spectrum – an unusual looking gadget with rubber keys and a metal case that looked more like a calculator than the pioneer of the home computer revolution.

Call me odd (many have) but my childhood disappeared in a blur as a friend and I started our own computer magazine and software company off the back of this innovative little box.

Without the Spectrum, I wouldn’t have acquired the taste for design that lives with me now
– more intensely than ever.

Thanks Sir Clive, I owe you a pint if we ever catch up.

Dean Johnson  FCSD MISTD

An extract from Inspired, Design Week