FormmuseumNu – debate ‘regarding the content and function of a future design museum’

2 February 2012, Konstfack,Svarta Havet, Stockholm.   16.00 – 18.00

Daniel Charny, Curator and advisor for the New Design Museum, London, Lidewij Edelkoort, Trend analyst, Trend Union, Paris. Nina Stritzer – Levine, Chief curator at Bard Graduate center Decorative Arts, New York. FromaFantasma / Andrea Trimarchi, Simone Farresin, Designer, Eindhoven. Mikael Schiller, Executive Chairman of ACNE Studios, Stockholm. Moderator: Annica Kvint, Design – and architecture critic, Stockholm.

The Judging panel for the Arts Foundation Product Design Fellowship Award 2012 this year included Daniel Charny, Michelle Ogundehin: Editor of Elle-Deco and Deyan Sudjic: Director of the Design Museum, London. The nominees selection exposed the dichotomy at the heart of product design which emerging design professionals face. Cultural production or main stream relevance. Few manage to capture both but those that do, do so through challenging preconceptions. The shortlist this year gives voice to the diversity of the field, though one strand seemed under represented, in that the nominations concentrated more on designers that drive their own practice and fewer of those harder to identify industrial design talents that are imbedded in design teams.

Having an interesting time talking to students from various universities about Power of Making, a joint exhibition for the V&A Museum and Crafts Council. Next up is London Metropolitan University, Department of Architecture and Spatial Design where Course Leader is Diane Cochrane on 10 November details here. Then Camberwell College of Arts 3D Design and Designer Maker students lead by Karen Richmond and Maiko Tsutsumi. A little later in the month with the Royal College of Art Design Products students, a programme lead by Tord Boontje and early in December taking part in the TOOKIT lecture series for Kingston’s BA Product & Furniture Design where Jon Harison is Acting Course Director.

Power of Making from Juriaan Booij on Vimeo.

A three screen film installation commissioned for the Power Of Making exhibition. A collaboration between the V&A and the Crafts Council of England. London 2011.

Director / Camera: Juriaan Booij
Commissioning Editor: Daniel Charny

Held at the V&A during Power of Making Friday Late 30 September, The Institute of Ideas Satellite programme with guests Sandy Black, Daniel Charny, Angela Saini, Paul Reeves, Matt Warman and James Woudhuysen was an eclectic array of  responses to declarations and questions such as : ”Is the move towards the ‘creative economy’ simply the latest evolution of Adam Smith’s division of labour, or is there a serious risk of overspecialisation once the Chinese et al develop their designers alongside their factories? Should we embrace a return to the days of thrifty ‘make do and mend’ or celebrate mass production’s achievements in creating mountains of ‘stuff’? What skills are necessary to fuel a thriving manufacturing sector, and are there any barriers being placed on innovation today? What should the UK be making in the 21st century?.” [via Institute of Ideas]

Daniel Charny was invited by the Crafts Council of Ireland to talk about the ideas that shaped the exhibition Power of Making (currently on and free at the Victoria and Albert Museum till 02 January 2012) as keynote speaker at Ireland’s Future Makers Seminar next Thursday November 3rd, 10am – 4pm. Venue: Triskel Christchurch, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St, Cork.

The 23^rd International Conference of the Society for Medical Innovation and Technology (SMIT), chaired by the innovative surgeon Amir Szold invited a keynote on Design Thinking and how to work with designers. The talk by Daniel Charny reviewed the development of the profession of industrial design as a strategic practice suggesting to the inventors, engineers and medical innovation leaders to integrate design and designers from the very early stages of their projects. The talk also presented recent ground breaking work from the Helen Hamlyn Design Centre.

David Adjaye is this year’s recipient of Design Miami/ Designer of the Year Award.

“The diverse selection committee comprising individuals who significantly impact international design discourse” included: Maarten Baas, Daniel Charny, Pierre Doze, Marianne Goebl, Brooke Hodge, Ellen Lupton, Ravi Naidoo, Deyan Sudjic, Noriko Takiguchi and Alexander von Vegesack.

Joint V&A and Crafts Council exhibition Power of Making, curated by Daniel Charny, celebrates imaginative use of skills is open 6 September 2011 to 2 January 2012. Check out the activity programme around the ‘Old Kent Enterprise’ table by El Ultimo Grito in the Tinkerspace. Images from V&A by Peter Kelleher.

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Published by the V&A Museum to coincide with the exhibition Power of Making, opening September 6 2011, this series of essays edited and introduced by Daniel Charny includes new pieces by anthropologist Danny Miller, cultural historian and educationalist  Christopher Frayling, Applied arts historian Martina Margetts, curator and artist  Ele Carpenter, science fiction author  Bruce Sterling and a recently conducted interview with Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms Neil Gershenfeld. The images selected from the exhibits are accompanied by short poetic captions commissioned from author Patricia Rodriguez. Designed by Oscar & Ewan. For full details check here.

Images from CRblog.

Super Contemporary - Designed in London, curated by Daniel Charny for the Design Museum is opening in Taipei Fine Arts Museum on 27 August –  27 November 2011. The show celebrating the fearlessly progressive spirit of London’s greatest creative minds, past and present includes a rich timeline of design events in political and cultural context from the 1960′s to this day. Along side it are 15 commissions of new concepts for the city by leading designers that see London as their home. First shown in June 2009 the exhibition design is a collaboration between furniture designer Martino Gamper, and graphic design consultancy Bibliothèque.

FROM-NOW-ON have been appointed by the Design Museum London as Content and Interpretation Consultants to work with them on the strategy, policies and display of their permanent collections. This is part of the comprehensive goundwork preparing for the  museum’s very exciting new development project to move to the former Commonwealth Institute building.

Four more projects by Design Products students from the group working with Roberto Feo and Daniel Charny include: QR U? a project about exploring and controlling online identity by Thorunn Arnadottir ; Fast assembly studio furniture bracket system by Thomas Hatfield; From Here For Here local materials for local product, pencil making mini factory for the Royal College of Art students by Ariane Prin and Lightweight trestles and heavyweight coat-hangers by Benjamin Whistle (Images on their way).

First round of trials for the live online masterclasses completed, learnt much and lots to look forward to. The first round of masters to brave the new format included: Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh/Sugru , Simon Waterfall/Fray , Conny Freyer/Troika , Asa Bruno/Ron Arad Architects. We are working on the next set of classes that will be available for the autumn season.

Konstfack university college of arts, crafts and design is reflecting on locality in a global design and art world. Daniel Charny will be among a group of panelists invited by Ivar Björkman, President of Konstfack since 2003 to take part in a public round table discussion about the role of geographical location in art, craft and design. It’s a pertinent question for design and art education especially in these times when there is increasing pressure by governing bodies and students alike to demonstrate value. Among the panelists are: Liesbeth den Besten, Dan Fern, Søren Grammel, Davide Quadrio, LouiseSchouwenberg, Annika von Taube and Marco Velardi.

Curated for The Aram Gallery Material Table will present the material sample library from David Adjaye’s practice. Taken as is from their offices and located across the gallery space the timber, glass, metal, fabric and plastic samples, along side unique sample experiments will serve to offer insights into one of the most significant and emotive aspects of this creative architectural practice. The catalogue includes David Adjaye in conversation with Daniel Charny talking about materials and methods.

This year Daniel Charny nominated four designs for Brit Insurance Designs of the year 2011 the yearly showcase of selected designs from around the world is on at the Design Museum London until July 2011.

SPUN by HEATHERWICK STUDIO/Manufactured by MAGIS; LEVERAGED FREEDOM CHAIR by MIT MOBILITY LABORATORY; BRANCA by INDUSTRIAL FACILITY/Manufactured by Mattiazzi and INTIMATE RIDER by ALAN THOLKES.

This year Roberto Feo and Daniel Charny set Platform 10′s underlying theme as The BookClub. After reading excerpts from: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore; Writings by Vilém Flusser; Myths of the Near Future by J.G. Ballard; Species of Spaces and other stories by George Perec; Ubik by Philip K Dick; Cultural Resistance (Editor Michel Ducombe) by Ricardo Dominguez; Password by Jean Baudrillard; and in particular Losing Blue by Haruki Murakami and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, the first and second year MA students embarked on a project called “A future of…” and so far some exciting ideas looking into the future of self diagnostics, makers guilds, insomnia and lighting in public spaces to name a few.(images by Roberto Feo from the start of year presentation)

Charny is to pursue new projects as Director at FROM-NOW-ON, a creative projects consultancy and to guest curate an exhibition, commissioned by the V&A Museum in collaboration with the Crafts Council.

Titled Power of Making the exhibition is due to open at the V&A in September 2011.

In the past eight years with Charny as curator The Aram Gallery has clocked 30 exhibitions, presented over 200 unique exhibitors, seen close to 10,000 visitors in the gallery and in the past year alone over 120,000 online visitors. Since starting in 2002 the gallery has grown to be a place dedicated to offering insights into design process with a focus on showing experimental work and championing the significance of prototypes. Among the shows were highlights such as Rotations, Significant Colour,  Jaime Hayon, Martino Gamper, Sebastian Bergne, Okay studio, Grassworks by Jair Straschnow and most recently Mind Sets by Ineke Hans. In May 2011 Charny will be back to do one more show about material samples with David Adjaye.

Daniel Charny was invited to take part in the Design Miami Designer of the Year Award Jury 2010 alongside Anniina Koivu, Cédric Morisset, Alexander von Vegesack, Ambra Medda & Wava Carpenter and 2008 winners Fernando & Humberto Campana.

The nominations have all gone in and voting has happened as well…the winner this year is Grcic, Konstantin Grcic.

18th September – 13th November

The Aram Gallery presents Mind-Sets, a review of Dutch designer Ineke Hans’s work and her first solo exhibition in the UK. Mind-Sets is an introspective exhibition exploring Ineke Hans’s working process, her thoughts, fascinations and motives in design. This will be the 30th show curated by Daniel Charny at TAG since 2002.

Curated by Daniel Charny in collaboration with special projects manager Phil Rodgers for Neville Brody’s the Anti Design Festival running 17 – 21 September at 28 Redchurch street the M&M! space

Revolving around provocative works and activities, the space includes  film-work by artist Giles Ripley called I’m a Winner (Why Aren’t You!!!), short  ”social interventions” film series by designer Hwang Kim, sit on cut-up benches by David Amar and listen to manifesto readings given by megaphone from speakers’ corners designed by Alon Meron. Other pieces by Peter Warren, Dominic Wilcox, Stuart Bannocks and Therese Morch. photos from @Panjapop, Stuarts Bannocks and Keinton Butler. More images and info soon.

The Aram Gallery presents Prototypes and Experiments V: Architectural Elements, the latest instalment in its ongoing exhibition series exploring prototypical and experimental design. The new show focuses on architectural models and samples, each of which has been sourced from the studio of an established architecture practice, and allows trials and experiments of details of buildings, rather than models of whole projects, to take centre stage. With work from 14 studios including:  51% studios, AOC, dRMM, Universal design studio, Carmordy Groark, ecoLogicStudio, Superfusionlab, Ron Arad Associates, Tobias Klein, Facit, Superfusionlab, Urban Salon, Walker & Martin and Hawkins/Brown.

Until 28th August 2010

On the opening night of Clerkenwell Design Week Knoll hosted The Fakes Debate asking key members within the design industry to argue the pros and cons of producing copycat products – are they democratizing design or are they ruining the industry’s integrity?  An impressive line up included Designer, Ross Lovegrove, RCA senior Tutor and Independent Curator, Daniel Charny, V&A Design Curator, Abraham Thomas and CEO of MyDeco, Nicole Vanderbilt presented argued their case for or against the motion ‘This House Believes Fakes are a Crime against Design.’

The event was chaired by Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council, Vicky Richardson and was left as a controversial issue!

13th May – 19th June 2010

Designing, drawing, drilling
Engaging, enabling, engineering
Shaping, sawing, sharing
Inventing, individuals, involving
Gluing, giving, getting
Nailing, naming, nurturing
Creating, cutting, connecting
Assembling, adjusting, accelerating
Making, moving, mentoring
Plotting, painting, playing

The Aram Gallery is pleased to present Scooterkit by Ben Wilson, seven years after our first collaboration, Chairfix.

In Scooterkit, Wilson draws on self-assembly and DIY culture to inspire his designs, and invites a range of ‘co-designers’ to use his products as a platform for their own self-expression. Generated for Design Camp’s youth design and technology activity programme, Scooterkit, a kit of parts, was assembled and customised during a weeks workshop in 2009.

COMING SOON:

MADE IN ITALY: MILAN DESIGN CITY

Tuesday 18 May, The Lighthouse, Glasgow – 7.15pm

Its where to go to show, see and be seen. Curator and lecturer Daniel Charny, designer Fabio Novembre, and curator and editor Joseph Grima, will explore how this city and the annual Salone de Mobile provoke and promote new Italian design.

JUST HAPPENED:

MADE IN ITALY: ITALIAN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Dr. Penny Sparke, Mario Bellini and Daniel Charny discus the nuances of the Italian design scene; with a number of detailed and personal case studies, this event will give an insightful look into the inner workings of Italian design. Monday 19th May, Design Museum, London.

With the arrival of Abandon Architectures, El Ultimo Grito’s new book, The Aram Gallery is pleased to present three recent collections of work in blown-glass, resin coated cardboard and honeycomb mounted photographs reusing famous quotes. The works from 2009/10 have not yet been shown in the UK.Exhibition continues until 1st May 2010

Curator Daniel Charny
Director Zeev Aram

DIALOGUES has been kindly supported by Kingston University, London

A two days workshop led Daniel Charny and Tord Boontje of the Royal College of Art provided an opportunity for participants to work intensively on design processes. This one off workshop was part of the events and education programme around Ron Arad’s exhibition Restless at the Barbican.

The Aram Gallery is delighted to open the fourth in the ongoing series Prototypes and Experiments with a new batch of exhibits sourced from the studios of emerging and established designers. This time there are a significant number of objects exploring ideas in metal.

Until 6th March 2010

Concept and creative direction by Daniel Charny, From Now On.

Commissioned and produced by: British Council, Arts & Architecture. Project development and design: Åbäke, BERG and Editing consultant Damian Barr. LDF version design team included: Jérôme Rigaud, Bannocks&Hill, Jonathan Attenborough and Oliver Bishop-Young.

Shortlisted in the Design Museum’s Interactive category, The Incidental is a community-generated website and news pamphlet was created for Milan and London Design Festival by and for the design community.  It was developed as a new service replacing the traditional gallery exhibition model of previous years and was the fruit of a rich collaboration between curators, writers, digital and graphic designers. First launched in April 2009, for the Milan Furniture Fair it reached an estimated 20,000 people from over 50 countries, offering opinion, reviews, news and recommendations by tapping into peoples reactions to what they were experiencing in the fair events. During the 2009 London Design Festival The Incidental included an open-house publishing base and encouraged people to drop by, comment, record, tweet, email, text and use a mixture of digital and physical forms of communication to add to the user-generated content, which was then distributed through the four editions, daily redesigned, self printed, folded and packaged during the festival.

NOMINATED BY DANIEL CHARNY

As a response to increasing requests for socially directed design activity, Daniel Charny and Roberto Feo set their design students on the MA at the Royal College of Art  a new project to engage with an organisation that is close to their heart. They are asked to develop their understanding of what this organisation is aiming for and then to design one thing that will help achieve the goals. Among the organisations the students have chosen are the socially responsible business activist Carrotmob, Surfers Against Sewage, South to North Korea peace through food initiative and a Bulgarian local crafts service NZKBG…more info as the project develops.

Latest curating project for The Aram Gallery: an extended book launch of Thinking: Objects by Tim Parsons, a new book for students, graduates, practising designers and anyone with an interest in contemporary product design. The book looks at the many approaches designers take to their work and discusses their motivation. It highlights the ways in which products communicate value and meaning through form, giving designers tools with which to create their own designs. It also explores what the design process feels like in the mind and shows how drawing and model making aid decision-making.

Exhibition open until 9th January 2010

Daniel Charny was invited to give a talk about curating contemporary design at Barcelona’s Industrial Design Association based in the beautiful FAD complex by the MACBA. Chaired by Dr. Viviana Narotzky of ADI FAD, Charny reviewed his experience from recent years and presented current thoughts of working in the field of curating contemporary design using examples from projects involving Spanish designers in shows such as the group show Conversational Spanish, Stage by Jaime Hayon, Tenerife Design Festival and most recently the solo show of Javier Mariscal – Drawing Life for the Design Museum London. PODCAST OF TALK

The first ever Tenerife Design Festival just happened in Santa Cruz, Daniel Charny took part as one of the judges of the design competition which was awarded to a kind of service design approach, a ‘users manual’ for discovering Tenerife as a paradise on earth. The Founders Yapci Ramos and Samual Cabrera, who consulted Charny along the process organised a uniquely curated festival fitting for their island rather then falling into the generic model of design festivals that have been cropping up in so many cities. The highlight was a collaborative project between local artisans and six invited designers called TDFSigno

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POWER OF MAKING ON SCREEN a collection of short films on making, submitted through the Crafts Council. 40 of these on show in the Tinkerspace at the V&A Power of Making exhibition:

POWER OF MAKING curated for the Victoria and Albert Museum joint commission with the Crafts Council. Opening September 06 2011 and on till 02 January 2012.

PARLIAMENT OF OWLS our new live online masterclass format completed running the first trial programme with six inspiring masters. The next round is due early 2012 look out for the next sessions.

17 September – 28 November 2009

Amsterdam based designer Jair Straschnow has designed a series of experiments in self-assembly furniture. Grassworks is range that is designed to be simple, intelligent, beautiful, space-saving and wholly sustainable.

The furniture is made from bamboo laminate sheets which use an interlocking system of component parts for assembly, with dry mechanical fastening rather than glue and screws. The interlocking components allow the furniture to be flat packed.
Listed as part of London Design Festival 2009

Following its success in Milan earlier this year, during LDF Daniel Charny’s consultancy FNO teamed up with the British Council to run The Incidental . This user-generated website and news pamphlet is created by and for the design community, and offers opinion, reviews, news and recommedations by tapping into what everyone is talking about.

1st July to 1st November 2009

The Design Museum presents the first UK retrospective of Spanish designer and artist Javier Mariscal. Regarded as one the world’s most innovative and original designers of our time, Mariscal’s rich and diverse body of work spans kooky cartoon characters to stunning interiors, from furniture to graphic design and corporate identities.The exhibition and graphics will be designed by Mariscal, promising an immersive experience for the visitor into the world and mind of Mariscal. Mariscal will also design and paint an elaborate mural for the exterior of the Design Museum showcasing his unique vision and signature design style.
Mariscal Drawing Life Blog

Daniel Charny was invited to be part of the jury for Spunique’s Design Competition 2009. Also judging were, Shin Azumi, Sebastian Bergne, David Britton and Simon Donald. The results of the competition will be on show during 100% Design between 24th – 27th September 2009.

DRAWING LIFE at the Design Museum is a comprehensive review and unique installation of Javier Mariscals work.  Curator Daniel Charny walks through the exhibition with Mariscal as they discuss the various elements of the show, design process and passion for Drawing in this podcast produced by Marcus Fairs for Dezeen

’1851 + 1946 + 1981 = Designers From Britian’ was the chapter title initially suggested for an essay charting out the key influences that have lead to the current world leading talent of product designers coming from Britain and its design education system. Now titled ‘Can Britain Still Make It’ it is the title for the product and furniture chapter by Daniel Charny for  Design in Britain.  Introduction by Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum with contributions from Wally Olins, Simon Waterfall, Susannah Frankel, Rick Poynor, Daniel Charny, Andrew Nahum, Paola Antonelli. Yet to be published by Octopus publishing group this new book: “with each chapter written by an international expert in that field, is the most comprehensive account of what it is that has given Britain a special place in design.” (from Amazon.co.uk)

The Korean Design Foundation have invited Daniel Charny as guest curator, along side artist curator Zinoo Park, to nominate projects that deal with ‘sharing’. The international collaborative exhibition will open during the London Design Festival at the central space of the Korean Cultural Center near Trafalgar Square. Charny chose four projects that are all to do with sharing physical space: Wallfa by Jordi Canudas; Drop by Olivia Decaris; Landspace by Nic Rysenbry and YOUMAY by Walking Chair. The exhibition will include a rich selection of European and South Korean designers conducting live events and presenting exciting new work of an experimental nature. It is part of the KDF’s ongoing international programme DesignMADE.

Exhibition open: 22nd September – 8th October 2009

“Charny’s research is still informing the project five years later” writes Blueprint’s Tim Abraham in a review of the nearly completed Design Museum Holon project by architects Ron Arad Associates.

Daniel Charny spoke at the 2009 Hidden Art Forum Growing Through Recession. The forum brings together specialist speakers to present and discuss opportunities within the design industry and ways of accessing them. Daniel spoke in the panel discussion on Prototypes, using the Aram Gallery’s exhibition series ‘Prototypes and Experiments’ as an example of their display.

03 June – 04 October 2009

Super Contemporary is the spirit of London design, past, present and future. The exhibition celebrates and examines the creative magnetism of London and its enduring reputation as a beacon of design. The Design Museum has joined forces with Beefeater 24 to showcase 15 new commissions from London’s most dynamic creatives to explore what it is that attracts the world’s leading designers to study, work and live in the city.

Curator Daniel Charny

Exhibition Design by Martino Gamper and Communication designers Bibliotheque

Photography by Luke Hayes

8th May to 27th June 2009

The Aram Gallery is delighted to exhibit the work of ten designers and artists that work in distinctly different fields, yet share the passion and sensitivity for using colour in their work. Significant Colour is an exhibition exploring the impact of colour and its richness as a subject matter for designers in different disciplines.  Pieces on show include furniture, photography, textiles, jewellery art, sculpture, communication, lighting and architecture.

Daniel Charny and Roberto Feo take Platform 10 students from RCA to Milan Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2009 this April to assemble Crisis Shop. A display of pieces designed as responses to the question ‘What qualifies as a Crisis?, each invests in the means to respond to crises at large.
Platform 10.

Crisis Shop. Sold Out!:
22nd-27th April 10am to 9pm daily

Seves glassblock showroom
Via Lodovico il Moro, 25/27 – 20143 Milano

In Milan 2009 Salone del Mobile Daniel is guest curator with the British Council launching an experimental new project The Incidental.

This daily hybrid media news sheet, guided by new creative projects consultancy FROM-NOW-ON, is collated through digital and physical participation channels…the first one out this morning. The project commissioned by Alison Moloney and Catherine Ince and project managed by Evonne Mackenzie from the British council Architecture Design and Fashion Arts Group, and involved internet product designer Matt Jones who introduced Matt and Jack from Schulze & Webb on the online and technical development. With graphic designers:  Åbäke and Co-Editor writer Damian Barr.

From February 12th 2009

Prototypes and experiments are critical elements in the development process of any new design.

The prototype is the manifestation of a design idea on its way to production; experiments are more like steps on the way. The prototype, being part of a process, makes more real an idea that will lead to a final piece, and is not made with the intention of being sold or shown outside the designer’s studio. Experiments are also unique artefacts but are even less refined and sometimes constitute a partial sketch on the way to the prototype.

The exhibition features prototypes from both established and emerging designers, and for the first time a 3D Scale Model of the Thames Gate by Nigel Coates. Visit The Aram Gallery for more.

Daniel Charny & Gabriel Klasmer developed a physical and slideshow version of a 2003 photographic project inspired by football sports photogrphy. The pieces are installed at NOWHERE/NOW/HERE an exhibition into alternative investigations in design curated by Rosario Hurtado and Roberto Feo for LABoral in Gijon Asturias.

Furniture is often thought of as given types that relate to a task or support an occasion. Sports Furniture is about choreographing the body into dramatic physical situations, such as those of footballers at the height of exerted effort. Their shape frozen by photography becomes a heroic depiction of human form. Good sports photography captures these moments that are so full of energy and human expression. The body in relation to the ball becomes a study of intent. These supports are the exact opposite of the transient sport moment; they offer the user an imaginative scenario in which they can place themselves in that heroic moment.

The Royal College of Physicians building by Denys Lasdun has a new reception desk, designed by Daniel Charny and Martino Gamper. The Corian slab design houses all the digital security, communication and electrical equipment that has accumulated since the original 1964 marble desk first sported a single receptionist with one telephone line.

A new type of exhibition curated for a long-lasting continuously changing commercial programme at The Aram Gallery. In response to the limitations of the limited edition trend, The Aram Gallery will be showing unique pieces selected while on visits to designers studios. For more about the concept and the first selection please visit the exhibition NOW on at the gallery website.

Platform 10 takes to the hotel stage once more, this third year of collaboration with Simon Warrington of ANDAZ.

Private View is an insight into the workings of the designers thinking process. A series of short films made as sketches for new designs that are concerned with personal space. Each one is an intimate creative experience that stirs, provokes and kicks off ideas. It is a raw part of the process of young designers thinking about the future of domestic spaces. The projects are presented in speacial locations around the hotel, including staircases and elevator entrances. The show is on and open to public till 14 May.

Why design more chairs? was one of the key questions raised while chairing a talk at the Barbican about the relationship designers have to chairs. This talk was part of the education programme around the Hans Schabus exhibition, in which he wall-mounted on to the impressive curve gallery hundreds of chairs into a seating layout of a commercial plane. The talk offered the chance to meet art historian Margit Emesz who wrote the text accompanying the exhibition; Tim Oldman designer that has made his way to management and is currently the Design Director of Vitra UK and Martino Gamper designer of the 100 Chairs in 100 days and winner of the Design Museums Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Furniture award last month.

Recently visited the studio of Xavier Mariscal to meet him and get an insight into his fantastic prolific way of working and got to see the inspiring Palo Alto studios. This happened thanks to the The Design Museum in London which have asked me to start thinking together with Mariscal about a monographic show of his work. From the very first comix to the latest foam prototypes for furniture and scale model for a massive civic sculpture. The studio is full of projects, prototypes , drawings, models and now also all the magical story-boarding for a full feature animated film they are working on with great energy. Also got to see the super impressive archive with hundreds of designs, for a long list of very different clients and in many materials, technologies and formats.

Total Trattoria, was a unique site specific commissioned project from London-based designer Martino Gamper to design all the elements of an ad-hoc restaurant. It’s an extension of the Trattoria al Cappello concept he developed together with Maki Suzuki, Kajsa Stahl and Alex Rich.

Every element of the dining set up was designed or adapted – ranging from the massive 13 part dinner table itself to a kitchen unit, from the cutlery, place-mats, glasses to the chairs and lampshades. Each of the projects has an element of bringing things together, reflect the social nature of a dinner event. The 25 chairs around the table are all different yet are constructed from the same components in different configurations, its a kind of way of seeing putting materials together as cooking with ingredients.

The exhibition graphics and communication, also designed by Suzuki, Rich and Stahl, are intertwined with a specially commissioned catalogue (we even made it to the amazon).

Signs of Change in Singapore was a five day workshop with the LASALLE University product and interior design students in their amazing new building. The students explored ideas about the future of their city by story-boarding a day in their life when they will be over 50 years old. Each one chose a cultural, technical or social change to follow and imagined the type of institutes that will be part of Singapore in 30 years or more. They then designed a public sign naming the institute and giving it a heritage sign type icon. Some of them looked at the future of housing, other transport and food culture. One of the interesting aspects that came through was the fear of an overload of virtual life which was evident in proposals such as the Meet-for-Real place.

The signs were placed in the vicinity of the campus with prospects of being embedded into the actual city at a later stage. The workshop was commissioned by the British Council Curator Catherine Ince and Dan Prichard, Director, Creativity and Innovation in Singapore. The students were all very much engaged and the workshop enjoyed the great support of Xinwei, an energetic tutor, that helped us get the signs made to a very nice standard. This is the second Signs of Change workshop, the first was conceived and co-directed with Artist Gabriel Klasmer in 2005 with the design students at Lund LTH.

Working with Daniel Charny in 2007, Urban Salon reached the fourth round of the RIBA competition to design the Royal College of Art Battersea North site.

The brief was for a £19 million building that contained studio and retail space, start up atelier units, and a lecture theatre to be built over three phases.

The team researched into the history of the existing South Kensington building, and then incorporated successful characteristics from here into the new proposal.

To find out more, visit the Urban Salon website.

In 2006, Daniel Charny contributed to Phaidon’s Design Classics – a comprehensive collection of three books examining some of the best products ever made.

ACCIDENTAL COLLECTORS curated for the Aram Gallery presented the personal collections of seven designers and artists, not of their work but the things they collect and mostly keep to themselves. This included the 48 puncture repair kits of Nigel Shafran, the 84 tin oil lamps of Tony Hayward, the 312 clothes pegs of Yoav Ziv and Gad Charny, a selection of 40 pinnies from Jesssica Ogden’s 400+ aprons, the Aladdin colour-separated glass vessels collection of Stuart Haygarth and file boxes full of the typographically-nuanced shapes and parts of objects from the studio of Paul Elliman.

The unexpected collected items, that serve to inspire their guardians, were presented during March 2007 and reflect The Aram Gallery’s ongoing curiosity about design thinking.

The exhibition design by Peter Marigold was complemented by a pamphlet edited by Daniel Charny, supported by The Arts Council of England, which included short essays by Yaacov Kaufman, Libby Sellers, Michael Marriot, Tony Hayward and a conversation between Paul Elliman and Anna Colins

LATEST PROJECTS ON NOW:

GRASSWORKS at The Aram gallery on from 17 September to 31 October 2009

SUPER CONTEMPORARY at The Design Museum London on Till 4 October 2009

MARISCAL DRAWING LIFE at The Design Museum from 1st July to 1st November 2009

COMING SOON:

THE INCIDENTAL for the British Council London Design Festival 2009

MY PERFECT NEIGHBOURS for the Korea Design Foundation during the LDF 2009

Slow Water was a responsible design brief set by Feo and Charny for the Royal College of Art student group platform 10 and resulted in 14 new design concepts. The research and the prototypes were presented in a unique exhibition, supported by Innovation RCA, that rippled to wide acclaim during the London Design Festival of September 2007.

The students were offered a brief to ‘slow water down between the sky and the sea’, and to consider changes to the way people use and think about water in their day to day life. This included ideas about the future of showering with less water and efficient rain water management for private gardening alongside communication projects for raising awareness to the impacts of indulgent domestic water consumption.

Two of the students projects from Slow Water have since been picked up by progressive industry, and the project is still generating attention from press and publishers… for more details check out the report on treehugger or visit the platform 10.

On the occasion of the opening The Royal Institution of Great Britain hosted a talk with Karen Blincoe and Daniel Charny on Designing for Sustainability with a focus on questioning the roles of designers and design education.

New Moves was an exhibition at The Aram Gallery from 20 September to 3 November 2007 featuring 70 new task light prototypes designed by students from the Royal College of Art’s acclaimed Design Products department. The exhibition had as its starting point an exploration of the iconic task light – the Anglepoise and also offers the opportunity to compare new work with a selection of classics and best sellers from this uniquely independent form of lighting.

Research into solid freeform fabrication NEW PROTOTYPES of the Morning Glory tower lamp, and two products from the “A head of its time” project. The first to be produced was the double portrait sandclock, the sand pours from the top head to the lower and back when turned up side down. The second project is a salt and pepper portrait shakers. The embedded portraits are of the two designers involved in this project. The three pieces are part of the joint design collaboration with Professor Gad Charny of HIT, for ‘Dream Makers’ – an exhibition on the future of rapid prototyping, curated by Alex Ward, produced by Objet Geometries and shown at the Israel Museum Architecture and Design department, opened 5th January 2007.

do you suffer from LITTER GUILT?

GET A PIGDOG and you will be released from any further recycling anxieties!

PIGDOGS – made from two pint UK plastic milk bottles metallized in gold have become votive objects providing relief from recycling guilt, last seen at the Wellcome Collection’s Travelling Apothecary fair at the British Library on 16th September 2006, for further info see LITTER GUILT

Conversational Spanish

Conversational Spanish was a strong group show of experimental and new designs by currently active new generation designers from Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia that are working with local Spanish industry. The exhibition was designed by Serrano, and used speaker cones that played short conversations about the key exhibits. We got exciting reviews in local and international press.

STAGE

STAGE at The Aram Gallery was a monographic exhibition of selected work by Jaime Hayon, curated by Daniel Charny. Check out BACKSTAGE – the catalogue, and see the poster designed by Jeremy Mac Lynn. The exhibition won best of show in the 2006 London Design Festival Icon Design Trail award and has gone on to other galleries in Holland and Spain.

Walking Chair

Click here to see other previous exhibitions, such as the posters of DONT PANIC, the domestication of rotation moulded design in ROTATIONS, lighting design in DARKNESS or the tribute to A.Castiglioni. While you check out the exhibition of Trico Design Love! have a look at the latest colour available of the classic all pocket Pocketshirt designed for their inspirational design against trend collection.

Trico Design Love!

Royal College of Art Platform 10 is jointly directed by Daniel Charny and Roberto Feo, and is now in its 4th year.

The 2006 graduates work can be seen in our latest BOOK OF TEN (2006-2007). The Book of Ten includes some of the briefs given from that year (such as to design a Superstition and design a Mythical object from the 21st century, or Culture Shop aimed at initiating museum shop products that reflect the culture of the specific museum). For the first time there was also a reflective collaboration with V&A/RCA History of Design students that noted their take on the Platform 10 work. Five of the 2006 Platform 10 graduates have set up a studio group together – check out OKAYstudio

In 2006 we collaborated with rapid prototyping technology industry leaders 3D systems on a project MADEBYMACHINE , supported especially by Colin Blain, it was exhibited at the 2006 Milan furniture fair in collaborations with Zeus in their wonderful showroom – see here for some of the results.

In 2007, with the whole of Design Products we ran a project with the inimitable Ernesto Gismondi of Artemide in search of a new type of task light to continue the legacy (and diversify the market) started by the iconic anglepoise lamp. The culmination of this project was the New Moves exhibition at the Aram Gallery.

Sharewear – CHarny’s response to an industrial design project for the RNID future of hearing equipment exhibition, Hearwear launched at the V&A Museum contemporary galleries in March 2005.

Read more about the project in design4design article, and here are some media/client images of the project.

Talk at the Design Revolution in Industry conference for plastic industry leaders and project managers on the potentials of improving briefs for designers. Hosted by D-vision, Ketter Plastics group, Herzeliya July 2006.

Talk to History of Design post-graduate students at the V&A about writing the conceptual programme for a new type of design museum. The research for this included creating a tool to describe museum subject affinity and profiling the physical environment in relation to the mission statement, activity programme and collection. The building is being designed by Ron Arad Associates for the Holon Municipality in Israel.

Badisgood – a second outdoor design workshop looking at positive three dimensional graffiti in the built environment. Some exciting concepts – picts to follow soon.

Signs of Change – an outdoor public space design workshop with Gabriel Klasmer for the Swedish Industrial design LTH University in LUND.