Interior Architecture Graduates, Part 4

CATRIONA MILLS (graduated 2008)

Interior Designer, Catriona Elizabeth Mills Ltd

Catriona practices Interior Architecture and is a Creative Designer with 10 years’ experience. Most of her career has been spent at Lumsden Design, an award-winning innovative design consultancy, where she gained a strong understanding of retail design in the commercial and cultural sector.  Clients include highly esteemed museums, galleries, and visitor destinations worldwide. Over the past years she has undertaken many prestigious projects for clients that include MoMA (see the images above of the Flagship Store at The Museum of Modern Art, New York), Warner Brothers and Nike, where she led on all aspects of a project from creative concept through to highly involved project management.

After leaving Lumsden as an Associate Design Director in 2018 to start her own practice, she worked with several highly respected Design Practices across London including Checkland and Kindleysides, YourStudio, Counterfeit Studio and The Quadrant Design Collective. 

Today, Catriona is working across numerous projects that include a personal residential ‘Permaculture Living Project’ out in Mexico. Surrounding herself by these principles and learning new building techniques around natural materials with a strong focus on bamboo construction, has shaped a new direction for how she believes we should be living. This project includes plans for her own private home. Catriona splits her time between her small Yorkshire cottage, London, and Mexico. 

I think about the University often and I have fond memories of my degree and it well and truly got me to where I am today. So, thank you all! 

SONIA BROWN (graduated 2009)

Design Director, The Quadrant Design Collective

I started my career in interior design after graduating from Leeds Beckett with a first-class honour’s degree. I was lucky enough to land a job with the fashion house Arcadia Group, joining their in-house design team rolling out new concepts across the UK and internationally for several of their brands. After 4 years of being engrossed in the high street fashion industry, I left to work on international projects in Dubai and the Far East for 12 months allowing myself time to travel and explore working in new locations, before landing a job at Quadrant Design.

Since joining Quadrant Design, I have been fortunate to work on an array of sectors across the industry, ranging from Retail, Hospitality, Leisure and most recently Workplace. My role allows me to work on both concept design, at the start of a project, all the way through to overseeing and managing a mix of large-scale UK and international projects. I work closely as the key contact with client brands, and I have been able to work to re-define their physical identity through design as well as create brand identities from scratch. I have created concepts and managed accounts for Watches of Switzerland, Peloton, Loreal,  EL&N London & Pizza Express, recently designing a new look concept for Goldsmiths which is currently being rolled out across their UK estate.
 
I now co-direct a team of 22 staff and in the last 18 months, during the Pandemic, created a new brand under Quadrant Design called HUMAN. This specialises specifically in workplace, designing spaces which are influenced by the retail and hospitality sector and identifies a new way of working for the modern world. 

We since have won design projects for Peloton’s London HQ, Watches of Switzerland UK head office, Wagamama HQ and high-profile law firm Clintons.

EMILY MINCHIN (graduated 2013)

Interior Designer, Foolscap Studio, Melbourne, Australia

After graduating, I moved to London where I worked for 3 years gaining experience across a range of sectors with Kinnersley Kent Design and Universal Design Studio.

I moved to Melbourne, Australia 5 years ago where I have been working with interior architecture practice, Foolscap Studio. My experience has been hugely varied spanning hospitality, workplace, residential, exhibition design and public realm.

Concept plays a key role in everything we do and informs our design decisions along the way. Most recently I worked on a new gym concept for 1R Australia which explored the psychological journey of exercise. A highlight this year has been working with coworking brand The Commons on their new fitouts. Our design response explores what the future of work will look like in a post-pandemic world, with emphasis on social and collaborative spaces that you can't get at home.

My career has been, and will continue to be, a real journey. It’s all part of the process and seeing where that will take me. Next year will take me to regional Victoria, where we have hospitality projects in the new year.