Julian
Faust

I design things that get used and abused. Golf courses, DJ tables, football activations, gig posters. Making them look good is one half of it. The bit I enjoy is making sure they're still standing a year later.

I studied Product Design (BA Hons) at Nottingham Trent University, then fell into a fairly unusual career: seven years at UrbanCrazy designing permanent and portable adventure golf courses. Hole layouts, theming, materials, and all the graphics that go with each site, for venues across the UK and out in Dubai. Indoor sites meant interior architecture, working to a building's constraints; outdoor ones meant landscape architecture, working with levels, drainage and planting. Not what I had in mind at eighteen, and I'd do it all again.

There's a pattern to it I only spotted later. I DJ, so I built a DJ table, sketches through to steel, then made myself test it at a club night. I'm a football fan (Tottenham, if you're asking), so I jumped at designing a foot-golf course for Manchester City. I ran my university's music society, so I did two years of its flyers. Designing for something you actually do is a bit of a cheat. You spot the problems before anyone has to point them out.

I'm just as happy in CAD as I am in Illustrator, and I like staying close to how things actually get made. It keeps you honest. A drawing that looks lovely on screen still has to get past a waterjet, a CNC bed, and a build team who will tell you exactly what they think of it.