what makes good design?

cardiff design festival

this year, i've put together a digital exhibition for this year's festival and will be uploading it on to here probably friday (so keep an eye out for it) after the opening on thursday eve. if you're around cardiff, come along to milgi, city road - it will be a good event.

pop-up culture

they say that in tough times, creativity blossoms.

as money is scarce in the arts, innovative thinking comes into major play and one key movement has been the 'pop-up' exhibition space. landlords and estate agents are clocking the advantages of offering empty shops to curators and artists to set up for days /weeks / months. fashion brands have been doing this for ages (comme des garcons the most obvious), banksy has done it, so it was only time until the flow reached others.

san francisco has a programme 'art in storefronts' up and running, backed by the Mayor (article here http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=35742 (thanks to curating.info)), new york has a 'no longer empty' initiative, numerous pop-ups in london and interestingly, salon gallery of london have just released details of a competition they are running for young curators to win the chance to put on a show - 'london's next top curator'. check out http://www.salongallery.co.uk/ for details on how to apply. crap title but a great chance for young graduates which is very much needed.

from personal experience, it's pretty difficult to find landlords open enough for suggestions on this, but i'm sure that says more about here and anything. ho hum. although there has been one - the 'aaaaart shop' in the main shopping centre here. so hopeful signs that it'll catch on. i do hope so.

time to get self-motivated to fill the empty with the full.

p.s. interesting article on this subject here (another favourite blog worth keeping an eye on) - http://newcurator.com/2009/02/slack-space-empty-shops-as-exhibition-space/

rca m.a. fashion exhibition at the v&a

a second stop after the design museum on my london trip was the v&a (another massive favourite of mine). telling tales was the main attraction for me, but more on that later.

i managed to catch the rca's fashion m.a. and boy, am i glad i did. of course, my eyes naturally searched for shoes and was pleased to find helen wilde's work and these boots in particular (the image is rubbish i'm sorry, damn reflective glass). amazing detailed folds of leather, together with the overhanging at the front and back add just enough to these beautiful and minimal boots.

another eye catcher was this knitted dress by abbie shaw. the huge zip-pull is just calling out to be played with, but the winner for me is the structure of the dress = totally contemporary but at the same time you could imaging jackie-o in it. a good look indeed.

a quick mention of one other student - jarah stoop who makes the most outstanding luggage and bags = masculine, tough and industrial. highlight for me was this holdall on a trolley.

all in all, impressed and excited to see the great quality of work coming out of the rca. onwards and upwards.

design museum exhibitions

few weeks back i made my way to the design museum in london (a favourite place of mine) to see the super contemporary exhibition and the mariscal installations.

mariscal was a real good fun exhibition, a feast of colour for the eyes with lots of texture and experiences - absolutely perfect for children (and not too self conscious adults) to play with and get involved. highlights were the dark room plastered with graffiti, the hoards of hanging cartoon characters and cute little videos shown on screens embedded in theatre-like sets. there was so much to see and my eyes could not stay still - not a bad thing considering the type of exhibition it was, a proper celebration of the vividness and energy of mariscal's work.

super contemporary was pretty hard core and hard work - so much info and so much to take in. on the one hand i hate this - you lose concentration quick; but on the other it allows you to dip in and out of the content, taking in what you want, what interests you, what you fancy.
the fact that it was all london based really interested me (boy, they're pushing to further cement london's reputation as design capital), although i could spot missing people / publications / designs. they should have had an audience participation bit where you could contribute your own opinions - very interesting from london's point of view to know what other nations think / associate / know of the london design scene.
as icon magazine's justin mcguirk commented in the editor's bit in july's issue, someone should do an alternative show - how interesting would that be?

the timeline design of the exhibition was spot on, the layering by practice all headed by the history of the time worked fantastically (although i would've painted the wood a nice white just to let it disappear into the wall a bit). it was strange working around the room and shifting from 'history' to recognising your own memories of things happening - particularly for me the channel four re-branding for some reason...

here's are a few snaps of the exhibition's design - again, i have to say that i loved the look and the slotting in and layering of images and texts, worked beautifully. and everyone appreciates colour coding, right?


so, i loved the timeline but was not that impressed with the commissioned stuff in the middle of the room. although, saying that, i loved the idea of the maps of london with designers' favourite places... picked up some handy info.
one installation which stood out for me was neville brody's freedom space. walking into that cubicle was a strange experience.
i like how abstract an image the repetition of the cameras make.

a good friend of mine commented that they should just have published a book of the info and commissioned work...and i totally see that.