12
WORK
LIF E
9 3
A�ONE-DAY�DIARY��
FROM�MORNING�LATTE
TO�LIGHTS�OUT
Greta Corke,
designer and
entrepreneur
Greta Corke, 35, is one of three
directors of DIY Kyoto (diykyoto.com)
who invented the Wattson energy
monitor. She lives in Shoreditch with
her two housemates, Kat and Matt
It sounds really morbid but I always
thought I was going to leave life early.
I don’t know why. So now I’ve made
it to 35, I can’t help but feel really
proud and excited, especially when
I think about what I’ve achieved.
Along with two other designers,
Jon Sawdon Smith and Richard
Woods, who I met at the Royal
College of Art, I designed and created
the Wattson electricity monitor. It’s
a device, which displays how much
energy each appliance in your home
uses so you can make more informed
decisions about your energy use.
It took two years of hard work and
long hours to produce. I had tears
in my eyes the first time I saw the
finished product 18 months ago. It’s
only just started to make a profit but
it feels like we’re getting somewhere.
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6
GRETA MISSES THE
PURPOSE AND DISCIPLINE
SHE LEARNT AS A GYMNAST
Most mornings my alarm goes off
at 5.30am in my small ninth floor flat
on the Hackney Road in east London.
I’ve lived there for 11 years. I’ve
watched the Gherkin being built and
seen Shoreditch go from trampy to
trendy. I get up really early to give
myself time to potter and get my mind
mentally prepared for the day ahead.
When it’s your own company, there’s
no one to tell you what to do so I have
to be disciplined about planning
my day. I always check my emails for
half an hour, tidy the flat and get my
papers in order. Then I have some
Finnish oats for breakfast, which my
DESIGNER GRETA CAN
HELP YOU SPEND AN EXTRA
£286 ON SHOES EVERY YEAR
mum sends over from Luxembourg
or cheese on rye bread and I walk
to work for 9am.
When we started DIY Kyoto we
all had to muck in to get our product
onto the market, but now we’ve
diversified and have all taken up
separate roles in the company. I check
our blogs, write and design our
newsletter and liaise with retailers.
“I thought I’d leave life
early so now I’m 35,
I’m proud and excited to
think what I’ve achieved”
MY�PLAN�B��GYMNAST
Although the business side does
inevitably take over, we’re still
designers at heart, so we’re always
brainstorming new ideas.
In August, we received the best
news we’d had since starting the
company: 500 customers gave us the
data of their usage and they had all
seen a saving of 20% on their
electricity bills. That’s an average of
£286 in a year. As designers, the most
amazing news you can have is that
you’ve created a solution to a problem
– functionality is key.
For lunch, I usually have a
sandwich although sometimes Jon,
Rich and I grab a fry up from one
of the local greasy spoons. Obviously,
working with men means we argue
sometimes, but the dynamic does
seem to work. You need to constantly
question and push each other.
Even though I work in a very male
world I’m still single. My career has
taken precedence and I just don’t have
the opportunities to meet people.
I have started to feel my biological
clock ticking. It’s become very real
as a lot of my friends have started
families. It’s never been my main
priority though; you can’t command
life to go in a particular direction.
For me, it’s more important to meet
a partner whom I love than to worry
about having children, but hopefully
it will be the next stage for me.
I finish work at 6pm and often
go for a boxing training session,
which I love. It’s so therapeutic and
great exercise. I go out quite a lot
locally, to Bar Kick or the Book Club
in Shoreditch, and have Finnish
lessons every Saturday. My mum
is from Finland and although I speak
German and French fluently, I’ve
never learnt her language. I’ve been
doing classes for a year and I’m
getting pretty good. My dad’s an
architect and at the age of 84 he’s
still working. He’s my inspiration.
He understands the creative process
and is always there if I need to
whinge or celebrate a mini-success.
At night, I usually watch an
episode of House on my laptop
in bed and sketch a few ideas in
a notebook before drifting off
to sleep at about 11pm.
I did gymnastics for 10 years, from the age of six till I was 16 years old. I would have loved to have done it
professionally. I was still living in Luxembourg at the time and trained three hours a night after school and even
during school hours. I also had Sunday morning classes, doing everything from bar work to the horse, which was
my speciality. I loved it. It kept me fit, gave me a purpose and installed a sense of discipline and regime in
me, which I still take with me even today, despite not having trained in years. I was good enough to go on to
the national team (although it was Luxembourg, so it perhaps wasn’t that impressive) but I grew too much and
became too tall to compete. I miss it. I box now, which keeps me fit and requires a similar sort of discipline.
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MANAGEMENT�USING�LANCôME�AND�KÉRASTASE��TOP�������MINT�VELVET�AT�HOUSE�OF�FRASER
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