New Blogs information at FX magazine

Come and talk about design with FX assistant editor Jamie Mitchell at Clerkenwell Design Week

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:55:00 GMT

I love talking to designers and those involved in the design industry about the new ways in which design can improve and enhance our lives, and so I'm really looking forward to this year's Clerkenwell Design Week, where I'll be hosting two panel discussions.

The first, a debate about sensory design, takes place on Tuesday 21 May, 12.30-2pm at the showroom of carpet tile manufacturer Desso. I'll be introducing Justin Cratty, an associate and EMEA science and technology practice area leader at Gensler, Trevor Keeling, who specialises in 'human-centred building environments' at Buro Happold and is also studying for a PhD at Reading University, Shaun Fitzgerald, managing director and co-founder of Breathing Buildings, and Ludwig Cammaert, design and technical development director at Desso.

The second event is on Wednesday 22 May, 12.30-1.30 at another top flooring and materials company, Milliken. This time the focus is on invention, play and creativity in design and my panellists will be designer Oliver Hrubiak, whose Finn chair won the John Lewis Retail Design Award 2012, and Mark Champkins, an award-winning inventor in residence at the Science Museum in London and owner of Concentrate Design.

I hope you can join me. It would be great to see you there. Details below.

Date: Tuesday 21 May
Time: 12.30-2pm
Location: Desso showroom, 23-25 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DN
RSVP: http://goo.gl/KlM5X

Date: Wednesday 22 May
Time: 12.30-1.30
Location: Milliken Clerkenwell Studio, 5 Berry Street, London EC1V 0AA
RSVP: Alison Owen at BDB 07880 500434 alison@bdb.co.uk; millikenteam@bdb.co.uk

Q&A with Celia Sawyer

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:55:00 GMT

How did you begin your career as an interior designer?
I suppose it started by accident really. I was a property developer first. I was adding a couple of floors on to a mews property in London and I designed the interior. A couple of people saw it and asked me to do theirs. Then I founded Cool 10 Luxury Interiors.

And how did you bag a place on Four Rooms?
The programme makers were asking people to send in pictures of interesting objects that could appear on the show, so I sent in a picture of myself in, asking, 'How about me as a dealer?' That was how it all started.

What kind of projects does Cool 10 Luxury Interiors do, and what's on the go at the moment?
We do lots of residential projects we've also done boutique hotels, restaurants, bars - anything that the client would like our style for. We just started a project with a private aircraft company called Pilatus which has asked us to design the interior of its aircraft (pictured), a seven-eight person plane.

Sounds like an interesting project - what will it be like?
Well, I think we'll be able to go a bit mad with this one, perhaps with a quite futuristic look.

Would you say there's an identifiable style to your work?
Of course we have a style! Cool, contemporary, glamorous yet comfortable, is how I'd describe it. Clients will come to you because they like your style. They shouldn't come to you if they want something completely different. We would hope that people have a look at our work and like it and that's why they'll come to us.

How do you balance running a successful interior design company with your TV work?
Well, it's quite hard work actually because the filming is a long, long day - 12-14 hour days - and you can't be doing much in between. But it's good fun too. It's all about having a good team and being well organised before you go on the shoot. It's quite a lot, but I'm used to doing loads of things at once - I've got children as well, so it's all about balancing it carefully.

How did you get into collecting and dealing in rare objects?
Well it all came about through doing interiors. Some of my clients are very high-profile and they like nice things and they like interesting thing. Some of them collect things. So I get to buy pieces for them and for their homes. Also, because I'm interested in it and I'm buying stuff and dealing I have to know what I'm doing, I but things that I like as well.

What's different about the new series of Four Rooms?
I think it's a bit more relaxed and I think they're trying so show a bit more of the dealers' personalities through the decoration of the rooms and the items from our own collections that are on display in each room. Gordon [Watson, one of Sawyer's fellow dealers] deliberately buys things to get on my nerves I think!

Would you like to do more TV work?
Well that all depends on what comes up and what's on the horizon - it's a case of 'watch this space' on that one.

Four Rooms is on weekdays at 1.45pm

Watching the wildlife

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:44:11 GMT

The final touches are made to the installation of an 18m x 9m illustration that wraps a building on Shoreditch High Street and celebrates the neighbourhood's unique urban culture. One of three images under the collective title Shoreditch Zoo, created by local illustrators Le Gun, it features such local specialities as novelty facial hair and ironic hats, plus Boris Johnson depicted as a cycling gorilla. The images form part of an advertising campaign by creative agency HamiltonPyne for local commercial property landlord The Estate Office Shoreditch.

By Gareth Gardner / Photography + Journalism / garethgardner.com

Acrylicize creates new artwork for Heinz

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:33:00 GMT

This week the practice, which specialises in creating bespoke artwork for interiors, released a video documenting its latest project, a 20m-long artwork for one wall of the Dutch headquarters of US food company Heinz.

Watch the video here.

We're also delighted to see another of our 'ones to watch', Studio Swine, step into the limelight as its Sea Chair takes its rightful place among the best designs of the last 12 months in the Designs of the Year exhibition at London's Design Museum.

Towering achievement

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:21:00 GMT

Midwinter sun makes a rare appearance during the week that the latest London tower with a humorous nickname was topped out. Formally known as 20 Fenchurch Street, the distinctively bulbous 'Walkie Talkie' has been designed by Rafael Viñoly and is due to be completed in 2014. Due to be topped by a 'skygarden' - London's highest public park - the skyscraper is being developed by Land Securities in joint venture with Canary Wharf Group.

By Gareth Gardner / Photography + Journalism / garethgardner.com

Previewing Ecobuild Event 2013

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:39:00 GMT

Set in the Excel centre in London, Ecobuild 2013 presents over 1,500 organisations showcasing their ranges of sustainable products, from building structures and micro-renewables, to water management systems and insulation materials. Canal Engeneering and Grundfos Pumps are two of the leading exhibitors at the show this year.

With over 57,000 professionals from the design and construction industries expected to visit Ecobuild in 2013, the event is used as a platform for both research and marketing.

Alongside individual exhibitors, Ecobuild will include several interactive attractions. New this year, the Future Materials gallery brings the world's latest building technologies together in a futuristic display to imagine a time when buildings can self-regulate temperature, self-clean and repair themselves.

As well as these attractions, there will be an abundance of conference and seminar sessions delivered by professional speakers covering important issues on the built environment. Sustainability in housing, construction, design and architecture will be at the focus of these presentations.

Guest-speakers including Joanna Lumley and Jonathan Dimbleby, among others, will take the floor to discuss, debate and challenge future thinking, focusing particularly on sustainability through construction.

Design professionals react to Government U-turn on Ebacc

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:37:00 GMT

Many organisations including the Design Council and British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) had voiced concerns that the new Ebacc examinations, which would have prioritised traditional academic subjects such as maths and English, would marginalise creative and vocational subjects such as art and design.

John Mathers, chief executive of the design council said the news was 'a major breakthrough for the campaign to Include Design in the Ebacc.

Mathers said: 'Gove has listened to the designers and design businesses who asked the government to reconsider the omission of creative subjects from the EBacc. This is good news for the UK and our ability to compete globally.'

Sue Timney of the BIID said: 'I am pleased to hear that proposals to replace GCSEs with the English Baccalaureate qualification have been dropped. It would have been a travesty if the EBacc had gone ahead without a sixth pillar for creative education; however there is still work to be done.'

In a speech to the House of Commons on Thursday education secretary Michael Gove said: 'My idea that we end the competition between exam boards to offer GCSEs in core academic qualifications and have just one - wholly new - exam in each subject was just one reform too many at this time.'

Luminaries of the design and art worlds, including D&AD president and designer Neville Brody, Apple's Jonathan Ive, designer Terence Conran and architect Norman Foster, have been vocal in this opposition to the education reforms.

The Design Council and BIID both supported the Bacc for the Future campaign, which has been petitioning the Government to keep creative subjects in the curriculum.

Mathers also sounded a note of caution, saying, 'In response to today's launch of consultations on the new draft National Curriculum by Department for Education, we feel the new programmes of study for Design & Technology and Art & Design do not go far enough in developing the current curricula to be one of ambition, innovation and relevance. We urge everyone to respond to the consultation on this potentially retrograde proposal for design in our schools.'

CHAIRS: 1,000 Masterpieces of Modern Design, 1800 to the Present Day

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:13:59 GMT

There are very few objects that reflect the history of modern design as expressively as the chair. Artistic trends, emerging technologies, and social and cultural developments are all demonstrated through the evolution of chair design. Exploring this unique item of furniture, authors Charlotte and Peter Fiell have released a follow-up to their 1997 survey, 1000 Chairs with Chairs: 1,000 Masterpieces of Modern Design, 1800 to the Present Day. The pair provide a fascinating and comprehensive catalogue detailing the history of the chair, from the 1800s to present day, with more than a thousand images accompanying detailed descriptions.

The authors argue that chairs are unique in that they allow distinctive interaction with the user, as their body moulds to the design of the chair, giving the sitter a sense of 'territoriality'. In addition, the authors explain how chairs are uniquely representative of the cultural phenomena of the time. This is exemplified with Charles and Ray Eames' Model No. 670 lounge chair (1956), which embodied the emerging television culture of the Fifties, with leather upholstery and a detached footrest for more comfort over extended periods of time.

One of the earliest designs given in the book is the pre-Raphaelite Rossetti chair, designed by Dante Gabrielle Rossetti and William Morris. Often in 19th century society, wealth and social status were conveyed through personal possessions, and the throne-like Rossetti chair is a particularly good example of this.

In 1958 Danish brothers Ib and Jorgen Rasmussen revolutionised chair design when they created multi-purpose office chairs and, by adding wheels seven years later, established the now familiar office chair used worldwide.

By the mid-20th century, spatial design had became progressively desirable, and in 1962 Robin Day created his Polypropylene chair. Not only were these stackable space-savers, the injection-molded polypropylene used to manufacture the chairs was inexpensive, making them particularly well suited to schools, with more than 14 million being sold to educational institutions worldwide. It is, to this day, the bestselling chair of all time.

In the post-modern era, chair design became evidently more playful with designers such as Ueli and Susi Berger creating the Boxing Glove chair. Produced in 1970, it challenged the concept of what a chair actually is. Now, in the 21st century, chair designers are still innovating, with designers such as the Campana brothers producing artistically outlandish chairs in basic materials, including strips of carpet (Sushi chair, 2002) and woven steel wire (Corallo armchair, 2004).

This book, useful for designers, specifiers and collectors alike, showcases the evolution of the chair from its humble origins to the more contemporarily extrovert designs of today. From the Pre-Raphealite era, through art deco, modernism, and post-modernism, Chairs explores the iconic designs and their designers, revealing the fascinating history of this modest piece of furniture.

Turning over a new leaf

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:48:00 GMT

The last leaves of autumn flutter past the striking facade of a private residence in the heart of London's Mayfair Conservation Area. The upper levels of the building are clad in a metallic shingle taking the form of leaves on a vine. Architecture practice Squire and Partners took inspiration from a nearby property that is enveloped in Virginia creeper. Completion of the project, for client Central Investment Properties, is due to be this spring.

By Gareth Gardner / Photography + Journalism / garethgardner.com

Darkness into light

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:49:00 GMT

But lighting designer Speirs + Major came up with a novel idea for one of its recent projects - a high end wine shop in London's Mayfair called Hedonism. During the day, the shop glows with an expertly designed lighting scheme, but after the shop closes in the evening, things turn even more atmospheric.

When the main lights of the shop are switched off, there begins a series of projections designed to draw attention to the store after hours and elicit a return visit.

Passers-by are drawn nearer by curious flickering light, which mimics waterfalls, lightning and even shadowy bats in flight.

This display, which was conceived to catch the attention of the large numbers of people who go by the store in cars and on foot, can be updated with different images and effects depending on the time of year.

Watch a video of the project in action here.