Wayne Hemingway is a fashion designer and founder of the Red or Dead label. He has also been instrumental in design of the Staiths South Bank development.

Wayne Hemingway. Courtesy Wayne Hemingway

Which object has inspired you to innovate or have a great idea?

We have always been great collectors. Our first company Red or Dead came out of our collection of second-hand clothes.

Our collections of mass market art, of mail order catalogues, of vintage mags and the massive collection of British cultural ephemera at our shared museum The Land of Lost Content (www.lolc.org.uk) has been our design education and our insight into popular taste.

Some of the items found at the Land Of Lost Content.

By understanding where we have been we have constantly been clear on where we are going.

Which person has most inspired you?

I have always been lucky to have inspirational family members around me. From my nan and pop in Morecambe and their fantastic sense of DIY style, a house that was full of bright clothes, grow your own, making things, art and kitsch crafts.

A mum who has always been fashionable, made her clothes and to whom having the latest interior ideas was important .

Then I met my wife and design partner Gerardine, and it would be difficult to find a more creative person who has an unbelievable attention to detail, she's a lovely wife as well!

Which idea or invention are you most proud of?

I think we achieved a lot with Red or Dead, our political and environmental stance and our drive to be the first affordable designer label made an impact and asked questions of an industry that still needs questioning.

The Red or Dead fashion label was started back in 1982 by Wayne and his wife Gerardine.

However, our work with affordable housing is having a real impact and is sticking pins in the PLC housebuilders. In particular our Staiths South Bank development in Gateshead for Taylor Wimpey is well received by residents, profitable and lauded by CABE , the government etc.

Housing has such an impact on lives and we are playing a positive role in an industry that needs to evolve.

Which innovation will have the most impact in the future?

The web will continue to shape our futures. Social networking and the ability to get together and question, make a difference and help each other is only in its infancy.

Facebook - an example of how social networking has taken off.

Social networking can lead to us reducing our environmental impact by sharing resources: cars, garden tools, materials, homes.

The web is only in its infancy in terms of what it can do for social, economic and environmental sustainability - there are exciting times ahead. It's big business. Watch out, social enterprise will start to challenge you.

Tell us what you think. We would like you to use our simple Storymaker editing tool to tell us what you'd put in a museum of me. We will be selecting some of the most interesting examples and publishing them next to the expert’s views during MGM 2008.

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