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About Piers
On Being a Creative Pioneer
I thrive at the intersection of creativity, entrepreneurship, and change. I have helped creatively minded people and organisations develop opportunities for almost three decades. Supporting them through change as they turn ‘nice ideas’ into groundbreaking activities, products, services and commercial businesses.
How we navigate change matters. For inevitably, with change comes uncertainty. This frequently contributes to a degree of anxiety and an understandable reluctance to engage. Yet change also opens up space for new ideas.
Change is Exciting!
Believing in our ability to change frees us to challenge old ways and imagine something braver, bolder and more optimistic. I support changemakers. I am a mirror for your ambitions, helping you ‘think about what you are thinking about.’
On Trinary
Through coaching, consulting and training, applying the Trinary methodology helps me help you consider choices, clarify options and develop confidence in your ability to make the right decisions. Together we may better navigate times of change and learn to thrive.
On Being Autistic
My way of sensing and interpreting the world is a core asset in what I offer my clients. An autism diagnosis in 2014 (and ADHD in 2021) has helped me engage constructively with who I am.
With this self awareness I now advise individuals and organisations on how they too may benefit from a positive engagement with neurodiversity.
I am a proud champion of the neurodivergent community - people who think, feel, see, sense and interpret the world a little differently.
On Teaching
Supporting the next generation of creative entrepreneurs is the golden thread running through my entire professional life. I have written, produced and chaired conferences for the Southbank Centre, Europe House (EU HQ in the UK) and the Oxo Tower. Today, alongside my advisory work, I lead a Kingston University MA Module on Design Thinking Methodologies and am an Associate Lecturer at the University of the Arts.
Between 1998 and 2016, I produced 65 international design, architecture, and illustration festivals across 10 countries, collaborating with over 4,000 creatives from 38 nations.
The Birth of the Creative Industries
In 1998 the term ‘creative industries’ was coined by the incoming UK Labour government. Around the world, people were asking ‘What is this “Cool Britainnia” thing?’ That year I launched ‘SAME’, a groundbreaking shop and exhibition space at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, joining together a new generation of design entrepreneurs from across Europe into one space.
Designersblock 1998-2016
To promote the shop I created Designersblock - a new kind of design festival, pioneering the use of big empty buildings for shows that ‘made sense of this new East London thing’. These events didn’t just showcase design—they built communities, sparked industries, and redefined how creatives engage with themselves, with business and the wider public. The impact of this movement turned niche design into a global force.
These initiatives set the blueprint for creative city festivals worldwide, laying the foundation for the London Design Festival from 2003, and the London Festival of Architecture from 2004, which I produced till 2008. Together the shop and these shows lit the fuse for the transformation of East London into a beacon for creative entrepreneurship around the world.
London Venues
Job Done!
In 2016 we finally brought Designersblock to a close. The logic for 'City Design Festivals' had been established, pathways for creative entrepreneurs have opened up, many are flourishing and audiences for contemporary design have grown beyond measure.
I was tired, I needed to focus on my family and my wellbeing. I needed to allow myself time to 'winter' – to reflect, seek support, heal and contemplate what I wanted for the future. And here we are, nearly ten years later...
Piers is the best teacher we ever had, he inspired me and helped us figure out a way through our projects. Thanks, Piers!
Hayley Caine, MA Material Futures
Congratulations! Really eloquent and absolutely fascinating. It was a real pleasure to learn more about your work and ideas.
David Cotterrell of Deptford
I have experienced Piers' expertise from all angles; I was a creative entrepreneur supported by DesignersBlock, I have been coached by him, and then I have had him deliver talks and workshops for my own projects. I have experienced, time and time again a wonderfully creative mind, that can cut through the noise, extract the essence at the core and elevate with absolute clarity.
Jade Ilke, Designing Futures