The joy of living

London Design Guide editor Max Fraser has challenged more than 100 established and new UK-based designers to create a piece of artwork from a single sheet of A4 graph paper to raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres.

The signed works will be exhibited at London’s Somerset House from 15 – 21 March, and will be sold at the price of £250 each to raise money for Maggie’s.

Fraser says, ‘After a very personal, emotional journey as I supported my mother through her 6-year battle with cancer, I vowed to contribute in some way to mankind’s fight against the disease.

‘Maggie’s recognises that building an atmosphere of calm and celebrating a good quality of life are immensely beneficial to patients, and I know that my mother would have benefited so positively from its services.’

Terence Conran, Tom Dixon, Barber Osgerby, John Pawson, Rob Ryan, Daniel Eatock and Max Lamb have already answered the brief, but to keep things exciting, who created what will not be revealed until the piece is purchased.

The brief set by Fraser allows each designer to do anything they like with the graph paper, as long as it supports the theme the ‘joy of living’.

Fraser says, ‘Charity founder Maggie Keswick Jencks once said, “Above all what matters is not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying,” and this statement has inspired the design challenge and Joy of Living project.’

To find out more about Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres visit the charity’s website here or read our catch-up with Maggie’s chief executive Laura Lee about the upcoming Maggie’s architecture exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum here.

Joy of Living will be exhibited in the Great Arch lobby at Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA from 15 – 21 March.