Adam in the crescent

Adam in the crescent, a photo by c.g.almrott on Flickr.

just came across this photo i took whilst in Bath this autumn. all the touristy shots i took with my phone were pretty rubbish but tjis one came out ok.

The UK’s New Designers

Islingtons Business Design Centre

“New Designers” is the UK’s pre-eminent graduate degree show for students working in product, furniture and automotive design. It is held annually at the business design centre, Islington, London in a fantastic Victorian exhibition hall which was originally The Royal Agricultural Hall and was a contemporary of the Crystal Palace. The show is famous among UK universities with students hoping to win one of the major prizes which include high profile design internships at company’s such as Virgin and Habitat (although following the latter’s fortunes of late this may not be the case for this year)

I have been visiting the show since for a number of years and first glimpsed the hall as a wide eyed A level student who at 18 was awed by the potential of a discipline that, at the time, I was hoping to make my career. After four years of university education which included an industrial placement year I was lucky enough to be selected by my own university to exhibit my work when I graduated. The contacts I made at the show ultimately led me to my current position through a Masters degree. It was an exciting end to a fantastic period of my life but it was also hugely frustrating and, during at least, immensely disappointing.

As a student attending the show you are promised that there is no better way to get exposure to the industry and as a valued representative of such a talented university you have a good chance of securing a top line prize. The reality is that with hundreds of graduates in attendance the show is a crowded mess of product concepts, general public and hopeful students. Getting in with the right people is a difficult process (especially as most of those recruiting just look like some old duffer; not the fabulously trendy young libertine you see in your naive mind’s eye). As well as this judges tend to stick close to what they know, visiting the big central stands of universities who have performed well in previous years. As a small course or emerging degree you stand little chance of getting the notice you feel you deserve and the universities that pay the most get the best chance of good exposure.

New Designers 2011

But that’s how it goes. As a graduating student you ignore the fact that actually the show is really a showcase for the university and not yourself. It is a way of the institutions to shout look at me, look at how good we are to any prospective students or investors. This is not the problem with New Designers or British design education. What is most annoying is not the lack of time with the awards judges or the insufferable heat in the exhibition hall (thankfully cured this year with the introduction of some decent air conditioning) but the fact that there now seems to be little consideration for originality in the designs on display. This is, quite frankly, appalling as these are the brightest stars emerging in to an industry which is so centred on research and change. Talk to these new prodigies and they will tell you that they don’t know who their target market is or what the return would be on a product run. A large number have no idea how or where their designs would be produced or why even they would be producing them in the first place.

Design education has to focus on content and reason and not just on pretty renders and industry buzzwords. A good designer is not the one who can shoe horn sustainability, ergonomic and, inclusive innovation in to one multi-clause nonsensical sentence. This is especially true when the concept is, in all honesty, patronising and generally irrelevant. A new designer must be able to see the worth in an idea have the ability to conceptualise and communicate it well whilst retaining a knowledge, understanding and care for how and where it can be produced and what the organisation will gain from producing it. Design does not occur in a vacuum and designers who have no sense of the commercial side of the market will face a very steep learning curve in deed.

Exhibiting at ND2011

Just as bad are the courses that focus so much on the technicalities of designers, the process the designer must undertake, that they suppress all individuality and creativity from the students. Every year Coventry University’s automotive design stand looks the same, Bournemouth University has the same projects (although thankfully the toothpaste extractor was missing this year) and Goldsmiths exhibit nothing at all (this stand is filled with faux design workings and disgustingly cheerful students prancing around the exhibition in boiler suits trying patronisingly to show everyone else how to be designers with first week first year design briefs which ultimately fail and cause the rest of those exhibiting to hate the very site of them).

With an economy which is so dependent on the service industry and is increasingly turning to the knowledge economy to bring value and innovation the UK must address the failings that seem to be straying precariously close to the surface of the design education establishments. If the country wishes to stay at the forefront of international trade and innovation designers must embrace the fact that they are integral to the business machine, not external to it, have a responsibility to integrate with a company and bring about revolution from within rather than setting themselves on a pedestal which is being ignored more than it is being tipped. Design cannot remain aloof and cannot remain elitist and the way that it should achieve this is through its emerging New Designers as the complete a well rounded creative education.

Clerkenwell Design Week

The wristband was for entry to the show apparently... hmmm

Adjacent to Old Street (London’s Creative Hub); Clerkenwell is one of the coolest areas of London. It’s Victorian warehouse buildings are home to over 60 showrooms and a number of architectural and creative practices. It is London’s perfect location to host an international festival that celebrates all disciplines of design.

This years festival was the second annual celebration and was host to over 150 events as well as a series of pop up exhibitions, installations, talks, performances allowing Studios and designers to showcase their newest line up.

The centre of the exhibition was the Farmiloe building, a great space which  was once the home of Victorian lead and glass merchants. The exhibition it housed had some exciting new concepts from producers great and small. Jaguar, the lead sponsor of the event, had a their newest concept car, the CX-75, on display next to a clutch of new anglepoises and some furniture from Nigel Coates.

It was beautiful, and not my normal style at all

One of the most striking pieces in the exhibition was from Ochre, a fantastic LED chandelier produced from glass tear drops and gold leaf. Set against a large aged mirror it fitted the gritty warehouse setting perfectly and was striking against a back drop of retro modernist furniture on the floors below.

There were a number of themes that ran through the exhibition from sustainability to design education (two themes that are close to my heart). On the design education front it seems that inspiring children whilst they are still at school and the teaching of solid basic craft skills, like the joining of timber and are really important and lead to a fully rounded designer rather than teaching “design”, that comes later. One logo that cropped up on several  times was that of Buckinghamshire New University, who have over recent years contributed a significant number of designers to the Clerkenwell scene.

All in all CDW was an interesting and enjoyable place to view emerging talent, new products and some genuinely interesting pieces. There were some great networking opportunities and the CPD’s, especially the trend watching one by Style Sight, were really informative. Heres to another good year of design and an even better festival next year.

Contributing Editor…

I received an email Sunday night from the admin of a forum that I have been using for some time asking if I would be interested in contributing articles to the forums sister site. After a brief email discussion with him I agreed to start writing articles on a number of different areas.

My first article will cover Clerkenwell Design Week which is happening at the moment. I am not sure how often I will be contributing but it should be quite fun.

Coming along.

Yet again i have proved that i am unable tp stick to keeping this updated but never mind. I don’t think I’ve stopped to breathe since December with work on quatreau and hydreaubar taking up most of my time.

There has been other stuff going on though. At the start of furniture the year i began work on a mid century retro line of furniture. I wanted to look at pieces of furniture that used to be very important but have been neglected in recent years. Currently the collection stands at three pieces and i hope to release them by September.

I’ve also been working on a new concept: GiganticYak. This will hopefully be relatively revolutionary and quite fun at the same time. More on this later.

Finally work is underway on v3.0 of the website. Hopefully i’ll get it all done in css making future updates a lot quicker. However lots of work still need to be done on this to get it live.

Every kind of transport

Ok so i am starting to think i am a little to commited to work. The pitiful snowfall that has brought the east aide of the UK to a halt has been a bit of qn inconvenience. This morning, after waiting at herne hill station for twenty minutes with no idea if the trains were running i got the 37 bus, a bus which is notorious for not running, to Clapham Junction. There i found that Southern trains were cancelled but great western were only delayed. I got a train at 8.15 and for to Egham for 8.45. I was lucky enough to meet a work colleague and got a lift in to work.

Not wanting to take any chance getting home i left the office at 3 and walked for 30 minutes through the snow to the station to find that a trains rockabilly London were cancelled. Right then… Bus to terminal 5 (second major transport hub of the day). 5.30 and I’m on the piccadilly line -just got to change to district/circle then Victoria then i’m clear through rockabilly brixton.

Perfect Flow

So yesterday when i was working from home the new spout tips i had ordered from CRDM arrived.

I was a bit disappointed at first as the RP method they had used didn’t have the resolution to do the designs justice (they could have told me this when they were quoting – other companies with different technologies did) also the sealant  they used took the models over tolerance. Following a goodrub down i tested three of the eight designs with two successful. The one that failed was one of the more complex models and i put the failure down to that.

The one i like the most is pictured. Drawing on the shape on the trailing edge of humpback whale fins the tip draws the water leaving the spout in to one stream but creates a very intricate flow pattern.

tea bar

I’m currently on a train heading to reading on my way back to the office. Popped up to moorgate to inspect a system that a client was having some issues with. It all appears well most likely cause of concern are the bottles that the client is using

I left Roger to go and do a CPD at a firm of architects whilst i visited a lovely tea bar in Tavistock Street, just off Covet Garden, called La Anabela. Tea was fantastic a great bit of research!

Damn you Angry birds

Ok so i think i may be becoming addicted…

Back from the north

I recently spent a couple of days back in boro for graduation. It was nice seeing everyone again, especially the likes of John Wheeler and Tony from Creative Glass.

I’ll stick some grad photos online when i get a hold of them but until then this is how beautiful it was heading back down south.