Blog Archive
'Have nothing in your houses that you do not believe to be beautiful’
A new exhibition at the William Morris Gallery showcases work from the Society of Designer Craftsmen.
Conference of the Birds
The Conference of the Birds is a beautiful graphic novel that places a 12th Century Persian epic poem firmly into the 21st Century.
V&A announces sound design programme
The Victoria and Albert museum has announced a hefty sound design programme, with ‘show and tells’ from sound designers as part of its Digital Design Drop In, and a sound design workshop with its sound artist in residence Jason Singh.
Look Like Love
Irked by the lack of support available to graduates, chums Kate Brewer and Eden Asfaha decided to take matters into their own hands, creating the cute, alliterative Look Like Love initiative.
Secret Posters
It seems nobody’s saying who designed what anymore; the Royal College of Art sells secret postcards and Universal Records is selling secret vinyl, now St Martins students are selling secret posters.
Southbank Centre to focus on contemporary Indian design
The Southbank Centre is putting Indian design high on the agenda of its Alchemy Festival of South Asian Culture this month.
Blue footed boobies and hammerhead sharks: Galápagos-inspired artwork
In 1859 the Galápagos Islands inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Now they’ve inspired Marcus Coates to dress as a blue-footed booby bird to observe human behaviour.
How digital technology and packaging build brand experience
Osborne Pike’s Steve Osborne looks at how packaging can harness new technologies.
21st-century type
An exhibition opening at Stationers’ Hall in London next month will look at the current state of type design.
Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts
Next week sees the opening of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts, an 18-day celebration of art that curators say focuses on ‘the real, the physical and the very tangible.’
Nike brings athletes and designers together for Boxpark exhibition
Nike has paired 11 UK athletes including Mo Farah and Perri Shakes-Drayton with East London artists including Lucas Dillon and Matthew Bromley for an exhibition this evening at retail development Boxpark.
Designing for landmark events
Anniversaries and set-piece events present opportunities for designers.
Some Think Funky creates Something from Nothing
The recently formed and rapidly expanding Some Think Funky collective is bringing a cavalcade of Brighton-based designers to London for its second exhibition Something From Nothing.
It's Dark in London
‘Here we see a city of looming towers, shadowy embankment and subterranean sleaze; of public bars and private vices; of huckster artists, strippers, vandals, thugs and addicts.’
Did you hear about the midnight dabbler?
MRM Meteorite digital creative Will Aslett on having a creative outlet.
Benetton’s survival guides
Benetton is holding an exhibition at London’s Design Museum and silmultaneous shows across its London, Milan, Barcelona and Paris stores inspired by the its recent Colors magazine trilogy.
Brighton's House festival returns
Wallpapered roads, immersive installations, and political statements written in carpet: the streets of Brighton are about to become a lot brighter as visual arts festival House returns.
Bare Bones
Waging war against the ‘facile and pointless’, publication Bare Bones is an unflinching upholder of rawness, creativity, experimentation and the notion of the free press.
Create 2012
Arts organisation Create - part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad - has announced its summer programme, featuring works from David Bailey, Something & Son, Dominic Wilcox and Jeremy Deller.
The Wolf Man - a Freudian graphic novel
While Freud is often seen as the preserve of psychotherapists, literary critics, the tongue-tied or the dinner party bore, a new book also extends its reach into the realm of the graphic novel.
The end of the world as we know it?
We don’t mean to panic you - but on 21 December this year, the earth is due to undergo some serious changes. Namely, some cataclysmic and transformative events, which may well signal the end of the world.
Where are all the women in design?
Where are all the women in design? The question has been a hot topic in over the past couple of weeks.
Information Graphics
The infographic is, as this book explains, a mode of communication universally loved by newspaper and magazine art directors, data analysts and the ancient Egyptians.
British Design from 1948: Innovation in the Modern Age at the V&A
Yesterday saw the opening on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition British Design from 1948: Innovation in the Modern Age - a cornucopia of the best of British design from the ‘austerity games’ of 1948 to the present day.
Why we need brand personality in retail
Together Design’s Emily Penny on the importance of brand personality in retail.
Art at Latitude Festival 2012
Now in its third year, Latitude Festival’s Contemporary Art prize is back with what’s set to be a dazzling woodland exhibition of nominated works from Linder Sterling, Tom Dale, Andy Holden, George Young and Lisa Peachey.
Architects decorate Regent Street shop windows
Architects are creating window installations for nine shops on London’s Regent Street as part of this year’s Royal Institute of British Architects Regent Street Windows Project.
Jamaica Street Artists Collective announces open studio weekend
Bristol’s Jamaica Street Artists collective - which comprises 42 artists - is preparing to host its annual Open Studios event to share the work of editorial, comic book, children’s book, animation and conceptual illustrators.
Full Design Week Awards judging panel unveiled
The full judging panel for this year’s Design Week Awards has been named.
Making WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing
Nakedness is almost always an excellent idea.Cleanliness is next to impossible (but keep trying anyway)
Studio Output's Rob Coke asks - does the budget really offer incentives for smaller design consultancies?
A guest blog from Studio Output partner Rob Coke on the impact of the budget on smaller design consultancies.
Museum of London youth panel commissions Olly Gibbs to work on Roman exhibition
As the Museum of London awaits an overhaul of its Roman Galleries - a project expected to take some years – its youth panel, Junction, will oversee the gallery’s short term curation.
The real story of Ad Men
In advance of the fifth series of Mad Men (which airs on Tuesday night, Don Draper fans) Sky Atlantic is telling the real-life story of British advertising from the 1960s to the ‘80s in hour-long documentary Ad Men.
Malcolm Garrett and Kate Moross discuss Music x The Graphic Arts
Bands, artists and record labels - as we’re sure you don’t need us to point out - are frequently as recognisable for their graphics and record sleeves as for the music they release.
Free Range graduate show set to return
Graduate design beacon Free Range returns to the capital in May showcasing the talents of fifty UK universities and art colleges.
Neue Slowenische Kunst is coming to London
Hugely influential Balkan 20th Century art movement Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) has amassed an art community encompassing over 14000 citizens world wide - yet somehow it has, for most of us, quietly slipped beneath the radar in the UK.
Street artist ROA heads to London for book launch and exhibition
Belgian street artist ROA’s towering monochrome animal murals have become a regular sight in many cities.
Happy 30th Birthday Manchester Craft and Design Centre
A 30th birthday can often be marked with a painful wrench that time has flown - you’re not as young as you once were - which even a valiant repetition that of the mantra that ‘30 is the new 20’, or ’40 is the new 30’ can’t shake.
Mind the Map
Where would we be without maps? Lost, probably - particularly when it comes to navigating the labyrinthine London transport system.
Sustainable furniture designer Parnell announces new show
‘I create a demand from unwanted supply’ says Nic Parnell, a sustainable furniture designer whose only concession to the scruples of upcycling is using new nylon flock and lacquer.
Photographer's Gallery's new home's opening festivities
The new Photographer’s Gallery in London is set to open the doors to its new home in May, and its naissance will be accompanied by a jam-packed schedule of talks, events and two wonderful opening shows.
Abandon Normal Devices
Hitting the North hard this summer is Abandon Normal Devices (AND) Festival - a series of events across disciplines including film, digital, art and design that aim to ‘challenge our way of thinking.’
Art & Sole collaborates with Nike on Cortez project
Book and blog Art & Sole - run by purveyors of sneaker culture and graphic designers Intercity – has shoe-horned the creative talents of artists including Rose Stallard and Matthew Nicholson into the NikeiD Studio shop in the Boxpark shopping mall, East London.
TileZone Conference is coming to London
This week sees the TileZone conference holding its seventh annual event in London - exploring how design can best be utilised in the world of leisure and tourism, and how the recession and emerging markets can offer a wealth of opportunities for UK exhibition designers and project managers.
Fierce Festival 2012
There aren’t many festivals where it doesn’t raise an eyebrow that one of the line-up highlights is set to be a full reconstruction of the United Nations Congress, where each delegate is represented by a dachshund.
Joan Miró 'destroys painting' in Yorkshire Sculpture Park show
‘May my sculptures be confused with elements of nature, tree, rocks, roots, mountains, plants, flowers’, quipped Catalan artist Joan Miró, in the manner of, say, a Romantic-era poet, or a man who feels much of the world may be drifting in lysergic reveries.
Experiments in analogue and digital in The Frontroom
Illustrators Jack Featherstone and Max Parsons are taking Template, a new site specific work, to The Frontroom Gallery in Cambridge where they’ve experimented with analogue and digital processes.
That's a Wrap
Reusing and recycling is being reimagined in a whole new deliciously aesthetically pleasing way by Wrap magazine - which celebrated its fourth issue release last week.
Editorial - Making it easier to break into the industry
Last summer, as news was breaking that universities would be able to charge up to £9000 per year in tuition fees, I remember discussing with colleagues a follow-up piece that would look at alternative routes into the design industry for people who were unable to afford to pay for a degree course.
Jotta’s design director Jane Trustram on the Redesigning Graphic Design Education
Jotta’s design director Jane Trustram guest blogs on the Redesigning [Graphic] Design Education conference held this week by Lost in the Forest Institute and Derby University, which examined the future of graphic design education.
Satirist George Grosz hailed in new Hayward Touring exhibition
George Grosz: The Big No, a Hayward Touring exhibition is being billed as a celebration of the artist, who in the 1920s ‘made hundreds of drawings depicting the vices and injustices of a society on the brink of economic and moral collapse.’
Designing for the birds and bees
Designs for urban bee hives, bat boxes and bird boxes are going on show in London as part of a project that aims to provide wildlife habitats in the capital.
Designing Women
A show opening at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum this week celebrates the trio of women who pioneered post-war British textile design - Lucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler.
Alan Turing commemorated by Science Museum
Alan Turing, the scientist credited with a string of computing firsts, including the invention of the Bombe machines which broke German Enigma codes in WWII, is to be celebrated in a new Science Museum exhibition designed by Nissen Richards.
Drawings in progress
The Working Drawings show, which opens next week, showcases the doodlings and scribblings of designers including Abram Games, Ken Garland and Milton Glaser.
Flatpack Festival 2012
Misspent youth, vampire motorcycles and attic explorations will all be making an appearance at this year’s Flatpack film Festival, which opens across various Birmingham locations today.
Fallon designers produce bookmark magazine
A bookmark, crammed with tiny poems, witticisms, illustrations and general literary ephemera, written perhaps by the very people who pick them up. Why has no one thought of it before?
Are these chairs making you hungry?
A new show at London’s Viaduct furniture showroom aims to examine the relationship between food and design by tasking three top chefs to devise a series of menus in response to 15 chair designs.
The Crisis Commission
Isolation, security and space - themes often explored by artists- are being given a newly poignant context in The Crisis Commission art show opening today at Somerset house, which has seen prominent contemporary artists creating new works in response to the issues surrounding homelessness.
Making Magazines
Editorial design gurus Jeremy Leslie of Magculture and Simon Esterson of Eye are organising new one-day conference Making Magazines, which is being held on Friday.
The story of London’s Monki store
Back in November, we reported on the imminent arrival of Swedish fashion brand Monki to London’s Carnaby Street. Now, the store has flung open its phantasmagorical doors, with an interior concept based on the idea of 12 cute, demonic and ugly imaginary Monki critters, created by Swedish graphic design company Vär.
How to increase the value of your consultancy
If you’re thinking of one day selling your consultancy, or just want to plan for the future, Jonathan Kirk and Jack O’Hern offer advice on making your business more valuable.
Editorial - the rebirth of Hidden Art
Challenging economic situations demand creative responses, so hats off to Hidden Art, which has found a way to keep itself going after almost being forced into closure at the end of last year.
Join us at the Design Week Awards
Come and join us at the 2012 Design Week Awards night - to be held on 13 June.
Designer Breakfasts are back
The Designer Breakfasts series of talks is returning for 2012 at a new venue - the Design Museum in London.
Bristol's Five Days of Design
This month will see the launch of the inaugural Bristol Design Week - Five Days of Design.
British Posters: Advertising, Art and Activism
Although it goes without saying that in an age driven by digital, the role of the poster is rapidly changing, British Posters: Advertising, Art and Activism demonstrates the enduring importance of posters as a hugely powerful medium.
Brody’s Fuse back-catalogue to be republished
Neville Brody’s experimental type publication Fuse is celebrating its twentieth edition with a retrospective tome combining all the issues going back to its first in 1991.
Paul Schütze’s multi-sensory Air into Light
While much of his work is, indeed, smoke and mirrors, the stunning photographic prints of composer-cum-artist Paul Schütze also take in skulls, typewriters, frozen ink and dissolving flowers.
Don't start a design company, start a designed company
Nick Marsh and Nicola Sherry, of Sidekick Studios, talk about what designers can bring to start-up companies.
Kenneth Grange and David Adjaye on collaboration
The Society for Environmental Graphic Design is bringing an impressive host of speakers to London for its 2012 International Symposium.
Discipline my disciplines: guest blog from MRM Meteorite's Will Aslett
MRM Meteorite digital creative Will Aslett on how to manage your skills.
Graphic Thought Facility Lecture
Back in January, Laurence King Publishers hosted a lecture by Thomas Heatherwick, and now, in the second of the series, Graphic Thought Facility will be sharing their knowledge with a design-hungry audience.
Mercy’s Young Pines collective announces No Vacancy show
There has been an unspecified natural disaster and you, one of many survivors, have been crammed into a rather crowded hotel, where the effects of overpopulation are being brought to light.
Duvel beer glassware design competition winners announced
Back in November, Belgian beer brand Duvel launched a competition across the UK, France, The Netherlands and Belgium to create a design for its curvy signature glasses.
The Ruel Deal
‘My sketchbooks have become a valuable tool for me, a place where I can retreat to and in what might in fact be the only conclusive proof that I have actually existed’, says illustrator Stuart Ruel.
Editorial - the design education battle still needs to be fought
The coalition Government made a rare step in the right direction in its approach to design and design education this week.
How to succeed in retail design - the client’s view
Richard Newland, former global head of design and development at HSBC, looks at how consultancies can stand out to clients in the fast-changing retail world.
Print on the edge
An upcoming show by Kingston University students looks at the changing role of print in design.
Talk About Contemporary Photography
What links a man incarcerating himself in a student locker for five days; and a Selfridges ad campaign?
Zoe Leonard: Observation Point
Somewhere between illusion and perception lies the camera obscura, a beguiling phenomenon which can be traced to around 450BC, predating the camera by some way, and probably passing for witchcraft for most of that time.
Lufthansa and graphic design
Lufthansa and Graphic Design, a new title from Swiss publisher Lars Müller looks at the graphic design history of German national airline Lufthansa, from its beginnings in the 1920s right up until the present day.
Mr Gresty on film
When designer Mr Gresty takes his latest show to the Hackney Picturehouse next week, he’ll also be committed to celluloid.
No Brow's Brilliant New Books
While many profess to ‘lol’, when we imagine they probably aren’t - we did, yes, literally laugh at loud on reading the marvellous new comic from publishers No Brow, Leeroy and Popo.
21 designers for the 21st century
Book 21/Twenty One looks at the careers so far of 21 designers working in Britain who have come to prominence since the millennium.
'The most glamourous flea market' comes to Soho
This May will see the grand unveiling of the one-day City Showcase: Soho Flea Market in Dean Street, London, showcasing the work of emerging design and art talent over about 80 stalls - what we’re promised will be the ‘most glamourous’ Flea Market you’ve ever seen.
Do we have to have a heart?
Brand On Shelf managing director Guy Douglass looks at the role of the heart motif in branding, following Yeo Valley’s new identity.
An Alphabet of London
‘Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford,’ wrote Samuel Johnson in 1777.
Rip it up and start again
In preparation for his new show at London’s Boxpark, street artist Pure Evil has torn up his work.
Printed Matter
While Hirst, Chapman and Perry may initially make us think formaldehyde, prosthetic genitals and subversive pottery; a new show opening at London’s Eleven gallery in March will show that there’s another, more two-dimensional side to these figures.
Royal Academy reveals Premium Interim Projects
The Royal Academy is to open its doors to the public for a peek at the students’ work
Editorial - The story behind the Boris bus
Heatherwick Studio’s new bus for London is finally set to launch, after what’s been a pretty haphazard commissioning journey.
MARK furniture and Kvadrat to reveal secrets
Cornish furniture brand MARK has teamed up with Danish textile company Kvadrat – no stranger to collaboration - for an exhibition on the making process of furniture.
Frieze Projects East and Create to take over Olympic east London
Arts organisation Create - part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad - has commissioned Frieze to take on its first ever project outside the annual art fair in Regents Park for the Frieze Projects East, which will see installations including a swimming pool filled with inflatable sculptures and a series of graphic narrative billboards taking over east London this summer.
Broken Fingaz Crew is coming to London
Israeli street-art troupe Broken Fingaz Crew began working in 2001 in the port of Haifa, and in a few months, the crew will be descending on London for a show at east London’s shop 13 at the Old Truman Brewery.
South London schoolchildren win Design Museum Prize
A team of pupils from Walworth Academy, Southwark, have won this year’s Design Museum Design Ventura award, for their game Slick Shooter.
Pointe Blank
June last year saw Birmingham Royal Ballet hosting a collection of beautiful designs based on the ballet Coppélia, and now the company is hosting another crop of dance-inspired artworks.
The Design Week Awards entry deadline is fast approaching
The entry deadline for this year’s Design Week Awards is midnight on Thursday 23 February - so hurry if you want to get your entries in.
UCA students work with United Colours of Benetton
United Colours of Benetton has turned to the University of The Creative Arts for a global digital window display project.
Designer book covers
To mark the upcoming British Design exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Vintage Classics imprint has brought in a host of Great British designers to create new covers for some Great British novels.
Lines of Thought
A series of installations, photographs and other artworks that explore the use of line are going on show at east London’s Parasol Unit next week, exploring how the meaning and use of line varies from artist to artist and generation to generation.
London Design Week 2012
Interiors event London Design Week returns next month with headline speakers including interior consultant David Rockwell.
These drawings were sent to walk amongst you
‘I have never found my voice’, says artist Paul Davis, ‘That’s the beauty of it, you never do - it’s an impossibility as an artist.’
Pop-Up Prints
This weekend sees the opening Pop-Up Prints, of a show of beautiful print works all being sold to raise money for the charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust.
Open air street gallery
Under an open sky, fully exposed to the elements, London’s Mortimer Street will become a 114m photography gallery next week.
Editorial - A design that’s changed laws in 17 countries? Now that’s effective
There were some great examples of the power of design last week at the Design Business Association’s Design Effectiveness Awards - as you might expect.
Bergne the dinner
Designer Sebastian Bergne is throwing a dinner party where 15 years worth of table-wear will be used for its designed purpose.
A cracking project
Egg-cellent news for egg-lovers - Fabergé is hosting an egg-straordinary egg-stravaganza of an egg-hunt on the streets of London later this month, and they’re not even yolking.
BT ArtBox calls on designers for a London-wide phonebox installation
Few things quite say ‘Britishness’ like the iconic red telephone boxes designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, and these bastions of pre-mobile phone era communication are now to become the heroes of a London-wide installation, helped along by designers and artists including Malcolm Garrett and Turner Prize-winner Keith Tyson.
Kites swoop into The Public gallery
Taking inspiration from geometric rock forms found in the US desert town of Quartzsite, Arizona, artists Heather and Ivan Morison have designed a pair of kite structures for West Bromwich based gallery The Public as part of its Art of Architecture season.
The wonderful work of Richard Hollis
An upcoming London show dips into the archive of graphic designer Richard Hollis, to create an exhibition dedicated to four decades of his practice.
Dead men's tailoring as art with Sheridan & Co
It’s a sobering thought to think about what will be left behind after we die. Fond memories of us perhaps? An unwashed mug in the sink? For those wealthy and sartorial enough there are also the bespoke tailoring patterns used to make suits, something artist Hormazd Narielwalla uses as the rather eerie inspiration for his work.
Manchester Design Symposium returns
The Manchester Design Symposium is set to return next month for its second outing, and although the organisers haven’t yet released the full line up, they’ve revealed to Design Week that among the speakers will be Adrian Shaughnessy and Morag Myerscough.
Design Week talks to multidisciplinary designer Ron Arad
Big or small; practical or impractical; art or design or architecture - there are few things multidisciplinary hat-sporting designer Ron Arad won’t turn his hand to. To slip into a (very accurate) cliché, Arad is a primary example of a designer who deftly defies categorisation.
Red Ball Project gives you wings
With interaction and imagination at heart, the Red Ball Project is public art at its most playful.
Back to Basics flyers
A stalwart of the Leeds club scene for 20 years, iconic house night Back To Basics is renowned for both its music and its flyer artwork - a familiar sight around the city.
Valentine's Day round-up
In case you haven’t noticed - or are wilfully ignoring it - today is Valentine’s Day, so if you’re in need of inspiration, here’s our Valentine’s design round-up.
Design Week Awards entry deadline extended to 23 February
The entry deadline for this year’s Design Week Awards has been extended to midnight on 23 February, so there’s still time to get your entries in.
Monsters and Marmite - an interview with Pete Fowler
Today sees the launch of three Valentine e-cards for Marmite, created by ‘monsterist’ (and illustrator, painter, musician, iPad doodler and producer) Pete Fowler. We caught up with him to chat monsters, psychedelia, iPads and, of course, Marmite.
Love and Peter Saville work on new charity album
Manchester based consultancy Love has collaborated with Peter Saville on the artwork for a new charity album, Thirty One, which features music created in Manchester.
ICA presents talks inspired by The Themersons
The Institute of Contemporary Art will present a day of talks to support its new exhibition The Themersons & Gaberbocchus Press
Max Hattler’s apocalyptic shift
For his first London solo show, moving image artist Max Hattler is transforming the basement of the Tenderpixel gallery into what the gallery says is his ‘cinematic interpretation of an apocalyptic shift’.
Works on Paper at EB&Flow
Paper is at the centre of a group show opening today at east London’s EB&Flow Gallery, looking at the material’s use as medium, surface and as a tool in preparatory studies.
Design Week visits World Design Capital Helsinki 2012
As Design Week approaches Finland for The World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 Open Doors Weekend, the first thing we notice is a frozen sea, flanking the peninsula.
Muji’s product fitness
Japanese brand Muji is to hold an exhibition at the Design Museum next month, which it says will highlight its ‘less is more’ approach to packaging and design.
Stop thinking, start doing: guest blog from MRM Meteorite's Will Aslett
MRM Meteorite digital creative Will Aslett on the importance of creatives getting their hands dirty.
Designing our future - a guest blog by Mat Hunter
A guest blog by Design Council chief design officer Mat Hunter on how the design community might respond to the UK’s aging population
Designs of the Year 2012 at the Design Museum preview
‘The Design Museum used to be a bit up its arse, shying away from popular culture. This is very much popular culture’, says designer Andy Altman, of his Comedy Carpet, created with artist Gordon Young.
How the Web changed the world
Last summer, the National Media Museum in Bradford began a search for artworks for its new Life Online Galleries, which are being designed by NRN Design.
Unplanned Magic to celebrate Material Gallery's new home
This week east London’s Material Gallery will celebrate its interiors overhaul and its move next door, with an exhibition of prints by Marcus Walters.
British Library Spring Fair
The British Library is set to host its inaugural Spring Fair, a huge festival of creativity, with a cast of characters including Jamie Hewlett, Neville Brody and Mr Scruff.
Art Nouveau designs at the Sainsbury Centre
The weekend saw the opening of The First Moderns: Art Nouveau, Nature to Abstraction exhibition at The Sainsbury centre in Norwich.
Editorial - new faces in academia
A couple of interesting appointments in the higher education world over the last week, one rather unexpected and one slightly more predictable (and very welcome).
‘If you could give the consultancy one piece of advice, what would it be?’
Business development expert Jonathan Kirk has conducted hundreds of client interviews on behalf of design consultancies. In this guest blog, he tells us what happens when he asks the question, ‘If you could give the consultancy one piece of advice, what would it be?’
Gormley and Gaga star in new V&A stage design show
Stage and performance design is being spotlighted (no pun intended) by the Victoria and Albert Museum which will introduce a cast (no pun intended…again) of theatre designers, architects and artists.
See the entries so far to this year’s Design Week Awards
You can see the entries so far to the 2012 Design Week Awards on our Entry Showcase.
Clerkenwell Design Week
Although the spring may feel a million years from the bleak, failed-resolution-strewn tundra of early February; preparations are already well under way for May’s Clerkenwell Design Week in central London.
NUCA presents The Magic Theatre exhibition
Norwich University College of the Arts will present The Magic Theatre next week, an exhibition of works by the Time and Being collective, plus international graphic artists including Audrey Niffenegger. There’s also a new piece from Quentin Blake.
Designers in their own words
Want to find out how Stefan Sagmeister chooses his projects? How Maarten Baas defines his occupation? How Milton Glaser has hung on to his sense of joy in design throughout decades of practice?
Painting skills from Band of Skulls
There’s no shortage of bands creating their own artwork: from John Squire’s Jackson Pollock-inspired artworks for the Stone Roses; to Graham Coxon’s haunting paintings on Blur’s 13 album; to Flaming Lips and Daniel Johnston’s adorably mournful alien - the list is endless.
Emil Asgrimsson solo exhibition
There’s a very nuanced aesthetic to Icelandic design, art, and music, especially when work reflects the country’s often ethereal, beautiful and earthy qualities.
Cross-disciplinary design in a church
Drift, an upcoming art, architecture and design show, is taking place in a rather unusual venue - a central London church.
Jason Taylor’s product-a-day challenge
Now that it’s the end of January, New Year’s resolutions are likely to be a thing of the past, shelved in favour of pies, gin and Camel Lights.
Community Kite Project
Designers and social innovators Tom Tobia, Jo Peel and Christopher Jarratt are bringing together leading illustrators and the public in a free Community Kite Project.
Leather chairs and wordy clocks
Gallery Libby Sellers is hosting the first London solo show from Swiss product and furniture designer Nicolas Le Moigne, featuring leather chairs and a verbose clock.
Robert Montgomery - It Turned Out This Way Cos You Dreamed It This Way
Design Week catches up with artist Robert Montgomery at what must be a very frustrating moment.
Editorial - A new chapter opens for the Design Museum
When you’re admiring the visuals of what the Design Museum’s new West London home will look like, it’s worth remembering that as recently as 2005 the Commonwealth Institute - which will host the museum - was under threat of demolition.
Jealous prints coming to Heal's
Heal’s flagship store on London’s Tottenham Court Road is set to be transformed into a creative hot-house, thanks to Jealous printmaking studio and gallery, who are setting up a print workshop in the windows.
Pick Me Up returns to Somerset House
Graphic art event Pick Me Up will return to Somerset House in March with its fair and exhibition, with new features including a residency space hosted by ‘Heroes and Legends’ of the industry.
Design Week Awards judges named
The judging panel for the 2012 Design Week Awards has been named, featuring leading figures from all design sectors.
Marcus Lyall and Adam Smith on bringing Chemical Brothers Don't Think film to life
Terrifying snaggle-toothed clowns; enormous bugs sprawling in the mud; bionic dancers; white elephants - all par for the course in a Chemical Brothers live show. Whatever your views on the duo music-wise, there’s no doubt that the visual side of their shows is a force to be reckoned with - as documented in the visceral, vibrant and downright scary Don’t Think film. The concert film, shot at Fuji Rock Festival last year, is directed by long-term visuals collaborator Adam Smith and produced ...
Meet the creator of Disney's the Little Mermaid
‘I’m an actor with a paintbrush; I can play anyone I can imagine.’ says animator Glen Keane, who has created Disney characters Ariel (from the Little Mermaid), Aladdin, Pocahontas, the Beast and Tarzan.
Daniel Eatock adds one and one together
What does a horse have in common with a sheep? What unites a radiator and a fan? And who knew a watermelon could look so chic in a swimming cap?
Radim Malinic's West End Show
For his first self-intitiated solo show, graphic designer and illustrator Radim Malinic has taken the multifarious, vibrant and frequently taxing area of London’s West End as his inspiration.
Award-winning British design
With the Victoria & Albert Museum finalising plans for its spring blockbuster British Design 1948-2012, the museum’s publishing division has released a small aperitif in the form of new book Award Winning British Design.
RCA architecture, product design and design interaction work-in-progress show
Hot on the heels of the RCA’s interim textile and jewellery design show, next month sees the opening of the college’s architecture, product design and design interaction students’ work in progress exhibition.
Weighted Words at the Zabludowicz Collection
‘Words are stupid, words are fun, Words can put you on the run’, stated Tom Tom Club, in their hit Wordy Rappinghood. They went on to question, ‘what are words worth?’
Technologists compete for £8000 bursaries
Regional galleries the Site Gallery (Sheffield), Lighthouse (Brighton) and Spike Island (Bristol) are offering £8000 bursaries for technologists to work in residency on new products.
Trafalgar Square to host giant child on rocking horse
A subversive equestrian statue - a child on a rocking horse - is set to grace the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square from next month.
Power Games: 1980s-inspired photography
It’s a well-worn cliché that in many ways, little has changed since the 1980s - from unemployment to recession to Lady GaGa aping Like a Prayer-era Madonna, these comparisons are becoming tired.
Renault looks to students for car design competition
Renault has launched a student graphics competition to design a paint job for its new two seater Twizy and offered to pay the winner’s tuition fees for a year.
From the Road landscape photography exhibition
Gain a new perspective on landscapes at Eleven’s latest photography exhibition.
The Sunday Times Magazine celebrates 50 years with photographic exhibition
Portraits of a scantily clad Marilyn Monroe and Lady Gaga, the moment Ronald Regan is shot, forlorn miners and pit ponies, and a fortified Royal Ulster Constabulary post on a residential Northern Ireland street, are some of the arresting images which The Sunday Times Magazine has splashed on its front cover over the last 50 years.
How (and why) to rescue HMV
Should ailing high-street brand HMV be rescued? Guest blogger Steve Price says it should. Here’s why and how.
Formed Thought exhibition of material-led works
A trail of burnt paint, degrading clay and a 12m-long graphite drawn surface; some of the explorations into the maker’s relationship with their materials, on display at the Formed Thoughts exhibition in London.
Is a Hockney painting still a Hockney painting when it’s created on an iPad?
David Hockney’s latest exhibition, A Bigger Picture, is made up of more than 150 colourful landscapes of the Yorkshire countryside, 51 of which are blown up prints created using an iPad app.
London Art Fair
Robots that can draw your portrait, an enormous pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers and a boy with a Tetris face are just a few of the pieces that are going on show at this year’s London Art fair, which opens today.
Random Postcard Project
The Random Project was born back in 2006, when the former London College of Communications Experimental Type students who make up Random collective decided to take their typography-led design onto postcard format.
The Chapman Brothers add their touch to Dover Street Market
Faux-Nazi red drapes, rave scene smiles and metal dinosaurs; the Chapman Brothers have taken over the windows at daring Mayfair fashion store, Dover Street Market.
Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and Designersblock at Interiors UK
This weekend sees the opening of the Interiors UK show in Birmingham, featuring more than 600 exhibitors showing work including fabrics, furniture, flooring and other homewares.
Printmaking at Central Saint Martins
Last autumn, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design opened its swanky new base in London’s King’s Cross.
Smile, please
Travelling on the London Underground is rarely a laugh-a-minute experience, but rush-hour Tube commuters might have something to chuckle about from today onwards, thanks to the Word In Motion animated poetry initiative.
Made North design conference
Culture North is inviting designers and design students to Liverpool to discuss the future of their industry at the first Northern international design conference; Made North.
Augmented reality porcelain plate
What if we could make pottery more exciting? What if, like in Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn we could we could, well, make it come to life a bit?
‘A step in a new direction that begins by using what was familiar’ - Simon Manchipp on the new Waterstones branding
A guest blog from Someone co-founder Simon Manchipp on Waterstones’s decision to revert to its original branding.
Sherlock Holmes and the case of Sarah Greenwood
The production studio of Guy Ritchie directed Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will be recreated by its production designer Sarah Greenwood for a new Arts Gallery, University of The Arts London exhibition.
Comics, illustrations and music
Ninja Tune artist Strictly Kev, of DJ Food, is such a fan of comic book illustrator Henry Flint - whose pensmanship can be seen in 2000AD and other titles - that he commissioned Flint to create the cover of his forthcoming album, The Search Engine.
Thinking outside the box about boxes
The aptly named,The Box, at Arbeit gallery in east London, is the culmination of the architect’s study of the six-sided shape.
