Gus spent the early part of his career as an automotive designer for some of Europe’s leading car manufacturers. Today he leads the award-winning Alloy Total Product Design company, applying a user-centred approach to the design of everything from retail packaging to mobile telephony.

Alloy designs BT’s cordless handsets and has helped Hong Kong-manufacturer SunCorp to achieve a leading position in the European market for cordless telephony. Clients in the mobile telecoms industry include Toshiba and Ericsson, as well as pioneering work on the first Hewlett Packard smartphone.

When we asked him to summarise his role in 160 characters, he told us: “Gus Desbarats, chairman, Alloy Total Product Design, creates compelling branded experiences through product to make people’s lives simpler and more enjoyable.”

Gus led the ‘Design for reality‘ project with PMN, working in collaboration to develop 4 concept handsets for very specific market segments. He will present the results of this project and a panel of the user’s involved as part of the MEX INSIGHT series. Gus is also chairing the Day One panel entitled: “Innovations in software interfaces and industrial design” at MEX.