Andrea Siodmok

Dr Andrea Siodmok (born 13 March 1972) is a British industrial designer. She received an Order of the British Empire for public service in the 2021 Birthday Honours. In 2015 she was awarded the Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts awarded to individuals for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of design in industry and society. In 2016 she received an Honorary doctorate in Civil Law, from Northumbria University in 'Recognition of her status as one of the UK's foremost design thinkers' 
Formerly Chief Design Officer at the UK Design Council, some of her most significant work has been in re-designing hospital furniture and equipment to reduce the spread of healthcare associated infections. She also led the Home Secretary's Design and Technology Alliance against Crime at the Design Council. Siodmok was the founder of the Policy Lab at the UK Cabinet Office whose mission is to bring "people-centered design approaches to policy making" which she led from 2014-2020. Her work at the Cabinet Office spanned all areas of Government with projects focused on policing, maritime futureshttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877630/technology-innovation-route-map-document.pdf, business growth, and other social and family policy issues. Her team documented the impact of Windrush scandal|Windrush on the lives of those affected with ethnographic films forming part of the Windrush Review evidence. During six years as a civil servant Siodmok oversaw the Policy Lab's delivery of 104 policy innovation projects, winning several Cabinet Office Awards. She has also written about policy design including for the Royal Society of Arts. She is currently Design Director at the Connected Places Catapult a trustee at Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development|CIPD, and a member of the 1851 Royal Commission.
==Background==
Siodmok was born in the West Midlands, the daughter of a Military Officer in the Royal Air Force. She was educated at Field House Boarding School, Burleigh Community College and subsequently studied Art and Design at the University of Wolverhampton, Industrial Design at University of Northumbria and Public Policy at The London School of Economics. Siodmok also has a PhD in Virtual Reality sponsored by BT. 
==Early Career==
Siodmok studied Industrial design|Industrial Design in Newcastle Polytechnic following in the footsteps of Sir Jony Ive of Apple Computers. On graduating, she was invited to join the faculty teaching industrial design and transportation design and becoming the youngest Senior Lecturer in the School of Design aged 24. As an academic she taught design practice and theory while also undertaking a PhD in Virtual Reality at the Human Factors department of BT's Adastral Park. Siodmok's PhD research documented in detail a design approach to the development of Virtual Reality projects undertaken at the futures lab of BT Group|BT and in design consultancy. Here she ran industry projects including a 'special project' with Jony Ive whilst he was at Apple computers|Apple Computers. 
From 1994 onwards, Siodmok worked as an industrial designer at Octo Design in Newcastle with some of her earliest consultancy work being designing the [then] World's smallest x-ray machine (by Bede Scientific for NASA) as well as medical instruments and a range of consumer products. However, after designing 100s of shapes for air fresheners she became increasingly disillusioned with the superficiality of product design and wanted to apply design to more socially deserving causes. Inspired by E. F. Schumacher|E. F. Schumacher's 'Small Is Beautiful|Small is Beautiful', Victor Papanek|Papanek's 'Design for the Real World' and Nigel Whiteley's 'Design for Society', over the next decade Siodmok set out to explore the boundaries of design practice applying design for social good, service design, sustainability and establishing the nascent field of policy design.
==Design Council==
In 2002 Siodmok joined the UK Design Council, becoming their first Chief Design Officer. Here she was an early proponent of Service design|service design, championing greater public involvement in designing public services. At the Design Council she was part of the small design strategy team behind the 'Double Diamond (design process model)|Double Diamond' process and design "methodbank". 
In 2009 Siodmok left the Design Council and became the Programme Director of 'Designs of the Time|Designs of the time' social innovation Biennale after Dott07 by John Thackara. The design programme concluded with a nine week long celebration of design across the region which was Cornwall's first Cornwall Design Festival. Following this, Siodmok became Chief Designer for service design and transformation for Cornwall Council.
==Policy Lab==
In 2014 Siodmok founded the UK Government's first Policy Lab to open up policy-making and bring new digital, data science and design methods to 20,000 policy-makers across the UK Government with a report from government noting at the time: "if there's one set of skills departments lack it's not policymaking, it's designing".
The Policy Lab was established as an experimental space exploring new approaches to policy-making on real policy problems. It was notable amongst public service innovation labs for its business model which received no core funding from the Cabinet Office instead relying entirely on project funding from departments. At the Policy Lab Siodmok developed the 'Government as a system' toolkit that has since been translated into multiple languages.
The Policy Lab created a number of firsts for government including hiring the UK Government's first video ethnographer, Speculative design|Speculative designer and establishing the role of the world's first policy designer. After she left the Cabinet Office in 2020 the Policy Lab has moved and is now part of the Department for Education.
==Honours==
* Siodmok was awarded an Order of the British Empire|OBE in the Birthday Honours|Queen's birthday honours 2021. 
* In 2016 she received an Honorary doctorate in Civil Law, from Northumbria University in 'recognition of her status as one of the UK's foremost design thinkers'. 
* In 2015 Siodmok became the 10th female in its history to receive the Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts. Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal. 
* Winner, Cabinet Office Awards (2015, 2017 and 2019). 
Category:1972 births
Category:British industrial designers