Designer Makers
Timorous Beasties
Alister McAuley and Paul Simmons, printers.
Timorous Beasties’ work embodies a unique diversity of pattern, ranging from design that echoes a golden age of copperplate engraving (a time-honoured classic is the Thistle range; or Merian Palm superwide wallpaper) to example of a distinctly edgy nature, an elegant transgression, a display of chic irreverence. Yet, the studio fully engages a design discourse with textiles history by lending an aesthetic evolution to time-honoured motifs.
Sandra backlund (see pervious post)
Alyce Santoro (see pervious post)
Kate Ireland
Embroider
Previously trained costume maker for film and theatre, Ireland has since moved into the designer-maker role creating various piece of sculptural embroidery. She describes herself as a ‘designer first, then a maker’ as she sees the aesthetics of the piece being the most important element, in order to translate her ideas and creations effectively the design needs to have life and a story before the process can continue.
Ireland’s technical approach has always been about playing with the fabric and experimenting as surface decoration is all about the exciting possibilities not just technique. She uses textiles as an outlet to express her ideas, intelligence, and creativity through ‘drawing’ these fantastic stories and whimsical creations with a needle.
One of her first textile art pieces was the Red Shoes project. This design was inspired by fairy tales and their melancholy and magic. The project took five years to complete but once it was finished this was when she first saw textiles as an art form and not just surface decoration. Describing her stitch technique as ‘chaotic’ and ‘random’ and resemble impressionist brush strokes, furthering her style of ‘drawing with a needle’ in order to tell the story of the object, its location, who its owner is, what it’s been through.
A lot of recent work stems from her personal grief and loss of a loved one, exploring the human anatomy and human emotion. In order to capture her inspiration for this collection the pieces are all anatomically correct but scaled up to further enhance their beautiful and disgusting aesthetic. The aim of this work is to make the audience think and reflect and to challenge them, this is often done by incorporating unnatural colours and small insects that plague the piece.
Joo youn Paek
artist and interaction object designer.
First, she observes people doing everyday things like dressing and undressing, drinking and eating, calling and texting on cell phones, writing emails and letters, folding origami, etc. Then, she uses her observations on human habits and behavior to design interactive objects for public spaces.
Prestigious exhibitions ‘design and the elastic mind’ at the moma and ‘untethered’ at eyebeam gallery
Nendo
Product designer
Nendo, meaning ‘modelling clay’, expresses his desire of having certain flexibility and the ability to reinvent oneself. The designer takes his inspiration from Japanese uncluttered style to create a language of his time. The philosophy of Oki Sato is reflected in his designs, thanks to which he transforms the interactions of people with the objects surrounding them by creating a parenthesis in their life. This desire is found in the uncluttered and characteristic shapes of his designs, to which he always adds a touch of humour and conviviality.
2013
“80 sheets of mountains” / Stockholm International Furniture Fair / Sweden “Nichetto=Nendo” / Milan Design Week / Milan “Glassworks” / Dilmos gallery / Milan
2014
“works by nendo” / Milan Design Week / Milan
2015
“chocolatexture lounge” / Maison & Objet / Paris “tokyo tribal collection” / Maison & Objet / Singapore “nendo works 2014-2015″ / Milan Design Week / Milan “nendo 3/3″ / EYE OF GYRE / Tokyo
Caroline Milne
Knitted glass sculptures, fusing together the idea of knit, a soft, hard wearing structure into a form that has the same qualities.
Thomas Heatherwick
architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking to find innovative design solutions.
The studio’s work includes a number of nationally significant projects for the UK, including the award-winning UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the New Bus for London.
In 2012 as part of a season of events celebrating British design, the V&A presented the first major solo exhibition of the work of Heatherwick Studio. The exhibition brought together over 150 objects of inspiration and material samples, models, prototypes, full scale fragments and finished pieces.
Bauke Knottnerus
PHAT KNITS is a series of giant threads used to create, knitted or not, interior products.
Pawel Grunert
The objects he creates fall somewhere between sculpture and applied art. He uses natural materials such as branches, straw, earth, grass, hay, reeds and wood, but he also employs bricks, fabrics and metals.
India Flint
Uses natural materials (e.g. fallen leaves, cloth, paper, stones, bones) to create wall art and costumes. Uses the made-do-and-mend mentality and combines it with natural dyeing techniques and textile skills.
Andere Monjo
Multidisciplinary designer-maker who predominantly makes work for interiors and surfaces as well as design editorials. Her organic inspired work is poetic and aims to ‘challenge the physical world we know’.
Her work is simple but very elegant and very pure. By pouring and splattering ink onto a canvas and letting the rain stain, remove, transport the ink it creates a very juxtaposing piece of art. The calmness of the wondering water being captured in such a soft state tells us a whimsical story of its journey yet the result is so exciting to look at the distressed piece of work, as well as each piece differing, giving an insight to the kind of rain and day the piece was created is intriguing to look at and study.