Biography

From childhood John was involved with making and design. Growing up by the sea on Hayling Island on the south coast of the UK he built his first sailboat aged 7. Although this first one didn’t sail so well, he kept designing and went on to complete an Industrial Design Engineering degree.

Sailing is a huge part of John’s world and after leaving university he worked on a sailing yacht completing his yacht-masters with a view to becoming a professional skipper. However, a first job opportunity to help design the 73m Motor Yacht Ilona IV as one of the first employees at Redman Whitely Dixon changed that. 6 happy years at the fast growing studio saw John learn to draft, design, and project manage interior and exterior designs for such industry classics as 55.5m Feadship M.Y. ‘Twizzle’ and 155m Lurssen M.Y. ‘Al Said’.

The world of luxury design has always had a centre in London and by building the world’s most expensive apartments, property designers Candy & Candy epitomized this. The chance to develop this dynamic company’s luxury yacht department from their Knightsbridge headquarters was John’s next challenge. The main project was 62m Motor Yacht Candyscape II which went on to win the coveted world super yacht award for Best Motor Yacht with special mention for the interior design.

Yacht design legend Terence Disdale had always been an inspiration to John who could not refuse an offer to join the company. A busy and formative 6 years followed, studying the world’s most prestigious interior and exterior yacht design projects as well as designs for private jet and interior architecture.

When John was offered a management role by returning as a director to his first yacht design firm RWD on the UK’s coast he thought it was going to be his last job move. However in January 2015 after some time too far from the creativity of London and managing rather than designing, the future of Vickers Studio became a reality.