About Us

Kevin McCullagh

Kevin is a design strategist with a history of breaking new ground. Before founding Plan, he was director at the product design consultancy Seymourpowell, where he built one of the first dedicated design strategy teams in Europe. Over the past 20 years he has consulted for clients including Ford, HP, Lenovo, Mars, Nokia, Orange, 02, P&G, Psion, Samsung, Shell, Unilever and Yamaha.

After being lucky enough to be one of the first pupils to study design at school in the UK, Kevin began his career working at Rolls Royce, which sponsored him to study mechanical engineering at Leeds University. On discovering product design, he swiftly switched to Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University), where he gained a first class degree. It was at Newcastle that Kevin developed his interest in the social context of design and the front end of the product planning process. After graduating, he combined consulting with teaching a new module at Newcastle Polytechnic on contemporary influences on design, and researching the impact of 3D CAD on the design process. Before joining Seymourpowell, Kevin was a design director of a technology marketing company.

A leading commentator on design, Kevin writes and speaks widely on its relationship with society and business.  He has been published and cited in numerous international journals, including Business Week, Design Management Journal and Blueprint. As well as speaking on design at international conferences, Kevin has also been the curator and co-producer of a number of high-profile events.

In 2009, Kevin was selected to take part in an Ashridge Management College course on Advanced Leadership for the Creative Industries. He remains a visiting fellow at Northumbria University and teaches on the CASS Business School’s Executive MBA Programme. His occasional Tweets can be found here.

'Kevin is someone I see eye to eye with, which is not a common occurence in this world of tectonic cultural and digital refraction. It takes a calm mind and a ruthless clarity to pick your way through the false dawns and spin of the 21st Century, doubly so if your job is squinting at the future. There's a much-neglected word in the English language that sums this up: sagacity. A curiously lumpy word for such a valuable thing...the ability to see the simple truth in that, which is complicated and obtuse - and then act upon it. In his field, Kevin is one of the few who possesses this gift.'

Richard Seymour, co-founder, Seymourpowell