An informal panel-conversation with hybrids: designers that work in different disciplines and contexts, curated by Ineke Hans. With: Piet Hein Eek, Max Lamb, Yael Mer (raw-edges) and moderator Max Fraser.
The classic role designer-client has changed in the last 20 years. Selfproducing designers came up, taking care of sales and production completely on their own and the once existing single-minded furniture designer is hard to find. Designers work hybrid: on different subjects (furniture, interior, product) and in various contexts (limited editions, one offs, mass production, concept development craft and high technology).
Cooperating with Modern Design Review an informal conversation at Ace Hotel is curated between Dutch and UK designers looking into the changing position of the designer, what that means to their daily practice and the future changes that might come. As an appetizer for the late night event of the Shoreditch Design Triangle on the 20th, Max Fraser will talk with designers working in different disciplines and contexts.
what: Hybrids: a conversation at Ace Hotel London, see
where: Shoreditch Design Triangle, 100 Shoreditch High Street, Shoreditch
when: 19 September, 100 Room top floor, bar open: 6.30pm start: 7.00pm
no fee but please RSVP: via this link at Ace Hotel
press info
ON SPEAKERS
- Piet Hein Eek
Piet Hein Eek (1967) graduated in 1990 from the Design Academy in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, with his now classic Cupboard in Scrapwood.
For Eek it is important to have influence on the whole process - from drawing until final product - and over the years this proved to be an exceptional way of producing that became recognized internationally as it was and is still rare that furniture is designed and produced under the same roof.
Each design of Eek is designed with the material, the fabrication technique and the craft as main focus and these three components can be found in each and every design. Eek produces between 15 and 30 new designs each year as well as running about 10 interior design projects. In the last years he also started to collaborate with labels.
In 2016 the first results of limitededition furniture for Ikea were presented set to launch in 2017, as part of a long-term collaboration.
www.pietheineek.nl
- Max Lamb:
Max Lamb (1980) is a native of Cornwall and cites his upbringing in this bucolic landscape as the source for his creative spirit and his deep appreciation for natural materials. He earned a degree in Three Dimensional Design from Northumbria University in 2003, and, in the same year, he was awarded both the Hettich International Design Award and the Peter Walker Award for Innovation in Furniture Design. In 2006, he graduated with an Ma in Design Products at the RCA.
After a year designing for Tom DixonStudio, Max established his own practice in 2007 and began teaching at ECAL in Switzerland. Lamb is known for creating beautifully crafted pieces with materials and traditional processes at their core.His work is infused with a strongly international sensibility, informed by his travels to China, Japan, India, Nigeria, and elsewhere. Next to this he works with labels like Benchmark, Hem and 1882 Ltd.
www.maxlamb.org
- Yael Mer (Raw Edges):
Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay met in Jerusalem and moved to London to study at the RCA. Colours, patternmaking and movement form a large part of the DNA at Raw-Edges. The ideas of energy and provocative illusion are aimed at bringing out the kid in all of us who engage with it, an ongoing battle against boredom perhaps! Some ideas include pouring expandable foam into folded paper cavities, cooking timber in boiling dyes, and making paper moulds for the production of industrial ceramic tiles.
Recently they have been engaged in a large-scale installation at the English stately home Chatsworth House, where they have designed site-specific, patterned wooden seats, that seemingly emerge from a bespoke gridded, wooden floor andthey designed the Alexander Girard exhibition in the Vitra Design Museum.
Raw Edges works on private commissions for clients like Ceasarstone and for labels like Cappellini, Establisched & Sons, Golran and Arco. For LDF 2016 they made an installation for T2 in Shoreditch exploring the colours, pat-terns, textures and smells of the raw material that sits at the very heart of what T2 do – the tea itself.
www.raw-edges.com
The salons on Furniture & the changing position of the designer are a cooperation of STUDIO | INEKEHANS with London Design Festival.
Furniture & the changing position of the designer is supported by The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in London and the Internationalization Programme of Creative Industries Fund of the Netherlands
Full info on all UK-NL London Design Festival events via this link.
REPORTS:
> Find a report on Hybrids can be found here and see film impression here
> Find a report on Engineers, Inventors & Non-materialists can be found here and see film impression here
> Find a report on Furniture's future here