Mentors sought for young designers

The Design Trust is calling on designers and design business people to volunteer as mentors to young designers trying to establish successful businesses.

The mentoring project is part of a wider expansion of the trust’s work, including its seminar programme, funded by a grant from the Design Council (DW 14 March).

The trust, which champions young designers, is led by Peta Levi, who says: “Ideally we are after energetic business people who have some experience in the relevant design area.”

The 150 designers looking for mentors work in fields including furniture, lighting, accessories, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, jewellery, metalwork and fashion design.

The Design Trust envisages each mentor seeing his or her designer about three times a year to discuss subjects such as business strategy, raising finance, marketing, and cashflow problems. The mentor may, for instance, be able to identify reliable sub-contractors.

“The mentors should be open to new ideas and new technology,” says Levi, “and they will themselves get quite a lot out of mentoring.”

Prospective mentors can find out more from the trust on 0171-435 4348.