Congratulations ThinkPublic

Deborah Szebeko, the founder and Director of thinkpublic, walked away with the prestigious British Council’s UK Young Design Entrepreneur Award on Friday evening. The award was presented by Sebastian Conran at the 100% Design exhibition in London’s Earls Court.

Sebastian Conran, Managing Director of Studio Conran, added “Deborah gave an impressive, compelling and prodigiously clear-sighted presentation on how to integrate design with the public realm. Tenacious about translating design to a wider range of clients, she has succeeded in combining both enthusiasm and common sense to gain the confidence of people who are usually sceptical about design. The judges commend her unique achievements in marrying design with the public sector in a tremendously valuable, straightforward and no-nonsense way.”

I was lucky to be part of the audience at the ISDN Conference in Newcastle last April, where Deborah spoke about the ideas that happen at ThinkPublic, and about her up and coming Phd research.

After introducing myself to Deborah at this event I was invited to spend some time working with the company over summer! Hopefully this will happen over the next few months. They are a company that I truly believe in and I have lots of ideas about the projects they are launching ( especially The Social Lab and The Real Work Experience. Watch this space :)

Congratulations to Deborah and the team at ThinkPublic :) this award is a huge step towards increasing awareness and understanding of the positive impact Service Design can have on real people and their lives!