We Made This

Designs of the Year

The new Brit Insurance Designs of the Year show started last week at the Design Museum, taking over from where the old Designer of the Year show left off in 2006. We went along on Saturday to take a look, and we'll tell you all about that in just a moment.

But first, a gentle rant.

The show is, as you can hardly have failed to notice, sponsored by Brit Insurance. They've stuck their name right in front of it. The awards that go with the show are sponsored by them too. They're called the Brit Insurance Design Awards. And frankly, that's just rubbish. Instead of being mutually beneficial, it's mutually detrimental. It makes the Design Museum look cheap, happy to bend over, grab its ankles and get its elegantly shaped butt branded by its corporate master; and it makes Brit Insurance look greedy and egomaniacal. Instead of making the event and awards the most important thing, they've made their sponsorship the important thing. And that doesn't make us like them much.

This is a grim trend that's been happening wherever sponsorship occurs (Carling Academy anyone?). Don't get us wrong, it's a very good thing that corporate sponsorship exists. It makes stuff happen, in bigger and better ways than would otherwise be possible. But, please, let's restore some sense of modesty, elegance and sophistication to the way it's done. Wouldn't the Designs of the Year show, as supported by Brit Insurance, sound far better? Patronage, not prostitution*.

Rant over.

The show itself is a great mix of work arranged by discipline: Architecture, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Interactive, Product and Transport. You might question some of the entries, but it's a really valuable opportunity to see what's being going on across the design spectrum in the past year. It's also great to be able to play with some of the entries, including the Nintendo Wii, Toshio Iwai and Yu Nishibori's TENORI-ON digital musical instrument, and Ross Phillips' Replenishing Body Kiosk (pictured above, being used by some kids in a much looser way than intended).

In the graphics section, we were particularly pleased to see the Butt Book nominated - it's a compendium of Butt Magazine (that link is not at all safe if you're at work), designed by Jop van Bennekom, and we've noticed it being the 'inspiration' for rather a lot of work recently.

Winners in each section, and one overall winner, will be announced in March.

* The fact that Peter Saville's "THIS IS NOT A BROTHEL THERE ARE NO PROSTITUTES AT THIS ADDRESS" sticker is one of the graphics entries feels deeply ironic.

We Made This Great Big Christmas Wish List (part 3)

Right, here's the third and final part of our list of the Best Presents a Designer Could Hope For at Christmas. And just in case you want to send this on to someone, perhaps with a gentle nudge, we've created a page with the whole list on it - you'll find it just here.

#13 A tasty print from Nelly Duff

Nelly Duff is a gallery on Columbia Road, selling a fantastic range of prints from the likes of Eine, Shepard Fairey, Faile and Insect. We particularly like this one, Bunny Fingers, by Pure Evil. It's spray painted by hand, and you'll have to move fast if you want one, it's a strictly limited edition of 20. £250 unframed.

#14 A typographic top from Veer

We've got a bit of a soft spot for image and type library Veer. There's something groovy about the way they do things, and their website just works really well. (Many of the other type foundries could take a tip or two...) They also sell a lot of great merchandise, including this little number. They call it a 'lightweight jogging jacket', we call it 'a top'. And before you get too excited, this one's for US citizens only, so if you don't live stateside, you'll have to find someone over there to get it for you. But come on, it's a piece of clothing about kerning. You know you want it. $69.

#15 A Pantone mug

For people who know that using the PMS isn't something that only women can do once a month. Which one would you go for: Red 186C, Pink 239C, Royal Blue 286C, Lime Green 388C, Pale Blue 549C, Lilac 2583C, Olive Green 5757C, Black 4C, Orange 012C, Process YellowC? Or heck, why get all hung up on making a choice, why not get the whole set? (Perfect for those Monday morning Work in Progress meetings.) And, we were just thinking, if you've got a client whose identity features any of these Pantone colours, they'd make a rather perfect present for them... like Royal Blue 286C for the Institute of Education? £7.99 each, or £79.99 for the whole set.

#16 Some recycled letters from RE

You can't really go wrong with 3D letterforms. These chunky ones are great (as long as you don't want W, X and Z, which aren't available). They're made from recycled card, and stand 28cm high. £14 each.

#17 A stylish bit of tableware from People Will Always Need Plates

We've mentioned them before on here, but couldn't help doing so again. We especially like their series of Brutalist concrete architecture plates, including this Barbican version. £25.

# 18 Friendship with the St Bride Library

Give a little back why don't you? Become a Friend of the St Bride Library for one year, and you get newsletters and discount admission to their lectures and annual conference. You will also receive copies of Ultrabold, the Library‘s journal. All that for £30, and you'll be helping to sustain the world's foremost printing and graphic arts library. Good on you.

And that's your lot - here's hoping you have a fantastic Christmas.

Good Golly Miss Molly

Well, if it isn't just a huge weekend for getting a fix of furniture fun.

Having already posted about the Mid Century Modern show in Dulwich, we've just been sent the utterly delicious catalogue for the Modernism from a California collection auction at Christie's on Sunday, and it's a compendium of wonders.

How's about an Eames RAR Rocking Chair? Or four photos of Eames chairs, estimated at the same price as one chair? Or five original De Stijl posters by William Sandberg for a Gerrit Rietveld exhibition? A collection of eighty luggage labels from the USA circa 1920? A Theo van Doesburg lithograph? A pair of Frank Gehry's corrugated cardboard Wiggle chairs? Or perhaps a collection of twenty four microphones (pictured above)?

You know in the Simpsons when Homer tips his head back and drools if anyone mentions doughnuts? That's us right now.

We Made This Great Big Christmas Wish List (part 1)

Are you fed up with getting drab and uninteresting presents at Christmas?

Not looking forward to unwrapping a series of tacky 'novelty' gifts once again this year?

Well, despair no more, for here is the We Made This Great Big Christmas Wish List (part 1 today, parts 2 and 3 later in the week). Simply point your nearest and dearest to these posts, and let them browse at will, safe in the knowledge that you'll be getting something you really want this year.

Or, alternatively, just buy something for yourself. It is Christmas after all.

(And yep, we know it's not even mid-November yet, but lots of this stuff is limited edition, so there's no time for dawdling.)

#1. A print from Product of God

Product of God is a fantastic online gallery selling limited edition prints by graphic designers and illustrators. This one is Bloodlines 1 by David Foldvari, in an edition of 75. £125.

#2. Grafitti Train from Suck UK

Go old school. A solid vinyl train that you customise with a stack of grafitti transfers. Kind of like an Airfix model. Only cooler. £25.

#3. Something tasty from Blanka

They do lots of lovely stuff here: books, posters, prints, tshirts, bags. We like their t-shirts by Counterfeit Outfit, including the band logo t-shirt above. £23.

#4. An original illustration by Tom Gauld at Cabanon Press

Tom Gauld is one of our favourite illustrators, and he's currently selling a series of original illustrations created for the Guardian Review letters page, done in "black and white pen-and-a-little-tippex on paper". They're going for a song at £100 each.

#5. A typographic t-shirt from Artefacture

We're totally loving the t-shirts created by this American company. We'd go for their Design will save the world one. $28 plus $5 extra for international shipping.

#6. Something gorgeous from Thorsten van Elten

It's a little sick, but totally brilliant. We first saw Maxim Velcovsky's Little Joseph candle holder at the Designboom show at Designer's Block, and you can now get it from the hottest product design store in town. £49.

Midcentury.Modern

The rather wonderful furniture market Midcentury.Modern is heading to South London once again.

If you've not been before, it's a great place to browse and buy from a collection of furniture dealers, all showcasing their best bits of 50s, 60s and 70s furniture. You'll find all the usual suspects, from Eames to Day, from Jacobsen to Panton. And on top of that, there's a fine selection of contemporary British design on sale.

Hmm, maybe it's time to pick up that Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman you've been lusting after...

The show/sale is on Sunday 18 November 2007, at Dulwich College, Dulwich Common, SE21 7LD.

People will always need plates

Our friends over at People will always need plates have freshened up their site with some lovely new bits and bobs. Perfect timing if you fancy ordering up some sublimely elegant Christmas gifts. (And who's to say those gifts can't be for yourself?)

Supertent - London Design Festival

Friday evening found us at the Super Design Market at the Royal Festival Hall. A fine collection of pieces from up and coming design names was on sale, and we were particularly taken with Carl Clerkin's new take-away light.

On Sunday we headed east, to check out the Tent London shows at the Truman Brewery. There was stacks to see here, divided into six main sections, including a fantastic selection of vintage British design.

Chair company Emeco had a great display for their 20-06 aluminium chair (below), designed by his highness Norman Foster, which they displayed supporting a ship's anchor, and being suspended by a weather balloon. The chair itself is just beautiful, and will hopefully be available in the UK soon. UPDATE - Oop, it is available - via Ruth Ainger Brands Limited - check the comment on this post below. ALSO - more about the installation on the Wieden & Kennedy blog.

Dupont's 40 Years / 40 Designers show (previously shown in Milan, New York and Frankfurt) featured a collection of products made from their Corian material. We loved the Rainbow Calendar by Niels Kjeldsen Design.

We also loved the Reveal table from Ku Designs, made from moulded plywood, in a range of veneers, and with your choice of colour for the interior opening. Tasty.

Well, that's it then. Another year over for the London Design Festival. It came and went like a highly stylised whirlwind, spreading its stunning chaos across a huge swathe of the city: north, south, east and west.

Here's to next year.

More London Design Festival goodness

We hit two of the big design shows in town yesterday, heading over to 100% Design in the morning, and then Designersblock in the afternoon.

100% Design, over at Earls Court, is a bit of a corporate monster, with lots of polished display stands and men in suits looking serious, but it has a few interesting bits and pieces.

The main section that really caught our eye was the fantastic Sit Up show organised by [re]design in the 100% Futures section. The show is a collection of sixteen seats that have been designed with sustainability at the forefont of the design process. We particularly liked Sprout and Pli's Reee chair, made from recycled computer games consoles; and Claire Heather-Danthois's elegant Once-a-door seat.

Over at Designersblock it's a much more informal atmosphere, taking place at the old Nicholls & Clarke Buildings on Shoreditch High Street. There's stacks to see here. We liked Mr Jones Watches, and the Karl Marx collection by Fresh West Design (a cut-price version of their standard range of products, created because they realised they couldn't afford to buy any of their own designs).

The highlight of the show though is Designboom's Handled with Care - contemporary ceramic works. Frankly this should be a show in its own right - it's a fantastically curated collection of witty and entertaining ceramic work. We especially liked Cecilia Leon de la Barra's dog-shelf, Claudio Cardoso's Cut plate, and Maxim Velkovsky's Little Joseph candle holders. Read more about it all on their blog.

Tom Dixon: Great Light Giveaway

We cycled over to Trafalgar Square last night to check out the Tom Dixon Great Light Giveaway. He's created a huge chandelier out of his Blow lights, and installed it in front of the National Gallery. It's not as interactive a piece as he created last year, but it's worth taking a look anyway. If you can't get along, there are some more of Alistair's photos over on his Flickr LDF set.

As mentioned below, Dixon will be giving away 1,000 of the lights on Wednesday at 5pm, which is pretty generous of him really.

The London Design Festival 07

The London Design Festival is upon us again, now in its fifth year, and we've just picked up the festival guide, which weighs in at a cracking 258 pages. That's partly because it has some extended essays at the front, but also because the event just keeps getting bigger.

As with last year, we've put together a list of the events we're going to try to get along to this week. You can pick up a festival guide at most of the venues, or from the festival hub at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, or just check out the festival website. Icon magazine has also produced its own guide to some festival highlights, with a particularly useful day-by-day guide to private views and parties.

LomoWorldWall
The Lomography gang have put together one of their Lomowalls in Trafalgar Square, featuring over 100,000 lomographs, which will be added to during the week, culminating in a big old event on the 22nd.

Size + Matter: The Materials Project
Zaha Hadid, and Amanda Levete (from Future Systems) have created a couple of one-off pieces outside the Royal Festival Hall. We saw them being installed on Saturday, and they were already looking pretty groovy.

Tom Dixon: Great Light Giveaway
Last year Tom Dixon gave away a stack of polystyrene chairs in Trafalgar Square, and his generous nature is still in evidence this year. He's created a low-enery light installation at Trafalgar Square, which kicks off today, and which will be lit for a few hours each day (from sunset, which is at 7.15 today according to BBC weather). He's giving a stack of his Blow lights away, though quite how you get them depends on who you listen to. His site says it's a first come, first served kinda thing, starting at 5pm on Wednesday, giving away 500 (or possibly 1,000) of the lights; but the LDF site says: "A certain number of tickets will be issued to visitors on each day of the installation, and on the final Saturday all 2,500 lights will be given away to their recipients". Guess the best bet is to pitch up when you can and ask the folk there.

UPDATE - We nipped along there today: the installation runs till Wednesday evening, lighting up from 7 till 10 on Tuesday, and 4.30pm till 10 on Wednesday. At 5pm on Wednesday they'll give away 1000 lights on a first come first served basis. They're already giving away free Glowb low-energy light bulbs.

Conversational Spanish 2
A show of Spanish design curated by Hector Serrano, 10 to 6 daily from Tuesday, at 67a Great Titchfield St
W1W 7PT.

Designers Block
The younger, more interesting alternative to 100% Design, back at the Nicholls & Clarke bulidings (3-10 Shoreditch High Street) for their Tenth Anniversary show. Expect lots of great product and furniture design. It's on from Thursday to Sunday, from 10 to 7 daily. Register online by Wednesday for free entry. Check their blog for more info too.

Designers Block: Illustrate
Not content with all that action on Shoreditch High St, Designersblock has also got an illustration show over at Highbury Studios (Hornsey St, N7 - near Holloway Road tube), running all week, from 10 to 7 daily, with work from over 80 leading illustrators.

Super Design Market
The folks from Scarlet Projects (they're the people behind the V&A Summer Fete) launched the Super Design market last year, and it's a great chance to pick up some tip-top bits of design for between £5 and £100. It's in the Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall, Friday 6-9, Saturday 10-7, and Sunday 10-6. Go shop.

100% Design
It's a bit of a corporate behemoth, but Tom Dixon is the creative director this year, so it could be interesting, and it's got a fair few off-shoots too (100% Light, 100% Sustainable, 100% Materials, 100% Futures etc), which should be worth checking out. The public day is Sunday 23rd, from 11-6.

Tent London
Taking over where 100% East left off last year, this event fills the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane from Thursday to Sunday. We're particularly looking forward to checking out Alex Haw's solution to the Urbantine Project.