Design Week
14 February 2008
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Amanda Levete's solo show under review
14 February 2008
For the French cultural theorist Gaston Bachelard, every interior corner was the 'very germ of a room, of a house'. In Around the Corner, her first solo furniture exhibition, Amanda Levete seeks to re-angle these unused spaces with a collection of four limited edition pieces designed to de-corner the corner with a fluid, planed organic symmetry. Here she has created North, South, East and West - a bench, a table, a console and a set of shelves - which, she says, are 'specifically designed ...
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Bathrooms: Simply Add Water
14 February 2008
Terence Conran's instructional tome, Bathrooms: Simply Add Water, will be published in April. The book shows readers how to create a 'bathing sanctuary', and includes planning information, a product guide and 300 photographs, plans and case studies. The book goes on sale on 15 April, priced £18.99.
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Big country, big commitment
14 February 2008
China represents a huge business opportunity for any consultancy, but it’s not an easy market to crack. Martin Darbyshire offers some hard-won tips on how to succeed In January I stood in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing ...
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Creative & Cultural Skills to tackle shortages with new projects
14 February 2008
Creative & Cultural Skills has announced plans to launch four flagship projects aimed at tackling the dearth of designers and creative skills across the UK.
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Design Bridge
14 February 2008
Design Bridge is promoting creative team head Claire Wells to the new role of creative director and appointing former De Beers planning and research head Jeanne Manuli as senior brand strategist.
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Digital media facility opens in Bristol
14 February 2008
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Durable goods
14 February 2008
What could be more sustainable than the good old vacuum flask and lunchbox? Fiona Sibley previews an exhibition that explores the social history of design for eating on the move
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Editorial is no longer judged against its price
14 February 2008
In his overview of customer magazines (Publishing & Design supplement, DW 7 February), Jim Davies omitted a key reason why our media are now being taken more seriously - a reason reflected in Adrian Shaughnessy's overview of on-line publishing in the same
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First Signs & Labels
14 February 2008
First Signs & Labels has created a low-energy sign for the University of Hertfordshire, with plans to power it by wind turbine. The logo was created by Lloyd Northover.
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Foreign designers hit by Immigration Act
14 February 2008
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FutureBrand to boost creativity after top London appointments
14 February 2008
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Gamble Fearon designed the River Gallery exhibition
14 February 2008
Regarding Topsham Museum's River Gallery project (www. designweek.co.uk, 1 February), for your information the River Gallery exhibition designers were Gamble Fearon Partners (along with Harrison Sutton Architects, as mentioned on your website). The project also included new permanent exhibitions in the sail and underloft by Henry Lyndsay, who also designed new shop and reception areas. Henry Lyndsay, Design consultant, by e-mail
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Hot fifty - Anthony Simonds-Gooding
14 February 2008
If anyone merits public recognition, it is surely Anthony Simonds-Gooding. A charismatic figure, he has straddled advertising and design for much of his career, as a client, at BSkyB and other companies, as chief executive of D&AD and more recently as cha
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Hot fifty - Apple
14 February 2008
If design head Jonathan Ive's proven creative prowess isn't enough, the launch of the iPhone last autumn guarantees Apple a place among the 2008 Hot 50. Its touch-screen technology has changed the way in which we expect to communicate, and brought new hand gestures into international sign language.The early models of the iPhone are not without their problems, and the West Coast company has been accused of cynicism in the way it dropped the price dramatically a couple of months ...
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Hot fifty - At Six Cities Design Festival
14 February 2008
Organisers of Scotland's Six Cities Design Festival are still considering how to take the venture forward, but they should be applauded on what they achieved first time round. It ran from 17 May to 3 June 2007 and the programme included a host of business, design and learning activities as well as public events.
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Hot Fifty - Audi Design Foundation
14 February 2008
Audi Design Foundation has become a regular in the Hot 50 listing, but that is because this tiny charity, set up in 1997, continues to develop new ventures for making a difference through design, engaging emerging and established designers in the process.
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Hot fifty - Beck's Fusions
14 February 2008
Public music events aren't new, but the concept behind Beck's Fusions takes them into a different dimension. The brainchild of lager brand Beck's and London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, this series of multimedia events, held in a temporary performance pod during September last year, combined music with visual art at prominent venues across the UK and Ireland.
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Hot Fifty - Blogging
14 February 2008
There are times when a phenomenon, rather than a person or organisation, merits a mention for the influence it exerts on design and related creative media. One such phenomenon is blogging, the vogue for running Internet diaries that encourage comment and criticism from anyone who happens by.
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Hot Fifty - Bombay Sapphire Foundation
14 February 2008
Bombay Sapphire has, like many upmarket spirits and champagne brands, long since identified the creative industries as an important audience. Creatives love to party, and if they do so through drinks sponsorship, so much the better for all concerned. That's the thinking, anyway.
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Hot fifty - Charles Knevitt
14 February 2008
Some jobs in the creative industries demand as much political mastery as they do passion for the subject. The diplomacy required - and the weaving between warring factions to get things done - smacks more of the Yes Minister scenario than the ad agency hothouse.
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Hot fifty - Charlie Hoult
14 February 2008
In these days of teamwork, design is often criticised for being devoid of big personalities. Few have stepped up to fill the boots of industry founders like Terence Conran, Michael Wolff, Wally Olins, Michael Peters and Rodney Fitch.
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Hot fifty - Comme des Garçons
14 February 2008
Last December, fashion brand Comme des Garçons delighted the Mayfair set with a guerrilla store in London's Burlington Arcade to promote the launch of its Comme des Garçons 8 88 perfume.
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Hot fifty - Dame Anita Roddick
14 February 2008
The untimely death at 64 last September of Dame Anita Roddick brought great sadness to all who had known her. A battler all her life - for environmental, health and humanitarian concerns - she wasn't always an easy person. But the deep respect she commanded across the board was, and remains, phenomenal.
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Hot fifty - DOTT 07
14 February 2008
The team behind the first Designs of the Time event pulled off a spectacular feat last year, setting a benchmark for subsequent events to match up to.
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Hot fifty - Dynamo London
14 February 2008
Dynamo London is effectively a website - www.dynamolondon.org - set up in January last year by Zoe Black of New Media Knowledge and digital star Malcolm Garrett of Applied Information Group to build, among other things, a digital community in London.
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Hot fifty - Emily Campbell
14 February 2008
As we went to press with the Hot 50, Emily Campbell's job was in the balance, along with those of many of her colleagues at the British Council as it sought to streamline its 'creative' line up.
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Hot fifty - Gary Hustwit
14 February 2008
It is rare for design of any kind to make it on to the entertainments circuit, let alone a specialist area such as typography. But the documentary Helvetica, directed by Gary Hustwit, had showings in several major cities across the world, not least at Oxford's BritDoc festival and London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, and even made it on to national TV in the UK.
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Hot fifty - Gordon Brown
14 February 2008
Controversy surrounds Gordon Brown's Government as we go to press, but design still has much to thank the Prime Minister for.
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Hot fifty - Gwyn Miles
14 February 2008
When Gwyn Miles quit the Victoria & Albert Museum just over two years ago to become director of Somerset House, she took on a daunting task.
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Hot fifty - Helen Hamlyn Centre
14 February 2008
It is often hard for an organisation to redefine itself once it is established. This is particularly the case in academia, where habits tend to stick more easily than they do in the commercial world and change can be slow.
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Hot fifty - John McAslan Family Trust
14 February 2008
Architect John McAslan is behind the John McAslan Family Trust, which supports projects largely relating to young people in the arts and education, as well as film, TV, music, dance, drama and sport.
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Hot fifty - Land Securities
14 February 2008
For the second year running, property developer Land Securities has made it into the Hot 50. It is here again for the consistency of its design management process and commitment to great creativity, of which there has been even greater evidence over the past 12 months.
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Hot fifty - Liverpool City Council
14 February 2008
The jury is still out on what the long-term effect of the 2008 European Capital of Culture tag will have on Liverpool. After all, the year and its attendant events only started last month.
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Hot fifty - Martino Gamper
14 February 2008
The highly inventive designer Martino Gamper has a wonderfully mixed background, which shows through in his eclectic work. This was evident in the exhibition A 100 chairs for 100 days, which was held in London last autumn to coincide with the publication of his book, which bears the same title. For the show he made a chair a day in a bid to make 100 chairs in 100 days.
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Hot fifty - Michael Thomson
14 February 2008
Regular conference-goers in design will be aware of Michael Thomson. The self-effacing Irishman may seem an unlikely champion of design, but for years he has battled on the international scene to gain greater recognition for design among European governments.
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Hot fifty - Mike Collier
14 February 2008
One of the great legacies of the first Designs of the Time festival - Dott 07 - was that it has created local heroes, ordinary people in the North East of England who have achieved great things through design.
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Hot fifty - Mike Dempsey
14 February 2008
It was new year, new start for Mike Dempsey. The eminent graphic designer quit CDT Design, the consultancy he founded in 1979 with Ken Carroll and Nick Thirkell, to go it alone.
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Hot fifty - Nick Jones
14 February 2008
Members' club supremo Nick Jones has long catered for the creative community at work and play, with venues such as Soho House in London and New York, Electric House in west London and a 'country hotel', Babington House near Frome in Somerset.
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Hot fifty - Nokia
14 February 2008
In February, Nokia finally opened its long-awaited flagship store, designed by Eight Inc, in London's Regent Street, after some three months' delay. But you have to applaud the Finnish telecoms giant for its plans to take the West End by storm and consolidate its UK design team at the new central London offices.
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Hot fifty - Peta Levi
14 February 2008
No one has battled so passionately to promote emerging design talent as Peta Levi. The London graduate showcase New Designers, held annually at the Business Design Centre in Islington, was her brainchild more than 20 years ago and she has gone on to establish organisations such as the Design Trust and Eureka to help designers across various disciplines to run their businesses more effectively and find collaborators on the client side, particularly in retail.
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Hot fifty - Peter Spence
14 February 2008
Peter Spence is an unlikely champion of design. But the former business advisor set up the South Coast Design Forum in May 2006 as a response to local designers who had moved out of London for family and other reasons, but missed the buzz of the capital.
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Hot fifty - Professor Martin Darbyshire
14 February 2008
While he glories in the title of professor, Martin Darbyshire is a practising product designer and also chief executive of seminal London design consultancy Tangerine.
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Hot fifty - Ravi Naidoo
14 February 2008
Ravi Naidoo has made it into the Hot 50 listing before for his work in promoting global design within South Africa. He identified design as a generator for change in his country and set up Interactive Africa to channel promotions to this end after the collapse of apartheid.
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Hot fifty - Robin Levien
14 February 2008
Robin Levien has long been acknowledged as an expert in industrial ceramics. His taps and toilets are legendary, particularly for UK bathrooms company Ideal Standard, for which he became non-executive design director in 2003.
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Hot fifty - Royal College of Art
14 February 2008
The Royal College of Art hasn't made it into the Hot 50 previously. Its high-profile rector Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, now also chairman of the beleaguered Arts Council, made the listing when he was chairman of the Design Council, and its inclusive design arm, the Helen Hamlyn Centre, features this year . But though it fulfils its remit admirably, the London postgraduate art and design college wasn't deemed to have gone beyond the brief before.
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Hot fifty - Sheridan Coakley
14 February 2008
Sheridan Coakley has long been a champion of great design. Through his SCP stores he has promoted and commissioned largely British or UK-trained furniture and accessories designers, creating a number of modern classics in the process.
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Hot fifty - Sir George Cox
14 February 2008
If Sir Michael Bichard's inclusion in the Hot 50 anticipates the great things we expect of him in the name of design, Sir George Cox, his predecessor as Design Council chairman, returns to the listing as a mark of all he has achieved.
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Hot fifty - Sir John Sorrell
14 February 2008
If a knighthood doesn't qualify you for a place in the Hot 50, it would be difficult to know what does. An award in the New Year's Honours List therefore puts Sir John Sorrell here as an untiring champion of design.
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Hot fifty - Sir Michael Bichard
14 February 2008
We have yet to see what Sir Michael Bichard will achieve in his new honorary role as chairman of the Design Council. Following the prolific and wonderfully enthusiastic Sir George Cox into the job will be a challenge indeed.
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Hot fifty - Skandium
14 February 2008
When the Victoria & Albert Museum celebrated its 150th birthday some years ago, talk was of the crossover between commerce and culture anticipated by Victorian philanthropists and industrialists. Even they, though, possibly didn't expect retail to play su
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Hot fifty - Sophie Murray and Jane Wood
14 February 2008
It is rare to see a mother and daughter combination featuring in a listing such as this. But in this instance it is justified, given that both were involved in commissioning Thomas Heatherwick's first building in the UK - the East Beach Café at Littlehampton on the South Coast.
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Hot fifty - Southbank Centre
14 February 2008
The refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank has attracted considerable media attention. There have been mixed reviews about the work carried out by architect Allies and Morrison in accommodating shops and restaurants along the river frontage of the building, but interior restorations have generally been met with great acclaim.
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Hot fifty - Swarovski
14 February 2008
Swarovski is no stranger to the Hot 50, largely because of the entrepreneurialism of Nadia Swarovski, who now runs the family business. Under her guidance, the crystal manufacturer has become a big name in fashion and in interior design, as a patron as well as an innovator, entering into retail through its own chain of shops.
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Hot fifty - The Drawbridge
14 February 2008
In this age of on-line blogs, it is refreshing to see an independent magazine that gives good copy on a mix of cultural and social issues and blends it with great art direction.
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Hot fifty - The Jerwood Foundation
14 February 2008
The Jerwood Foundation is often associated with the craft world or fashion, rather than design as we define it, because of its annual visual arts prize scheme that visits one discipline after another, from jewellery and glass to furniture, via ceramics, drawing and fashion.
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Hot fifty - Thorsten van Elten
14 February 2008
Promoting emerging talent can be a thankless task - and not always commercially successful. This has been the experience of Thorsten van Elten, who closed his wonderfully quirky London shop in January to promote independent designers in a different way.
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Hot fifty - Three Trees Don't Make a Forest
14 February 2008
Three Trees Don't Make a Forest was set up to help the creative community take a more sustainable approach to its design and business practices.
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Hot fifty - Tom Dixon
14 February 2008
If an overseas design aficionado was asked to put a face on British design, you can guarantee that Tom Dixon would be in the running.
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Hot fifty - Virgin Atlantic
14 February 2008
Sir Richard Branson's airline has a strong reputation for design. Conceived as a challenger to more established national carriers such as British Airways, it has long sought to appeal to a market that is hip and experimental, as well as competing on price for the handful of international destinations it flies to.
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Hot fifty - Wally Yachts
14 February 2008
If you ask any sailing fanatic to name the best in yacht design, chances are they'll cite Wally Yachts.
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Hot fifty - Wellcome Trust
14 February 2008
Design patrons come in all shapes and sizes, but few have been as faithful as the Wellcome Trust, the medical research charity that funds research into human and animal health. It has used art and design consistently to dispel the myths that medical research is clinical and impenetrable, and to engage the public in scientific concepts that might otherwise be difficult to comprehend. It is no surprise to find it as the patron of the Science Museum's Wellcome Wing, which uses experimental ...
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Hot fifty - Zaha Hadid
14 February 2008
It is hard to believe that Zaha Hadid was once an unknown outside architecture's inner sanctum. For years, the London-based, Iranian-born architect was better known, even within creative circles, for her beautiful if enigmatic drawings, than for any of her buildings.
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Hot fifty Introduction
14 February 2008
This year's Hot 50 is surprisingly without themes. In the past we have seen art, politics or key issues such as sustainability driving the choices of people, organisations or phenomena that have had a big impact on design, but this year there is no strong slant. All are in there, but to equal degree.Thus we see politicians like Prime Minister Gordon Brown reappearing, largely on the strength of his reconfiguring of Civil Service departments following the disbanding of the Department ...
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Inspired, Sophia Wimpenny and Ali McCulloch - Precious McBane
14 February 2008
At Precious McBane we like to collaborate wherever possible with companies that have a different perspective to our own. We read about Fine Cell Work a few years ago and bookmarked it for future collaboration. What FCW does is simple - teaching embroidery, patchwork and quilting to prison inmates. The prisoners earn money, while learning skills. Most of the prisoners have never invested their energies in something creative and the therapeutic effect is profound.FCW produces a great ...
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Jonathan Gold
14 February 2008
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Making city life more legible
14 February 2008
As London expands its wayfinding scheme, Emma Germain looks at the history of similar ‘legible city’ initiatives across the country
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News in Pictures
14 February 2008
Lighting designer Jonathan Krawczuk has designed a new candlelight for Mathmos. 'Revolution', pictured, creates a skeleton carousel - spinning shadow graphics using heat from two tea lights. Revolution is available in two glass finishes, frosted or red. T
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News in pictures
14 February 2008
Mathmos, is set to release a new lamp called Revolution, designed by Jonathan Krawczuk.
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No holds barred for designers in Punch and Mitchells merger
14 February 2008
With regards to the anticipated merger between Punch Taverns and Mitchells & Butlers, and what design can do for the UK's pub chains (Voxpop, DW 14 February), imagine this:
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Perfectly preformed
14 February 2008
Prefab structures, most often seen on building sites and caravan parks, have a long design history, but the best rarely make it into production, says Hugh Pearman
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Pizza brand Goodfella’s
14 February 2008
Pizza brand Goodfella’s is launching new-look packaging designed by Jeli. The nascent consultancy claims it beat a Northern Foods-rostered group to clinch the job.
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Profile
14 February 2008
Interior designer Marta Nowicka has overcome personal tragedy, rebuilt her career and become a property developer. Pamela Buxton talks to her about reinhabiting spaces, ideal projects and car-park aesthetics
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Public transport in need of radical overhaul, says CSS
14 February 2008
A radical overhaul of transport and road design is needed if we are to avoid a congested, overcrowded, polluted and hazardous transport environment in the future, according to a report released last week by the County Surveyors' Society, now known as the CSS.The report, entitled Travel is Good in a bid to emphasise the positive aspects of transport, comes at a time when London Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced a hike in the congestion charge for London's largest and most polluting ...
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Redesigning the toothpaste tube
14 February 2008
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Sanderson Bob
14 February 2008
Graphic designer Sanderson Bob is exhibiting work at the Kemistry Gallery in London, EC1. The show, entitled Pure Yet Complex, features a selection of posters exploring the designer's interest in line, colour, perspective, movement and edges. Sanderson Bob is currently working on Microsoft and Nike advertising campaigns. Limited-edition A1 litho prints will be available for purchase. Pure Yet Complex runs until 22 March.
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Sony Ericsson X1 takes on Apple iPhone
14 February 2008
The unveiling of the Xperia X1 phone in Barcelona on 10 February marked the launch of Sony Ericsson's Xperia brand. Designed by its in-house team, the X1 has a qwerty keyboard, four-way key, optical joystick navigation and a 10cm clear wide-screen display. The distance between the keyboard's keys is designed to make writing fast and easy. The phone looks set to challenge the Apple iPhone and has been designed for use in Web and mobile communications, for entertainment purposes and as a ...
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Temporary hotel designs for Shoredtich
14 February 2008
Architect Tim Pyne is planning to open a temporary hotel in London by the end of this year called M-hotel.The M-hotel brand (pronounced motel) is a development of Pyne's M-house - the 'upmarket prefab' house/office which he developed seven years ago.His design is for a hotel that can be moved, or taken apart and used as separate units after it has fulfilled its initial purpose of housing business people who work in the City.His first M-hotel design will be built ...
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The bottom line is more important than client feedback
14 February 2008
In response to Jan Casey's article regarding client feedback (DW 31 January), I feel that while it is important, it has to be intertwined with a form of measurement that focuses on the bottom line. In the face of economic downturn, marketing and design has traditionally been axed from budgets because the financial directors are not concerned with the client/supplier relationship. They are only bothered by return on investment. As a result, transparency in reporting and an increased ...
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The Institute of Chartered Foresters
14 February 2008
The Institute of Chartered Foresters is launching a new identity, created by Edinburgh graphic design consultancy Studio LR.
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The main industry bodies don't quite make the grade
14 February 2008
There's something very special about Design Week's Hot 50. Published this week, it gives us the rare opportunity to reflect on and honour people and organisations that have gone the extra mile for design.We use it to push the boundaries of how we define design - we don't write ...
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The new Dada graphics at Tate Modern
14 February 2008
The face of Tate Modern's forthcoming spring blockbuster show has been created by Rose Design.The Dada-inspired exhibition - The Moment Art Changed Forever - opens to the public this week, and features a staggering 400 pieces by pivotal 20th century artists Man Ray, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp.The consultancy was brought on board, without a pitch, last autumn to design the marketing materials, a 288-page catalogue, posters and exhibition graphics, having worked with ...
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Voxpop
14 February 2008
The University of Kent School of Architecture claims that a brief asking students to design a torture device and its antidote is acceptable. Does such an assignment aid design learning, or is it merely offensive?We are all for lateral briefs ...
