biography

Over the course of his career Barrie Weaver has designed products, interiors, and packaging for some of the world's leading companies.

From personal products, costing a few pounds that sell in tens of millions a year, to high technology equipment costing over $2M where annual sales are counted in tens, for clients in 14 countries.

Raised in the Middle East, he spent long periods in Europe and the Far East and now splits his time between Bath and London.

Throughout his life he has bridged the gap between art and engineering. As a boy next to his father, a director of ICAO, they’d construct radios and amplifiers at home. As a teenager he studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry with an eye on a place at University to read electronics. However, a chance discussion with an art teacher changed all that in favour of a crash course in Art and a subsequent slot of the Central School of art to study Industrial Design. 

Weaver’s professional career began with Terence Conran creating products for Habitat, followed by a move to work alongside Kenneth Grange and Alan Fletcher at Pentagram’s multidisciplinary London office, which proved inspiring both creatively and technically giving him the confidence to set up his own practice.

Early commissions included the UK’s first mass-produced computer terminal for Newbury Laboratories which led to projects integrating early computers into the workplace.

Dealing rooms for major Banks worldwide, the Goonhilly Down Satellite Earth Station, Visa’s control centre, and with Nixdorf, New York’s first touch-screen voting booth followed. 

Realising the future of manufacturing lay to the East he set off for Japan, Korea and Taiwan, at a time when few designers did so, subsequently landing projects from Hitachi, Panasonic, Samsung, Nissan, Subaru, LG, YKK and Zebra. 

Back in Europe major commissions have come from BT, Siemens, Braun, Amstrad, Airbus, PPM, Dunhill, 3Com, Herman Miller, Applied Materials, Marks & Spencer, Marconi, Boots, Ransomes and KEF. 

Working as a designer with no signature design style his approach has been to create elegant products which embrace both the complexities of manufacture and the needs of the user. 

His design studio, formed with partner Jos Roberts, employed over 60 product designers, engineers, architects and technicians within the team. 

Central to that philosophy has always been the energy of its designers, some moving on to create their own studios, most notable being  Jonathan Ive , lately design director of Apple whom Weaver sponsored through college.

commendations

Barrie Weaver is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and served on the Board of the Design Council 

He is a past winner of the prestigious Prince Philip Designer's Prize presented at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace. 

He has also gained many British and European Design Awards for Industrial Design.

exhibitions

Work exhibited at

Design Council

Design Museum, London

Axis Gallery, Tokyo

Dentsu Gallery, Tokyo

MoMA, New York

KIDP Gallery, Seoul

Buckingham Palace

judging

Judge for

Design Council Awards

RSA Design Bursaries

D&AD Awards

Sony Design Prize

Moulinex Design Award

European Design Award

sponsor for

RSA Design Bursaries

United Kingdom

Amstrad   

Black & Decker 

Bank Of England 

BNFL

Boots     

BP     

British Telecom 

Dexion   

DK Publishing 

Dunhill   

Esselte   

Hasbro   

Hoselock     

KEF

Kleinwort Benson 

Legal & General 

Lloyds Bank 

Lucas     

Marks & Spencer 

Marconi 

Mission

Motorola   

NXT

Pfizer     

Qualcast     

Ransomes   

Scholl 

Sira Institute 

Sodastream 

TTP     

Tunstall

UCC     

Visa   

United States  

3Com   

Applied Materials 

Herman Miller

Otis   

Universal-Pictures   

Whirlpool

Japan 

Ebisuya   

Hitachi 

Kanebo 

Kenwood   

Mizuno   

Mutoh 

Nissan     

Panasonic       

Sansui     

Subaru

Sunwave   

Toshiba     

YKK 

Yoshinaga     

Zebra 

Korea 

Daelim   

LG   

Medison 

Samsung   

Norway

Nycomed

Germany

Airbus     

Bayer

Braun

Siemens Nixdorf

France

Chemunex

M. De L’ Agriculture

Peugeot

PPM Cranes

Netherlands

Holland America Line 

Heineken 

Philips   

Taiwan

Bliss

CTX

Sweden

Ericsson

Stiga

Ireland

Trintech

Israel

Zag Stanley

Turkey

Netas

Ukraine

Antonov Kharkov