William Leonard Welch (born 2 April 1972) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Industrial

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

. William is the son of the late post-war Industrial Designer Robert Radford Welch (21 May 1929 – 15 March 2000). In 2004 Welch became a Fellow of Chartered Society of Designs. In 2007 Welch was invited to become Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and as a Freeman, holds a key to the city of London.

Early life and training

William Welch was born in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

and raised in nearby

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

. From 1995, he studied design at the University of Central England (now

Birmingham City University Birmingham City University (abbrev. BCU) is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic in 1971 and gai ...

) where he completed courses in Furniture Design and

Silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

ing, before going on to complete his Master of Arts Degree at The

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 2001. (1995–1997) Welch also worked for

Pentagram Design Pentagram is a design firm. It was founded in 1972, by Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Colin Forbes, Kenneth Grange, and Mervyn Kurlansky at Needham Road, Notting Hill, London. The company has offices in London, New York City, San Francisco, Berl ...

London as a junior designer under practice partner Kenneth Grange, and later worked in the same design consultancy for Daniel Wiel (1997–1999). Through completing a research and development project, designing for people with physical disabilities at The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Welch created cutlery for people with physical disabilities called "Adaptable Cutlery", which changed shape to accommodate the user’s physical abilities. This gained the graduating year’s top Helen Hamlyn Award for Design in 2001, The Lord Snowdon Award. The Adaptable Cutlery was also a category award winner for the Peugeot/Oxo Design Awards in 2002, and was crowned overall winner of all ten design categories, securing prize money of £16,000. (2001–2005) Following the death of his father, William was appointed Company Director at Robert Welch Designs Ltd. Employed as a Design Director, William worked alongside his brother Rupert, until breaking away from the company and launching Studio William Cutlery in 2005.

Silversmithing

Welch worked as an apprentice at his late father’s studio and workshop, studying design and silversmithing under his father and also Silversmith and model maker John Limbery. Welch completed his

Silversmithing A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

training focusing his Master of Arts Degree towards mass-production and industrial design at The Royal College of Art, London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, William 1972 births Living people Alumni of Birmingham City University Alumni of the Royal College of Art British industrial designers English silversmiths