Miles Hartwell

Having spent much of his childhood in his father's workshop, Miles Hartwell developed a keen creative streak. From a young age, he always wanted to be a product designer, later becoming a kitchen designer almost by accident. After a rather mischievous adolescence, he left university with no further qualifications than when he started and promptly went off to traverse the globe. His natural resourcefulness eventually prompted him to return to his native England, dead set on on finding gainful employment as a designer - of some kind or another.

Many rejection letters later, Miles was eventually hired as a junior design assistant at a furniture and kitchen company. He took to this very well and before long was given his own projects, the very first of which was picked up by House & Garden magazine with subsequent projects being featured in Hello! and Tatler. Following a six month absence from work due to a serious illness in 1999, Miles returned to the industry as a freelancer and soon found work with Johnny Grey.

He and Johnny worked very well together and when Johnny's San Francisco showroom lost its design director in 2003, Miles was the natural choice to bring things back on track. His return to England coincided an opening for UK design director and this was a permanent position which Miles was more than glad to fill.

Miles' wider interests include a penchant for organising slightly unusual events to bring people together. The first of these was a week long road race from London to Russia with 20 participants. There is also the annual Aestival Festival, a summer gathering for the kid that still lurks within many thirty somethings.

Who is your favourite designer or architect and why?

Thomas Heatherwick because I just love the way his mind works.

What is your favourite kitchen implement?

I cook a lot of curry and make up my own pastes from scratch so its my pestle and mortar because it feels really primeval when I use it. This implement hasn't changed since we lived in caves - the definition of back to the basics.

Are there any embarrassing songs in your music collection?

Oh yes.