Ruary is a Product Design Engineer graduated from Leeds University joined China 2 West in the fall of 2012. His prior experience in various other fields such as Director of Logistics and Supply for the Web of Hope Charity in Sri Lanka, and other creative ventures such as being a Chef and his deep love of making music, give him a rounded understanding of both the practical and ethereal elements of the creative process, and finds suitable application in his role as Head of the Design and Development Department.
Discover more about Ruary in our C2W Q&A:
Q: Please tell us a bit about yourself
I was born and raised in a place called West Sussex which is in the South of England, and am the eldest of 5. I went to school in West Sussex, and then went to the University of Leeds for a Degree, finishing with a Bachelors and Masters (Hons) in Product Design.
Prior to starting Product Design for a degree, I was due to start at Leeds to study Economics and Mandarin. Due to the fact that I did not like the idea of learning Economics for four more years, I switched last minute to study Product Design, with the notion that I could come out to China to learn Mandarin and experience their culture that way. Also because China is arguably the manufacturing hub of the world, the skill set that comes with being a Product Designer seemed quite well matched.
By the time I finished my time at the university, the job offers in the UK were scarce, and then the opportunity to come to China popped up so I took it.
Q: What do you like the most about your job?
What I like the most of product design is the problem solving aspects and the excitement that comes with creating new design solutions, that people might haven’t seen from that perspective, and also its exciting that you can identify the gap in the market. It’s almost as if the product was real, when it is actually only real in your head. That is quite cool.
By having the genesis of an idea that seems to full fill a gap, and going through the iterations of making that initial design solution made, and making sure that it reaches its full potential as a product, is an interesting and unpredictable process.
Q: What do you like the most about working in C2W?
I like the fact that my job role is actually quite malleable, and so I get to experience a full spectrum of responsibilities, whether it is from idea generation of a product idea, to auditing a factory to check why it may or may not be meeting the standards that are expected by us and our clients. And due the structure of the company you have the flexibility to explore new ideas and new ways of doing things, making it a non-stagnant work environment.
In C2W there’s also a massive diversity of people and cultures, and the opportunity of getting to know a broad range of approaches to life brings an extra flavour to the conversation and makes for a more creative environment and better work environment.
Another great part of being in China is that you get to experience and understand one of the fastest growing and developing cultures in the world. There’s nothing parallel in terms of its ambition and development, and hasn’t been for the last few decades. This makes the experience massively informative from a global perspective, and by working in C2W you have the opportunity to get to know how the Western and Chinese cultures can be married.
As head of design and development, if someone has a vision of a product, or they just have a few sketches, or even some CAD drawings, my job is to help them to get the product through all the stages in the production cycle from idea generation to mass production.
Q: When you’re not on duty which are activities during your leisure time?
The core general things that I enjoy tend to be creative, such as; playing guitar, singing and cooking, not all at the same time, well sometimes.. I also like to; meet up with friends, play football, listen to music, read the news, and travel to discover new places and people.
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