A commision to design the furniture for the shoreditch trusts new space at the waterhouse on Orsman Road. The pieces are inspired by the works of Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione or self made furniture. They are made entirely from recycled black plastic with coloured nylon washers to highlight the joints and junctions. The space is open to the public and is part of the design trail 2009.
A series of bespoke pieces for Park House; a Land Securities project. Positioned on Londons Oxford street this will be one of the largest ever developments in the West end. This interactive piece contains 3 art prints which have blueprints of the building printed on the reverse. These can be removed and used to support presentations to prospective tennants. When areas of the plueprints are touched they transmit a bluetooth signal around the suite triggering off projections of the relevant spaces.
To Support the exhibition Sport v Fashion held at the V&A in 2008 we were asked to provide a short workshop/installation. In an age where we walk around like branded billboards we thought it might be interesting to view these brand logos as shapes that might be used together to make patterns and new forms.
Visitors to the show were invited to apply any amount of our iron on logos to a t-shirt. It was interesting that even when faced with the opportunity to use multiple brands that some still felt ‘brand loyal’. Each t-shirt was then heat pressed and taken home by the participant.
The East London space project was launched at the V&A Village fete 2008. Leading the expedition were Sam‘buzz’ Johnson and Richard‘Yuri’ Shed. It aimed to provide an opportunity for aspiring astronaughts, cosmonaughts and hoxtonaughts to explore the far reaches of our galaxy through interplanetary hoopla. Participants had the opportunity to win a limited edition t-shirt to commemorate the event. The space project has since been grounded, it turned out to be quite an expensive venture putting designers in space.
I took the title of Ten Again literally and started to think about what it might be like to be ten again. This concept developed into a series of conversations held with ten year olds at primary schools in South Tottenham. The conversations were prompted by a number of questions some of which were directly related to environmental/sustainability issues, others which were just about finding out what it’s like to be ten in 2007. The conversations were presented as a series of tin cans, each with a tiny speaker mounted inside.
Held in the stunning garden at the Victoria and Albert museum the fete is always a must see event. An annual project for Richard and I the fete offers us a chance to dress up and have some fun. This year saw us adopt the titles of Duke Rogerme Johnson and Richard Shed 9th Earl of Haggerston Park. In our hunting outfits visitors were encouraged to join us in the grounds of Buggerdem Hall to try their luck at shooting (with an elastic band gun) our rooster, pigeon, rabbit, squirrel, rat and a selection of livestock grazing in the fields.
To coincide with the opening of the Da Vinci exhibition at the V&A museum we were asked to put an installation and workshop together. Inspired by Leonardos incredible illustrations of his inventions we decided to get visitors to design their own. To avoid people getting too precious over their drawings we combined this idea with the old Victorian parlour game of consequenses. This involves drawing a small portion of your idea and then passing on to someone else to add their bit. The resulting inventions were a wierd and wonderful collection of abstract thoughts and drawing styles that made for a very successful workshop and installation.
Commissioned by the Victoria & Albert museum London. In collaboration with Richard Shed.
The Robot Workshop held at the Museum of Childhood in Londons Bethnal green was inspired by the tin robots of the 40′s and 50′s. With a collection of plain white boxes and a mountain of stationary we invited kids and their parents to come and create their own robots. The response was amazing, by the end of the event we had hundreds of incredible robots. From this excersise we learnt that if you want to know what a proper robot should look like you should employ a team of children, leave the parents at home, theirs were rubbish! We also learnt that children can be kept entertained with boxes and stickers much longer than we thought humanly possible.
Commisioned by the Victoria and Albert museum 2007.
In collaboration with Erin Deighton (Hasbro) and Richard Shed
The first of the TEN designers instalations at 100% design. For this I attempted to avoid designing any objects, instead I concentrated on a leaflet that could be given away at the show. The leaflet contained instrucions on how people could make their own objects that save money around the home. For example, a set of fridge wedges that tip the fridge back insuring the door closes. A series of labels to put on plugs to draw attention to mobile phone chargers left plugged in (Not many people are aware that these chargers use the same amount of electricity whether they’re plugged into your phone or not!)
For more information on the ten projects please visit the wordpress site here http://tenproject.wordpress.com/2009-in-progress/
A commision from Scarlet projects and the West London Academy to design a break out space for Year 7 pupils. The space needed to allow for group meetings as well as learning activities and indoor recreation during wet weather. The space is made up from a bespoke stool, screen and table system.
Designed in collaboration with Chris Jackson and Ed Carpenter. Opened Sept 2006.