Design Week
2 April 2009
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A considered view of the potential for design in Cornwall
2 April 2009
With regard to your story on Dott Cornwall (News, DW 19 February), we're lucky to have offices in Cornwall and Bristol, so can view this issue from a local and a national level. Sadly, good design isn't as obvious in Cornwall's private and public sectors as in the rest of the UK. Maybe, being a poor region with traditional industries, it's not high priority. But in the past two years we've noticed a real change in attitudes. I hope Dott acts as even more of a stimulus for ...
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Bedroom no good? Try doing it in the garden
2 April 2009
I want to reply to Stephen Knowles' letter in which he argues that the bedroom is no place for product development (DW 19 March). Knowles feels that this business model, mentioned by Jim Dawton (DW 26 February), is 'at odds with reality'. It isn't - it is reality. Controversially, Dawton also said, 'UK consultancy is losing the skills to deliver product design.' I disagree with that, too - both models co-exist and clearly work. Outsourcing design delivery to the guy in ...
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Birmingham City University
2 April 2009
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Blinking into a brighter world
2 April 2009
The world’s a very strange place at the moment. As a consultancy we’re fortunate not to have suffered too much, but horror stories abound - and a frightening chat with a prospective client the other day has brought home to me how badly the recession’s beginning to bite in some places.A large, household-name company is looking at moving on to a three-day week. Its head of marketing is now bombarded with increasingly desperate calls from design consultancies, offering not ...
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BWP brands 'opulent' Soho boutique hotel
2 April 2009
Retail and leisure design specialist BWP Group is branding a new boutique hotel and retail development in London's Soho.The 'deliberately opulent' branding is intended to 'fly in the face of the recession', says a BWP spokeswoman.Property group Consolidated Property Corporation appointed BWP last week following a creative unpaid pitch against at least one other consultancy.BWP has named the 2470m2 development in Old Compton Street Soho Central. It will include a ...
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Design Council partners TSB to drive innovation
2 April 2009
The Design Council is linking with the Technology Strategy Board in a partnership which aims to strengthen design's role in innovation.The two bodies are both funded by the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills, and, according to Design Council chief executive David Kester, 'share a common aspiration to drive innovation across the UK'.Kester adds that the two organisations have always been very collaborative, and have now identified specific projects where ...
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Hat-Trick Design repositions Marwell zoo with new look
2 April 2009
Hat-Trick Design has created a new identity for Marwell Zoological Park in Hampshire, which is being renamed Marwell Wildlife.The consultancy was appointed by the zoo's owner and operator, the Marwell Preservation Trust, following a three-way pitch last September, according to Hat-Trick director Gareth Howat.Howat says, 'Our task was to create a single strong personality to unite everything the organisation does. The challenge was to move the brand from being a regional ...
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Inspired, David Bicknell: Echo Brand Design
2 April 2009
In my youth I was entranced with W Heath Robinson’s fantastic gadgets - not only with the absurdity and complexity of his devices, but with the compelling nature of his illustrations which forced my mind to follow and delight in their workings. Powered by bald, bespectacled gentlemen, forces were ingeniously transmitted through complex pulley arrangements and threads of knotted string to eventually perform quite simple, mundane tasks.Years later, while working on dispensing ...
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Liverpool launches free-to-use brand created by Finch
2 April 2009
Businesses, organisations and the public are being encouraged to use the City of Liverpool's new brand across their own communications for free.The identity, created by Liverpool advertising agency Finch, builds on the heritage created by the European Capital of Culture 2008 brand.Paul Whitehead, head of marketing at Liverpool Vision, the organisation behind the brand, says, 'Companies had to pay to use the Capital of Culture logo, but with this we wanted to give something ...
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Masters of the universe
2 April 2009
Does the world really need more creatives? Adrian Shaughnessy weighs into the education debate by suggesting designers are well-equipped for any career
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Monster bash
2 April 2009
Monsters are having a moment. Actually, they're having a bit of a protracted moment, ever since Pixar's Monsters Inc thrust them into the limelight in 2001. In the UK, Julia Donaldson's lovable Gruffalo series continues to delight the kids, Ricky Gervais' Flanimals are set to wreak monstrous havoc on UK big screens later this year, and the trailer for Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 1963 children's classic Where the Wild Things Are has just hit the Internet, to the delight ...
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Motorola's vision for the future of communications
2 April 2009
When Motorola asked its design studios to consider communications of the future, they imagined a world where ambient technology frees human interaction from hardware tyranny. We look at the results
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News In Pictures
2 April 2009
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London commissioned Garudio Studiage and others to create hats for its Easter Bonnet Parade, which took place last Friday as part of a series of events surrounding its exhibition Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones.
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News in Pictures
2 April 2009
An exhibition of work by editorial designer David Hillman (including this cover of 1970s women's magazine Nova) will be held at the Hub in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, from 2 May to 28 June.
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Olympic selection process needs to be more than lucky dip
2 April 2009
Last week, you asked the question, 'With an Olympics body admitting to appointing designers at random, what can Olympics organisers do to improve their relationship with the design industry? (Voxpop, DW 26 March). I would say that selecting anything at random from quantitative data carries a degree of risk. If a surplus of consultancies are meeting the preliminary selection criteria with scores of 100 per cent, then clearly the process is not fulfilling its prime function of discriminating ...
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Plinth-top viewpoint affords a chance to admire and walk
2 April 2009
What would I do if I had an hour on top of Antony Gormley's fourth plinth installation in Trafalgar Square (Voxpop, DW 12 March)?
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Profile: Ross Sleight
2 April 2009
A pioneer of digital design, Ross Sleightenjoys being one step ahead of the game.The multi-tasker talks to Lynda Relph-Knight about the early days of no rules, making mistakesand why he still likes a good argument
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RCA students set up crisis shop for Milan fair
2 April 2009
Product design students from the Royal College of Art will be presenting their responses to the theme of 'crisis' at this year's Milan furniture fair.The 14 postgraduate students from the Platform 10 teaching unit, led by Daniel Charny and Roberto Feo, were asked to produce retail pieces for exhibition in response to what Charny describes as a 'very open' brief to look at strategies for coping with crisis.The resulting works are to be displayed in a makeshift 'crisis shop' ...
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Saltwater
2 April 2009
Leicester-based Work Design has worked with calligrapher and illustrator Ruth Rowland to create this new brand identity for the Saltwater seafood restaurant in St Ives, Cornwall. The identity, which will launch this summer, will be applied to the restaurant facia, the website, menus and other touchpoints.
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Sheridan & Co
2 April 2009
Retail design group Sheridan & Co has created two in-store concessions at Selfridges in London for men's beauty brand Kyoku, launching tomorrow.
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Sustain our Nation shows the way forward for design
2 April 2009
Sustainability can be a minefield. You can have an event on low-energy housing without reference to community, we can push the notion of recycling without considering reuse and product designers might still look at the' cradle to grave' impact of their creations without thought ...
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The craft skills of paper illustration are finding favour
2 April 2009
The intricacy and artistry of paper illustration continues to appeal in the digital era, its suggestion of craft skills finding favour with private and commercial clients alike. Anna Richardson enjoys the stunning effects of the discipline
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The industry faces the university challenge
2 April 2009
A new report voices the design industry’s concern about universities encroaching on commercial territory. Gina Lovett investigates
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The Ocean Emerald
2 April 2009
The Ocean Emerald super-yacht, designed by architect Norman Foster, is set to launch on 25 April. It is the first of four identical super-yachts that will make up the fleet of yacht group Yacht Plus. The 41m-long, four-deck craft will be launched at the La Spezia boatyard in Italy.
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Thoughtful set to market Tate Liverpool blockbuster
2 April 2009
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Voxpop
2 April 2009
A recent debate at the Royal Geographical Society saw the motion ‘Britain is indifferent to beauty’ defeated. What do you think is the most beautiful thing in Britain today, and why?
