121 Could innovative design help us age better? with John Mathers

John Mathers spent his career working in marketing, branding and design. At the age of 60 he retired and in the past four years, he has carved out what he deems to be a successful retirement for him. After a rebranding exercise opened the door to the problems faced by older people, John realised how much innovative design could help improve the lives of the older generations. He has since worked with young designers to try and get them to understand the problems those in later life face and use that to design products that will enhance their lives. He is now co-founder of Design Age Accelerator, a government funded initiative to help innovative designers which continues his work in innovative thinking and design in a field that has been neglected for many years – healthy ageing. In our conversation we talk about Johns own approach to retirement, how he got into the field of ageing, and the incredible work Design Age Accelerator is doing to get young entrepreneurs to design products that will their help older people lead better lives.