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Laura Letinksy at the Photographers’ Gallery recently....

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:01:00 -0400

Laura Letinksy at the Photographers’ Gallery recently. Extraordinarily beautiful and disconcerting images, reminiscent of paintings from another time and completely contemporary.

Architects O’Donnell+Tuomey
Coffee Lina Stores

In an unexceptional long low brick and corrugated tin building...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:17:00 -0500

In an unexceptional long low brick and corrugated tin building on an industrial estate in Sudbury, Suffolk, Gainsborough Silks. Weaving silk, linen, and wool to custom short-run designs for the Queen, Paul Smith, anyone, on both the latest digital machines and extraordinarily beautiful and complex 100 year-old looms. Two of my favourite subjects, craft and collaboration, with the added thrill of a priceless textile archive and an active apprenticeship programme. Here is a business succeeding in an age of global mega-production through skill and intelligence.

Derek Wilson ceramics are on show at Contemporary Applied Arts...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 06:42:00 -0400

Derek Wilson ceramics are on show at Contemporary Applied Arts from 15 November; meanwhile photographs of his work, both useful and art object, and his Belfast studio on an equally beautifully put together website.

Design Junction at the Old Sorting Office, on til Sunday, worth...

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 07:39:00 -0400

Design Junction at the Old Sorting Office, on til Sunday, worth seeing for the building alone.

Lower Marsh behind Waterloo Station is a curious street,...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:47:00 -0400

Lower Marsh behind Waterloo Station is a curious street, undisturbed by twenty-first century development despite its prime location. Fish and chips, second-hand books, massage parlour, tatooing, vintage, primary school, micro-supermarket - something for everyone and now a shopfront for product designer Michael Anastassiades. He seems to be working with the traditions of another era, using fine materials and tapping into a level of craftsmanship that we might have thought no longer existed, nevertheless producing entirely contemporary objects.

Bar Alto & Torsten Neeland, 18-23 September Londonnewcastle...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:11:00 -0400

Bar Alto & Torsten Neeland, 18-23 September Londonnewcastle Project Space

New products by Torsten Neeland on show this week in Redchurch...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:10:00 -0400

New products by Torsten Neeland on show this week in Redchurch Street. Typically spare, beautiful and useful, the exhibition has been designed to be entirely recycled.

Kokon stainless steel and acrylic thermos flask
Bald pressed cork and rubber tray for M-Products, exclusively avaialble through Magazin

mca chair development on-going, this version in plain ply with a...

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:47:00 -0400

mca chair development on-going, this version in plain ply with a Bute Tweed slip and leather pillow. More about the project here.

More on the theme of collaborations and retail re-inventing...

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:44:00 -0400

More on the theme of collaborations and retail re-inventing itself. At Century they already combine twentieth century classic furniture with hair cutting, unusual but why not, and for London Design Festival they are collaborating with Colourhouse – vintage inspired maybe, by way of Memphis (Sottsass not Tennessee), modern printed textiles by the metre, on the chair or in the shape of lamp shades well matched with Ercol and Robin Day.

Show on now until the end of September.
58 Blandford Street W1

Last Olympic post, two more images from the park which was due...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:41:00 -0400

Last Olympic post, two more images from the park which was due to close for 18 months after the games, however there now seems to be a plan to keep it accessible for a while at least.

Olympic Park electricity sub-station by Nord, Scottish architects, working with industrial and material heritage to produce this useful building in knitted black brick; quietly spectacular, the UK’s largest ever wildflower meadows at the park by Professors Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough at the University of Sheffield who are on a mission to show us the relevance of another, natural, heritage and its environmnetal importance.

Some other people who might have a view on Olympic publicity are...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 07:08:00 -0400

Some other people who might have a view on Olympic publicity are Barber Osgerby who designed the torch, seen all over the country, carried by 8000 torch bearers, unbelievably, not getting as much airplay as the cauldron. Anyway they seem fairly busy working all over the place doing a madly wide variety of things, the designer’s dream job.

TipTon chair for Vitra, the torch manufactured in the UK by the Premier Group in Sheffield, Tab lamp for Flos.

David Cameron and Boris Johnson say we are open for business,...

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 08:17:00 -0400

David Cameron and Boris Johnson say we are open for business, architects are asking how this squares with the blanket ban on publicity for architects, engineers and designers who are inextricably a part of London 2012 and its success. Everyone understands that McDonalds don’t want Burger King muscling in on the act, but what purpose does this bit of IOC overlordship serve?

The Aquatic Centre designed by Zaha Hadid, photograhed by Luke Hayes; chair of New London Architecture Peter Murray wears the t-shirt.

Mill building fabric, textile design and mca frame ar Ridley...

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 03:52:00 -0400

Mill building fabric, textile design and mca frame ar Ridley Road. More about the chair and the exhibition here.

Unexpected and subtle groups of glaze colour and shape by Louisa...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:06:00 -0400

Unexpected and subtle groups of glaze colour and shape by Louisa Taylor, who derives her palette from historic reference. Ceramics Resident at the V&A until June 2012

Working on something to do with a single form, print, repetition...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 07:57:00 -0400

Working on something to do with a single form, print, repetition and limited colour, and looking around for clues from, amongst others, master pattern-maker Lucienne Day, Australian fabric house Cloth and William Scott’s abstractions.

Connect by Cloth
“My mum never bought chocolates at Easter, she always bought board games instead.
Connect Four was one of my favourites.”

William Scott Still Life Brown with Black Note, 1969, Oil on canvas, Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Lapis by Lucienne Day. Designs from her archive now being re-printed digitally by Glasgow School of Art’s Centre for Advanced Textiles in collaboration with Twentytwentyone.

Textile design for the Mill project, using references from the...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:46:00 -0400

Textile design for the Mill project, using references from the building and as so often seems to be the case finding something interesting in a piece of 50s fabric.

Development drawings on brown paper for a chair, based on a...

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 02:15:00 -0400

Development drawings on brown paper for a chair, based on a 1960s plywood frame. Inevitably it will become a computer file but for the time being it’s more a tailor’s pattern, and if all goes to plan it will be made in a North London workshop and completed with a hand-printed sling seat.

Update: Frame made, sling in progress, to be exhibited at 3 Mills in July.
Made by Martin Bates, Mary Ann Chatterton, Amanda Culpin

Viaduct held another in their series of kitchen table talks last...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:19:00 -0400

Viaduct held another in their series of kitchen table talks last night, the showroom converted to a refectory, or salon, and 30 chefs, designers, writers, neighbours and urban gardeners invited to consider the possibility that good food and design might improve the quality of life. Conversation criss-crossed scientific, political, industrial, social and street-level thinking and action, linked loosely by food, and revealed new technologies, passionate individuals and strange collaborations behind changes in the getting and sharing of our daily bread and in the environments supporting this.

Food by Moro, more on the subject by Claire Gittins and a couple of examples at Chatsworth Road and Abundance.

Berlin designers Kolors are interested in colour, presumably,...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:01:00 -0400

Berlin designers Kolors are interested in colour, presumably, and have fluorescent cables, bags and jewellery in their portfolio as well as plain and beautiful porcelain flatware and off-white/neutral interiors with found objects and materials. Nice combo.

Copper, wood and brass lamps by Alvaro Catalán de Ocón are so...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:38:00 -0400

Copper, wood and brass lamps by Alvaro Catalán de Ocón are so reminiscent of candles it’s no surprise to find that’s where they come from and that they are called Candil. Gorgeous and ingenious, they use the components’ conductivity instead of a lampholder so that the simple act of placing the bulb into the copper bowl and removing it is the switch. We like candle light but no longer rely on it, the tungsten bulb with its filament and warmth that is integral to this product may not be here for much longer, so what next? I see how sensible LED is but I don’t love it, yet.

Candil comes in three versions: Milan for Sottsass and the Memphis Group, Kyoto in memory of a trip to Japan, and Madrid, home-city of the project and the designer, all from Viaduct.

Gerhard Richter Candle 1982, oil on canvas