2020 in review: A year in design and rethinking the future

‘No One is an Island‘ by Random International, Superblue, Studio Wayne McGregor © BMW AG We will enter a decade premiered with a very dark storm. Yet much of what we are witnessing since the pandemic was already in progress: a planet in deep ecological crisis, systemic race and gender inequalities, unsustainable economic disparities, rise of populism and the post-truth era, the anxieties of the information age and machine science… Covid... Read More

Time for change after the coronavirus pandemic

I’ve taken to keeping a daily diary in isolation – though I suspect I’m not alone here. Most of us locked up our diaries to collect dust in the attic when we left our teens. Its job was complete, navigating those unpredictable and impressionable years. This pandemic needs its own navigation. For many, cocooned in the safety net of the western world, trauma of such scale, the human loss, the fear of the unknown, are new. Some have witnessed... Read More

Bentley explores the future of sustainable luxury travel with EXP 100 GT

As traditional carmakers study what their place will be in the next chapter of the automobile, this EXP 100 GT by Bentley Motors sets out to explore luxury in the context of clean autonomous travel in an imaginary world of 2035. The form may follow a classic motor car design theme, yet it is conceptually and materially where the EPX 100 really makes a distinctive statement.  Here’s a little teaser as to what to expect from the marque... Read More

Introducing the softly radical future Bentley

Last month we were given an insight into the future of Bentley Motors design. Although not radical in the obvious sense, it is a very interesting and subtle approach to the evolution of luxury. The marque is viewing new materials in terms of sustainability and usability, and is looking at how the interior, especially the interface, will evolve – in this case radically – to speak the language of digital natives with bendy, wrap-around screens projecting... Read More

Reclaiming the word luxury

I’m often asked to consult for luxury brands, to consider what is luxury now and in the future, and how to communicate this effectively editorially and otherwise. This came to mind whilst watching Boyhood the other night. Not being my first screening, I was able to reflect on it in peace. For anyone who hasn’t seen this film, Boyhood is a coming-of-age movie shot in real time – the director Richard Linklater gathered the same cast... Read More

Competition: Heineken Bottle Design Challenge

Drinks giant Heineken is celebrating its 140th anniversary with a second instalment of its Future Bottle Design Challenge. The company has put its years of design and branding online for designers to remix and create the bottle design of the future. Participating designers have complete creative freedom to reuse, re-imagine and remix these images from the brand’s past to create a Heineken bottle of the future. #gallery-2 { margin:... Read More

Heineken design challenge

To mark its forthcoming 140th anniversary, drinks company Heineken has launched a global design challenge. The company is inviting creatives from around the world to connect, through social media, and form teams to design a beer bottle of the future. The brief is to create a bottle design that symbolises how people around the world will connect in the next 140 years. Driven through Heineken’s Facebook page, the idea is for anyone interested in... Read More

Visions for 2020 hybrid McLaren

Premium marque McLaren Automotive has challenged third year transport design students at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin to pen their visions for a hybrid two-seater off-road McLaren for 2020. Working closely with McLaren design director Frank Stephenson, and the engineering team at the headquarters in the UK, the students developed their concepts based on McLaren’s lightweight carbon fibre chassis ‘MonoCell’ – a feature... Read More