This article was published 10 yearsThroughout September, London’s Somerset House played host to 37 countries all responding to the theme of Utopia by Design. Contributions varied wildly from the conceptual (Albania’s Bliss – “a concentric arrangement of stainless steel columns and benches designed to encourage self-reflection and solidarity”) to the…
Category: long reads
Confessions of a Design Geek
The new minimalism
This article was published 11 years CDs, DVDs, stereos, alarm clocks, calendars, desktop computers, landline telephones, even books – the list of things that have been replaced by the tiny technology in our smart phones and tablets is staggering. Now that so many objects have been eliminated from our homes,…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: into the fold
This article was published 11 years In a light-filled east London studio, designer Kyla McCallum is folding paper. Sheet by sheet, she makes 11 folds in each of 70 pieces of Italian parchment. She talks as she works, barely watching what she’s doing, her hands moving automatically. “This module was…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: informing with the invisible store of happiness
This article was published 11 years This is the final essay in a series of four about the behind the scenes process leading up to the installation of The Invisible Store of Happiness in Saint John’s Arch during Clerkenwell Design Week. This one is entitled Informing and was published just…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: making the invisible store of happiness
This article was published 11 years This is the third essay in a series of four about the behind the scenes process leading up to the installation of The Invisible Store of Happiness in Saint John’s Arch during Clerkenwell Design Week. This one is entitled Making… They say it takes…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: the new scandi
This article was published 11 years I was recently commissioned to write an article for the Guardian Weekend Magazine about Scandinavian design, so I thought I would share it with you here too. With an appetite for innovation and a new generation of talent, the Scandinavians are coming – again….
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: designing the invisible store of happiness
This article was published 11 years This is the second of a series of four essays about the behind the scenes process leading up to the installation of The Invisible Store of Happiness in Saint John’s Arch during Clerkenwell Design Week. This one is entitled Designing… Laura Ellen Bacon is…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: colour
This article was published 11 years I was recently invited to join the judging panel for the 2015 Dulux Let’s Colour awards and to nominate two new rising stars I thought were worthy of recognition in the newly created “Young Designer” category. I nominated Zoe Tynan-Campbell’s Hasbeens, and Meggan Johnson’s…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: the thinking behind the invisible store of happiness
This article was published 11 years I am really excited to be working with Sebastian Cox, Laura Ellen Bacon and the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) on a series of four essays for the Invisible Store of Happiness project, which will culminate in an installation at Clerkenwell Design Week in…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: out of the woods
This article was published 12 yearsI’m sharing some of my favourite posts from this year all throughout the holiday – Sebastian Cox is a really inspiring, passionate young designer… Young designer Sebastian Cox creates modern furniture from timber sourced in the UK using a 5,000-year-old technique. ‘I am in love…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: hand lettering
This article was published 12 yearsI’m sharing some of the best posts of 2014 throughout December – I’m such a huge fan of hand lettering, this was a real pleasure to write… (PS Happy Christmas to those that celebrate!) This is the second instalment in my new “feature” column; a…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: concrete; the quintessential hard stuff
This article was published 12 yearsAll this month I’m sharing some of my favourite posts for 2014 – you can have too much concrete… I work as a freelance design writer as well as writing this blog and in that work, I really enjoy writing feature articles; they allow a…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: the law of jante
This article was published 12 yearsI’m sharing some of my favourite 2014 posts throughout December – this one was actually inspired by the interview with Petter that I shared on Tuesday… As I typed the pleasingly alliterative phrase ‘Danish design duo’ for the umpteenth time, it struck me how often…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: independent scottish design
This article was published 12 years On the 18th September 2014, the people of Scotland will vote on whether to become an independent nation or to remain part of the United Kingdom. I spoke to a number of independent designer-makers, and Made From Scotland – an online marketplace for contemporary…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: for the love of leather
This article was published 12 years Man has used leather since prehistoric times, for everything from clothing and shelter to boats and armour. Leather tanning is one of the oldest human activities – early methods using animal fats are mentioned in Assyrian texts and Homer’s Iliad. As the design industry…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: making designers
This article was published 13 years Inspired by the fact that he still owned things he’d designed and made at school, and wanting to highlight the importance of design in education, co-founder of furniture brand MARK John Miller, curated an exhibition called Making Designers, showcasing the products that now well-known…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: bold as brass
This article was published 13 years Tom Dixon has been using bronze, copper and brass since he launched his eponymous brand in 2002, but it seems the rest of the design world has taken a little while to catch on. Finally, these ‘warm metallics’ are everywhere. Bronze, copper and brass…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: walking barefoot on cork
This article was published 13 years One of the installations at the V&A for the London Design Festival was a cork floor. It was installed on a bridge over the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries and designed by FAT Architecture in collaboration with cork producer Amorim. The geometric pattern was inspired…
Confessions of a Design Geek
feature :: life through the lens of a lomo
This article was published 13 years A little while ago, I decided to spend a day following the 10 Golden Rules of Lomography to see how they would affect my photography, and my creativity. Before I tell you how I got on, here’s a bit of background… The story of…