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.

This exhibition by leading designer Tord Boontje overturns the conventional expectations of what lace might be. In this collection of work showing at Marsden Woo Gallery, Boontje employs traditional craft skills while substituting unorthodox materials, changing the references and subverting our preconceived notions of value.

TORD BOONTJE: The Lace Maker, 24th June-31st July 2010

MARSDEN WOO GALLERY

17-18 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DN (020 7336 6396)

“With lace,” Boontje points out, “all the value is invested in the labour and so it seemed a good idea to start working with cheap materials … But also, by changing the material you can change the references.”

Works in the exhibition include a dramatic black sofa that emerges from a large three-dimensional web-like structure of bound and knotted Aramide and Dynema fibres. The sofa is one example of what he has been able to create by employing traditional craft skills, while substituting unorthodox materials. Others are a curtain composed in a random pattern of tangled flora and a selection of exuberant lighting designs, all constructed from natural raffia.

Some of the more delicate works are items of jewellery, such as necklaces and a hairpiece, and a selection of test samples made in a variety of natural materials, including grass. The exhibition includes a short video about the process of making a raffia lace dress, offering further insights into his approach, which he describes as “spontaneous – not organized and symmetrical.”

Installation shots courtesy of Marsden Woo Gallery (© Phil Sayer).

Sensuous ’spinning tops’ in captivating jewel-like colours are being presented by Vessel Gallery in this exhibition of new unique art glass works by British artist Katy Holford.

LUMINOUS SPIRIT: GLASS SCULPTURES BY KATY HOLFORD, 22nd June-31st July 2010

VESSEL GALLERY

114 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2PW (020 7727 8001)

Greatly influenced by Buddhist culture, Holford has succeeded in encapsulating the nature of chakra energy points of the body within the glass medium. Molten glass takes its shape by heating and rotating, in much the same way as chakras are viewed as whorls of circulating energy. The result is a “successful fusion of the real and metaphysical, the solid and the fluid, the stasis of meditation and the vigor of movement.”

The works are produced in collaboration with renowned British glass maker, Bob Crooks. Having worked together for 16 years, Crooks’ superb glass making skills are more than equal to Holford’s technically challenging forms using under and overlaid layers of glass to create a resonating depth of tone.

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.

This summer marks the 20th Anniversary of industrial designer Sebastian Bergne’s studio. To celebrate, the exhibition ‘Blow by Blow’ is being staged at Somerset House showing a collection of unseen personal glass projects.

BLOW BY BLOW, 10th-27th June 2010

SOMERSET HOUSE (Courtyard Room, South Wing)

Strand, London WC2R 1LA (020 7845 4600)

Since starting his professional practice in 1990, Bergne has collaborated with small glass making workshops to produce these private pieces alongside his regular studio activities.

This series of objects is presented against a background of his mainstream studio activities, shown in digital form, giving the visitor a unique viewpoint of Bergne’s diverse body of work.

The dozen or so projects exhibited range from his first works in glass as a student, through to bespoke shot glasses created for his own wedding to more recent projects and experiments, culminating with a Champagne flute created especially for the event.

A numbered and signed edition of 100 Capped Champagne Tubes (pictured above) are on sale at the exhibition (and on his sales portal: www.spunique.com) as well as other selected pieces.

Studio Glithero, the Anglo-Dutch design studio of Sarah van Gameren and Tim Simpson, is presenting a new collection entitled ‘Blueware.’ The designers have adopted the early photographic technique of blueprinting (more commonly used for architectural plans) and created a process that develops ceramics like photographs.

BLUEWARE, 20th-29th May 2010 (10:30-18:30)

THE GARAGE

1 North Terrace, London SW3 2BA

The ceramic objects are infused with light sensitive chemicals. Using age-old botanical collecting techniques, humble weeds of inner London borough pavements are pressed, dried and attached to the surface of the ceramics. The objects are then exposed under ultra violet light, which transforms them from white to intense Prussian blue. What remains is a crisp white silhouette of the specimens, creating intricate floral designs of the plant life from root to tip.

The collection consists of four products: round vases, slim vases, light shades, and blueprinted tiles. Each piece in the collection is unique by virtue of the process and the vases are individually numbered.

The Crafts Council’s annual art fair for contemporary objects – COLLECT – is taking place at the Saatchi Gallery. Over 300 artists are exhibiting works with representative galleries from around the world.

COLLECT 2010, 14th-17th May 2010

SAATCHI GALLERY

Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, London SW3 4SQ

COLLECT 2010 presents both established artists and new talent, covering all disciplines: ceramics, glass, jewellery, silver and fine metalwork, textiles, and wood and furniture.

Participating London galleries include Contemporary Applied Arts, Electrum Gallery, Adrian Sassoon, Cockpit Arts, and Flow.

Furthermore, Seven emerging artists have created an installation in the windows of six local retailers, each working with the retail brand in mind. Called COLLECT TRAIL, retailers include Designers Guild, Cath Kidston, David Mellor, Osborne & Little, and TASCHEN.

Also worth checking out is satellite show – The Great Glass Exhibition – at Thomas Goode & Co in Mayfair.

Images, from top: Ghost series by Gareth Neal (CAA); Maelstrom by Michael Eden (Adrian Sassoon); Kuu-5 by Niyoko Ikuta (Yufuku Gallery); Untitled by Gareth Neal (CAA).

At 5pm on 28th April, auction house Phillips de Pury & Company is staging its spring DESIGN sale in its London showroom. The sale focusses on rare and important pieces from celebrated 20th and 21st Century designers.

‘DESIGN’ auction, 28th April 2010, 5pm

PHILLIPS DE PURY & COMPANY

Howick Place, London SW1P 1BB (020 7318 4010)

Top: ‘Unique three-arm ceiling lamp’ by Serge Mouille (c.1955): estimate £70,000-100,000.

Above: ‘Mexique’ bookcase by Charlotte Perriand and Atelier Jean Prouvé (1953): estimate £80,000-140,000.

167 lots are offered in this curated sale, with estimates totaling £1,490,400 (low) and £2,137,900 (high). PAGE UPDATE: SALES TOTALED £1,822,075.

Above: ‘Totem’ floor lamp by Serge Mouille (c.1962): estimate £80,000-120,000.

A large collection of important midcentury French works by Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, and Serge Mouille features alongside property from the apartment of Laurence and Patrick Seguin, Paris.

Above: ‘Willow’ sculpture by Harry Bertoia (c.1970): estimate £35,000-45,000.

Other significant works include designs by Ettore Sottsass, Harry Bertoia, Shiro Kuramata, and Atelier Van Lieshout.

Above: ‘Fisherman’s House’ by Atelier Van Lieshout (2000): estimate £35,000-55,000.

All lots can be viewed in person at Phillips de Pury from 21st-27th April 2010 or via their online catalogue.

Above: ‘Exceptional large wall light’ by Poul Henningsen for the Concert Hall, Scala Theater, Arhus, Denmark (1955): estimate £15,000-20,000.

All images courtesy of Phillips de Pury & Company.

This summer, Darkroom is going colourful with their latest in-store event, titled Into Africa. Kicking off in April, the showcase explores modernist interpretations of indigenous Africa textiles, jewellery and art.

INTO AFRICA, launches 22nd April 2010

DARKROOM

52 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1N 3LL (020 7831 7244)

Darkroom owners Rhonda Drakeford and Lulu Roper-Calderbeck have handpicked a selection of designs and showpieces by various talented designers, which are displayed alongside pieces from Darkroom’s own collections.

Designs include a limited edition range of laptop and pouch bags by Harris Elliott, a range of hats made from vibrant Africa cotton by Noel Stewart, limited edition prints from David David’s archive of bold geometric patterns, jewellery pieces by Florian and Corrie Williamson, as well as a range of leather wallets in vibrant colours by menswear designer Kenneth MacKenzie of 6876.

Darkroom is also extending their self-designed ranges to include slouch bags, leather purses and sculptural cushions.

SKITSCH is an Italian producer and retailer of contemporary design, which launched with aplomb in Milan in April 2009. Now they have opened a new 350-square-metre store on Brompton Road, in the heart of the Brompton Design District.

SKITSCH

270 Brompton Road, London SW3 2AW

Skitsch is not only a design retailer but also a producer of its own collection of contemporary interior products, which is an unusual and bold move for such a young company. They are positioning themselves at the top-end of the market in their location alongside the brand establishment of Brompton.

Steered by the creative direction of the characterful dame of Italian design, Cristina Morozzi, the Skitsch collection comprises works by dozens of emerging and established international designers. LDG editor Max Fraser interviewed Morozzi during Skitsch’s launch in Milan in 2009 – watch the interview here.

Visitors to the London store can expect to find chairs, tables, sofas, storage, beds, lamps, accessories, objects, and textiles. Design junkies should look out for designs by the likes of Maarten Baas (Netherlands), Front (Sweden), Xavier Lust (Belgium), Peter Marigold (UK), Luca Nichetto (Italy), Giles Miller (UK), Bertjan Pot (Netherlands), Marc Sadler (Italy), Marcel Wanders (Netherlands), 5.5 Designers (France), and Jean-Marie Massaud (France), plus many others.

Products can also be ordered online and delivered to your home.