Design Museum

One of the nice things about living in Bermondsey in South London is being surrounded by so many amazing things to do. Last weekend I took a little trip down to the Design Museum. At the moment there are three exhibitions on, Louis Kahn: The Power Of ArchitectureTime Machines: Daniel Weil And The Art Of Design and Designs Of The Year 2014.

Loius Kahn (1901–1974)

I wasn’t familiar with Kahn’s work before seeing it on display. The exhibition showcases his life’s work over the course of nearly half a century.

One of the highlights is a four metre tall (1:50 scale) model of his City Tower project planned for Philadelphia in the mid 50s but never built. The model was built by the Vitra Design Museum.

louis-kahn

Daniel Weil

Daniel Weil’s collection of ‘Time Machines’ was fascinating, in particular ‘Clock for an Architect’. It’s hard to translate the finish in a photo but trust me it’s really a beautiful object.

Daniel-Weil-Time-Machine-01

One of the really nice touches is the use of phillips and flat head screws on the positive and negative sides of the battery holder.

Daniel-Weil-Time-Machine-02

Designs of the Year 2014

The Designs of the Year exhibition showcases the best design from the past year and brings it all together in one exhibition. In their words:

“Now in its seventh year, Designs of the Year gathers together a year of cutting-edge innovation and original talent; showcasing the very best in global Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphic, Product and Transport design.”
— Design Museum

Here’s a few of my favourites from this years show.

pentagram-serpentine-gallery
Marina Willer of Pentagram’s identity for The Serpentine Galleries

 

vw-xl1

Volkswagen’s XL1 is the first car to do 100km to a litre of diesel

 

wall-calendar

The Lego Calendar by Vitamins is a great mash-up of analogue and digital technology to create a fun, working wall planner.

 

experimental-jetset-whitney

Experimental Jetset’s identity for the Whitney

 

dumb_ways_to_die

The brilliant Dumb Ways to Die

 

live-tracker

The vote tracker is a nice touch and really makes visitors feel like they are part of the experience. It’s hard to tell but the bars are made up of little pieces of yellow tape and are added to and updated to keep track of which exhibits are the most popular.

 

Design-museum-wall-type

Nicely sums it up I think.

A sea change

On a snowy December afternoon in 2010, I first walked through the door of 3 fish. A month later I started working there and ever since I’ve had the chance to work on some fantastically challenging projects with some really amazing friends.

The picture above is the stack of notebooks I found in my locker when I cleared it out the other day — although I’m sure there’s probably some more knocking about the studio. They’re tattered, torn, virtually illegible and thanks to a consistently escalating game of ‘let’s draw a cock on someone’s notebook’ contains some of the most majestic and imaginative cock drawings you can imagine. They’re also the most useful tools I’ve had access to and act as a reminder that the best work I’ve done wasn’t created sitting at an iMac.

I’ve loved my time in the fishtank and I’ve learned an unfathomable amount but like anything in life there comes a time for change. Next week I start at The Workroom and I can only hope I have even half as much fun there.