Insight: World’s leading car designers on future, sustainable design
Head of Maserati design Klaus Busse and the MC20 I’ve been speaking with a number of senior creatives in the car world lately. My interest is in understanding how various brands are navigating their way to the new electric and autonomous age of the automobile. Like many, I am hugely excited to see a genuine shift in attitude, even among the more conservative makers. And I’m eager to see how designers are responding to change –... Read More
London Design Museum to relocate with new ambitions
The Design Museum has announced it will open in its new home in west London on 24 November 2016. The building in Kensington overlooks Holland Park and is the result of a £83m transformation of the 1960s listed former Commonwealth Institute building. The new space is three times the size of the current Bermondsey site. The three floors will house three galleries, a library and learning centre, two events spaces, an auditorium for talks and seminars,... Read More
Mobility examined at Milan Design Week
Up until a few years ago the automotive world came to Salone del Mobile Milano as spectators. The week is dedicated to product and industrial design; the venue acts as a platform for discourse on design and speculative debate. It isn’t meant to be a stage for showcasing new cars. With more and more car companies participating now, what is the right way, the correct etiquette, when it comes to exhibiting in Milan? Unveiling a car is definitely... Read More
Notes from Salone del Mobile Milan
Design lovers flocked to Milan earlier this month for Salone del Mobile, the world’s most significant design fair that also marks the unofficial start of the design season. The main event at Fiera Milano is definitely worth a visit, but it is away from the crowded exhibition hall that some of the more exciting events take place. Pockets of Milan come alive during the week with designers and artists from all around the world exhibiting a mix... Read More
Designed in China
How do you change the perception of ‘made in China’ to ‘designed in China’? Chinese contemporary art is currently the focus of intense interest in western Europe, so why not Chinese design? Two exhibitions in London aim to rectify this. Unfolding Landscape, at Sotheby’s in London, which finished last week, exhibited work for sale by graduates from Beijing’s prestigious design school, The China Central Academy of Fine Arts. Across... Read More
Designer Talks: Tom Dixon
Tom Dixon discusses the parallels between nationality and creativity at the 2012 Milan Furniture Fair. In the latest video from Nowness experts Carlo Lavagna and Roberto De Paolis the British industrial designer talks of his likes of Lee Broom, La Chance, and Noé Duchaufour Lawrence. Watch the video here. Design Talks | 5 – 25 Scrutton Street | Old Street | Shoreditch | London | EC2A 4HJ?W | www.d-talks.com |Bookshop | Published by Banksthomas All... Read More
Salone del Mobile 2012 highlights
The design world congregated on Milan last week for Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Europe’s leading design fair in Milan. To mark its 51st year, the fair set its focus on technology and its influence on design. This is a vast show, spanning most of Milan with its hub at the exhibition centre in Rho. Read the report published in Wallpaper*. #gallery-8 { margin: auto; } #gallery-8 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top:... Read More
London Design Festival: Clerkenwell, Bloomsbury, Shoreditch
Designersblock this year moved to the Farmiloe building on St John Street in Clerkenwell for more space to curate the show as part of the London Design Festival. From the outside, large white inflatable spheres and upside down furniture suspended from the rafters gave the warehouses the appearance of an inverted mad hatters tea party, but inside the designs were more down to earth. John Galvin‘s handcrafted furniture is warm and tactile. His... Read More
London Design Festival 2011 higlights
At the Grand Entrance to the Victoria & Albert Museum sits a giant installation cascading down the steps – the dramatic and soaring Timber Wave responding to the museum’s vast, ornamental and multilayered façade. This is the work of London firm Amanda Levete Architects who, with the help of structural engineer Arup, has created this complex three-dimensional latticework spiral from American red oak, using lamination techniques normally practiced... Read More
Brit Insurance Design Awards
From an original concept for a cookery book and iPhone app, to an open air library, an organically-shaped chair and the world’s first designer lightbulb, the winners of this years Brit Insurance Design Awards at London’s Design Museum were an inspired collection from the world of architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. The seven winners, selected by a jury chaired by former chief executive of the Design... Read More