About us

“As your strategic design and innovation partner, our  mission is to create transformative new products for business growth”

As you’d expect from an established and full-service product design agency, our close-knit team of experts are friendly, hard-working, collaborative and curious. Based in the West Midlands, we’re a multi-disciplinary team. Our team will guide you through the full product development process including product feasibility, market research, compliance, concept development, 3D CAD, prototyping and manufacturing.

Designing with passion. Delivering excellence

As experts in user-experience, we’re often described as ‘blue sky thinkers with our feet on the ground’. With an eclectic mix of industry backgrounds, together we simply love designing products that create great experiences and make a difference. And we believe that shows in the quality of our work and the long-lasting relationships we have with our clients.

Meet the Simple Design Works team

Kristo Shivachev

 Founder

Kristo is our founder and has a fresh perspective and enthusiasm that is infectious. What stands out is his full commitment to an endless pursuit for innovation – to look beyond the obvious and take you somewhere new. As well as his enormous capacity to retain random information which we find is quite baffling!

Ruth Parry

Marketing Director

Ruth is a self-confessed geek that focuses on optimising operations and strategic team collaborations. She has 30 years marketing and operations experience and has been board member for the Stronger Towns Fund (which secured £22.4m) for five years. Outside of work, life revolves around family, friends, athletics and never ending DIY.

Professor David Langley

Non-Executive Director – Medical Sectors

David originally trained as a neuropharmacologist. His career spans across the NHS, Medical Research Council, Imperial College London, Bristol University, Welsh Government and NIH (USA). We know you’ll love his approachability and pragmatism which he delivers with the most soothing voice ever encountered.

Gary Kington

Lead Industrial Designer

Gary is a seasoned designer who began his career in Milan. His passion for all things Italian goes beyond food and wine; it influences his unique designs and visual brand language. He’s led categories for global FMCG brands and styled innovative medical devices for a top pharmaceutical company, earning him recognition with 10 prestigious international design awards.

Joe Goldsmith

Lead Product Designer

Joe is an experienced designer with seven years’ in the FMCG sector. He’s passionate about sustainability, the Circular Economy and outdoor sports. Joe thrives on creative problem solving using a human-centred approach, whilst keeping the design as simple as possible. If he were Superman, his kryptonite would be chocolate as he has no willpower to overcome it.

Nicky Lee

Relationship Manager

Nicky knows that it’s the little details that make a difference which is why she’s our super(woman) when it comes to liaising with our clients. She has boundless energy and enthusiasm, which I’m sure you’ve experienced if you’ve phoned us. We can only fault her on her questionable choice of music – country and cheesy 80s. It does make her happy though!

James Dimond

Senior Product Design Engineer

James’s enthusiasm for helping to solve creative conundrums is fuelled by his love of great coffee. He has extensive experience in designing beverage closures (that’s bottle tops to you and me) that you’ll find on drinks bottles all over the world. In his free time, you’ll find him outside in a remote field flying drones or inside playing board games.

Jack Whitefoot

Senior Product Design Engineer

Jack is our in-house 3D modelling wizard. He’s relentless when it comes to finding creative design solutions and bringing them to reality, whether prototyping through 3D prints or producing a CAD ready for mass manufacturing. Beware if you hang out with him though! Before you know it, you’ll be painting little figurines from Lord of the Rings.

Josh Riley

Human Factors Engineer

Josh’s passion for making people’s lives better is evident through the surgical instruments he developed during his placement year, his university projects focussed on human-centred design and an eternal optimism at work. His creativity is incredible – and wacky at times! Although as he holds a black belt in Taekwondo, we daren’t tell him that.

Gus Loydell

Industrial Designer

Gus joins our alumni of Loughborough graduates focusing on industrial design for our clients. He previously worked for a leading floorcare brand on their visual brand language, and colour finish and material (CMF) which fuelled his interest in commercial goods. In his free time he’s interested in shoe design and collecting sneakers.

Yuna Zhang

Junior Industrial Designer

Yuna is influenced by unconscious design which she uses as her framework for good design. Using this approach, it’s about allowing the design to speak for itself – users can understand how to use it on their own based on their existing behaviours. When she’s not working, you can find her travelling or scaring herself watching horror movies.

Sarah Chilman

Project Coordinator

With experience managing projects in the retail industry, Sarah has a passion for great products in all forms. For her, it’s about supporting the project journey – from the initial spark of idea right through to launch. In her spare time, she can be found planning the next travel hotspot to explore or ticking off films from her extensive movie hit list.

Rhi James

Office Manager

If you’ve visited us, you’ll have met Rhi who greeted you with a smile and a rather good cup of coffee. Rhi is our office ninja ensuring that everything in the background runs smoothly. She does this seamlessly by managing our office like a project, but also by feeding the team with homemade bakes to keep them in check.

Tracy Arch

Trade Mark Attorney and Partner

Tracy is an experienced and hands-on practitioner at Barker Brettell who practises in all areas of trade mark work and heads up their start up group. Her global experience and strategic insight adds crucial value to our client’s IP assets, treating each brand and business as if they’re her own. She also plays the drums!

Dasha Berezka

Accountant

Dasha is the most enthusiastic person we’ve ever met about being an accountant. Always smiling, she removes all financial burden and provides us with insights so that we can continually improve our performance and efficiency. She escapes work by popping on her headphones and trainers, and running around Hereford.

Jamie Gallagher

Brand Consultant

Jamie is a brand strategist with 20+ years experience in the boardrooms of diverse businesses. He works with founders, entrepreneurs and management teams to find focus, direction, implement change and define growth strategies. He blurs the lines between creativity and strategy, helping ambitious brands design better futures.

Derren Hotchkiss

Bookkeeper

Derren is a numbers guy and looks after our future with sound pension advice. He’s a whizz on spreadsheets and has effortless attention to detail in all he does. Aside from his questionable sense of humour, he’s a sociable chap and loves watching sport, especially football! And preferably over a good pint with his fellow financial friends.

Careers at Simple Design Works

Our success is driven by creative and curious people who work alongside each other and our clients. It’s the differences between us that makes a real difference to what we do. Are you interested in pushing the boundaries of engineering and product design? Take a look at our careers page for current vacancies.

Our partners

Barker Brettell logo (white in blue circle)
Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce logo (white in blue circle)
Dan Barker Studios logo (white in blue circle)
NMITE logo (white in blue circle)
Stronger Hereford logo (white in blue circle)