Matilda unearths the best in Australian and New Zealand product design as yet unseen in Europe. Conceived by the wonderful Jenni Carbins, it will ensure that 13 of Australia’s leading designers will gain the international recognition they deserve.
It marks the beginning of an ongoing commercial proposition for the designers to have permanent commercial representation in the UK.
Its official. Thomas Heatherwick has been awarded the London Design Medal! I can’t think of a more deserving winner. He’s talented, pushes boundaries like few of his generation and a thoroughly nice bloke to boot!
Thomas Heatherwick commented:
“It’s a huge honour and a great surprise to be given the London Design Medal. London is the city I was born and brought up in; an endlessly exciting mish-mash of a place that inspires me and my team in the projects we do.”
To read more about Thomas, see what happened when I had a nice chat with him for Indesign Magazine.
Blow and Roll: Oskar Zieta
Zieta using compressed air to inflate the steel
Looking groovy at night!
The showcase installation in the Madejski Garden at the V&A (above). Clever to watch – Zieta has welded sheet metal, sealed the edges then pumped water, then air into the gap between the sheets to force the robot-produced shape into a custom and perfectly shaped 3D object. Here you can see him using compressed air to inflate the steel arms…..
The capital is revving up for this year’s festival, launching this Saturday. There are the usual suspects, from 100%design to TENT, but this year there seems to be a discernible wobble. With the future of the Design Council under threat and Neville Brody’s Anti-Design Festival creating a rumble, it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. Watch this space for daily updates…
In the mean time, check out this clever re-use of a derelict petrol station on Clerkenwell Road: the Cineroleum. Tweaked and altered by a bunch of twenty something architects, designers and artists, all with a common goal. They’ve created a pop up cinema- an homage to the golden age of film, with decadent interiors, flip down seat, neon lights and proper tickets. One of apparently 4000 redundant petrol station forecourts currently in the UK, its a wonderful and curious experiment.
As Emily Dickinson famously wrote ‘being a poet is all. Being known as a poet is nothing.’ Can the same be said about designers? Today you can’t pick up a fork, sit on a seat, switch on a light, open a bottle or pick your nose without someone’s name being attached to it (OK, so I made the last one up, but give it time…give it time). But why? And how do designers feel about being known largely for their name, over their work?
Design and business educators and professionals share new ideas and approaches around tackling the pressing issues of today. Produced by the Billy Blue School of Design, contributors include Dean Roger Martin, Alice Rawsthorn, Vince Frost and er, me.
It will be launched at Sydney Design and is available in bookshops now. Please contact Leanne Rule with any enquiries bbetween@billyblue.edu.au.
Chris Bangle. Ex-Design Director of BMW. What a thinker.
Listening to him is a bit like holding your breath underwater in the bath; it tends to focus you on just one thing. In this case, the power to think differently about how we move about on our planet, to escape the rigid confines of your mind as it understands it in the present, and imagine what it could be like in the future. Can roads design the car of the future? Can our cars look after us in our old age? Be our friend and companion as well as our vehicle? Will we give up personal ownership to share? Not because we are required to and feel we ought to, but because we demand it? Captivating.
What a superb venue – the Royal Exhibition Hall – housing all sorts of marvels, cleverness and objects of delight. Wonderful to see so much support for the design industry. I’m proud to be one of this year’s festival ‘ambassadors’. This promises to be a GREAT festival.