About Adrian Walker

About Adrian

Adrian Walker is a creative thinker, designer, problem solver and an engineering designer with an eye for detail and design and he loves a challenge!

Based in Southampton England and undertaking projects from anywhere
in the world. Working on your projects with digital design techniques.

Offering Design, problem solving and consultancy expertise for both business and public clients across many sectors including: Industrial, Scientific, Mod, Marine, Art, Product Design and Consumer Design.

With Creative thinking we have the ability to work through a design or problem with great results.
Working on your project or problem, we can offer advice or a different prospective

Adrian Walker owned and ran an engineering business prior to switching to digital design, consultation and problem solving services.
With a very diverse skill set and highly skilled in multiple manufacturing methods we can design for manufacture, which means your project will be considered during the process for how it will actually be manufactured, this will help to eliminate issues and potential costs further down the line. Also it will minimise having to build many proto-types to get to the end goal.

A brief insight into Adrian Walkers skills history and development

Adrian started young!

When Adrian was very young he had the opportunity to learn new practical skills just by helping his Father renovate his home, pictured here Adrian was only a few years old and helping to demolish a wall! Adrian learnt a lot over his early years with a lot of help from Alan Walker (Adrian’s father and early mentor) Adrian was always interested in taking stuff apart, fixing things, designing and making stuff.
Adrian had the opportunity to learn and play with a good mixed set of skills including DIY / building, woodwork, metalwork, electrical work and much more…

The early years

From a very young pre-teen age he had an interest in sound and light and Adrian designed and built up a disco roadshow which took various forms over the years, this was the sound attack road show in the late 80’s with custom made flight cases and lighting rig.

The first garden workshop

Whilst working full time and with an interest in designing and making stuff there was an immediate need for some workshop space in the early years so Adrian built a new garden workshop to work from. He was lucky to have good neighbour’s that would tolerate the working from a home garden often into the late hours!

The second garden workshop

Computers were still in their infancy (and expensive) in the early days so Adrian’s early designs and inventions were all hands on proto-types and made in his garden workshop.
Adrian’s passion to design and invent meant the need for more tools and machines and more workshop space, so Adrian built another workshop..

Optical designs

For some time around the late 80’s and 90’s Adrian worked full time in the optical industry for two companies as laboratory manager where he not only ran and developed the laboratory and streamlined the processes and production lines but he also designed and developed new products that assisted and improved ophthalmic lens production. Adrian designed and made these items in his spare time in his workshops at home.

2D cad introduction

Around the late 80’s Adrian started to use 2d Cad programs to help with his designs. This gave him the ability to start to realise his designs in the digital environment which would help to reduce the amount of proto-types required to get working versions.

Safire Associates created

From around the mid 90’s it was apparent that Adrian’s design and invention skills were developing and the need for tools and machines became more expensive so Adrian started to take on small jobs to help fund his workshop and passion.
Adrian set up an engineering business called Safire Associates, this business over the years has been involved in all sorts of design, build and manufacturing.

3D cad introduced

Adrian introduced 3d cad to his design skills and digital assets as the need to problem solve in the 3d digital world was becoming more important. Whilst 2d cad has it’s place in design and is good for problem solving and work it lacks the reality that 3d cad brings to design and proto-typing.
With the introduction to 3d cad Adrian was able to design and create items then move and spin them around zooming in and out, checking fit, form and design intent.
shown here is one of the early products Adrian designed for a client in 3d cad.

Engineering & Design skills and abilities

Over the years Adrian using his creative problem solving approach has problem solved, fixed, made, designed, built and manufactured a wide variety of items, tools, jigs, fixtures, products and desirable items.
From one off’s and proto-types to batch work, from simple items to weird and wonderful stuff and from really small items to much larger ones, Adrian has certainly gained some impressive skills and has Imagined, problem solved, designed, created and produced a wide range of work.
Pictured here is an Avalanche simulator standing approximately 2.8mtrs high designed and built by Adrian Walker for the Southampton University.