Designer: Leah Hughes
Designer Leah Hughes joins presenter Aled Samuel for the tenth series of '04Wal', based this time in the world's hotels. Her expertise in commercial interior design has given her the chance to share her ideas and draw the audience's attention to different design aspects within the series.
After completing a foundation course in Art and Design in Wrexham, she graduated in 3D Design from Leeds Metropolitan University. The course was multi-disciplined and noted for its conceptual design and networking. Since graduating, Leah has worked in the Vitra Design Museum Workshop in Boisbuchet, France, and has displayed her furniture work in Brick Lane, London and in Covent Garden. Leah has also received backing and training from the London Development Agency to develop one of her fashion projects. She has also appeared in the Design Week magazine and in the Metro newspaper as a young hopeful.
Since then, Leah had designed for a commercial interior design company within the leisure industry and for the Eastlake Group, one of Britain's largest interior design companies. She has also worked as an interior designer on a number of buildings such as hotels, bars and commercial retail outlets. Her first media job was as a designer on the S4C children's programme ‘Hip neu Sgip?', a series of room make-overs all over the country.
Passionate about design and innovation, Leah believes that the secret of good design is form following purpose, being practical but exceeding expectations. She loves playful designs, being experimental and not taking design too seriously - putting smiles on faces. She's quite obsessed with interactive materials, also low-tech! She loves furniture from the 1940s and pre-loved furniture.
During this series, Leah has relished the opportunity of examining the work of various commercial designers all over the world. In her opinion, the amazing hotels have been an eye-opener to design possibilities, showing the developments in the field of interior design and pushing boundaries.
Originally from Ruthin, Leah now lives in Cardiff and has enjoyed a varied career thus far. Who knows what will follow. "Specialising in design has enabled me to work in various creative fields encompassing many disciplines," she says, "ensuring the work remains very interesting".