The ‘New Simplicity‘ exhibition presents a range of simplistic ‘no frills’ products designed by both emerging and established international designers. Showcased at this Brompton gallery location are classic designs alongside new innovations utilising the latest Rapid Manufacturing technologies.

NEW SIMPLICITY

24th July-8th August 2010

203 Brompton Road, SW3 1LA (07808 722 962)

With reference to current economic conditions, ‘New simplicity’ reflects the current trend of frugality and a ‘return to basics’ within design. Everyday items (both the classics, new renditions of the past and the latest prototypes) are all highlighted in terms of their simplicity, practicality and affordability.

The most recently unveiled of those products on display are enhanced by improvements in Rapid Manufacturing Technologies, which allow designers to create objects using the minimum number of pieces as possible, thus accenting the notion of simplicity.

The exhibition curator and design critic Nuno Coelho has brought together a range of designers including Alex Hulme and his self assembly torch; Min-Kyu Choi and his award winning folding plug; and David Sutton’s minimal wallet formed in one piece with no moving parts.

Alternative products by differing designers are also unified in the exhibition by their collective belief in simplicity. These designers include: Industrial Facility (Sam Hect and Kim Colin), Jasper Morrison, Oscar Diaz, Jochem Faudet, Jon Harrison, Luka Stepan, Mathias Hahn and Thomas Wagner.

Combining specially commissioned pieces alongside films and drawings, the exhibition features a simultaneous webcast and website.

Images, from top: Branca Chair by Industrial Facility for Mattiazzi; Basel Chair by Jasper Morrison for Vitra; Self-Assembly Torch by Alex Hulme; Minimal Wallet by David Sutton; UV Floor Lamp by Jon Harrison for Habitat; I-phone/ I-pod Cable Manager by Jochem Faudet.

At ninety-four years of age the Danish-born American designer Jens Risom has collaborated with Rocket Gallery and Benchmark Furniture, who have jointly secured the European rights to reissue his 1950s and 1960s furniture designs. The first collection of nine pieces is being exhibited at Rocket.

JENS RISOM FURNITURE, 2nd July-4th September 2010

ROCKET GALLERY

Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JJ (020 7729 7594)

The group of furniture released by Rocket includes an easy chair, a side chair, a desk, various coffee tables, two magazine tables, and Risom’s famous upholstered bench. These are shown in a mixture of oak and walnut versions and upholstered in a variety of Kvadrat fabrics and Elmo leathers.

The collection has been creatively directed by Jonathan Stephenson of Rocket and made by Sean Sutcliffe and Terence Conran’s Benchmark Furniture company in their Dorset and Berkshire workshops, with the close involvement of Risom himself.

Jens Risom was born in Copenhagen in 1916. From 1935 to 1938 he attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen where he trained under the furniture-maker Kaare Klint and his fellow students included Hans Wegner.

In 1939, Risom emigrated from Denmark to the USA, where in 1941 he designed the first range of furniture manufactured by Hans Knoll. In 1946, he established Jens Risom Design Inc which grew to become the third largest furniture company in America.

“I set out to design contemporary furniture that was comfortable and practical to use. I developed an American version of Scandinavian modern furniture.” - Jens Risom, Classic Modern

A catalogue of the new furniture collection is available and the pieces can be viewed on the dedicated Jens Risom website.

Simultaneously, as a back-drop to the furniture, Rocket is presenting ‘Black & white minimalism’ with works by Lars Wolter, Michelle Grabner, Stefan Eberstadt, and Keld Helmer-Petersen.

New Designers exhibition is the leading showcase of graduate design talent as they emerge from the UK’s design courses, presenting everything from architecture to animation, furniture to fashion, graphics to glass. Hosted under one roof at Islington’s Business Design Centre (BDC), visitors can access over 3,500 new talents across the two-part event.

NEW DESIGNERS 2010

PART 1: 1st-4th July 2010 >>> Textiles; Fashion & Accessories; contemporary Applied Arts; Ceramics & Glass; Jewellery & Precious Metalwork.

PART 2: 8th-11th July 2010 >>> Product Design; Furniture; Visual Communications (including Graphic Design & Illustration); Spatial Design.

BUSINESS DESIGN CENTRE

52 Upper Street, London N1 0QH (08448 480 139)

Due to the sheer volume of work being exhibited, New Designers is split across two shows with each show focussing on the creative disciplines listed above.

2010 is a landmark for New Designers, which will have been running for 25 successful years. To mark this anniversary, ‘Where are you now’ celebrates the success of a number of New Designer’s alumni with work displayed (and for sale) near the upper café.

Alongside the graduates’ exhibits is a special showcase of design entrepreneurs entitled ‘One Year On.’ As the name suggests, it presents a selected showcase of designers whose work has matured and progressed in their first year in business. Thorsten van Elten curates the 40 contributors.

An extensive talks and seminars programme adds further interest with sessions offering advice for professional development and insights into some of the key issues of the day.

We will be selling copies of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE at New Designers Part Two.

The Royal College of Art’s talent pool of 2010 is on show within the college galleries in Kensington. This end of year showcase is an important time for talent scouts to pick up on the latest postgraduate talent and their challenging ideas.

RCA SHOW PART TWO, 25th June-4th July 2010

ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART

Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU

Part Two is dedicated to graduating students from Animation, Architecture, Communication Art & Design, Design Products, Design Interactions, Fashion Footwear and Accessories, History of Design, Innovation Design Engineering, Textiles and Vehicle Design.

This year is Tord Boontje’s first show as Head of Design Products. His students have taken over a whole floor of the Stevens Building, just a short walk from the main galleries across Jay Mews. This gives the department a unique space to exhibit and interact with visitors so be sure to pop over the road to see it.

For the first time at the RCA Show, a group of students from several departments are exhibiting collectively in the central courtyard of the Darwin building, under the banner Department 21. They are hosting a series of public events with guests speakers.

Furthermore, Painting and Sculpture students are exhibiting simultaneously at the RCA’s new Battersea campus (Howie Street, SW11 4AS). Hop on board a Routemaster bus for a free ride between the two Shows, running every half hour on weekends throughout Show Two dates.

At a time when every nation seems to be showing off its cultural cards on an international platform, it would seem that Switzerland has also joined the ranks with an exhibition of Swiss graphic, product, and urban designers.

SWITZERLAND: DESIGN FOR LIFE, 19th June-1st July 2010

A FOUNDATION

Rochelle School & Club Row, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES (020 7033 3539)

The exhibition is divided into two parts that ultimately complement each other.

Part one – Contemporary Swiss Design:

This part celebrates the work of a new generation of Swiss designers living and working in London. It features the work of twelve of Switzerland’s most talented young designers: Laurent Benner, Alex Bettler, Kueng Caputo, Zak Kyes, Jurg Lehni, Urs Lehni & Lex Trub, Loris & Livia, Elena Rendina and Regis Tosetti. These designers produce innovative, fresh ways of working, creating projects that move across disciplines; by making furniture, designing books and organizing events.

The exhibition is curated by Vanessa Norwood, Head of Exhibitions with the AA Exhibitions Department.

Part two – Reinventing An Image:

There are more 20th century poster masterpieces from Switzerland than any other country, the reasons for which lie mainly in a vigorous national program to promote the poster and its printers; and a series of great teachers who advanced the art of the poster. The Swiss poster though had its roots in the travel poster.

The Swiss have continued to create beautiful illustrated posters for their tourism industry and the exhibition displays a range of the most influential and striking. The vintage posters have been put together by Artifiche, a Zürich based Poster Gallery which has become the leading poster gallery in Switzerland. It’s huge collection features Swiss and international vintage posters over the past 100 years.

Ten Swiss graphic designers, curated alongside ID Pure, a Swiss magazine of graphic design and visual creation, are presenting their contemporary interpretation of a Swiss travel poster for today. These designers from various Swiss cities include: Buro Destruct, Nerves, Bureau Collective, Stefan Jost, ID Pure studio, Super Position, Grotesk and GVA Studio. How do they portray Switzerland and what images do they use now ? Do they choose to avoid clichés or embrace them ? The new works are exhibited alongside the original posters.

There is also a bookshop where books containing Swiss design and designers, lithographs, magazines and a newly-designed Victorinox Swiss Army Knife are on display and available to buy.

Morphing basket weave, a self-contained laundry and an over-sized charm bracelet are just some of the works that have been selected for the third and final Jerwood Contemporary Makers at the Jerwood Space.

JERWOOD CONTEMPORARY MAKERS, 16th June-25th July 2010

JERWOOD SPACE

171 Union Street, London SE1 0LN (020 7654 0171)

This year’s exhibition will explore the notion of making from a variety of creative perspectives. Selectors Hans Stofer, Richard Slee and Freddie Robins – three of the most inventive names in the visual arts – have chosen 29 makers to take part, each of whom will exhibit one work and receive an equal share of a £30,000 prize fund.

Jerwood Contemporary Makers was launched by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation in 2008 as a three-year exhibition series supporting and showcasing emerging creative talent. Each year, a different panel of selectors has curated the exhibition, inviting a group of makers to respond to a different guiding concept.

The exhibition is designed by Michael Marriott.

Free Range presents the work of thousands of graduates from art and design universities around the UK, in several distinct categories over 8 weeks. The event takes place in the Old Truman Brewery in London’s East End.

FREE RANGE 2010, 4th June-26th July 2010

THE OLD TRUMAN BREWERY

91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

The event embraces all the creative disciplines, from art, graphics and photography to architecture, interiors (including product and furniture design) and textiles. Furthermore, educational charity D&AD are bringing ‘New Blood‘, their creative talent show, to Free Range for the first time.

Free Range was originally conceived over 10 years ago as a regeneration project for The Old Truman Brewery, alongside 93 Feet East and Fashion East, a successful millennium strategy that has brought people and businesses into the area and established it as a creative hub in London.

For the full programme of exhibiting colleges, visit the Free Range website.

Please note, the exhibitors change weekly. As a result, the exhibition open days during this period are Fridays to Mondays, 10am-7pm.

Clerkenwell Design Week is a new three-day festival launching in an area already thriving with design activity in London. Centred around the area’s concentration of furniture showrooms, the festival aims to focus attention on a packed programme of exhibitions and installations.

CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK, 25th-27th May 2010

Exhibitions, events, installations, seminars, talks, bike tours, and parties are taking place across venues in Clerkenwell.

The hub venue is The Farmiloe’s Building, 34 St John Street, EC1M 4AY.

For full listing of events during the festival, visit the Clerkenwell Design Week website for more information.

Clerkenwell design showroom – Viaduct – is working with the furniture brands that it represents in the UK to showcase their best new products which were released earlier in the year at the Milan Furniture Fair.

FRESH FROM MILAN, 25th May – 11th June 2010

VIADUCT

1-10 Summers Street, London EC1R 5BD (020 7278 8456)

On show will be Stefan Diezʼs new seating range for E15 – the EUGENE lounge chair (pictured above), BESSY chair and stool and the JEAN barstool, plus the new LONDON table in solid oak and VIER glass side table by Philipp Mainzer.

New additions to Naoto Fukasawaʼs HIROSHIMA range for Maruni – a dining chair (above), designed to look as if it has been hewn from one solid piece of wood, and elegant sideboard.

Viaduct will be showcasing new furniture from Montis, including compact armchair ELLA by Niels Bendtsen (above) and chic easy chair MARVIN by Christophe Marchand.

New products from MDF Italia include the TENSE monochrome table by P&M Cazzaniga (above), and the FLOW chair by Jean-Marie Massaud with quilted NanoSphere fabric seat.

In case you didn’t make it to the infamous Milan Furniture Fair in April, fear not. Having trudged around the immense fair and countless city installations, leading design store twentytwentyone has handpicked the best products and is featuring them at their showroom in Islington.

HIGHLIGHTS OF MILAN, 19th-29th May 2010

TWENTYTWENTYONE showroom

18c River Street, London EC1R 1XN (020 7837 1900)

Highlights of Milan embraces a range of technologies, materials, forms and thought processes. Designs include a make-your-own chair by Enzo Mari, a knitted rug by Patricia Urquiola, a CNC-milled timber chair by Sam Hecht, a paper task light from Claesson Koivisto Rune and a new sofa family from Jasper Morrison.

On show are designs from Naoto Fukasawa, Thomas Heatherwick, Barber Osgerby, Patricia Urquiola, Konstantin Grcic, Tom Dixon, Sam Hecht, Jasper Morrison, Michael Sodeau, David Chipperfield, Franz Volhard, Inge Sempe, Enzo Mari, Michael Young, Raw Edges, Todd Bracher, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Marina Baultier, Constance Guisset and PearsonLloyd.

The Milan Salone is the most important event in the design calendar acting as a key influence upon interiors in the year ahead. The exhibits comprise of both prototypes and designs that are ready for production, with orders being available for immediate dispatch.