We Heart, February 2014

My profile on Glaswegian design duo, Timerous Beasties for British design and lifestyle blog, We Heart…
Timerous Beasties

I have been aware of Timerous Beasties since they started etching highly detailed and floral patterns into concrete, a juxtaposition that really tickled me. Better known for their subversive take on the often twee world of textile and wallpaper design, Timerous Beasties was founded in Glasgow in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons. I spoke to Paul to find out more about how their minds work. We talked post-punk, self-deprecation and brain surgery.

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We Heart, February 2014

Having met Petter Johansson during Stockholm Design Week, I wrote this piece on his newest project, Atelier Food, for British design and lifestyle blog, We Heart…
Atelier Food

Petter Johansson is not your typical Swedish designer. He says he hates art, but loves artists; he describes Swedish design as “safe”, despite confessing to a house full of it; and recommends beer as a way to stay creative and experimental. He’s also the creative force behind AtelierSlice, a new venture whose first project is Atelier Food, a long-term pop-up restaurant and l’enfant terrible in residence at The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts…

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We Heart, February 2014

This is a profile piece I wrote about surface pattern design studio Custhom for British design and lifestyle blog, We Heart.
custhomwallpaper1

I met Nathan Philpott and Jemma Ooi aka Custhom at Maison et Objet in January and was immediately hooked by the precision, and yet experimentation, with which they approach their work. They met while studying at the Royal College of Art and founded Custhom in 2009 to design wallpapers, ceramics, textiles and stationery. They are committed to UK production – their ceramics are made using fine bone china in Stoke-On-Trent and their wallpaper is embroidered in Leicester and hand finished in their East London studio. I was keen to find out more about them.

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We Heart, February 2014

This is a profile piece I wrote on Norwegian design duo Vera & Kyte for British design and lifestyle blog, We Heart.
veraandkyte1

Vera & Kyte, aka furniture, product and interior designers Vera Kleppe and Åshild Kyte, are based in Bergan, Norway. Their work has an understated aesthetic typical of Norwegian design, but a certain playfulness that is less so. I was keen to find out more. We talked about the importance of collaboration, being connected to a creative community and staying curious…

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We Heart, October 2013

I wrote a series of profile pieces for We Heart on the top graduates at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show as part of Dutch Design Week. This one is about Victoria Ledig and her Precious Skin project…
victoria ledig precious skin

Victoria Ledig is petit, attractive and immaculately presented, from her precarious heels to her perfect black bob. She is the last person you would expect to find in a slaughterhouse. And yet this is where her dedication to her graduate project at Design Academy Eindhoven took her. “It started with a fascination with leather as a material. I did an internship at Ecco, in the design department of a tannery in Dongen in the Netherlands. I started to get a feel for what a fantastic material leather is. You can do so much with it – you can turn it into something that seems almost artificial,” says Victoria. “I realised that the connection with what leather is and where it comes from has been lost, which is a pity in my eyes.”

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We Heart, October 2013

I wrote a series of profile pieces for online lifestyle magazine We Heart while in I was Eindhoven for Dutch Design Week. This one is on Bob de Graaf and his Species of Illumination project…
species of illumination

“The movement of living creatures triggers sensations, emotions and communication,” says Bob de Graaf. “In 2011, I made a radio controlled box with an abstract ‘head’ on it, and released it in a park in Eindhoven. I was the invisible puppeteer who controlled an abstract form so that it moved as if it was living. I was amazed by all the different reactions it got. People started waving at it, petting it, chasing it, and speeding up their own movement in reaction to it. It was a big discovery for me: that such a simple thing could provoke such joy and fun in people. As Plato said: “You can discover more in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

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We Heart, October 2013

The Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show was one of the highlights of Dutch Design Week. I wrote a series of profile pieces for online design and lifestyle magazine, We Heart, about some of the top graduates. This is a piece about Martijn van Strein and his project Dystopian Brutalist Outerwear.
dystopian brutalist outer wear

“How we think affects how things are.” So said Ilse Crawford as she explained the different types of work at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show titled Self Unself. Some of the work, whilst certainly fully resolved, remains conceptual in its ambition. One example is Dystopian Brutalist Outerwear by Martijn van Strein, winner of one of four Keep An Eye Foundation grants.

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We Heart, September 2013

This is an article I wrote for online lifestyle magazine, We Heart, about Henry Richmond’s Young fusion between food and tableware…
henry richmond young

Ever since Heston Blumenthal got his hands on his first canister of liquid nitrogen, restaurants have had to raise their game. Eating out is no longer just about taste or sating hunger; it’s a ‘culinary experience’ for all the senses. With all this innovation in food, the tableware it’s served on has been somewhat left behind – but not any longer.

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