The countdown is on – the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition closes on 1st February 2026!

This podcast takes on a different format as we talk to Jessie Soohyun Park, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for Samsung Electronics UK, about the Solve for Tomorrow initiative, why a multi-national company such as Samsung believes this work is so important, and how design and technology education naturally fits the knowledge base, skillsets and design curiosity required for the competition.

Bring this challenge into your design and technology classroom and give students aged 11-18 the chance to tackle real-world problems, think creatively, and see their ideas make a difference. @SamsungElectronicsUK have ready-to-use resources, expert mentoring and the Imagination Lab to guide every step.

Students could be designing and prototyping tech-for-good solutions, building confidence and future-ready skills. At the same time, your school could win Samsung technology, mentoring, work experience opportunities, and even national recognition, with your students seeing their work splashed large on Piccadilly Circus.

Short on time? Your students’ NEA or STEM Club coursework may be eligible for submission. We’re proud to be supporting this flagship education programme. Opportunities like this don’t come around every day! Enter before the 1st February 2026 to make sure your students don’t miss out 🔗 www.SolveforTomorrowUK.com

Huge thanks to Archne.digital for their help and continued support, which enables us to continue to bring these conversations to you. Reach out to them today to arrange a free audit of your school’s cybersecurity.

On the first day of 2026, and if we are honest, a touch later than planned due to the Christmas break, we are delighted to open the New Year with a conversation with the Co-founder of Applied Design (https://helloapplied.com), one of New York's leading branding and design agencies.

A short while back, Applied Design was commissioned for what, at first, appeared to be a relatively straightforward and exciting branding brief. Braille was 100 years old (a fact tI find challenging to comprehend in itself), and to mark the centenary, the Braille Institute of America (https://www.brailleinstitute.org) commissioned Applied Design to carry out a rebrand.

As the design team at Applied dug into the task, they were unable to find a typeface that was both functional and exciting enough. With the Braille Institute's permission, the team took on the task of designing a new and exciting typeface.

Following extensive research, testing, and development, Atkinson Hyperlegible emerged as the typeface emanating from the identified design task. A typeface that the Braille Institute waived all claims to ownership of early in the process; a visible demonstration of the charitable cause taking over from any desire to create profit.

Google, Microsoft, Canva, and others have since adopted the typeface. It is estimated that Atkinson Hyperlegible is now downloaded at least 70 million times per week, being utilised by blind, partially sighted and able-sighted alike.

In this podcast, we talk about the processes that led to the creation of Atkinson Hyperlegible, the importance of design education for all young people, AI adoption, why we shouldn't fear it, and more. Thanks to Brad's willingness to dig deep on these subjects, this is a deep and fascinating conversation that I know you will enjoy.

So, start the New Year as you mean to go on, grab those earplugs, give yourself 56 minutes to yourself and enjoy this episode of Designed for Life.

Thanks to Arachne.digital for their continued sponsorship of the podcast, which allows us to bring these conversations to you. Contact Arachne https://www.arachne.digital/ or us for a free evaluation of your school’s cybersecurity.

Links to Atkinson Hyperlegible:

https://www.brailleinstitute.org/freefont/

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Atkinson+Hyperlegible

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Atkinson+Hyperlegible+Next

One pattern that has repeated across the 108 podcasts published since Designed for Life launched in the summer of 2020 is the role of serendipity in aligning people and their careers.

Today's podcast is a case in point. Driven by a primal desire to help people, Olivia set her heart on a career in medicine. School and academia did not come easily to her, and she realised at a very early stage that if she were to have any hope of following her dream, she would need to roll her sleeves up and work harder than most.

With this in mind, this is precisely what she did, sacrificing aspects of her social life and doing whatever was asked of her at school to achieve her goals, and more. Outstanding GCSE results followed, with Olivia being featured on her school's website front page as a success story. Here, the rhetoric changed as teachers now looked upon her as an 'academic' and as such, started to point her towards A Level success and University.

Some careers are no doubt easier to enter if you come from the middle or upper classes. Finance is a factor if you want to enter architecture, medicine, law and many other career pathways; who you know and your access to work placements and internships are also significant factors.

Olivia took a year out to rethink her future and, at first, saw Amazon as a way to earn money while she refocused. She is now a Mechantronics Engineering Apprentice at Amazon and is in her flow state in this position.

I first came across Olivia at a recent Women in Manufacturing Conference, where she was on a panel alongside equally impressive fellow apprentices, and I had to ask her to share her story on the podcast. There is so much to learn from both her journey and where she is today. So sit back, take an hour for yourself and enjoy Designed for Life - In conversation with Olivia Lane.

Huge thanks to Arachne.digital for their support that makes this podcast possible. To get a free check on your school's cyber security email contact@arachne.digital

For more information, please see Girls Gone STEM on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@girlsgonestem?_r=1&_t=ZN-91udctoZ8WE.

Or check Olivia's LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-lane-02bb802a2?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios