Norwegian Prototypes

My old design sidekick Kim Thome is curating and showing at Norwegian Prototypes exhibition; an honest show of fresh work from our North Sea chums.

This will be one of the great, fresh shows at this years London Design Fest!

Continuing on from my post in June "Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity"...

BBC. Future of Food

In the new set of programs from the BBC “George Alagiah travels the world to reveal a growing global food crisis that could affect the planet in the years ahead”.

The management of the world’s agricultural production is an area I am confident that design must take a larger responsibility in bringing about and managing change.

However I came across this (image below), which I have grabbed from the screen, the program at this point is filming in a Kenyan shantytown…

From water bottle to pet dog!

As a 150-year-old classic seat is relaunched, Stephen Bayley asks what present-day designers could learn from its longevity.

Designers want to do chairs the way writers want to do novels. There's always a lonely drawing or an unread manuscript lurking somewhere. But why bother? The greatest chair ever designed already exists and it's more than 150 years old.

This is the Thonet No 14 of 1855. At the London exhibition of 1862, the jury said it was "an excellent application of a happy thought ... not works of show, but practical furniture for daily use ... simple, graceful, light and strong". And now, in an interesting collaboration between the Japanese no-brand hyperbrand Muji and Gebrüder Thonet, it's ready for a global relaunch.

by Stephen Bayley

The Observer, Sunday 23rd August 2009

The Evolution of Logo's

Introduced to me by a colleague, this blog is a collection of graphics illustrating the evolution of the corporate logo.

Some hard work by a dedicated design historian.

Textile design for tfl's Piccadilly line

From graphics to roundels, tube stations to textiles, Transport for London is steeped in a history of innovative design. As part of the gradual refurbishment of London’s transport system, Transport for London and London Underground are pleased to announce an open competition to design a new seating moquette for use on the Underground system. The winning design, which will initially launch on the Piccadilly line, will then be adopted across the London Underground system. This is your chance to become part of the fabric of London design and transport history and for your work to be seen by over 3 million tube users every day.

Entrants are invited to submit up to two repeat pattern textile designs using the colours specified in the design brief remembering that your design will be used for public seating so will need to be commercially viable and take into consideration wear and tear and soiling.

The winner will receive a design fee of £5,000 which includes copyright purchase.

CLOSING DATE 14th September before 5.00pm GMT.

Interdisciplinary Discovery Through Design Workshop

28th September 2009

10.30 - 16.00

@ DESIGN COUNCIL

34 Bow Street London WC2E 7DL

RSVP by 28^th August to: design21@dundee.ac.uk

Dear God...

Is God cool?

Well he is now according to the press and he has made it via a re-brand from coolhunter.

There's a lot to be said about reading peoples prayers!

We can't seem to shake religion off... it goes deep and is always apparent.

This is a great project and an interesting look at prayer.

Radical Nature @ The Barbican

Radical Nature–Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet

1969–2009

19 Jun–18 Oct/09

The beauty and wonder of nature have provided inspiration for artists and architects for centuries. Since the 1960s, the increasingly evident degradation of the natural world and the effects of climate change have brought a new urgency to their responses. Radical Nature is the first exhibition to bring together key figures across different generations who have created utopian works and inspiring solutions for our ever-changing planet.

Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged out of Land Art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and utopianism. The exhibition is designed as one fantastical landscape, with each piece introducing into the gallery space a dramatic portion of nature. Work by pioneering figures such as the architectural collective Ant Farm and visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, artists Joseph Beuys , Agnes Denes , Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson are shown alongside pieces by a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n) , Philippe Rahm architects and Simon Starling. Radical Nature also features specially commissioned and restaged historical installations, some of which are located in the outdoor spaces around the Barbican while a satellite project by the architectural collective EXYZT is situated off site.

This is a worthy exhibition showing "radicals" work in an area that will no doubt become more of an extreme influence on our designed development. The show of work is broad and the time span of the collection demonstrates there is a lot to learn from the radicals of the past as well as the present. This exhibition communicates to the voyeur in differing effects, I have no doubt that ten people will all have different experiences to the exposer of some of the film and installations. There is a lot to digest in the work and so all of what is on show requires time. The irony is the point of this exhibition is how much time do we have?

Core77's Core-Toons!