Meet the Winner: Solveiga Pakštaitė

‘It is also our duty to have a holistic sense of different stakeholders at the table and bring their voices in. Whether it’s people or planet, everyone should have their say,’ says Solveiga Pakštaitė.

It’s this sense of curiosity and social responsibility that drives Pakštaitė. Combining behavioural insight, problem solving and intuition, she develops deceptively simple interventions that have real, everyday impact. Her goal is simply to make life better for everyone. At the core of Pakštaitė’s practice is rigorous research. ‘We never make design decisions in meeting rooms, and I have learnt never to assume anything. It’s never black and white; you have to consider the messiness of everyday life.’ On a more fundamental level, she adds: ‘We need to ask, what is the reason for this product to exist? We are past the point where we can keep creating products just for the sake of it. Yet at the same time we live in the era of Temu and Shein. It’s a very interesting time to be a designer.’

Pakštaitė’s project Bump, the temperature-sensitive food label that turns bumpy when food spoils, was exhaustively tested. Developed from her final university project, Bump was awarded the James Dyson Award and led to the founding of Pakštaitė’s company, Mimica. It is now being adopted by food manufacturers and retailers across the country. ‘For Bump, testing was essential; everyone deserves accurate food information. My favourite guerrilla approach was to talk to drivers of white vans in exchange for a biscuit. If they told me they didn’t have a clue, I knew I’d have to go back and rethink the design.’

Pakštaitė applies this same rigour when she is designing for inclusivity. ‘We don’t live anywhere near to an inclusive society, so there is a lot to do. I think it’s about creating solutions that help people to choose more inclusively because it is beneficial, more joyful and convenient.’ Her most recent project, Looplets, is a case in point, an add-on to open shoes that allows the wearer to thread a ribbon, lace or strap for extra stability and customisation. This adaptable footwear system, developed with Open Style Lab, goes way beyond utility. ‘The design had to work but it also had to have a sense of style. Inclusive design shouldn’t discount aesthetics, that’s how people express who they really are.’

Beyond her hands-on development projects, Pakštaitė also advises on sustainability, working with companies including Unilever and Nestlé. ‘Often my role is to get people to think past spreadsheets and instead look at human behaviour. This is particularly true of sustainable habits. We need to know what we can do to nudge people into making the right choices,’ she explains.

Pakštaitė firmly believes that design decisions made now have real-world impact and in the right hands, these decisions can be a force for positive change. She says: ‘Sometimes the state of the planet can feel a bit too much. But we have promising solutions with people innovating in amazing ways. Using design as a visionary, creative problem-solving tool opens up a better quality of life for everyone.’

Words by Tamsin Kingswell