I’m Simon Gough—a designer, lecturer, writer, photographer, filmmaker and unschooler.
Design
I have almost twenty years’ experience of participatory design and teaching, mostly focused on service design and systems thinking but drawing on a whole range of adjacent fields, disciplines and skills. I’ve worked across private, public and third sector projects with fmcg companies, social enterprises, central government and charities, helping to collaboratively design hundreds of new organisations, products, services and projects.
I’m a highly experienced facilitator who’s worked with everyone from small teams to whole organisations, employing a variety of approaches: from unconferences and open space technology to design sprints and custom workshops.
The majority of my work is carried out through Redfront, where client work is balanced with “Explorations”.
Our current Exploration is Design and Economics a collaboration with Mark Simpkins and others intended as a developing resource and series of unconference events.
I’m also co-founder and Design Lead for the The Data Place where I bring together human-centred design, data and technology.
Teaching
I’ve been a lecturer, trainer and learning designer for almost two decades. Most of that time was spent designing and delivering the service design MDes for Ravensbourne University but I’ve also worked for various universities and learning providers, including Brunel University, Hyper Island, EINA Barcelona and University of Exeter.
Much of my core work involves elements of training, coaching and otherwise sharing the models and approaches I work with on a daily basis.
Writing
I love writing; the minimalism blog I started 2009 with my wife was listed as an “inspiration” in the New York Times and since then I’ve written hundreds of blog posts, some of which are on this site. I’ve also written for trade publications, A Level books and academic journals. I’m currently pulling together some of the writing I started on the topic of “unschooling” (see below).
Photography and Film
Photography has always been a big part of my life and I’m slowly developing a portfolio section on this site. More recently I’ve begun training in documentary filmmaking. Telling visual stories is a critical part of my work and a keen interest.
Unschooling
Neither of my children started school before GCSE’s and we didn’t follow a curriculum at home. Instead, we embraced an approach known as unschooling, which is intended to support children to explore whatever interests them. This form of education has been hugely inspirational to me and instrumental in my wider approach to working with people in learning environments.