What’s your favourite colour? It’s a question we’ve asked everyone we’ve interviewed since Design Geek was founded almost seven years ago. Answers have varied from People Will Always Need Plates co-founder Hannah Dipper’s “Rocker Yellow – the dirty yellow of an Eames Rocker, roughly 610C” (yes, that’s a Pantone reference!)…
Category: news
news
Charlotte Abrahams selects 40 designers for ‘Spotted’
The 40 new design brands were selected for the originality and quality, but also the commercial viability of their products – the latter being very much part of exhibiting successfully at a trade show. “Spotted just goes from strength to strength and this edition promises to be the most exciting…
news
Arts Council awards £80,000 funding to Design Nation
The development work will start immediately and will enable Design-Nation to undertake significant sector research, to create new opportunities for its members, and to launch at least two new showcases of contemporary craft and design. “We are delighted that through this grant the Arts Council is recognising our efforts in…
news
LaSelva Studio’s adjustable lamp rotates 360 degrees
The Faro lamp, produced by Bolia, comprises a cylindrical black marble base on top of which a half spherical spun metal shade containing the light fixture sits, held in place only by a magnet. A small ring made of rubber inside the top of the base prevents the shade from slipping…
news
Vicky Thornton’s ‘funny shaped jugs’ raise money for Maggie’s
The potter has previous form – in 2012, in the aftermath of treatment for her own breast-cancer she embarked on the C-cup project (referencing both the bra-size and the ‘c-word’ – cancer), hand-throwing 36 cups in three difference shapes and colours. “The different designs reflected the varying size and shape…
news
Daniel Schofield uses silver to purify water
The Pioneer Carafe and Glass set by award-winning designer Daniel Schofield is handmade from borosilicate glass, more commonly used in laboratories. The addition of a silver-plated hammered copper cuff to the rim of the carafe, acting as a spout, and a loose piece of the material shaped like two interlocking…
Architecture
Maggie’s Centre wins top Wood Award
Judges voted unanimously to award the top prize to the Maggie’s Centre at the Robert Parfett Building at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, commenting that the structure “brought together the best in engineering, fabrication and architecture.” The single-storey building is constructed from a natural timber frame arranged around a central…
news
Morag Myerscough x Luke Morgan installation celebrates diversity
The eight-metre high pavilion, entitled Arrival Zone, comprises a scaffolding structure supporting a mixture of hand-painted, brightly-coloured and neon plywood shapes, symbols, patterns, ribbons and wind-powered mobiles, all in the duo’s distinctive style. Inside the installation glows as natural sunlight passes through the thousands of metres of neon wrapped ribbon,…
news
Pebble-shaped CalmingStone is designed to combat anxiety
The device comprises a handheld device shaped like a large pebble which uses biofeedback to help people manage anxiety – through a copper ring that measures the user’s heart-rate, an internal light source that creates a pulsing glow that allows the user to “tune into their body”, and a set…
news
Blackburn to host the UK’s first National Festival of Making
Developed by a new ‘Festival of Making’ community interest company – a collaboration between Lancashire-born designer, Wayne Hemingway, festival producers, Deco Publique, and creative place-making social enterprise, Placeshakers – the festival aims to celebrate and recognise the craft and ingenuity of a region where 25{ff546b69e23b1524d799f96c6ba7a638e1f677053b0a2a1568b05315fd5f8fc7} of the population still works…
news
New watch makes it easier to tell the time
The 36 millimetre stainless steel and glass case contains an aluminium disc, with a wedge-shaped hole cut out of it, that slowly rotates, revealing one hour at a time, which, together with a minute hand, shows users only the information they need to tell the time. “The original idea was…
news
D&AD launch ‘New Blood’ award briefs
The D&AD has launched its annual New Blood awards, with 16 briefs developed in collaboration with real clients, to which young designers can respond and be in with the chance of winning a D&AD pencil. “This year’s brief line up for New Blood Awards 2017 has just been released,” says…
Furniture
Rachel Parker’s Northmore design features twice as many colours as a typical rug
Taking an existing Rachel Parker fabric for design studio Flock and working with rug retailer Floor Story to turn it into a rug seemed like a simple enough idea, but it quickly became apparent that there were big differences between the two media, especially when it came to colour. “When…
Furniture
The Centiped is Olga Akulova’s take on a vintage shop counter
The Centiped was originally designed as a bespoke piece for a penthouse apartment on the 30th level of a condominium in Kiev to showcase the homeowner’s accessories. “We couldn’t find anything appropriate to display accessories because we didn’t have much space for a freestanding piece in the interior,” says Olha…
news
Design Geek to create toolkit for Design Internships
Firstly, a huge thank you to interior design duo, the 2 Lovely Gays, award-winning designer Ella Doran, and editor of Intern Magazine, Alec Dudson, who were our invited experts, as well as everyone else who joined in the debate from actual interns to founder of the creative industry’s answer to…
news
CitizenM creates second ‘secret garden’ for LDF
To mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, arguably Britain’s greatest playwright, CitizenM collaborated with their neighbours at the Globe to commission an installation for the hotel’s atrium. The temporary artwork is part of an annual series of secret garden installations, which last year saw Danish stylist…
Furniture
The London Design Festival – A Design Geek’s Guide
Saturday 17 September 2016 Must see: Creative Matters Creative Matters is a four-day ‘creative futures’ forum including talks, workshops, master-classes, round-tables, installations, exhibitions and networking events. Don’t miss Yeshen Venema’s product photography demos and workshops – all day – and the Design Geek Round Table on Internships at 4pm, hosted…
Furniture
London Design Fair celebrates Indian design
This Is India, co-curated by Tiipoi founder Spandana Gopal and the London Design Fair‘s Jimmy McDonald and designed by Kangan Arora, will showcase ten emerging and established India-centric designers and brands across product, textile and furniture, including Leah Singh, Aman Khanna and Objectry. “For the 10th Anniversary of the Fair…
news
Design Geek to host Round Table on Design Internships
The Round Table will take place at 4pm on Saturday 17 September 2016 as part of Designersblock’s new Creative Matters forum. Hosted by Design Geek founding editor Katie Treggiden, the panel will include award-winning designer Ella Doran, interior designers the 2 Lovely Gays, and editor of Intern magazine Alec Dudson. “Creative…
news
Katherine Plumb’s textiles are inspired by playgrounds
Collarged is a collection of 17 printed textile designs featuring oversized abstract forms in bright primary colours inspired by playgrounds, skate parks and climbing walls. “This collection works to inject a feeling of recreation into interior environments through the use of strong, graphic pattern and placement,” the surface pattern designer…
Furniture
Book about tidying up inspires furniture collection
LYNKO is a series of wooden-hinged powder-coated metal frames, with a selection of accessories that turn them into storage systems for bedroom, kitchen or bathroom. Developed in response to a more transient population, they are designed to be customised and then folded up and brought with you as you move…
news
Fern Robinson’s jewellery encourages play
The collection includes a necklace made from a ‘Slinky’ spring toy, one which is half pencil and half encased pencil shavings, a ring which doubles up as a maze toy which you tilt to get the ball inside from one end to the other and a brooch with removable crayons…
design for good
Philippe Hohlfeld’s floating farms fill empty shipping containers
Due to an imbalance between imports and exports, every year 26.1 million shipping container loads travel from China, but only 12.9m loads travel back to China – meaning that half of the containers going back to Asia are empty, a fact that designer Innovation Design Engineering graduate Philippe Hohlfeld stumbled upon after…
Furniture
Exhibition to highlight the link between dyslexia and creativity
It’s estimated that up to 1 in every 10 – 20 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia – a learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling, with 4{ff546b69e23b1524d799f96c6ba7a638e1f677053b0a2a1568b05315fd5f8fc7} of the population being severely affected. However, for some, the differences in the way their…
news
Alexander Loudon’s viewfinders reframe coastal vistas
In a modern take on the telescopic viewfinders many of us spent childhood holidays putting 10p into before standing on tiptoes to see a magnified version of the view that was right in front of us, people are invited to put their heads inside a concave dome that narrows into a…
news
Olivia Hildebrand makes bus travel easier for blind people
Almost two million people in the UK, and one in five people over the age of 75, are living with significant sight loss – more have low or partial sight. Often unable to drive, many of these people are utterly reliant on public transport. A survey in 2014 found that…
Furniture
Thomas Widdershoven resigns from Design Academy Eindhoven
Widdershoven will appear at the opening of the academic year on 06 September to say goodbye to students, teachers and staff, and will attend the official opening of the Broken White exhibition – a cooperation between Design Academy Eindhoven and the Van Abbemuseum – next October before officially leaving the…
news
Max Lamb designs glasses shaped like two lemons
The use of specific glasses for specific drinks is not a new idea – wine, beer and cocktails are all traditionally served in specialist glasses said to improve aroma and flavour. But soft drinks usually just get chucked into the nearest tumbler. That’s all set to change with Max Lamb’s…
news
Klavdija Jarc launches multifunctional stool on Kickstarter
The Woodieful Chair is an a-shaped laminated beech object comprising two solid edges at right angles to one another, and four c-shaped slats with spaces in between to enable objects such as books and magazines to be slotted between them. Turned on its side or upside down its functionality…
news
Design Museum announces 2016 Designers in Residence
London’s Design Museum has announced the ninth cohort of new designers to benefit from its annual Designers in Residence programme. The four are Alix Bizet, Clementine Blakemore, Andrea de Chirico and Rain Wu. The designers will spend the next four months responding to the theme of Open, culminating in an…