Asif and Pernilla

Asif Khan is a young architect in an enviable position. He’s been hailed by Design Miami 2011 as a ‘Designer of the Future’, written up in the New York Times as one of five designers to watch this year, and awarded a prestigious ‘designer in residence’ slot at the Design Museum – the first architect [...]

Foster on Prouvé

There was a time in our evolving society when the making of things was considered not only honourable but was inextricably linked to their aesthetics. Perhaps, in retrospect, that is why we see integrity and consistency in the work of those individuals who were raised in the craft tradition.

Like Mies van der Rohe, whose knowledge of [...]

Terence Conran Exhibition: Win Tickets and Books

The Design Museum marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday with a major exhibition that explores his unique impact on contemporary life in Britain. Through his own design work, and also through his entrepreneurial flair, Conran has transformed the British way of life. As well as this, his design studio and architectural [...]

Out and Down In Paris

Filmmaker and artist David Lynch has applied his idiosyncratic vision to designing a Paris nightclub, a departure from film-making that’s not as far-fetched as it first appears. Silencio in Paris, which opened in September, is inspired by the identically named Club Silencio, which is a key location in his critically acclaimed film noir from 2001, [...]

The Power of Making

Walking into the Power of Making at the V&A comes as a bit of a shock. The place is stuffed to the gills with an eclectic range of objects, from a crocheted, full-size bear and a cake that looks like a real baby to a prosthetic leg and a Fabrican spray-on dress. The walls are [...]

Future Memory Pavilion

Future Memory Pavilion, an installation by Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt, is unveiled today as the Future Memory in Singapore, as the platform for promotion of British architects and designers, culminates.
The Future Memory Pavilion comprises of two cones stretching up to eight meters high and 20 meters in diameter. Made of ice and sand, the [...]

The Best of Look Again

Thanks to everyone who visited our stand at 100% design this year and designed their own sign. We had hundreds of entries and here we bring you the ones that really caught our eye.

Look Again

Blueprint asked a series of designers, artists and architects to redesign the British roadsign. The response was diverse and thought-provoking, challenging the role of the ubiquitous notices and the type of commands we receive.
When was the last time you looked at a road sign? No, really looked? These ubiquitous parts of the urban fabric, order, [...]

The Use of Ornament

Ornament vs. Structure! Art vs. Kitsch! Intellectuals vs. Taxi drivers! Tanktops vs. sunrise frocks! These were the vital questions wrestled with at the ICA when they hosted the ‘What is the Use of Ornament in Contemporary Art and Architecture?’ discussion on September 1st.
Artist Grayson Perry, celebrated for his vases and dress-sense, was the first to [...]

Score One For Art

Rachel Whiteread’s House won its creator the 1993 Turner Prize on the very day that local councillors authorised its demolition. A full-scale concrete cast of the inside of a terrace house – 193 Grove Road, Bow – the monumental sculpture courted just the right kind of controversy as well as collecting this prestigious art accolade. [...]

The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World

‘Long live the great art vortex sprung up in the centre of this town!’ declares BLAST, the 1914 summer publication by the Vorticist artists. This opening statement is painfully ironic; emerging just as Europe descended into World War I, Vorticism was destined to be short-lived. The Tate’s Manifesto for a Modern World is an intriguing [...]

Review: Where Language Stops

Where Language Stops is a new exhibition housed in the Wilkinson Gallery, a former East London industrial unit.
Conceived and curated by gallery owner Amanda Wilkinson and philosopher Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield, the exhibition ties together an assortment of different media to assess the purpose of language in art. Each artist’s piece is a response to text [...]

Review: Hackney Wicked

Between the Olympics and Victoria Park in East London lies an urban island called Hackney Wick, an unassuming place that as a four year resident witnessed some dramatic urban renewal in the last six months. As the adjacent landscape prepares for the greatest show on earth on 27 July, 2012 we welcome the fourth free [...]

Drawing on experience

Given only the space of a 10m wall in the foyer of the Museum of London, the compact ‘Hand Drawn London’ exhibition delivers a concentrated collection of unique maps that complement its ongoing ‘London Street Photography’ exhibition running concurrently.
Comprising eleven maps by 10 designers, the objective of the exhibition is simple according to the curators: [...]

High Arctic by United Visual Artists

This month sees the opening of a remarkable exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich in London by United Visual Artists. For the show, High Arctic, the new Sammy Ofer Wing is transformed into an abstract arctic landscape by the designers and offering an immersive experience that celebrates the unique landscape of the Svalbard [...]

Joe Watling & Roswitha Weingrill: In view of…

In the stripped basement of a Knightsbridge house the Austrian Cultural Forum presents its Visual Arts Platform. ‘In View Of…’ is the second exhibition of a juxtaposition project. Curated by Eva Martischnig and Adriana Marques the scheme has a clear concept; two emerging artists; one working in Austria and one in England are asked to [...]

Rebecca Salter: Drawn

Hidden by its shop front exterior Beardsmore Gallery in north London is a new collection of works by English artist Rebecca Salter.  Consisting mostly of drawings and including some sculptural experiments Salter’s work places emphasis on surfaces and mark making instead of traditional notions of perspective, maintaining that ‘Space is defined and separated by colour [...]

Fred Sandback at Whitechapel Gallery

‘I’d rather be in the middle of a situation than over on one side either looking in or looking out,’ reflects Sandback on his neglect of surface and solid forms in favour of minimalist lines. This idea could not be truer of the work recreated within the Victorian architecture of the newly refurbished Whitechapel Gallery. [...]

Walking Men

‘The pedestrian symbol was never intended to be painted,’ says Stephen Wragg, ‘it appeared on the road by mistake’. Over the last seven years, he has been photographing the walking men painted on our paths. The preoccupation began when Wragg was commissioned by Hertfordshire Highways to design a map for the growing number of cycle [...]

Maid of Bond Street

A sequence of 25 brass studs set in a polished concrete floor – metal casts of lipsticks, fake eyelashes and even a credit card seem arbitrary at first but they tell a tale of decadent luxury. Worldly Cares and Love Affairs is the brainchild of British conceptual artist Jonathan Ellery and directly inspired by David [...]