Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Posted: September 26th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Grandparents | No Comments »
As we get to know our customers, we have realised that more and more of us are finding ourselves in the role of caregiver for an older or elderly person.
Caregiver is not a role we have necessarily anticipated and it is often something that creeps up on us gradually. Where once we were a child, a friend, a visitor or a neighbour, over time we take on more and more responsibility and become caregivers for the older people in our lives.
We believe passionately that just because someone needs our care, doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to live in style. And in fact, good design can mean all the difference to being independent and living life to the full.
So with this in mind, we have put together a selection of products under the heading Caregiving which can help make life easier, aid independence or simply put a smile on someone’s face. And as you would expect from The Future Perfect Company, everything is well designed, good looking and will not look out of place in the most stylish of homes.
So, please visit Caregiving and let us know what you think. And if you have suggestions for any other products which you think we should add, please do get in touch.
http://www.thefutureperfectcompany.com/shop/categories/16/caregiving
Posted: September 22nd, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - Collyer's, Press coverage | Comments Off
Nice piece in today’s West Sussex County Times about the launch of our second student design competition at the College of Richard Collyers in Horsham, West Sussex.
We had a fantastic time at Collyer’s last year and are really looking forward to seeing what designs this year’s intake come up with.
Kate Sharp, Faculty Leader, Art & Communications at Collyer’s, commented: “We are delighted to be able to run this innovative competition again and to give the students the opportunity to think about real-life design challenges. We have imbedded the competition into the AS level courses and have been commended by the exam boards for using this “live” brief”.
Posted: September 21st, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - University of Brighton | Comments Off
I am delighted to announce that we have been invited to showcase our “Designing for the Future” competition, which we run in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton , at the forthcoming Generation Expo at the Brighton Centre 8-9 October 2011.
Working alongside the Faculty of Arts and in particular MA Design student, Hanna Mawbey, we will be exhibiting some of the most thought provoking designs from the competition together with some other future-gazing projects from across the University.
Generation Expo brings together a load of fun stuff like music, fashion, travel and food. Plus some sensible bits like, useful financial advice, interactive seminars and healthy planning for a longer future.
Special Guests will include ”Whispering” Bob Harris from the Old Grey Whistle Test. And Squeeze and Adam Ant who will both be playing acoutistic sets. There will also be live music from emerging bands such as Little Fish, Marner Brown and Harry Keyworth. Fresh from a host of festivals and UK and European gigs, Mums Old Vinyl DJ Andy Robinson will be pumping out some great tunes from across the decades.
There will be a fun, interactive sports zone. Luxury Golf & Corporate Events resort in La Manga, Spain will be show-casing their golf credentials with golf clinics, competitions and snazzy kit. Beach Tennis UK will be bringing a bit of beach to the expo and there will be LTA Coaching Clinic, Touch Tennis & Cardio Tennis sections set up and raring to go. There will be a football corner with a range of clubs teaming together to enable you to fleetingly live the dream of being the premiership player you always knew you should’ve been. The South East Powerboat Association will be displaying the Powerboat B65, which recently returned from the 2011 World Championships
The team from Magnificent Revolution are bringing their pedal powered mini cinema to spread the word about energy production, renewable technologies and micro-power generation. Circus Brighton will be there on Saturday to showcase some circus skills.
There will also be a cookery and market produce area wafting the aroma of freshly baked brownies and local produce. You will also be able to sample a range of interesting beer, cider and wine.
Some of the team from a top five star spa hotel in London will be limbered up and ready to massage away your aches and pains. Fish pedicures will be available thanks to Balik Spa. There will be a fashion show and make-over corner with a range of beauty products, including Redken hair styling products and a top Redken stylist to hand to tousle your locks.
Gibson Guitars are setting up a Gibson Guitar Town, in association with GAK- the UK’s number 1 independent musical instrument retailer and these guitars and a selection of drums and other noise makers will be put to to good use in the seminars and interactive rock star workshops. The official Gibson tour bus will also be in town.
Generation Expo is also the first event to provide a full lifestyle event experience informing and entertaining parents and teenage generations alike. So do bring your under 18s with you.
For more information about Generation Expo and details of where to buy tickets, CLICK HERE
Posted: September 17th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Offers and competitions | Comments Off
You might remember our competition last month in conjunction with the Stannah “Think Again” Fund to win a dream of a lifetime.
Well, the entries are now in and the Stannah “Think Again” Fund has announced the winner as…Mike Milan whose dream of a lifetime was to …tour a brewery!
Mike Milan (57) describes himself as a ‘real ale man’ and thanks to the Stannah “Think Again” Fund, he was able to learn all the intricacies of the brewing process and have the chance to customise his own ale. Skinners Brewery in his local town of Truro was enlisted to give him a full day tour and a plentiful supply of his own special ale to take home with him!
Well done Mike!
To see Mike’s photo diary, go to http://thinkagainfund.stannahstairlifts.co.uk/index.php?option=com_think&view=detail&did=53&Itemid=29 (Looks like they put him to work – no such thing as a free brewery tour!!)
Posted: September 17th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Designing for the Future Competition - Collyer's, Inclusive design | No Comments »
Following last year’s successful collaboration, we are delighted to be launching our second student design competition with the College of Richard Collyer in Horsham, West Sussex.
The UK is going through an enormous demographic transition. The first ‘baby boomers’ born after the Second World War are now drawing their pensions and the number of people over pension age is overtaking the number of children. However, research released from charity Age UK revealed that the majority of people over 50 feel that businesses in the UK ignore them, instead focusing the majority of their attentions on the ‘youth’ market.
The aim of the “Designing for the Future” competition is to encourage young designers to think about the challenges of getting older and produce designs which are usefuland attractive to everyone.
Kate Sharp, Faculty Leader, Art & Communications at Collyer’s, commented: “We are delighted to be able to run this innovative competition again and to give the students the opportunity to think about real-life design challenges. We have imbedded the competition into the AS level courses and have been commended by the exam boards for using this “live” brief”.
The competition is open to Collyer’s students on the GCE Advanced Subsidiary Product Design course and will be judged by Denise Stephens (co-founder of online design community Enabled by Design), Craig Barrow (former winner of the “Designing for the Future” Competition at University of Brighton, final year 3D Design student), and Philippa Aldrich (founder of The Future Perfect Company).
Tutors Kate Sharp and Hari Atkins (Subject Leader – Product Design, Materials) will act as advisors to the judging panel. The results will be announced in December 2011.
Image: Boiling mug designed by James Delve ; “Designing for the Future” competition, Collyer’s 2010
Posted: September 16th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Designing for the Future Competition - University of Brighton, Health | No Comments »
To mark Dementia Awareness Day, I thought I would share with you some interesting new products which have been designed for people with dementia and those who care for them – one we stock, one we don’t (should we?) and one which is still in the design stages.
Originally a creative producer in media communications, Sarah Reed founded Many Happy Returns in 2008 as a result of fifteen years’ voluntary work with the charity Contact the Elderly and her mother’s experience with dementia over ten years
Many Happy Returns 1940s is a lovely box of 24 carefully researched reminiscence cards designed to get old and young talking together about how life used to be, helping them to celebrate their personal and family stories. Talking with older friends or relatives who can remember the 1940s has never been easier using these unique and compelling memory triggers that can help bring the generations together. The cards offer a range of everyday subjects with large images, historical information and conversational prompts – from cleaning the step to playing conkers, from evacuation to rationing, from playing in the streets to that very first kiss… For more information, go to :
http://www.thefutureperfectcompany.com/shop/items/138/many_happy_returns_1940s__new
I came across this product a couple of weeks ago. Mind Dice is a product “to help people with dementia communicate with their carers. Prompts added to a 12 sided dice, enable the person to tap into their remaining memories provoking stories and responses that can be enjoyed by family, carers and friends” .
Mind Dice has been designed and produced by John Sprange through his direct experience of caring for his father who had Alzheimers. John Sprange writes on his website :”My father had a rich store of memories. He was born in 1914, the last year that horse buses ran in London. He watched and enjoyed technological advances and changes throughout his life. Towards the end he enjoyed the possibilities of my I-phone, marvelling at the pictures and capabilities of this pocket-size device.
When he died, aged 95, mixed with my grief was a sense of loss for my access to his personal connection to all those years he lived through. His eyes were in effect my personal witness to almost a whole century, and through this I had become an expert on what he knew. In his later days, despite not recalling what happened 5 minutes before, he was able to recollect memories from long ago. Frequently he brought to mind events that placed him where he was happiest and at the height of his powers. Any repetition was often mitigated by the nuanced differences which emerged with the stories. They certainly showed his true sense of himself. I experimented with the dice, which carried, names of people, place and themes. He would sit rolling it in his hands, reading the prompts and saying. ‘This is my life’ with a sense of surprise.”
For more information, visit http://www.minddice.co.uk/
This design was produced by student Chloe Meineck as a response to our “Designing for the Future” competition at the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton.
The Hub is a multi sensory device which stores electronically the soundtrack of a person’s life including favourite music and maybe even people’s voices and ambient sounds. These can be accessed randomly by pulling the differently shaped wooden handpulls. The idea is to create a shared and engaging reminiscence activity for a dementia sufferer and their families.
Current research about dementia suggests that favourite music can help evoke strong memories about people, places and events which might otherwise be difficult to access.
This product is very appealing and is designed to become a precious possession. For more information, visit http://chloemeineck.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html
Let us know what you think of these designs? Have you used any of them and if so, what was your experience?
Posted: September 14th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Care, Designing for the Future Competition - University of Brighton | No Comments »
I have just been catching up on BBC iPlayer with the new series, “Hairy Bikers’ Meals on Wheels” where the TV chefs aim to do for Meals on Wheels what Jamie Oliver has done (or at least tried very hard to do) for school dinners.
Meals on Wheels, as run by the very admirable WRVS and others, is one of those invisible glues in British society which are greatly undervalued until they are under threat. Not only do Meals on Wheels provide hot food to older people every day, they also provide regular contact and conversation to people who are often isolated and housebound. In the words of one of the customers, they are “something to look forward to”.
And perhaps most importantly, Meals on Wheels allow people to stay independent and in their own homes for longer. Something most of us want.
Meals and Wheels are under threat not only from the cost cutting affecting most Council services but also from a shortage of, particularly younger, volunteers. As with school dinners, there are also issues around quality and the overuse of frozen rather than fresh ingredients.
As more of us live longer, more and more of us will depend on these sorts of services. Now is a good time to make sure the model works. And that means more of us volunteering now to guarantee that the service is there when we or our family need it in the future.
But Meals on Wheels in its current incarnation at best looks rather outdated and subsequent programmes will explore how volunteering can be made more attractive. A rebrand by Saatchi and Saatchi seems to be on the cards.
A couple of our University of Brighton students focused on re-vamping Meals on Wheels as part of our “Designing for the Future” competition last year. Miranda Holms and Hanna Crick devised a whole business where meals would be delivered in vintage-look branded vans and food decanted into the most beautiful handmade bowls inset in a bespoke wooden tray before being delivered to the customers. The challenges they had were logistical – how to deliver the service for the price within the time constraints.
I suspect the Hairy Bikers will face the same issues but with enough people and goodwill anything is possible. I shall be watching the rest of the series with interest.
To watch the first episode, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b014sqyx/Hairy_Bikers_Meals_on_Wheels_Episode_1/
Posted: September 4th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: About retirement - Howard Croft | Comments Off
From 1986 to 1995, with one exception, one or both of my children were sitting public examinations and a stressful time it was – for me, that is, never for them as far as I could detect. Even now we have interests in annual results which we confidently (and accurately) predict will be good; excitement without the worry. This year Nephew Mikey took a First in physiology during his medical training, Number Charlie was awarded twelve grade A GCSEs, mostly starred, and our young friends Gemma and Lily secured their places at Leeds and Hull universities respectively. I felt no pain at all.
But how different things now are. When Mikey’s granny, a retired doctor herself and now in her nineties, heard about his First she said, “In my day they didn’t give you a BSc every time you did a bit of physiology – it’s ridiculous. If he goes on like this, by the time he qualifies he’ll have so many letters after his name there won’t be room for them all on his Harley Street notepaper.” I know the feeling.
When I was a schoolboy we did six or seven O Levels, stars didn’t exist, and A grades, while not rare exactly, but pretty unusual. What are we doing to our children putting them through twelve? Many – perhaps most – pupils went on to good universities (the only kind we had then) without a single A grade to their names. The universities were many fewer, and they were smaller, but with only 3% destined to go there the competition was probably less fierce.
I don’t subscribe to the cynics’ view that standards are falling year on year, though I do think there is something fishy about the introduction of star A grades – a sign surely of grade inflation. Nor do I accept the educational establishment’s claim that our children are getting brighter (ask a biology teacher, if you can find one, about evolution) and the teachers more brilliant. Things are not getting worse – we are still turning out world class doctors, engineers and so on after all – but nor are they improving to the extent that the proliferation of A grades are claimed to indicate.
However, a recent proposed change to the GCSE regime whereby 10% of marks will be allocated to be won or lost on assessment of grammar and punctuation highlights a real problem. It is only a proposal, which the teaching profession will oppose, probably successfully, but I agree with it. This summer I read a school report on a school leaver. It was excellent in that it reported on a high level of achievement, but the document itself was a disgrace. There were numerous spelling mistakes, and the deployment of apostrophes was idiosyncratic; it was the work of someone who had heard of them but who knew nothing of possession and omission, and it was shameful. At a good secondary school (not local) with which I have a slight connection a teacher in her late sixties was obliged to write all the leavers’ reports because the standard of written English among her younger colleagues is so poor that the Head was not prepared to allow it leave the premises. That teacher has now retired. Next year, who knows?
So, this is why the teachers will fight the proposed reform. Grammar and punctuation have been side-lined in schools for decades, starting in the sixties, and most teachers now in service have been ill-served by this. Many will not be able to implement the reform, and they will oppose it.
Of course, there is one aspect of education that is now infinitely worse now than it was in my day. I paid no tuition fees, my City of Hull Major award (£100 per term) was enough to live on and on top of it I was given three return rail fares a year to Bristol, and £15 a year for books. Now it is £9000 in fees, and nothing else. I would not have been able to go.
Best wishes
Howard
As we get to know our customers, we have realised that more and more of us are finding ourselves in the role of caregiver for an older or elderly person.
