In a recent talk delivered by Rachel Sleight, we learned about her career so far as well as some ongoing projects. The discussion was based around Rachel’s design practice and how this can vary depending on the designer’s priorities. Rachel designs, makes and sells one-off, high-end leather accessories through her brand burnbank leather. The brand…
Author: vinnels
Hella Jongerius
Hella Jongerius is a dutch designer born in 1963. She is well known for contrasting industry with craft, high with low technologies and the traditional with the contemporary. Jongerius established her design studio, Jongeriuslab in 1993 in Rotterdam but it has since moved to Berlin. Their work often features collections of textiles, ceramics and furniture. …
‘Great Design’
In today’s lecture from Nicholas Oddy we discussed what makes great design. He gave a few examples of what could be considered great design and explained come context around each to give some reasons on why they might be considered to be regarded so highly. The definition of great design is very ambiguous and it…
Plyscrapers
Waugh Thistleton are a Shoreditch based architecture practice pioneering the construction of tall timber buildings. After researching the topic of building skyscrapers from wood I realised I have actually visited two of their projects. Firstly, I was able to visit one of their pieces of work at the London Design Festival where their 9m high…
The Compostable Phone Case
I was made aware of Pela through online advertising and was quickly drawn in with their use of sustainable materials and awareness of their environmental impact. I’ve used one of these cases for about a year now and am incredibly pleased with its performance. Pela are a brand of phone case who produce their cases…
Feasibility Calculations
Today we received a lecture from Ben Craven in which he highlighted the usefulness of using feasibility calculations at early stages in the design process. By carrying out some simple calculations at the concept stage of design, it can enable us to assess whether the project can be a success or not and therefore hopefully…
Blood in the Mobile
Blood in the Mobile is a documentary made by Frank Piasecki Poulsen in 2010 that tries to get to the bottom of if his phone company, Nokia are part of the blood mineral trade. The film is definitely an eye opener and really makes the viewer think about where the materials make up our possessions…
Rams
The 2018 film Rams directed by Gary Hustwit is a biographical documentary film about the legendary designer Dieter Rams. The film made me really respect Rams’ career as it was clear that no one has made such a big impact on the field of product design. The aesthetic of Rams’ designs is iconic and consistently…
Floating Cities
25% of Singapore is built on reclaimed land from the ocean and 20% of Tokyo is built on artificial islands. Given that 90% of the world’s cities are built on the water’s front, expanding cities into the seas, rivers or lakes does make sense. These developments are incredibly expensive however and often destroy sea life. …
Eames: The Architect and The Painter
After watching the film Eames: The Architect and The Painter about Charles and Ray Eames, there were a few main thoughts that I had coming away from it, mostly about the differences in the design world today compared to the middle of the 20th century. Firstly, gender roles, this is quite an obvious one and…
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