Interaction design event This Happened will take place this month at the Design Overtime festival, held at the Design Museum.This Happened is a series of talks aimed at opening up a dialogue and creating a greater understanding of the stories behind multimedia and interaction design.The project encourages people to share information on concepts and production […]
UK contemporary art gallery Haunch of Venison is making its first foray into the US market, with the opening of a space designed by Steven Learner Studio.It is Haunch of Venison’s first major venture since being controversially acquired by international auction house Christie’s last year.Final touches are being put to the 1860m2 exhibition space located […]
New York’s iconic Morgans Hotel will next month unveil a contemporary new look created by interior designer Andrée Putman.The French designer first crafted the Madison Avenue site’s dramatic black-and-white interior back in 1983, forging the brand’s reputation for design-led, understated chic within the luxury hotel market.Putman’s latest redesign remains faithful to the hotel’s trademark monochrome […]
Long dominated by shabby chic, low-key interiors, Berlin’s retailers have lately adopted a wittier design aesthetic. John Stones takes a look at Geometry, a new menswear store which features a ‘mad professor’ look with a skeletal twistThink Berlin and a certain alternative style comes to mind. From the subcultures that developed in Kreuzberg to the […]
What, exactly, is a bridge for? Crossing some obstruction to get from one point to another, in a functional kind of way? Don’t be so naive. These days bridges are high-design objects, collaborations between architects and engineers. They frequently meander and incorporate seating and look-out platforms – like the new Castleford bridge, following the course […]
Cast, blown, etched, engraved, slumped, fused – glass offers designers huge scope for decorative and functional forms, and that excludes its architectural potential. With several recent exhibitions and innovative, eye-catching graduate work, Hannah Booth wonders if this area is fast becoming the hottest creative disciplineBlame Swarovski if you like, but years after the trend for […]
Excess is a byword in rock’n’roll, but in these eco-conscious times can concert lighting still make an impact without damaging the planet? Bands like Radiohead are taking the lead with hi-tech LEDs to achieve more with less, says Nick SmurthwaiteAfter years of profligacy, rock concert designers and promoters are finding eco-friendly ways of mounting shows […]
The issue of free-pitching has again raised its head. As the national strategic body for design, we are opposed to free-pitching and always ensure that whenever we commission creative work, it is paid for. Through programmes such as Designing Demand, we actively and unambiguously promote best practice. However, what is more troubling from discussions in […]
As reported in ‘Criminal opportunities’ (DW 10 July), Sebastian Conran of the Home Office’s Design and Technology Alliance says design can tackle broader crime-related issues including youth and knife crime. Since time immemorial, the designer and thief have been in a cat-and-mouse game outwitting and out-innovating each other. We have all benefited from this and […]
Sustainable Development Commission chairman Jonathon Porritt says designers must cure themselves of ‘client dependency syndrome’ to further sustainable design. Is CDS debilitating, and what is the remedy? As an industry we have, for too long, hidden behind the excuse of not having the time or resources to learn about sustainability. Our clients face some very […]
While agreeing with the Design Business Association and the Chartered Society of Designers about changing the culture of free-pitching being an accepted norm, Anti Copying In Design is aware that critics might say it’s easy for design bodies to take the moral high ground. A potential pot of gold is always tempting, but beware – […]
Finding the unique, noticing the ignored and looking where others do not dare are some of the pointers that can help crack a design problem. The adventure of travelling to the places we visit to discover a solution can make for an exciting journey, opening new horizons and places for design thinking in the process; […]
Slant, which has been branded by Edit_, is a new series of arts and culture events that aim to make the Northern county stand out from neighbouring cities such as Liverpool and Manchester.
“We want to bring together countries to look at design’s important role in the big emotive issues of our time,” says festival director.
US creative studio Loyalkaspar has created a new logo, typeface and on-screen designs for Syfy.
From a rebrand for the Southbank Centre to a visit to Dundee, the UK’s latest cultural hotspot, we round-up the news from the last seven days.
Leo Porto, a designer at New York agency Collins, has worked with Felipe Rocha on the branding and orchestration of Bonde, a new Brazilian design conference launching next month in New York. The designs use a simple typography led approach and a yellow and black colour palette. The Maar Sans typeface by foundry Commercial Type […]
Leeds-based studio Brass has created 40 animations for new CBBC show The Pets Factor, a children’s documentary series that goes behind the scenes of UK veterinary practices. Brass was brought in to work on the project by production company True North, and created animations of each of the animals, the four vets featured in the show […]
Mexican studio Menta Picante has created the branding for Leap, a Guadalajara-based school teaching web development and programming. The branding uses an illustration-led approach, with various elements appearing across the identity’s applications for different courses being taught at the school. According to Menta Picante, it aims to create a “fresh” look to attract young people, and […]
So Design Consultants has teamed up with fine art photographer Charles Emerson to create a selection of images for this year’s Ilford Opera Festival. As the event is set in the Peto Garden at Ilford Manor, the focus of every image is flowers. Each chosen to symbolise the musical performance they represent, the flowers were […]
Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only the direct mental experience is certain, as things external to one’s own mind cannot be known. In other words: you are the only thing that definitely exists and everything else in the world, from family to forests, might just be your hallucinations. Four years ago, London-based designer Genis […]
For the last 11 years, Penguin Random House UK has put on the Student Design Award, an opportunity for young designers to take an imaginative pop at some of the most timeless book covers ever published. This year, the gauntlet was set across three categories: Adult Fiction Cover Award was To Kill a Mockingbird by […]
Director Layla Atkinson has worked with illustrator Anna Kövecses and animation studio Trunk to create a new advert for home renting and buying company Rightmove. The advert is aimed at renters, and follows the story of a young couple as they go house-hunting, and chancing upon many properties before finding the “perfect” one, says Trunk. […]
Print company Saxoprint is holding a postcard competition that asks creatives to summarise their view of Britain in 2017 through design and illustration. The competition is being judged by a panel led by ex-Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, and shortlisted entries and winners will be revealed in an exhibition on 23 September. The venue is yet […]
