Government “must be braver in using design”

The Design Council has called on Government to embed design at a strategic level, in order to “realise its full potential”. By Angus Montgomery on May 29, 2015

The Design Council has called on the Government to take “a braver approach” to using design as it reacted to the Queen’s Speech this week.
In the Queen’s Speech, David Cameron’s new Conservative majority Government set out its policy priorities for the coming Parliament.
This included measures around local government, housing, and the creation of a single public service ombudsman to identify and respond to issues in public services.
Design Council chief executive John Mathers says that design can have “a major impact” in the delivery of public services and called on Government to take full advantage of this.
Mathers says: “Many of our Design Challenges have explored ways to solve difficult public service problems, and we’ve seen some great results. For example, our Reducing Violence and Aggression in A&E work saw threatening body language and aggressive behaviour fall by 50 per cent, while for every £1 spent on the design solutions, £3 was generated in benefits.

“Innovating at the margins will only get us so far”

“However, innovating at the margins will only get us so far. To realise the full potential of design, it needs to be embedded at a strategic level, just as many leading businesses are doing. This requires a braver approach from the government.”
Mathers adds: “Design is a means, not an end in itself. And I do not suggest that it is a cure-all. It is simply an approach that helps identify the real issues at play, allows for difficult problems to be reframed in practical ways, and results in more appropriate and effective solutions.”
The All-Party Parliamentary Design & Innovation Group – a cross party group of leading parliamentarians – had previously called on Government to put design at the heart of the UK’s political, economic and education systems to ensure “the opportunities of the future are fully realised”.

Design should be a “central pillar”, not a “nice to have”

The group’s manifesto for design, which was published in March, ahead of the recent General Election, said that design should be given the same consideration as sustainability – no longer a “nice to have” but instead a central pillar of government policy.
It also recommended that civil servants should be trained in basic service design methods and that there should be an improved understanding of design and innovation spend in the public sector.
Last year the Cabinet Office government department launched the Policy Lab initiative, headed up by former Design Council chief design officer Andrea Siodmok. The Policy Lab works with government policy teams to test how design methods and principles can improve public service delivery.

PG tips rolls out new “contemporary” brand

The tea brand, which is almost 150 years old, has more simple, “contemporary” branding and packaging, developed by JKR.

By Sarah Dawood on May 21, 2015

PG tips is introducing new branding and packaging, swapping out the field and blue skies for a white background.
The new look, designed by JKR, has been implemented with the aim of making the brand easier to source in-store and “more contemporary”, says a spokesperson for brand-owner Unilever, while retaining the red, green and white colours of the previous identity.

The redesign also features an updated logo, which is still red and green but is no longer embossed, and has more simple, translucent lettering.
“We’ve made the brand more relevant to shoppers, especially the younger consumer,” says Kate Hearn, senior brand manager for PG tips at Unilever UK.
She adds: “The clear, fresh new look, with a bigger, bolder PG tips logo will also make it easier for shoppers to find the tea brand in the busy supermarket aisle.”
Unilever says this is the first major brand change for PG tips in 19 years, following on from its pyramid-shaped teabag redesign in 1996.

Five things to love about designers

Looking for a bit of a pat on the back? Copywriter Rob Self-Pierson tells us why he loves working with designers so much.

(By Rob Self-Pierson on May 15, 2015)

 

Image by flickr user Thor

I was speaking to a fellow copywriter the other evening about my love of great designers. She couldn’t see it and wanted convincing. So, in the space of a couple of minutes, I listed and explained five reasons for my affection.
My friend smiled and said I should write a BuzzFeed-style list. “It might help you bring more writers and designers together,” she said, “like you’ve always wanted to.”
So, here’s the list. And here’s hoping.

• Words speak more powerfully with great design. Once you’ve nailed the meaning as a writer, there’s no greater pleasure than seeing a skilled designer communicate that meaning to an audience.
• They’re inspired by so much of what they see. Walking around cities and nature with a designer is an education. Rooftops, trees, drain covers, menus, raincoats. You name it, a good designer will find inspiration.
• We can geek out together over type. A few years ago, I went on a guided typography/lettering walk around London. I fell in love. Now I like nothing more than talking serifs, glyphs and kerning with designers.
• They read like I read. Ever since I studied English at uni, I’ve dissected books – not just for meaning, but for appearance too. Skilled designers do the same. They dig deep until they understand the look and feel of a sentence.
• I learn as I go. My best friends are now graphic designers, creative directors, animators, illustrators and lettering artists. Every time we work (or drink) together, I learn something that helps me write better for design.

---

Rob Self-Pierson is a copywriter. He often teams up with designers to produce writing that has a greater impact.

Google Car involved in 11 accidents during testing period

Google says the accidents have come during 1.7 million miles of test-driving the vehicle.

(By Angus Montgomery on May 12, 2015 Design Week)

 

 

Google Self-Driving Car, photo by Gordon De Los Santos

Google’s self-driving car has been involved in 11 accidents during its six-year testing period, the company has revealed.
Writing on Medium, Google’s director of the self-driving car programme Chris Urmson says that the accidents took place during 1.7 million miles of both autonomous and manual driving and that “not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident”.
Urmson says that none of the accidents caused serious damage or injuries. He says the cars have been hit from behind seven times and also side-swiped and hit by a car rolling through a stop sign.
Urmson says: “Even when our software and sensors can detect a sticky situation and take action earlier and faster than an alert human driver, sometimes we won’t be able to overcome the realities of speed and distance; sometimes we’ll get hit just waiting for a light to change.”
Google’s self-driving cars have “360º visibility and 100 per cent attention in all directions at all times”, says Urmson. He adds that Google’s newest sensors can track other vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians to a distance of nearly 200m.
Google has been road-testing its driverless cars for six years, with the driverless technology retrofitted on to existing car models, such as the Toyota Prius and the Lexus models. Since 2014 the company has been testing its own Google Car model on Californian roads.
Urmson says the driverless cars have so far clocked up 1.7 million miles, both manually and autonomously controlled, and that the cars have self-driven nearly 1 million of those miles.
Following prototyping and testing, Urmson says Google aims to work with partners “to bring this technology into the world safely”.

What colour next?

Color Marketing Group has invited Global Color Research to be one of the main speakers for the CMG 2015 European Conference being held in Krakow, Poland, 20-22 May. We are excited to present our key trends for Spring Summer 2016 to the colour community which is Colour Marketing Group. Our own Hannah Malein, Colour Trend Consultant Manager will be presenting our Spring Summer 2016 colour palettes and trends. For further information visit their website.
www.colormarketing.org

(Global Colour Research 12th May 2015)

KitKat to roll out more than 100 million special editions in “biggest ever” redesign

The first release in the new campaign sees the words “YouTube break” replace the Kitkat logo on more than 600,000 wrappers.

(By Angus Montgomery on May 12, 2015 Design Week)

 

 

Kitkat is rolling out more than 100 million special edition packs in what brand owner Nestlé says is its biggest packaging redesign since it came to market 80 years ago.
The campaign, which has been developed with advertising agency JWT, will see 72 different types of “breaks” introduced as part of Kitkat’s “celebrate the breakers break” campaign.
These will include “Movie Break”, “Lunch Break” and “Sporty Break” and will roll out across 400 individual packaging designs.
The campaign’s dedicated hashtag #mybreak is being moulded into the chocolate of 22 million bars, with the wrappers suggesting various “breaks”.
The first new pack to launch is a collaboration between Nestlé and Google which will see the words “YouTube break” replace the Kitkat logo on more than 600,000 wrappers.
The collaboration between Google and Kitkat comes after Google named its Android operating system 4.4 update, released in 2014, “KitKat”.

Flowers dominant catwalks

Flowers dominant the catwalks of Paris Haute Couture Week

Monday, 02 February 2015 (Vivian Hendriksz)

REVIEW Following the days of menswear fashion shows in Paris, haute couture collections took the catwalks from Tuesday to Thursday. Despite the event's overall extravaganza, the number of visitors attending the shows was less than the previous edition. Hotels in the area reported a 9 percent decline in guests during Paris Fashion Week, which was most likely due to the recent attack on satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, last month.
Only 14 selected labels have the privilege to state they produce haute couture. In Paris, the title haute couture is legally protected and subject to strict criteria. Fashion designers may only call themselves haute couturiers if they have been a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture - the institute which appoints designers haute couturiers - for five years and if the members of the institute all agree.
The most recent name to be added to the list of haute couturiers is Alexandre Vauthier, who names artists such as Beyonce and Rihanna among his clients. A number of designers have also been invited to show during haute couture week on a temporary basis, including the likes of Versace, Valentino, Viktor & Rolf, Yiqing Yin and Schiaparelli.

Escapism and flower power spotted at Haute Couture week

During haute couture week, designers seemed to have been channeling a feeling of lightness. That sentiment, imagination and optimism will undoubtedly trickle down the fashion link to the fast-fashion chain and ordinary consumers. Flowers played a major role during Haute Couture Week, especially in Chanel's show, where mechanical flowers 'blossomed' in the middle of the circular catwalk.
Then there was Naomi Campbell, who walked the catwalk wearing an ensemble which resembled a full bouquet during the end of the wedding parade during Jean Paul Gaultier show. The French designer previously announced last year that he would stop working on this prêt-à-porter line in order to turn his full attention to his haute couture collections.
Italian fashion house Versace kicked off the start of haute couture week, with actresses and mother-daughter duo Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson attending the event, which saw a series of models present form fitting outfits in vivid blues, reds and whites.
"I was always thinking of the future for so many years and I was always anti-romanticising the past, but the past can be beautiful too," said Raf Simons, creative director at Dior to AFP backstage after the show. For the fashion house's summer collection, he created fluorescent orange boots and tight catsuits with flower-power patterns which were presented by models who descended from a space-opera created in the gardens of the Musée Rodin in Paris.

'Wilder' and 'more sensual' looks seen on the catwalks of Haute Couture week

According to the designer himself, the garments represent the romance of the fifties, with the experimental side of the sixties and the freedom of the seventies. He wanted to create something that wilder, more sensual, more strange and certainly more liberating for the realm of haute couture for women.
Karl Lagerfeld, thought that the world, in particular the capital of France, could benefit from some lightness and humor, following the tragic event on January 7. For Chanel's show, he transformed the Grand Palais into a magical garden with giant white tropical flowers made from origami, palm trees and banana leaves. The show opened with gardeners, carrying padded watering cans to water the plants.
Every outfit could been seen as flowering plant, which opened during the show's finale and came to full bloom. The fashion house presented tweed jackets with flowers and suits in a series of pastel shades. There were also a number of long chiffon blouses, which were worn over midi skirts and cropped tops.

Viktor & Rolf inspired by Vincent Van Gogh

Viktor & Rolf also embraced flowers on the catwalk. Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren from Geldrop were inspired by the painter Vincent van Gogh, which led to straw hats and slippers making their way into the collection. The duo also teamed up with fabrics company Vlisco, who produced the fabrics used. Shakespeare, Dante and Marc Chagell were the inspirational sources for the haute couture summer collection '15 from Valentino, which translate to velvet, embroidery and floaty fabrics. There was also a strong Russian folklore theme throughout the collection, seen in the use of traditional fabrics, vests and pinafore dresses. Valentino also presented corsets,both transparent models as well as silk and lace models.
One name was absent from the schedule - Maison Margiela. The fashion house, now under the creative direction of John Galliano, presented its collection earlier last month in London rather than Paris. A decision which, as it often happens, may led to Maison Margiela losing its status of haute couture. By Yasmine Esser, translated by Vivian Hendriksz

FUTURE THEMES- Surface Design Show

CHRISTINE DIAZ PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER OF ULTRAFABRICS HAS PULLED TOGETHER FUTURE THEMES

Which are heavily influenced by haute couture:

"Borderline is a decorative play on lines, complex surface textures hints at surreal aesthetics and makes bold statements in unexpected ways." Acoustic GRG Products (stand 122) will showcase Waveform an acoustic wall panel whose undulating lines create stunning aesthetics. More

"Jaunty embraces lively primary hues of red cadmium and cobalt." New from A.J Wells Architectural Enamellers (stand 456) is VLAZE: bespoke vitreous enamel panels and work surfaces that come in a range of vibrant colours.

"Mirage utilises nature inspired textures in a variety of muted pastels." Ceramiche Caesar S.p.A (stand 301) produce stunning tiles in a beautiful natural palette. More

"Modish pulls at the heart strings of earlier generations, an interesting use of green is combined with black or citrus accents. Plastics, along with geometrics and knits, create surface effects which are a playful mix of contrasting elements." Armatile (stand 234) create bespoke tile solutions and their circle and dots design embraces the Modish trend perfectly. More

WPA Pinfold brands Asda’s 3D printing service

WPA Pinfold has created the branding and packaging for supermarket Asda’s new 3D printing service, called ASDA 3DME.

The ASDA 3DME service lets people create 3D-printed figurines of themselves or others. Sessions can be booked at Asda stores and prices run from £49 to £125.
The system uses 360º scanning cameras and according to Asda has access to a palette of 6 million colours. The result is a 3D-printed 20cm ceramic figurine.

Packaging

WPA Pinfold says that for the branding it has used “emotive images of people” in a bid to “capture the essence of the personal feelings associated with the concept”.
The consultancy says it has aimed for a “simple, engaging” brand, while photography was used across all touchpoints to create brand consistency.

3DME website

The ASDA 3DME concept was trialled last autumn and the supermarket plans to roll the service out further this year.

(Mon, 26 Jan 2015 | By Angus Montgomery )

Redesigning the industrial gas canister

Consultancy 42 Technology has designed a new lever-based valve for industrial gas canisters that can replace the traditional hand-wheel mechanism and let people see from a distance if a canister is open or closed.

42T says the new design “sets an industry benchmark for cylinder safety”.
The new EVOS Ci cylinder design has been created for the Linde Group and will be used around the world.
It comprises a quick-action lever and protective guard as well as a safety “interlock” system to reduce the risk of the valve being opened accidently.

Source: Jon Olav Eikenes

Traditional gas canisters with

The mechanism also has an ergonomically-designed grip so that cylinders can be more easily lifted and moved and a live content gauge so users can read cylinder pressures at a glance.
The cylinder package has been designed to work with all industrial gases – such as argon, acetylene, carbon dioxide mixes and hydrogen.

The design was created following user research, competitor analysis and product trials in four countries, according to 42T.
Linde says it has filed more than a dozen patents to protect all the new technological innovations that go into the valve and guard.

(Mon, 26 Jan 2015 | By Angus Montgomery )

Science Museum remembers Churchill's scientists

The Science Museum is commemorating the 50^th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s death with an exhibition looking at the scientific, design and technological breakthroughs which marked his tenure as a wartime and peacetime prime minister.

Source: Nick Rochowski

Churchill’s Scientists, which was designed by Nissen Richards Studio, opens today and looks to tell the story of Churchill’s enthusiasm for science and the support he gave to scientists whose pioneering work helped secure victory in the Second World War and launch a post-war science renaissance in everything from nuclear power to X-ray crystallography.

Source: Science Museum

Nissen Richards Studio was appointed to work on 2D and 3D interpretation through a tender process. It has worked on other Science Museum exhibitions including the Alan Turing exhibition Codebreaker, and Collider, which explained the work being carried out at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
Visitors to Churchill’s Scientists will learn how Robert Watson Watt invented radar, which gave the Royal Air Force a crucial advantage in the Battle of Britain and how Bernard Lovell created the world’s largest radio telescope.

Source: Nick Rochowski

There is a focus on the stories of the individual scientists and on Churchill’s fascination with science and technology. He was, for example one of the first people who learned how to fly and as a journalist he predicted the nuclear age.

Source: Nick Rochowski

The exhibition has been devised along chronological lines, beginning with the outbreak of the Second World War and discussing the role science played in the British war effort and how scientists worked alongside engineers and designers in fields including nutrition, the production of penicillin and antibiotics, sea warfare and the atomic bomb.

Source: Science Museum

Highspeed camera that captured first seconds of British nuclear bomb blast test

Original archive film footage, letters and photographs are featured as well as artifacts from the British atom bomb project Tube Alloys, and the high speed camera which was designed to capture the explosion of the first test bomb in 1952.
The second part of the exhibition explores scientific advances in post war Britain including molecular genetics, radio astronomy, nuclear power, nerve and brain function.

Source: Science Museum

There are many personal effects of Churchill in the exhibition including the cigar he was smoking when he heard news of his election in 1951 and  a Turbull and Asser-designed one-piece green velvet “siren suit” which he wore during air raids.
Nissen Richards Studio architect and senior designer Marie-Lise Oulmont says that “a spine-wall delineates both parts of the exhibition”, which she says have a very different look and feel.

Source: Science Museum

The wartime section is formed of different rooms which the visitor weaves their way through. Raw MDF has been used as part of a minimal design which features accents of strong colour.
This is linked to the peacetime section via an “intermezzo” dark bridging section which focuses on Churchill’s writing post WWII before giving way to the peacetime zone which is “more open and colourful, with 1950’s vibrant tones ”.
Andrew Nahum, Lead Curator of Churchill’s Scientists says: “The exhibition shows how Churchill’s enormous wartime R&D programme kick-started Britain’s many post-war successes in fundamental scientific research.”
Churchill’s Scientists runs from 23 Januray 2015 – 03 March 2016 at the Science Museum Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD

(Fri, 23 Jan 2015 | By Tom Banks )

Who would you never work for?

Plenty of designers have rules about the types of companies they would never accept as clients. According to my (anecdotal) research, arms dealers, tobacco brands, gambling and online loans companies are most commonly on these “proscribed” lists. Maybe you have one yourself?

Proposed designs for plain cigarette packaging in the UK

Obviously there are interesting debates to have around designers’ individual moral choices – would you work for an e-cigarette brand? And will spirits (which have been linked to a rise in mouth cancer) be the next taboo?
The fact that these “banned lists” exist at all also demonstrates not only that designers are (in the most part) pretty moral, but that they understand the importance of their work and the impact that it can have.
And, oddly, some of the most compelling arguments for design’s impact come from these taboo industries.
The debate around plain cigarette packaging – which has been raging this week after the Government announcement of a vote on the issue – is a clear example of this.
The fact that tobacco companies are so opposed to the matter shows the strong value they place in their brands – which they operate, remember, without any above-the-line advertising, sponsorship or other promotional activities.
It’s a similar story for online loans (most of whom, effectively are offering pretty much the same product – give or take a few numbers in the APR). For a sector like this, branding is often the only thing that differentiates one provider from the other.
Spirit brands meanwhile, are among the most prolific commissioners of design – particularly at the luxury and limited-edition end of the market. If the spirits sector will be the next to face branding restriction (as some are predicting), what will that mean for the many consultancies who create beautiful, award-winning and lucrative work for them?

And even the arms trade has an appreciation of design – just look at the investment Kalashnikov made in its branding at the end of last year. If you’re anything like me, your reaction would have been at first shock that a company like Kalashnikov could find designers willing to work for them, followed by surprise that the logo is actually quite nice…
By withholding their services from some of the industries that desire them most, designers are doing a important thing, and not just from a moral standpoint – they are reinforcing the power that they hold.
One of the key things that good design can do is build desire. This is a huge responsibility for designers. How do you exercise it? Who would you never work for?

(Fri, 23 Jan 2015 | By Angus Montgomery )

Leeds Print Festival

The fourth edition of the annual Leeds Print Festival is set to kick off.

The week-long event will feature a series of talks, exhibitions and workshops and this year’s highlights include work from The Designers Republic, talks from letterpress studio Counter Press and Intern Magazine’s Alec Dudson and a panel discussion with Creative Review editor Patrick Burgoyne.
The festival organisers say the aim of the event is to “champion the exploration of traditional and contemporary printmaking”.
The festival takes place at venues across the city, including Leeds Gallery and Leeds College of Music.
Leeds Print Festival runs from 23-31 January. For more information visit www.leedsprintfestival.com.

(Fri, 23 Jan 2015 Design week)

Sebastian Conran "de-geekifies" 3D printer with build-your-own model

Sebastian Conran Associates has launched a build-it-yourself 3D printer for use in the home, workplace and schools. 

Vector 3, which took six months to design, is available for customers to buy through an accompanying magazine subscription to 3D Create & Print – a weekly magazine teaching you how to build, and use, your own 3D printer.
Sebastian Conran, creative director at SCA, was commissioned by magazine publishers Eaglemoss Publishing to develop the idea, and also gained inspiration for the project from his Designer in Residence post at The University of Sheffield, where his role is to turn research into solutions.

“In the Materials Science and Engineering faculty, we come across all sorts of cutting edge technologies,” he says. “People do research and it stays in the academic ecosphere. I try to get real products out of it, and transform science and technology into experience, lifestyle and culture.”
The machine is intended for use by children as well as adults, so includes safety features such as a hood to prevent burns from the oven-hot print head. This also helps to keep the built environment warm allowing better adhesion between layers, Conran says.
“This improves performance,” he says. “It’s also quieter than other 3D printers out there, so it doesn’t annoy other people in the house, and looks like a homogenous unit.” Vector 3 weighs 8kg, and is roughly 40cm x 30cm x 36cm in size.

Conran aims to take the product into schools, where children can undergo a 3D printing module and learn about the technology as they build the machine throughout the year.
“3D printing is a logical next step for children,” he says. “It gives them an idea of what making things in the future is going to be about. There will still be the traditional stuff, like cutting and gluing wood – but things will also be built through digital fabrication.”
However he adds that the machine is to be used within reason, and not with hopes of creating anything and everything. “Like a microwave, it will be incredibly good at doing certain tasks but can’t do everything,” he says. “Don’t expect to be printing bits of Formula One cars in your bedroom.”
“But you could print your own train tracks for a Scalectrix, doll’s house pieces, handles for knives and files,” he says. “I made a chain guard for my bicycle over the holidays.”

Development sketch

He says that the benefits of 3D printing include being able to set it up and leave it to work overnight, and reducing the messy work of cutting up materials – as well as the ability to tailor your possessions, Conran says. “As a kid, I had Lego and Meccano – I wasn’t a kick-a-football type,” he says. “This machine allows kids who are creative and who love making things the joy of customising their own things.”
Conran’s hope for the future of 3D printing is that it will encourage recycling and help to reduce landfill waste. “We want to end up with products with more physical integrity,” he says. “The ultimate 3D printer will be one where you can put all your old drink bottles in to repurpose, or resurface power units from redundant PCs and use them to charge mobile phones.”

Vector 3 is designed to convert two types of material into products – the recyclable polymer ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), and biodegradable PLA (polylactic acid), made from cornstarch.
The purpose of Vector 3 is to make 3D printing accessible to everyone, Conran says. “We want to create a community of 3D printers and set a new standard as it becomes a benchmark machine,” he says. “I also think it’s the best-looking printer in the category: we’ve designed – or de-geekified – the machine to make it a domestic, rather than geeky, product.”

Sebastian Conran Associates and Eaglemoss designed the machine in association with a manufacturing company in Hong Kong.
Vector 3 is currently available in the UK to buy in flatpacked parts through magazine subscription at £6.99 per issue, but will be available to buy as a complete, pre-assembled printer in the future. It will also be available in Japan and Russia.

(Thu, 22 Jan 2015 | By Sarah Dawood)

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Make Yourself Comfortable – contemporary furniture at Chatsworth

Chatsworth – the Derbyshire seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire – is set to host a major exhibition of furniture design, featuring work from the likes of Thomas Heatherwick, Amanda Levete and Marc Newson.

Source: Chatsworth House Trust

By Royal Appointment by Moritz Waldemeyer

Curated by Chatsworth’s Hannah Obee, the Make Yourself Comfortable exhibition will spread throughout the historic house and visitors will be encouraged to literally make themselves comfortable and sit on the various chairs.
Among designs going on show at the exhibition will be Heatherwick’s Spun rotating chair, the Chaise Lawn by Deger Cengiz and Moritz Waldermayer’s By Royal Appointment installation. Some of the works on display will come from the Duke and Duchess’s private collection.

End Grain by Raw Edges

There are also a series of special commissions, including Tom Price’s Counterpart, which will be on display in the Chapel, and new pieces from three MA Design students at Sheffield Hallam University and Daniel Schofield, an alumnus of the course.
Meanwhile Raw Edges will create the End Grain installation in the Sculpture Gallery. This will see the gallery fitted with a grid-like wooden floor which will feature “colour pathways” spreading out from the benches and stools.

End Grain by Raw Edges

The work is inspired by a plan by the sixth Duke of Chatsworth in the 19^th Century to introduce a Swedish porphyry floor, which was eventually abandoned.
Make Yourself Comfortable runs at Chatsworth House, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45, from 28 March-23 October.

(Thu, 22 Jan 2015 | By Angus Montgomery )

Revelations: an exhibition of scientific discovery

An exhibition showcasing the influence of early scientific photography on modern art is set to take place at The Science Museum in March.

Revelations: Experiments in Photography will present 100 scientific photographs dating back to the 19^th century, alongside contemporary photography that it has influenced.

Source: Courtesy of Cinémathèque Française, Paris

Untitled [Fumées plan normal à la direction du courant (smoke)], 1901, Étienne Jules Marey

The exhibition, comprised of three parts – scientific photography, contemporary photography, and a comparison between the two - includes work by science photographers including William Henry Fox Talbot, Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey, and contemporary artists such as Trevor Paglen, Idris Khan and Clare Strand.
Pieces within Revelations include Talbot’s work with photomicrography, Berenice Abbott’s high speed photography, visualisation of electrical force by Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton and László Moholy-Nagy’s camera-less photography work.

Source: © National Media Museum SSPL

Insect wings, c.1840., William Henry Fox Talbot

The show has been curated by Greg Hobson, curator of photographs at the National Media Museum, and Dr Ben Burbridge, lecturer in art history at the University of Sussex.
The curators aim to emphasise the importance of scientific discovery, Burbridge says. “Early scientific photographs both exposed and surpassed the limits of human vision,” he says. “They revealed important possibilities, and spoke in clear terms about man’s changing relationship to science and technology.”
He adds: “These qualities lie at the core of the photographs’ appeal for twentieth-century artists – they have found currency again among artists working in the context of our own ‘digital age’.”
A book featuring essays by both curators will accompany the exhibition, and will be priced at £35.

Source: © Ori Gersht, Private Collection

Blow Up, Untitled 1, 2007, Ori Gersht

Revelations: Experiments in Photography will run from 20 March – 13 September 2015 at Media Space, Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD. It will also run from 19 November 2015 – 7 February 2016 at the National Media Museum, Little Horton Lane, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD1 1NQ. Admission is £8 (Concessions: £6).

(Wed, 21 Jan 2015 | By Sarah Dawood )

How Lewis Carroll's Alice has influenced us for 150 years

The V&A Museum of Childhood is celebrating the 150^th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by looking at how the character is both “a follower of fashion and a trend setter”.

Poster advertising ladies boots manufactured by T Elliot & Sons, incorporating a pastiche of designs after Aubrey Beardsley. 1960s © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Alice Look brings together rare editions and illustrations as well as garments, photographs and other media which show her influence on popular culture.
In what looks to be quite an in depth study the exhibition will take in everything from photographs by Annie Leibovitz to book cover designs by Vivienne Westwood and even Japanese Lolita clothing.
As a whole the content of the exhibition shows Alice’s shifting style and how she has always reflected contemporary trends.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Sir John Tenniel, 1886

On the one hand she has strongly influenced the way people dress and on the other she has inspired designers and stylists the world over for 150 years.
The exhibition ends with a commission by Josie Smith, a pattern cutter for Roksanda Ilincic who is creating Alice’s Wonderland outfit using a copy of the book to make a paper dress.
Set out in four parts the exhibition begins with Beginnings, where visitors will find Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations alongside garments which bring to life the Victorian-era Alice.

Molly Molloy illustration © Molly Molloy

Follower of Fashion spotlights the illustrators who have kept Alice up to date through the various 20^th century republications of Wonderland.
This gives way to Inspiration where we see how people dress like Alice or wear clothes made in her image. Their stories are told through objects and an AV section, which looks at pop videos and catwalk shows.
Global Alice looks at how the character is portrayed differently across the world – including Provençal Alice who wears tropézienne sandals and a sundress, while Swahili Alice sports a local kanga.

Baby the stars shine bright, Kumiko Uehara, Japan © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Alice Look is a free exhibition at The V&A Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA

(Thu, 22 Jan 2015 | By Tom Banks )