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Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2011

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

I really enjoyed visiting the Design Museum, London, last year so I was pleased I managed to get down to London to see the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2011 a few weekends ago.  I’ve picked out a few of my favourite entries in the gallery.

I didn’t get a picture of Margaret Howell Plus Shirt produced in collaboration with Kenneth Grange. The fashion section isn’t usually my thing so the silver dress covered with highly reflective loops was a pleasant surprise. It could have escaped from the pages of Cyberpunk 2020 or SLA Industries.

I did discover I have expensive tastes – the Margaret Howell Plus Shirt (£225) and the Quartz Series Glasses (£130-£185) both had price tags to match the quality of the craft that had gone into producing them. The Plumen 001 light bulb was also one of my favourite pieces so I was really pleased to discover they had won. The picture of the wall piercing lights doesn’t really do them justice as they slowly changed colour creating different moods on the wall.

The Lego/Muji Bricks and Paper collaboration was simultaneously obvious, brilliant, innovative and fun. Lastly I had to include the Ladakh Commonwealth Peace Pavillion simply because when I first saw it I burst into laughter in the middle of the show. One of my early designs for a design project at University had a strikingly similar form (if somewhat smaller) and was  rubbished by the tutor – and yet here it was in the design awards.

This weekend is the shows last weekend (finishing Sunday 7 August) and while your there take in Kenneth Grange: The Making of Modern Britain – if you don’t know his work its just because you haven’t realised it was all around you.

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