John Amoakoh

Biography

John Amoakoh was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England 1973, with (a rare and wonderful gift) Drawing whilst humming quietly to himself; this began from a very early age,' from since he could hold a pencil' he adds. He would tirelessly draw all day and others would purposely visit the family just to get a glance. Even though just a child he was obviously into art and design. And many knew he'd become an Artist.

Although Furniture and Product Packaging design are his forte, he's often seen enjoying the outdoor scenery of Vancouver or painting in his villa in Hertfordshire, England.

He excelled in all the major Art and Design subjects at High School but discontinued at the end of the 5th year for Sixth Form studying non-art related subjects Anthropology, Physics and Sociology amongst them, but after informally showing one of his paintings to his former Art Instructor they insisted that he return or at least take his skills further.

In 1989 John was accepted at West-Hertfordshire College, to study 3D, Art and Graphic Design. In 1992 he graduated with Higher National Diplomas in all the related design subjects. While the college was still exhibiting his work as great examples for others to follow, he was asked to teach 3D Design studies in the summer. This he enjoyed a great deal as it was his first job, but at the same time he had been accepted at Thames-Valley University, Slough to Study Industrial Design. After receiving Bachelors in Industrial/Product Design, he was asked to teach again at West-Hertfordshire College but this time a new title " Visiting Professor".

In 1995 John was asked to come and work at WASH (The Watercolour Art Society of Houston, Texas) after an Honorary Mention in the WASH Quarterly Newsletter and holding a few workshops, he was asked to be part of the Chair at WASH. And this he did quite diligently.

From then on John did various Independent Design Consultations for such Companies as Black and Decker, Virgin Airways, Braun, Mitsubishi, Honda among others. Car Design styling and Industrial Design, focusing more on Safety, Ergonomics and Human-Factors. In 1997 he was personally invited to an Industrial Design Convention in Chicago and there he formed a relationship with then US President Bill Clinton (an honorary member).

Soon John was asked to be one of the Senior Members of IDSA, IDEA and Industrial Design CORE (Coroloft) He then later became great friends of Jim Thorpe Professor of Design at the University of Maryland and got to work on several private projects for Tour de France 1997-1998.

These Independent Consultations continued up until 1999 when a friend asked John to Product Coordinate for his design company E2E (Watford, Hertfordshire) along with other projects on the go with such Independent Contractors as Delicatessen Design (London).

This consisted of Design from House-Ware to Decorative Products. Using mainly the latest design software, such as Vellum, Pro-Engineer, Cad-Cam, Rhino and Alias Wave-front etc. There were also various Confidential projects with Lucas Arts. Concepts for various characters, some never used or made it to production.

Back in 1990 he had ideas on starting his own Independent Design Consultancy, Esper Design. Even though his line of work is very confidential, 'painting is my time for relaxing' he laughs.


 

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