Below is a selection of people from UK design who we believe are notable "design entrepreneurs".  What distinguishes our interpretation of "entrepreneurship" is that it is a kind of public-spirited attitude which is in some ways the opposite of what entrepreneurship might be thought to mean.  "Design entrepreneurs" must play a role in putting design on the agenda and into national public consciousness; it’s a lot more than commercial opportunism.

Sir Terence Conran started out as a furniture designer the 1950s, making furniture out of low-cost materials and selling it himself out of his own shop. Recognising a gap in the market for young, cosmopolitan, design-conscious but not affluent customers who didn’t want to live in houses like their parents’, he started the furniture and homewares retail store Habitat in 1964. Habitat not only revolutionised mainstream British interior decorating taste but also rode the wave of informal continentalism promoted by, among others, the cookery writer Elizabeth David, by selling big French coffee cups, gingham table cloths and other iconic, continental homewares. Conran’s influence on public taste continued when he formed the Storehouse group of retailers during the 1980s, including the clothing retailer British Home Stores and the baby and child store Mothercare. Conran & Partners is now a successful international product and interior design business. Conran has always made much of the powerful relationship between design and food in expressing the essence of place, and has extended his empire of subtly thematic restaurants to enterprises in Stockholm, Paris and New York. http://www.conran.com/us/tconran/;jsessionid=EINKKJMCOMHP

Tom Dixon’s injuries in a motorcycle accident in the early 1980s prevented him from continuing his career as a rock musician. He took up welding and began to make furniture out of reclaimed metal, supplying clubs and occasional private patrons. His now-iconic S-chair, curved like a Cobra’s throat, designed in 1989, gave him his big career break when it was taken up for manufacture by Capellini. He ran his own manufacturing company, Eurolounge, during the 1990s, mass-producing informal the Jack seat/light and the Star light by rotational moulding in the material used for traffic cones. He was appointed Creative Director of Habitat UK in 1998, and initiated their controversial but continuing VIP (Very Important Products) series for which international celebrities were invited to design furniture and products. The most popular and successful design is a shoe-horn by the shoe designer Manolo Blahnik, but most of the celebrities were not designers. The link between design and celebrity rock ‘n roll continues to be a palpable theme in Tom Dixon Ltd. whose stupendous show at the Milan furniture fair in 2005 including shiny mirrored globe lights, louche sofas and glamorous black furniture. Tom Dixon is very active in encouraging the development of design and manufacture in India, China and Africa, and has consistently been a generous and inspiring role model for young designers in Britain.

Ian Rudge had a successful early career in publishing before joining a leading commercial exhibitions company where he worked on trade exhibitions including the selective home accessories and giftware fair Top Drawer. In 1994 he co-founded 100% Design to provide a commercial but selective showcase for cutting-edge UK based designers. It has grown from a show attracting 7,000 visitors to an exhibition taking up the whole of Earls Court 2, one of London’s premium trade exhibition venues. As well as exhibiting the work of designers from Britain and around the world, 100% Design has presented several awards and bursaries including awards with the Guardian newspaper and Blueprint magazine and the British Council’s International Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year. Ian Rudge later introduced 100% Guaranteed, a series of offsite events across London to promote public and commercial awareness of design, and his initiatives have been a major force in the establishment of the London Design Festival, now in its fourth year. Recent years have seen the inaugural transportation of 100% Design to Moscow and Tokyo. In 1999 Ian Rudge and Rachel Robin sold 100% Design to Reed Exhibitions, but are retained as its co-founders and directors. http://www.100percentdesign.co.uk/

Claire Catterall and Sarah Gaventa, both graduates of the Royal College of Art’s Design History MA, set up Scarlet Projects in 2000. Caterall had worked as a design curator for the Design Museum, the RCA and the ICA for whom she conceived the epoch-defining Stealing Beauty exhibition in 1999. Gaventa worked in media relations for RIBA and Glasgow City of Design & Architecture 1999. Scarlet Projects is an independent consultancy providing creative services within the realm of architecture and design. Their ambition is to bring architecture and design to a wide public audience through a lateral and approach to commissioning, working in the public realm, publishing books and curating exhibitions and events. Recent projects include Design Rabbit, a series of independent events during the London Design Festival, including film screenings, debates and gastronomic experiences; UK Loves Fashion, an exhibition for the British Council in China featuring 10 British designers transformed into life-sized �Barbie dolls�; and the V&A Summer Fete, a postmodern take on a vernacular community event with design as its subcurrent theme. Each of these projects explains their reputation for �offbeat� programming combined with a high level of critical knowledge about design & architecture. http://www.scarletprojects.com/

German-born Thorsten van Elten set up his own manufacturing and retail business in 2002. After several years’ experience in furniture retail and manufacture for Christopher Farr and SCP, Thorsten had become frustrated with the lack of manufacturing support for British-based designers and recognised an expanding market for well-made design products with a particularly quirky character.

Thorsten now manufactures a small collection of furniture, accessories and lighting.  The first collection was launched at 100% Design London in 2002 and featured designers Ed Carpenter, Sam Johnson, Alex Taylor and mosleymeetswilcox.  Since then Thorsten has regularly launched his new designs not only at 100% Design but also at the Milan Furniture Fair and Pulse. Over the past three years, the van Elten stable has grown to include Peter Mac Cann, Gitta Gshwendtner, Richard Shed, Barnaby Barford & Andre Klauser, Gavin Coultrip, Rose Cobb and Fly-Pitcher.

Thorsten also works as the exclusive UK agent and distributor for like-minded international companies such as roomsafari (Berlin), Trico (Tokyo), Richard Hutten (Rotterdam), Goods (Amsterdam), Interior Tools (Rotterdam), Details (Cologne), Czech Mania (Prague), Artificial (Nuremberg), Kaether & Weise (Lamspringe), Decorum (Istanbul) & Derin (Istanbul).

Ultimately Thorsten’s mission to work with people he likes, on products he loves. He’s under no illusion that these products are going to change the world forever, but claims that he just wants to bring some new ideas to people and hopes that some of the products will even make people laugh. His success lies in a great talent for spotting well-designed products with genuine individuality but enough presence to attract the attention of both the press and the paying public. http://www.thorstenvanelten.com/