Davin Larkin is a qualified furniture & industrial designer and a design educator with a wealth of experience in the Irish Furniture Industry.
Davin found design to be his passion at a young age and has engrossed himself in it ever since. This passion has taken him to many places, near and far, driven by an urge to experience new people, places and experiences. This drive accompanied with study, work and life has helped him gather a set of varied skills that add to his toolkit as a designer. He continues to learn new things every day.
As Davin's experience of design grows, more consideration has been given to the role designers play in society. Davin advocates a need for designers to consider both the sustainability of the products they produce but also the application of user first and universal design principals. Design should help solve our problems, not add more, an ethos Davin tries to follow with all his work.
Davin has been a lecturer in GMIT Letterfrack,
The National Centre of Excellence for Furniture Design and Technology since 2011.
As a Product Development lecturer, Davin mainly teaches on the BSc. in Furniture Design and Manufacture. His role involves curriculum development with the aim of improving the role design plays within GMIT Letterfrack courses. He has also been involved in a number of high profile projects such as a national exhibitions, conferences and teaching resource developments to mention a few.
Davin teaches on a range of undergraduate modules that include Design Process, Furniture Design & Manufacture Projects, Design Sustainibility and Innovation, Manufacturing Technology, Work Placement and Interior Architecture.
Davin has a wealth of experience in the design industry, holding both design and education roles mainly in the furniture industry. He has worked in areas that include product development, bespoke design, procurement, space planning, commercial fit outs and more. From 2009 to 2016 Davin ran his own design studio called Kooyong Design that offered a range of batch products and consultancy services. In late 2016 Davin decided to bring his role as an educator and designer under one identity, his own name. This allows a more seamless integration of both roles with benefits in particular to his students who learn from a practitioner as well as an educator.
Notable past employers and contracts included, O'Driscoll Furniture, The Office of Public Works (Furniture Division), The Coles Group, Gardiner Architects & Montana Furniture.
As a life long learner advocate, Davin undertakes CPD courses on a regular basis to improve his skillset for his roles as a designer and educator. Areas of interest include design thinking, innovation, technology skills and practice based education skills.
MA in Digital Media
National University of Ireland, Galway
BDes in Industrial Design
National College of Art & Design, Dublin
Higher Certificate in Furniture Design & Manufacture
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterfrack
Davin designs while he teaches, and teaches while he designs.
Davin designs his own range of furniture and homewares and is always interested in new and exciting opportunities, so if you have any projects that you think would benefit from his input don't hesitate to contact us.
Lecturing is always a challenging role and Davin feels it is extremely important for him to be practicing what he teaches. This website is a showcase of some of his work but also an educational tool for his students. Learn about his role as a design educator.
Sketching, concept development, user first, design consultancy, prototype production, model making, design refinement, design for manufacture, product development, design thinking
Qualified furniture maker, woodworking machine trainer, vacuum forming, wood turning, lamination, laser cutting, 3D printing, spray finishing and metalworking
MAC & PC, AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, Solidworks, 3D Studio Max, Rendering, Microsoft Office, Website development, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Video & Sound editing, Photography
Project management, change advocate, critical thinking, competent presenter/speaker, excellent graphical presentation skills (paper & digital), event planning, design educator, workshop delivery
Click here to view a record of Davin's work featured in local, national and online press.
Contact us to request a detailed resume or visit Davin's Linkedin profile to view it online.