Mark Champkins is an inventor and a successful Dragon’s Den participant. In 2002 he won the British Invention of the Year Award for a self-heating crockery design while studying Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art. His company, Concentrate Design, which won an investment of £100,000 from Peter Jones on Dragon’s Den,develops products that help schoolchildren concentrate more easily. He also holds the enviable post of the Science Museum’s very first ‘Inventor in Residence’. Mark will be appearing at the 2012 Cheltenham Design Festival in April but luckily for us he downed tools for a few minutes to answer our quiz; everyone concentrate now…

Which design object has made a difference to your life?
Bicycles are important to me. For recreation, and as a practical means of transport around London, my bikes are design objects that are currently making a big difference to my life. I’m getting to see lots of parts of South East England I wouldn’t otherwise see, and I’m able to get where I want to be in London on time, and a little fitter than when I set off.

Which is more important education or experience?
Sorry to sit on the fence but one is no use without the other. Education is clearly the most profound means of empowering people and opening up the possibilities available to them. However, the appreciation and good sense that comes from experience is invaluable in applying that knowledge.

How would your describe your way of looking at the world?
I use my eyes, and I try to notice things. Textures, materials, how things are made, how they work, colours, patterns, peoples behaviour, and that offers me stimulation for new ideas, and an archive of thoughts that might connect together at a later date to make sense of things, or do something creative.

Who would you like to design something for?
I’d like to be able to design something that everyone ends up using. It would be a supreme achievement to create something that nobody notices. Something refined to be as simple and effective as possible. Rubber bands, post it notes, cello-tape, paperclips. I’d love to create something like that, and ideally something that adds value to society.

What’s next?
World domination.

Read more about Mark at www.concentrate.org.uk