Writing about the ideas behind design. Think about it.
Australian designer Flynn Talbot has designed the installation ‘Full Spectrum’ as Australia’s exhibit at this year’s London Design Biennale (4-23 September), which explores the theme of ‘emotional states’.
Responding to the outpouring of love and positive emotion from last year’s Marriage Equality vote and legalisation in Australia, Talbot has created a circular screen of rainbow colours made with 150 hanging fibre optic strands. Read more
Guest contributor and European correspondent Lara Chapman visits the ‘Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18’ exhibition at the Design Museum London.
A visual cacophony of objects including memes, posters, videos, balloons and even a fortune-telling machine come together in a narrative of power and protest at this exhibition. The eclectic collection of pieces traces the turbulent political climate of the past decade and the graphic milestones that have shaped, defined and resisted events in this period. The exhibition also charts recent technological developments and their effect on the production and dissemination of media. Graphic design is presented as a tool that can be harnessed by both the most powerful corporations and the most marginalised groups of society.
The title of the exhibition references the iconic ‘Hope’ poster designed by Shepard Fairey for Obama’s 2008 election campaign and various appropriations of this, including the viral ‘Nope’ memes of Trump. Between these two moments of American politics, the world has been shaken by a series of charged situations including the Occupy Movement, The Arab Spring, refugee crisis’, LGBT rights, and climate change, which are all represented in the show. Read more
South Korean-born, Cardiff-based ceramicist Jin Eui Kim has created a series of ceramics using a layering technique that results in patterns with an optical illusion effect. I discovered his work at the Contemporary Ceramics Centre in London and was immediately impressed by the precision of the pieces, and balance of form and patternation.
Jin throws the pots on the wheel and then applies paint in 18 tonal bands from black through to grey and white to create a distinct stripe that deceives the eye, playing with concave and convex shapes. The occasional red or pink band serves as a highlight, while the finish is matte rather than gloss, providing a muted effect that is subtle and beautiful. Read more
As a fan of multi-disciplinary design as well as experimental projects, I was pleased to see so many design installations at this year’s London Design Festival. I have already covered three of the best installations in this blog: Heartbeat, an installation of 100,000 white balloons by French photographer Charles Pétillon, and two Faye Toogood installations (The Cloakroom and The Drawing Room) incorporating fashion, curatorship, making and sculpture. Here are five more and why they are interesting.
1) Curiosity Cloud by Viennese studio Mischer’Traxler at the V&A Museum
You enter an ornate room of the V&A filled with 264 suspended blown-glass bulbs hanging from the ceiling. In each bulb, a small insect hand-made out of transparent foil flutters against the side of the glass when it senses your movement. Katharina Mischer (1982) and Thomas Traxler (1981) met while studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven and started their practice in Vienna in 2009. Curiosity Cloud is part of their ongoing collaboration with champagne brand Perrier-Jouët exploring “small discoveries.” Read more
At Tent London during the London Design Festival, I was impressed to see the high quality of Irish design at a government-funded exhibition organised by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland. Called ‘Ó’, meaning ‘from’ in Gaelic, the exhibition’s focus was on design informed by decades-old craft techniques, remote locations and local materials. And they didn’t just show the finished works, but also presented live demonstrations of the crafts practitioners at work.
I saw ceramicist Adam Frew throw a beautiful bowl on the wheel and everyone around was mesmerised – with very few watching through their phones (rare in this day and age!). He prefers to work by throwing pots, using white porcelain, because it allows him to be fast and spontaneous in his making: “It is important to maintain a flow in the production while constantly developing the work. It is an on-going journey with every new piece inspired by the previous form,” says Adam (ref: Give Irish Craft). Read more
Today, our first guest post comes in the form of some choice updates by excellent London-based design writer (and friend) Giovanna Dunmall who has agreed to let me blog her twitter feed during the London Design Festival.
Many of the posts are familiar names to us, including designers Omer Arbel, Philippe Starck and Barber Osgerby, brands like Wrong for Hay and venues like the Ace Hotel and V&A Museum.
Check out Giovanna’s web page here or follow her @JournoGiovanna. Read more
There is a wonderful profile of Andre Balazs in the latest issue of Porter magazine (Summer 2014), in which he discusses his latest hotspot in London, the Chiltern Firehouse.
A dynamic man who surrounds himself with celebrities (including a string of high profile girlfriends such as Uma Thurman and Pippa Middleton), the Firehouse restaurant is an extension of this magnetic personality – a Google search for Chiltern Firehouse turns ups Orlando Bloom, Kiefer Sutherland and Heidi Klum. It makes sense that Andy Warhol was a close friend.
Balazs takes a personal approach to every hotel and restaurant in his stable and comments in the article that he has slept in every room of the Firehouse: “I need to know what every room feels like.”
The restaurant interiors by French designers Studio KO make the most of the existing architecture of the building, a former firestation in red brick built in 1889. A large kitchen is completely open, while the dining room is in white, with grand white columns, high banquettes separating diners in booths and cane chairs providing a relaxed feel. There are a few great pics of the interiors at The Telegraph.