---
name: Jolyon Yates
title: Designer
email: jyates@me.com
website: www.odechair.com
bio: "MA(RCA)Lon, Designer / Maker

Born in Durham, England in 1968, Jolyon studied Industrial Design and then Automotive Styling at the Royal College of Art, London.

After a spell at Opel, working on the development team of the World's first wholly virtual car design, Jolyon worked at Style Porsche in Stuttgart. In this capacity he worked on major internal and external design projects. In a freelance role, Jolyon went on to work with designers Stefan Stark, Seymour Powell and The Product Group.

Returning to New Zealand in 1998, Jolyon taught Design at Massey University in Wellington before taking up a role at Bakewell-White Yacht Design in 2000.

Jolyon now participates in various international transport and design projects: his specialisms include design conceptualisation, development, rapid prototyping, visualisation, print and web.

ODEChair is a new venture, launched in 2006 involving the design and making of unique and distinctive one-off and low volume wooden rocking chairs and interior accessories.
"
date: 2025-05-08
image:
    src: people/jolyon-yates.jpeg
    alt: Jolyon Yates headshot
---