MADE NORTH 2012

Made North Conference21 February 2012

Made North 02 Conference Welcome

Welcome Foreword

A few years ago the Design Council was involved in a conference –much like Made North today. One well-known UK design leader fromLeeds, Jonathan Sands, spoke about design effectiveness.A young couple, farmers from Thirsk, approached him after his talkand asked for his help. Over the best part of ten years a microbusiness turning over £30k became a £4m enterprise and No1 in theirsector.

There are many great examples like this across the North of England,where our strengths in design are being deployed and transformingcompanies and whole sectors. In Barnsley, Naylor Drainage madedesign central to their strategy for change. It helped them diversify into garden ceramics, launch a new brand called Yorkshire Flowerpots,and triple in size to become the biggest employer in their neck of thewoods. At a larger scale, Sir Anthony Bamford has evangelized designat the heart of JCB in Rocester including sponsoring a local JCBAcademy to encourage a future generation of designers andengineers. They are, of course, one of this country’s top manufacturingexporters and a global market leader.

I recently returned from a trip to China where I visited the centres ofmanufacturing in the Pearl Delta. I saw first hand how Chinese firmsare moving from “Made in China” to “Designed in China” and how thegovernment has established twenty seven design zones, withincubators, prototyping and research facilities to support this. It’s allpart of a global expansion of design across developed and fast-growtheconomies.

Made North is a great opportunity for designers, technologists andentrepreneurs and policymakers to consider what this expansion ofdesign means for economic growth in the North right now. How candesign help turn breakthrough science, such as the Nobel Prize-winning Graphene at Manchester University, into world-leadingproducts? How do we best play to our strengths in design to drivesustainable growth and jobs? I am delighted that the Design Councilhas been able to support this event and I hope it will be a springboardfor practical ideas and productive new partnerships.

Creative innovation by designers isintegral to the continued renaissance ofthe north. MADE NORTH as a projectcelebrates today’s innovators andprovides a creative platform forpresenting and debating ideas,processes and technology to inspiredesigners and businesses from the northof England.

MADE NORTH one day conference is aforum for the exchange of ideas abouthow design can stimulate growth botheconomically and culturally, and the rolethat innovation and technology is playingin this process. The conference featuresa high profile programme ofinternationally renowned speakers,explaining how important design,innovation and technology are to theirbusiness.

The conference themes have beendesigned to stimulate lively debate bothon and off the stage. You will be able todiscover new ways of working andsources of inspiration that are shapingthe future of the design world, and thefuture of the north and its economy andculture. I really hope you enjoy the dayand welcome any feedback.

Alongside the conference you can get apreview of fantastic work by emergingnorthern designers prior to the exhibitiontouring venues across the north andbeyond. This is a great opportunity toenjoy and invest in northern talent!

Thank you for being a part of MADENORTH and I hope you enjoy theexperience as much as I've enjoyedbringing it together.

David KesterChief Executive,Design Council

Patrick MurphyCreative Director,Culture North

Made North Made North Design Conference 03

Ian AndersonMatt ClarkEva Rucki

Anthony DunneAlexandraDeschamps-SonsinoHerb KimSamuel WilkinsonSam HoeyCorin MellorGareth WilliamsMax FraserLuke Pearson

Jason IftakharIlsa Parry

Jonny Douglas

Speakers

Art of Technology

Designing the Future

Making the 21st Century

Made North

Compere

Made North Art of Technology04

Art ofTechnologyIan AndersonMatt ClarkeEva Rucki

The traditional roles of artand design are merging andnew creative practices aredeveloping work that utilisesthe latest technologicalinnovations. New works arebeing created that redefineexisting roles of artist anddesigner. What does it meanto be creative in the 21stcentury? Do we still needcategorisations for peopleand actions?

Made North Art of Technology 05

Ian AndersonBorn before England won the World Cup in Croydon, London’s erstwhile orbital city ofthe future, Ian studied Philosophy at The University of Sheffield (1979 – 1982). As adesigner he is self-taught. He declared The Designers Republic on Bastille Day 1986in Sheffield (which he dubbed SoYo™ North of Nowhere™).

TDR’s work is credited with defining the visual language of dance music, electronicaand the Playstation gaming generation, post-flagship title WipEout. Ian has workedwith architects such as Sadar + Vuga, built environment developers Urban Splash andRREEF, fashion designers such as Issey Miyake and currently Rick Owens, and hasdeveloped global branding campaigns, identities and special projects for the likes ofCoca-Cola, Sony (including Aibo), Nokia, Telia, MTV and Nike. In 1994 RudyVanderlans dedicated an entire issue of Emigre Magazine to TDR. In 1996 TDR hadtheir first NYC show at Artists Space. In 2001, their book 3D>2D was the biggestselling UK architecture book. In 2006 Ian was co-curator of Echo City, The BritishPavilion at the 10th Venice Biennale for Architecture.

In 25 years Ian has lectured to over 70,000 people around the world, had over 25‘solo’ TDR exhibitions, launched The People’s Bureau For Consumer Information andThe Pho-ku Corporation, had a good time but still not managed to finish the TDRbook.

Anderson currently continues to run The Designers Republic, and is also CreativeDirector (comms) for EXD (The Lisbon Biennale) and The Sheffield InternationalDocumentary Film Festival, a patron of Site Gallery, a member of AGI, a writer ofcolumns, an educator (running Design Thinking workshops at Universities inManchester and Sheffield), an exhibited artist and, when the moon is full, he DJs asPho-Ku Polluted Rockers.

Founder / Creative Director The Designers Republic

Referenceswww.thedesignersrepublic.comwww.pho-ku.com

Images

1. Ian Anderson/The Designers Republic C(H-)ome (+81/3) at Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo (2011)

2. Wipeout 2097, Playstation Game (1996)

3. TDR Angryman

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Made North Art of Technology06

Matthew Clark established United Visual Artists in 2003. UVA are an art and designpractice based in London. UVA produce work at the intersection of sculpture,architecture, live performance, moving image and digital installation.

UVA’s team members come from many disciplines including fine art, architecture,communication design, moving image, computer science and engineering. The cross-pollination of diverse skills inspires new fields of exploration, which is core to theirethos.

Pushing the boundaries of research, software and engineering with every project,UVA’s work aims above all to be meaningful and engaging. UVA’s work has beenexhibited at institutions including the V&A, the Royal Academy of Art, the South BankCentre, the Wellcome Collection, Opera North Leeds, Durham Cathedral and TheBritish Library. Their artworks have also toured internationally to cities including Paris,New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Yamaguchi, Taipei, Hong Kong, Melbourne andBarcelona. UVA also have large scale permanent art works in Toronto and Istanbul.

UVA’s designs for live performance have led to commissions at venues such as theTate Modern turbine hall, Madison Square Garden in New York and Trafalgar SquareLondon. UVA have also collaborated with musicians including Massive Attack, Jay Z,U2, Chemical Brothers and Battles.

In 2007, UVA’s responsive light and sound sculpture Volume won a yellow pencil at theD&AD awards, and featured in the London Design Museum’s ‘Design of the Year’show in 2008. ‘Speed of Light’ was also featured in the London ‘Design of the Year’exhibition, showing the best designs of 2010. UVA were awarded a distinction for theirkinetic installation Chorus at the 2010 edition of Prix Arts Electronica.

Matthew ClarkCo-Founder / Creative Director United Visual Artists

Referencewww.uva.co.uk

Images

1. Origin, New York City, 2011

2. Massive Attack, World Tours (2003 – 2010)

3. Volume London/Hong Kong/Taiwan/ Melbourne/St Petersburg, 2010

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Made North Art of Technology 07

Eva Rucki co-founded Troika with Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel. Troika arewidely known for their experimental practise, sculptures, installations and projectsthat provoke and employ a cross-disciplinary approach and intersect betweensculpture, architecture, and contemporary installation.

Often merging technology with their artistic practice as a point of departure but alsoto actify the installations, Troika’s work explores the intersection of scientific thought,observation and human experience in a rational and rationalized world, anddescribes how logic and reason live in the presence of the metaphysical and surreal.

Since establishing the studio in 2003 Troika’s work has been exhibited, amongstothers, at the Victoria & Albert Museum London, The Art Institute of Chicago, TateBritain and MoMA New York. In 2010 Troika were selected to create three artinstallations for the UK Pavilion at the World Expo Shanghai. Troika’s work isrepresented in the permanent collections of the Israel Museum Jerusalem, BritishCouncil, The Art Institute of Chicago, Victoria and Albert Museum and the MuseumOf Modern Art New York.

Troika has authored two books to date: Digital by Design, Thames and Hudson, 2008;Moscow Style, Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2005, and, in 2009, won the D&AD YellowPencil for their digital sculpture ‘Cloud’ in London Heathrow Terminal 5 and theirkinetic installation ‘Palindrome’ for the V&A in 2011.

Eva RuckiCo-Founder / DirectorTroika

Referencewww.troika.uk.com

Images

1. Thixotropes, (2011) #6, Detail Series of 8 mechanised systems, carbon, steel banding, LED's

2. Shoal, (2010), Multimedia installation, Toronto,467 individually rotating elements, dichroic acrylic, custom build electronics, stepper motors and controls.

3. Cloud, (2008), Kinetic sculpture, Heathrow Terminal 5, LondonFlipdots, aluminium, custom electronics

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Made North Using design to build a stronger economy08

Helping Britain usedesign to build astronger economyand improveeveryday life.

MADE NORTH is oneof a series of eventsaround the countrymade possible by theDesign Council’s‘Design Fund forGrowth’.

The Design Council is supporting arange of conferences, seminars,exhibitions and other events whichhelp forge closer connections betweendesigners, businesses and technologyto stimulate innovation, create jobsand promote economic growth.

It’s just one part of our work to put designat the heart of economic and socialrenewal in the UK. That sounds like avery wide remit - and it is - so how do wego about it? We break it down into keyareas where we know design-ledinnovation can make a real difference.

For businesses, we run a nationalmentoring programme aimed at helpingsmall and medium sized firms to accessdesign. Our national team of design-experienced business strategists workdirectly with hundreds of companies tohelp them identify their biggest businesschallenges, and how design can helpovercome them. By working closely withSMEs, Design Council mentors help themchange and evolve into truly design-ledbusinesses – and the results for manyhave been impressive – on average, theyexperience a return of £25 for every £1they spend on a design project resultingfrom the process. Similarly, we also workwith public services to help them deliverbetter for less, and equip universities tomore effectively commercialise their newtechnologies.

As the appointed advisor to governmenton design, we regularly bring togetherleading thinkers in business, governmentand education with designers, architects,economists and others to discuss howdesign can make a real difference intackling some of the UKs biggestchallenges. We collect the evidence fromthese discussions, and help governmentdecide where design could play asignificant role in key policies. Recently,for example, we worked closely with theDepartment of Business Innovation andSkills to ensure design initiatives wereincluded throughout the government’s

Research and Innovation Strategy.The result is that design will be ‘hardwired’ into the UKs emerging innovationinfrastructure.

We’re also a centre for evidence on therole of design as a powerful tool to tacklesocial challenges and improve wellbeing.We work on national projects whichidentify knotty (and often costly) national-scale problems where we believe designcan help make things better. Weassemble teams of experts, designers,user groups and others who use designtechniques to get to the route of theissue, developing novel solutions in theform of prototype products and services,which we then encourage to be tested atscale and adopted. Recently, for example,we led a project to tackle the risingproblem of violence against staff in A&Edepartments. The Design Council-appointed design team worked withhospital A&E departments to find out howand why frustration and violence occurs,and to find cost-effective design-led waysto avoid it happening. The result was arevolutionary easy-to-install information-based approach to communicating withpatients, which is set to be trialled inhospitals in the coming months.

We’re also a big commissioner ofresearch into the impact of design. All thisinformation is channelled through ourwebsite (www.designcouncil.org.uk), andcommunicated in a variety of other waysto government, business and academicswho use it for insight into how design canhelp tackle a whole variety of issues.

It all adds up to what might be called acatalytic effect, and like all catalysts, theidea is to act at the right place and theright time to drive innovation for the goodof the economy and society. It’s a wideremit, but in essence it’s aboutconnecting, enabling, developing skillsand building capacity to use design.

Design Council

Explains how MADE NORTHis part of a larger drive toconnect people, increase theuse of design and stimulategrowth.

Ellie RuncieDirector of InnovationServices and Networks,Design Council

Made North Ian Anderson Interview10

PM. Before you formed The DesignersRepublic you studied Philosophy at The University of Sheffield in the early 80s.Who or what inspired you to become adesigner?IA. That’s always a difficult one to answer.In some ways the smart arse answer is ‘I’mnot sure I’m a designer anyway’ but if youjudge me by what I’ve done, then I am.The easiest way is to describe whathappened and decide for yourself. Everyonesaid at school I should be a writer. And I waspushed towards journalism and I nearly hadsome work published.

The reason I came to Sheffield was the music:Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA,Vice Versa. Main thing I was interested indoing when I came to Sheffield was being in aband, and I also wrote for the universitynewspaper. Being in a band and designing theposters and the layout for the universitymagazine those things got me interested in -not so much the design - but how youcommunicate ideas and in those days thereweren’t hoards of young designers withlaptops so you did it yourself.

Another reason I came to Sheffield was to getout of the south east. I‘ve met people in the

north who can’t wait to get away so maybe it’snot about getting away from where you are;it’s not the place, just you need to change.There seemed to be a lot more honestyfurther away from London. Further away fromHoxton and Shoreditch, design is for a reasonrather than something to talk about overexpensive coffee. The fact is, if that is how Ifeel then I’m better off somewhere thatinspires me.

I ended up being a designer because I was in a band, managed a band and did theirrecord covers because I was there. I thought Iwould be a famous band manager but I didn’tlike managing others’ creativity; I was moreinterested in my own. But the phone didn’tstop ringing for 18 years and even then itdidn’t stop ringing just the budgets and thelandscape changed. It’s a little bit like ‘We’llstop when work dries up and we’ll dosomething else’ as that’s what I’d always donebut it never did and now I’m here.

PM. For the last 25 years, The DesignersRepublic has occupied a unique position inthe international graphic design scene. Itsdesigns and slogans such as ‘Work, Buy,Consume, Die’ and ‘Design Will Eat Itself’, and numerous genre defining record sleeves

inspired generations of creatives.Please describe TDR's approach andaesthetic.IA. The approach is quite a selfish approach.My process is quite selfish; not selfish for myown benefit but what inspires me arechallenges and asking questions. There’s lotsof people who are very pragmatic aboutthings but that doesn’t really interest me and ifit takes more work to get it done my way thenI will do it but I push the envelope and pushthe client to see how far they will go. I have toaccept there’s a lot of people for whomdesign, advertising and the creative process isjust a glorified 9-5 job and they don’t reallywant to reinvent the wheel. Perhaps they’repeople I shouldn’t really be working with ormaybe they should be working with me butdon’t realise it.

PM. Which of your projects are you mostproud of?IA. Next one; bog standard answer.Things come and go. As a concept, AutechreOversteps with the circle. It’s the process ofhumans trying to mimic perfection, it’simpossible to do unless you train and train sohard that you can disconnect your brain.Thing with the album was they createdsounds mathematically and designed sound

Rise of the Republic.

InterviewIan AndersonFounder / Creative DirectorThe Designers Republic

Ian Anderson escaped to thenorth to study philosophy atThe University of Sheffield at a time when Human Leagueand Cabaret Voltaire ruled theairwaves.

His company, The DesignersRepublic, is known the worldover for its innovative designapproach and originality.Never one to shy away fromopinions, we took some time out with Ian to get his uniquethoughts on life, the universeand everything design.

Full interview available online at www.madenorth.co.uk

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rather than sitting there humming. That senseof man and machine – a lot of the real technostuff is being enthralled by the magic oftechnology. Even the title of the ongoing TDRbook ‘Brain Aided Design’ is a reaction tocomputer aided design.

PM. One of our conference themes looks athow art and design are merging and how newcreative practices are redefining existing rolesof the designer. You seem to enjoy workingcollaboratively in different disciplines, in 2001TDR's book 3D>2D was the biggest sellingUK architecture book. In 2006 you co-curatedEcho City, The British Pavilion at the 10thVenice Biennale for Architecture. Could youtell us more about these projects?IA. One of the problems now is what doesone consider to be a designer’s role? In theold days a commericial designer was a macmonkey. Then people like ourselves got intodesign because we had ideas we wantedexpress. We didn’t go to college then getstreamed into a role in life. Someone said canyou design a record cover then can youdesign something else and something else?And from our perspective everything thatpeople asked us to do was effectively askingus to solve problems. I think that the reasonthat TDR continued was that I had an interestin responding to those things. If someone hadjust said can you do this bit of design Iwouldn’t have been interested.

From my perspective, because I didn’t studydesign, just doing creative things interests me– why wouldn’t a designer co-curate andarchitectural biennale?

It’s design in the bigger sense. Theterminology of designer – to me there’s thatsense is design equated to French dessiner/todraw – or design as in terms of designs for lifeor grand designs. For me it’s grand designsand the idea behind it. It’s about ‘I’ve done thisby design, for a reason’.

Collaboration changes the nature of what youput in and also changes the nature of whatyou need to satisfy. For me working on eithera book design or the EXD Lisbon Biennalethere’s not a great difference in thought orwork process.

PM. With the problems tDR went through in2009, what's your advice to other designers?IA. You can turn around everything I’ve justsaid and say that’s why you went out ofbusiness. All the cliches about being true toyourself and not growing too quickly; there’s awhole sense of ‘be careful what you wish for’.When we first started working with Coke inAtlanta they said be careful, what you’ve gotis quite special which is why we’ve come toyou but by doing this work with us you couldgo and shake the money tree. If every job youhave is worth £100k – £200k you only needtwo of these to go and there’s a big hole left.

It’s relatively easy to get a £2k - £5k job toreplace a £5k one that goes. You can’t just goand say we need a couple of £100k jobs byend of the month – you need to cultivate theclients.

There was a clear tension in what I wanted todo creatively – I was told “The problem youhave running a business is that you’re just notinterested in money”. I feigned I was – youwant to make money but it doesn’t drive you.If you have a business employing 20 peopleyour motivation has to be profit and money atthe expense of creativity. Is that advice orexorcism?

PM. Do you see yourself as a graphicdesigner or as an artist, or as something elseentirely?IA. In terms of art, if you look at Damien Hirsta lot of it is that sense of there’s some kind ofart or creativity in making money. Not in thesense of business planning but in playing withconsumer strategies – if we do this we canget person X to part with cash. He is seriousabout his art – he’s aware of what will sell buthe knows within certain boundaries he can doanything and people will say that’s amazingbut there’s also a likely backlash. It’s a similarkind of thing with TDR of playing with people’sperceptions, what people think and how canyou challenge that?

PM. What are you working on right now?IA. We’ve got quite a few exhibitions comingup this year. Also some TDR book projectsthat we’re working on. One of the things we’redoing is returning to a working process wherewe’re funnelling our creativity into commercialclients which always used to benefit theclients - the right kind of clients. The right kindof client is anyone who will say we can seethe value of working with you let’s celebratewhat you do and help you do it for our benefit.That takes a certain kind of person and client.It’s worked for some of the biggest brands inthe world.

PM. Who or what inspires you?IA. It’s difficult to answer that question as Idon’t really know – I can say I like that pieceof design or that style but there’s a lowboredom threshold so that will change.Inspiration can come from anywhere,travelling on a train, watching a film - you justhave to allow connections and ideas to form.There’s things that over 25 years keep comingback – like immediacy of communication,rawness of communication.

PM. Is it possible to brand the north?IA. Need to know what it [the north] is – we’ll do it if there’s a good budget!

Made North Ian Anderson Interview 11

Coke, Lovebeing Trinity

Echo City, The British Pavilion at Venice Biennale for Architecture

Jarvis Cocker, Further Complications

TDR Angryman

Made North Designing the Future12

Designingthe FutureAnthony DunneSam HoeyHerb KimSamuel Wilkinson

The roles of design andinnovation are shaping ourworld and economy. We allhave an active interest in thefuture; how can design andtechnology improve the waywe work and live in ourenvironments? What are thetrends, challenges andopportunities to advanceinnovation and shape thefuture of industry and theenvironment? What would anideas and technologyrevolution look like in thenorth?

Made North Designing the Future 13

Anthony Dunne is professor and head of the Design Interactions programme at theRoyal College of Art in London and a partner in the design practice Dunne & Raby.His work with Fiona Raby uses design as a medium to stimulate discussion anddebate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural andethical implications of existing and emerging technologies.

He is the author of Hertzian Tales and co-author, with Fiona Raby, of Design Noir.Their work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Pompidou Centre, and the ScienceMuseum in London and is in the permanent collections of MoMA, V&A, FrAC andFNAC. He has consulted for Sony, Philips Design, National Panasonic and FranceTelecom. Anthony was awarded the Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in DesignEducation in 2009.

Anthony DunnePartner Dunne & RabyHead of Design InteractionsRoyal College of Art

Referenceswww.di.research.rca.ac.ukwww.dunneandraby.co.uk@DI__RCA

Images

1. EM Listeners 2. Foragers

From: Between Reality and the Impossible, 2010Images: Jason Evans

3. Technological Dreams Series: No.1, Robots, 2007Image: Per Tingleff

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Sam HoeyA balance of designer and design manager, a strategic thinker with an eye fordetail. After studying Furniture and Product Design at Nottingham Trent, Samworked at Benchmark in Berkshire. Keen to develop his point of view and deal withthe business, organisational and strategic uses of all fields of design he moved toLondon to study for an MA in Design Management at the University of the Arts. Hecontinued his studies in creative entrepreneurship at London Business Schoolalongside work delivering high end domestic projects for Roundhouse and productdevelopment with designers including Anthony Dickens.

Over the last 2 years as Studio Manager at Jason Bruges Studio, Sam has put thisrange of experience to good use guiding, supporting and managing the multi-disciplinary team of designers in the delivery of all of the studio's innovativeprojects. His inquisitive nature helps him to keep in touch with fresh thinking andnew practices in design and many related fields.

Jason Bruges Studio was formed in April 2002, they design and build interactiveinstallations across 4 key sectors. These sectors include architecture, art,experiential marketing and lighting design consultancy. The multi-disciplinary teamnow includes creative architects, lighting designers, electrical engineers,programmers, industrial designers and mechanical engineers.

The studio is currently working on projects including a distraction piece for GreatOrmond Street Hospital for Children on their route to surgery, an interactive artworkin a shopping mall in China, a public artwork for a new development in Toronto,Canada, 4 Olympic Games artworks in London, and a playground for a childrens’hospice in Kuwait.

Studio ManagerJason Bruges Studio

Referencewww.jasonbruges.com

Images

1. More 4 Ident Installations - with Man vs Machine and 4Creative

2. Digital Fountain, Westfield Stratford City

3. Platform 5, Sunderland Station for Nexus

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Made North Designing the Future14

Designing the FutureMade North 15

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Herb Kim has lived in the UK since 1997. He lives inLiverpool and works in Gateshead. He is perhaps best known as the Founder & Hostof the Thinking Digital Conference, a highly successful annual international eventwhich occurs every May at the Sage Gateshead Music Centre celebrating some of theworld’s most creative and accomplished thinkers and innovators.

Herb is also the Founder & CEO of Codeworks – a not for profit company which helpsto develop and promote the digital & creative industries of North East England. Inaddition to Thinking Digital, Codeworks produces the GameHorizon Conference, theDIBI Web Conference, the CultureCode Initiative as well as running CodeworksConnect & GameHorizon – two regional digital company networks.

In 2011, Wired Magazine recognized Herb’s work by including him in the WiredMagazine 100 – Wired Magazine’s annual list of the top 100 UK ‘digital power brokers’.In 2010, he was named as one of the MediaGuardian Top 100 – the GuardianNewspaper’s annual list of the 100 most influential figures across the UK mediaindustries. He was also named the ‘Communicator of the Year’ in 2010 by theChartered Institute of Public Relations – North East.

Herb has also been an active member of the TED Conference community since 2006.Since 2009, he has helped produced 15 TEDx events in Newcastle, Liverpool,Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Teesside and as far as Doha, Qatar. He is producingTEDxManchester in early 2012 and TEDxBBCNorth and TEDxDunLaoghaire later in2012.

Herbert earned his MBA from the Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania andhis undergraduate degree from Princeton University in New Jersey.

CEO, CodeworksFounder,Thinking DigitalConference

Herb Kim

Referenceswww.thinkingdigital.co.ukwww.dibiconference.comwww.codeworks.net@herbkim

Images

1. Paul Rawlings, David Weinfeld and Herb Kim at Thinking Digital Conference

2. Steven Bathiche at Thinking Digital Conference

3. The Sancho Plan at Design It, Build It Conference

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Made North Designing the Future16

Samuel Wilkinson graduated in furniture and related product design at RavensboureCollege of Art & Design in 2002. While at Ravensbourne Wilkinson won several designawards, including the RSA award and D&AD New Blood. He went straight intoemployment working for leading consultancies such as Tangerine, Fitch:London,PearsonLloyd, and Conran. During these years he worked on various award winningprojects for leading clients such as British Airways, Audi, LG, Samsung, and VirginAirways.

Samuel Wilkinson set up his industrial studio at the end of 2007 and a year later, in2008 Wilkinson completed his largest work, co-designing L’arbre de Flonville inLausanne, Switzerland. It was the first of a series of large projects to be completed aspart of the regeneration of an old industrial area, Le Flon. The work consists of acontemporary town square featuring a 16m sculptural metal tree surrounded by rootbenches.

Samuel’s recent designs of the Plumen 001 light bulb (a collaboration with designbrand Hulger) and the hand blown glass lamps ‘Vessel Series’ for Decode Londonhave won international acclaim. Plumen 001 collected the grand prize from the LondonDesign Museum of ‘2011 Design of the Year’ and the highly coveted ‘Black pencil’ fromthe D&AD.

The studio’s work diversifies across various disciplines from consumer products topublic realm. Samuel Wilkinson’s commitment and enthusiasm to designing interestingobjects and spaces is apparent in his work, always looking to add a fresh dynamicapproach in either form or function.

Samuel WilkinsonFounder Samuel Wilkinson Design

Referenceswww.samuelwilkinson.comwww.plumen.com@SamuelWilkinson

Images

1. L’arbre de Flonville Image: Milo Keller

2. Biome Image:Sylvain Deleu

3. Plumen 001 Courtesy of Samuel Wilkinson

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Made North Tom Bloxham Interview18

PM. You founded Urban Splash in 1993. Whoor what inspired you to start the business?TB. It was all evolution rather than road toDamascus inspiration. Before I started UrbanSplash I had done a few property things and had come to Manchester selling records thenposters. Initially the drive to get some propertywas to find somewhere to sell from. No onewould rent me a shop as I had no money andno track record. I got a very small place inAffleck’s Palace and then developed Affleck’sArcade but this was too big for me so I startedsubletting it. Then I realised in the north ofEngland there were a whole load of what Ithought were fantastic buildings lying empty -with no one doing anything with them. Therewere also lots of entrepreneurial businesses,many of them creative businesses, bands,musicians, designers, fashion designers,architects that had no space. So I started,ham-fistedly, at a place called LiverpoolPalace, then I developed a building inManchester with Ian Simpson and filled it upwith people like 808 State and Simply Red,graphic designers, record producers andfashion designers. I’d met JonathanFalkingham [business partner] and wedecided there was something special aboutreusing old buildings, about using good,contemporary design and using innovative

leasing forms. We said we’d try one buildingfirst; Concert Square, Liverpool. If that workedwe’d try another one … 20 odd years laterwe’re still here.

PM. Urban Splash has been pivotal intransforming the post industrial landscape inthe north's urban centres. You helpedtransform cities such as Manchester,Liverpool and Salford. How does it feel tohave made such a big impact across thenorth?TB. It’s not just Urban Splash by any means,but I get huge amount of satisfaction fromwhat has been achieved. You go somewherelike Ropewalks, which was a crappy bit ofLiverpool; no one had any idea what to dowith it. We sat down with a vision aboutreusing old empty warehouses, about bringingindependent retailers in, bringing creativeindustries in, about building some excitingnew buildings and restoring some good oldbuildings and it wasn’t much more than adream to be honest. It’s amazing thedifference that’s happened and it’s been abenefit for Urban Splash and benefited thecities we worked in which makes us feel verygood. The difference between Urban Splashand other developers is that design isfundamental; it’s part of the reason we do it,

part of the reason we get up in the morning,to try and to create great buildings and to seesomething that starts of as a bit of tat andturn it into something that’s hopefully beautiful- a place to live and work.

PM. You are obviously passionate aboutinnovation and have a belief in cities, indesign, in architecture to be able to makesignificant change in our environment. Pleaseexplain your approach to commissioninginnovative design and architecture?TB. I suppose what we’re keen to do is tosqueeze out of every project every last bit ofpotential and to do that we’re trying to find themost talented designers and the mostcommitted designers to work on our projects.Sometimes you can’t do that as you can’t becertain a project definitely will go ahead andyou don’t want to waste people’s time. Orthere’s some degree of confidentiality aboutthe project or you’ve got a very short timeframe to do it in. Sometimes then we have aselective design where we will pick half adozen. So there’s different ways of gettingdesigners but every one of the architects [weuse] wants to spend every last penny of ourmoney on making their life’s project andwinning awards and actually I don’t mind that.That’s the sort of designers I want.

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sInterviewTom BloxhamChairman andCo-FounderUrban Splash

Urban Splash is one of theleading regenerationcompanies in the UK,renowned for it's innovativeapproach to design anddevelopment. Based inManchester, the company haschanged the urban landscapeof northern towns and citieswith innovative and intuitivedesign and architecture. Weinterviewed the force behindthe company, Tom BloxhamMBE, to find out what makeshim and Urban Splash tick.

Full interview available online atwww.madenorth.co.uk

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I want them waking up at night thinking aboutthe design and worrying about it.

We don’t want to repeat ourselves so we’revery much into innovation and trying to donew things. We are also really interested in arationale for design. I’m much more aboutstarting from inside and working out what thefunction is and what’s good about the existingsite and design and working through that. Iwant to have an answer for every question:why is something here; why is it a colour; whyis it a shape; why is a door here? I wantsomebody to have thought about it in a verylogical way.

Any good building needs great designers, andyou always need great clients, great buildersand often a great local authority. So actually tomake these things happen - often verydifficult projects that have been left for a longtime - you need that cooperation andcollaboration.

PM. Which projects are you most proud of? TB. It’s very difficult, every one’s different andit’s like asking a parent who’s their favouritekid? Developments like Fort Dunlop we’reincredibly proud of - just the scale and themass of it. Chimney Pot Park in Salfordbecause the area was so run down. Thedevelopment of the Midland Hotel inMorecambe made a real difference to thetown. In Ropewalks [Liverpool], NorthernQuarter [Manchester] where we’ve changedwhole quarters of the city which I don’t believewould’ve changed in the same way withoutUrban Splash. There’s things we would dodifferently in hindsight, but my favourite isalways the next one.

PM. What are you working on right now?TB. We’ve got a big project in Sheffield calledPark Hill, which is amazing; biggest listedbuilding in Europe, most people in Sheffieldthought was an eyesore and should bedemolished, but perceptions are changingnow. That’s exciting. We’ve just finished ascheme in Stalybridge called Longland’s that’svery interesting because not many peoplehave given much thought to what the future isfor these small towns. We’re working with agreat scheme called Lakeshore in Bristol; afantastic old Cor-Ten steel building built in thesixties on an artificial lake. We’re working inPlymouth on a very different Georgianbuilding, old Royal William Yard. That’s lookingreally good. Also we’re working on some newideas for a new type of housing we want tolaunch this year. In the same way we changedwhat a flat looked like 20 years ago we wantto change what a house looks like.

PM. Who or what inspires you?TB. Lots and lots of people and things. Artgalleries always inspire me. I love going inthere – art galleries are the R&D departmentsfor architecture. Companies like Apple inspireme. Apple used to be just a nerd’s computer

and IBM was huge and now Apple is hugeand IBM is tiny. It’s reinvented itself withiPhone, iPad, iTunes - huge revenues, yeteverything is incredibly beautifully designed,the shops are fantastic, the staff are fantastic -they’ve kept that quality to things. That’s myinspiration.

Architects like Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe,Marcel Breuer all inspire me with the logic oftheir thinking plus loads of new products thatyou see every day in different designs.Inspiration - as in Paul Smith’s quote, it’s allaround you.

PM. We all have an active interest in thefuture; how can design and technologyimprove the way we work and live in ourenvironments?TB. There’s no question it can improve [theway we work and live]. But I also think it’s notnecessarily the answer. Technology is just atool; it’s a means to make things easier for us.I remember being at a government meetingwith some futurist explaining to us how citieswouldn’t exist anymore because everyone wasworking on the internet from their little barnsand I said at the time (15 years ago) it wasbollocks. Cities started with ancient Atheniansand continued ever since. They’ve survivedthe canal age, the railway age, the telephone,the fax machine and they’ll survive theinternet. The reason cities work is they are allabout having random meetings betweenindividuals. People live in cities as they likethat cooperation and human beings like tomeet and talk to each other. These chanceencounters make life exciting and worth living.Technology would never replace that, just helpus do it.

PM. Could you give some information on yournew book 'Transformation' published byRIBA?TB. One of the things that we found is whenpeople walk round one of our buildings theyget a huge sense of positivity. They see thedesign, they see interesting tenants, there’s arichness about it all and what we wanted wasto give that sense of what Urban Splash wasabout in a book. So it’s partially telling thestory of how we got together, what our ethosis about, what our views are about, whatsomewhere to live, somewhere to shop andsomewhere to work should be like. It’s also anumber of case studies of the differentprojects that we’ve done in partnership.We can also use it to promote some of ourcurrent apartments and office space. So ifsomeone comes in and they’re interested inbigger office space, the following day we candsend them our book. We want people to say‘that’s the kind of place I want to live or work’.

When we’re bidding for schemes or looking fornew work it’s an easy way to give people anidea of the quality and breadth of what we’vedone. It’s nice to give away to people to showthem what we’re doing - a nice record.

In the back there is a pull out of all theprojects we’ve ever done. And it’s all designedby our own people.

PM. Is there a defining symbol of the north? TB. I don’t think there is but for me what’sdifferent about the north is it’s a bit more raw,bit cockier, bit more independent, bit friendlier,bit rougher, bit poorer, bit more edgy - it’sthose sorts of things. I love London, it’s agreat capital city and I’m jealous sometimeswhen I go down there of the quality of therestaurants and cultural institutions, museumsand such but there’s something about thenorth which is a roughness, a rawness, afriendliness a ‘welcomingness’ and apermanence, actually. That all makes it theplace I’ve chosen to live.

Made North Tom Bloxham Interview 19

Longlands apartments, Stalybridge

Chimney Pot Park, Langworthy, Salford

The new Urban Splash book ‘Transformation’ is produced inpartnership with RIBA.

Made North Making in the 21st Century20

Making in the 21stCenturyAlexandraDeschamps-SonsinoCorin MellorGareth Williams

Will new innovation andtechnologies offeropportunities for designersand makers to redefinethemselves and theirpractices into a morecentral role in our culture? Does innovation allow for a shift from traditional massproduction models into anera of personal fabricationand self production bydesigner/makers?

How can we maintain‘traditional’ skills andknowledge and harnesstechnology to create new opportunities andmarkets?

AlexandraDeschamps-Sonsino Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an interaction designer & entrepreneur. Born inMontreal, she grew up in Paris and the Middle East. She completed a B.A. inIndustrial Design at the University of Montreal and a Master’s degree at theInteraction Design at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII).

After working in online strategy & design in Amsterdam she moved to London in2007 where she co-founded Tinker London, a smart product design studio. Focusedon creating connected product experiences that linked the digital to the physical,Tinker was the first distributor of the Arduino platform in the UK, ran more than 50workshops and offered design and consultancy services to clients around the world.She acted as CEO until the studio closed in December 2010.

Her work has been exhibited at the Milan Furniture Fair, London Design Festival,The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

She has been focused on the “internet of things” and its implications in the design ofeveryday products since 2005. Designswarm is an “internet of things” design studiowhich she set up in January 2011. She works with clients who want to design thenext generation of connected products and uses her expertise to help shape earlybusiness ideas around smart products. She also works with larger clients who wantto know how this area applies to their business.

She is the co-curator of This Happened London and a collaborator at the designpartnership RIG London.

FounderDesignswarm

Referenceswww.designswarm.comwww.riglondon.com@iotwatch

Images

1 & 2. Homesense Kit

3. Big Red Button

Made North Making in the 21st Century 21

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Made North Making in the 21st Century22

Born in Sheffield in 1966. Corin Mellor trained as a product designer at Kingstonand worked for the London architects YRM before joining his father, David Mellor.He is now Creative Director of David Mellor Design.

Corin has carried out a number of special design commissions. His public seatingcan be seen at the Lowry Gallery in Salford Quays, the Millennium Galleries andWinter Garden in Sheffield. He has recently worked on new projects for SheffieldCathedral, Chatsworth House and a special collection of sterling silver for aMiddle East royal family.

At David Mellor Design Corin is responsible for special product developmentwithin the company. In 2007 he introduced new ranges of kitchen knives, tableglass and more recently fine bone china and his first range of cutlery ‘Chelsea’.Corin designed the interior of the David Mellor Design Museum and Cafe inHathersage, Derbyshire.

He is married to the photographer Helen Mellor and divides his time between thefactory and design office in Derbyshire and the London shop in Sloane Square.

Corin MellorCreative DirectorDavid Mellor Design

Referencewww.davidmellordesign.co.uk

Images

1. ‘Chelsea’ cutlery for David Mellor Design 2011

2. Birch plywood tray for David Mellor Design 2003

3. Sculptural bench for Chatsworth House 2010

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Made North Making in the 21st Century 23

Gareth Williams is a curator and writer about design, with 18 years experience as acurator of furniture at the Victoria and Albert Museum. His research interests rangefrom exploring the construction of mass-markets for design and charting thetechnological advances in the design-led industries, to examining the representationof new design practices in museums. Now based at the Royal College of Art,Gareth’s latest book ‘21 Twentyone, 21 designers for twenty-first century Britain’ willbe published by the V&A in April 2012.

In 2010, with Professor Tord Boontje, Gareth set up the RCA’s Design ProductsCollection as a bridge for graduates and faculty of the Design Products programmeto make their original and innovative design proposals commercially available.The first collection, ‘First Hand’, comprised of products intended for serial productionand not made in limited editions. They demonstrate the diversity of conceptualapproaches and technologies adopted at the RCA. Together with these products,Gareth will speak about other recent RCA projects that indicate the direction fortraditional skills and new technology in the future.

Gareth WilliamsSenior Tutor,Design ProductsRoyal College of Art

Referencewww.designproductscollection.rca.ac.uk

Images

1. In-betweening Clock, Hye-Yeon Park, 2010 Image: Royal College of Art

2. Avatar Suit, Marc Owens, 2008-2010Image: Royal College of Art

3. Solar Sinter, Markus Kayser, 2011 Image: Markus Kayser

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Made North Ben Kelly Interview24

We cannot talk about design and the northwithout mentioning Factory Records. FactoryRecords was a Manchester based Britishindependent record label, started in 1978 byTony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, whichfeatured several prominent musical acts suchas Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio,The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, andmore. Factory Records used a creative team(most notably record producer Martin Hannettand graphic designer Peter Saville) whichgave the label, and the artists recording for it,a particular sound and image.

Factory in many ways was more than just arecord company, it's unique art direction anddesign concepts not only changed the waymusic was packaged, but also changed theway we felt about the north and ourselves,helping establish a new cultural identity forManchester in the late 70s early 80s.

No better example of this partnership ofdesign and attitude could we have than TheHacienda (fac 51 Hacienda) which was anightclub and music venue located in thecentre of Manchester, which opened in 1982and survived until 1997.

The club was the physical representation ofthe Factory record label. The club's namecame from a slogan of the radical group'situationist international' the line 'theHacienda must be built', can be found in IvanChtcheglov’s formulary for a new urbanism.The design for the Hacienda was created byBen Kelly, who used his processes andmaterials-led approach to create a three-dimensional version of Factory Records’innovative visual identity. To this end Kellycited his attention to the smallest of details asthe equivalent of typesetting sleeve-notes onan album cover.

Working to a perfunctory brief; “big bar, smallbar, food, stage, dance-floor, balcony, and acocktail bar in the basement”, BKD were givenunlimited freedom to convert a formeryachting showroom — boasting a massive,single volume space — into a true “people’spalace”.

At the time this was BKD’s largest project todate and became subject of numerous books,magazine articles, documentaries and afeature film. The Hacienda was withoutprecedent, either at home or abroad. It has

been lauded as the world’s best night-club,much to the pride and amusement ofMancunians, and been acknowledged withreinventing and reinvigorating the genre.Neither a venue nor a disco, The Haciendawas a real-life stage-set, built with the mostmundane of materials used to maximumeffect.

We caught up with Ben to ask him about theHacienda and his company BKD one of theUK’s leading Interior Design practices.

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InterviewBen KellyFounderBKD

BKD is one of the UK’sleading Interior Designpractices. They have astrong reputation forproducing innovative andhigh profile spaces acrossthe sectors of exhibitions,retail and leisure, museuminteriors, and office design.

They are inextricaballylinked with the north throughtheir ground breakingdesigns for The Haciendaand DRY 201 inManchester.

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Made North Ben Kelly Interview 25

PM. Who or what inspired you to become adesigner?BK. The lure of the British Art School in themid 1960’s. I wanted to be an artist initially –doing sculpture. I figured that this might bedifficult in terms of earning a living. InteriorDesign seemed like a logical and practicalalternative – a spatial / sculptural activity.I wanted to do something creative. Art Schoolprovided a platform from which to experiment,to try things, to mess about, have a good timeand find a way forward. Eventually I decidedthat I wanted to combine the two disciplines –art and interior design with the idea ofproducing what I then naively termed: ‘artinteriors’. I experimented with this idea at theRCA from 1971 – 74, having spent the mostamazing time time at Lancaster College of Artfrom 1966 –70.

PM. Please describe your approach andaesthetic at BKD.BK. A difficult question! Our approach hasdeveloped over 30 years. It is a collaborativeprocess driven by the given project site andthe client brief. We are interested in processand the use of materials and colour. We havedeveloped our ‘handwriting’ through aninterest in art practice and the the desire toproduce work which is both stimulating andhopefully a positive addition to theenvironment.

PM. Your design for the Hacienda inManchester is legendary. How did the contactwith Factory come about?BK. I met Peter Saville (founder member ofFactory Records) in a members bar in CoventGarden called ‘Zanzibar” sometime around1978/9. We collaborated on an album coverfor Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Othercollaborations followed until one day in 1981Peter told me that Factory Records wanted todo a nightclub and perhaps I was the man forthe job. They were a unique client.

PM. The Hacienda provided a new confidentdesign vocabulary for post industrial North.What were your inspirations for the design?BK. The attitude behind the album coversdesigned by Peter Saville for Factory Records,the scale and grandeur of the cathedral-likespace of the interior housing the club, theanarchic legacy of Factory Records, industrialmaterials, the use of colour and the conceptof flexibility. One journalist described thedesign as “the motorway aesthetic”. To me theproject at the beginning was a very largeblank canvas on which to create acomposition made up of a variety ofcomponents I had stored up over previousyears.

PM. Do you think design can create anidentity for a city or region?BK. Of course it can. Ask Peter Saville.

PM. One of the themes of our conference iscollaboration and innovation. Who would youlike to collaborate with?BK. The whole of the world. Alternatively:David Bowie, Michael Marriot, Peter Saville,Ted Walters, Jonathan Ive, Patti Smith, Neil Young, Donald Judd Foundation, the City of Manchester, The National Trust, anycompany looking for a colour consultant,someone looking to start a chain of hostel/lowbudget hotels,

PM. Could you tell us about your 'InternationalOrange' project?BK. ‘International Orange’ was the colourreference for a particular shade of brightorange from a range of industrial paint. I usedthis particular orange on a couple of earlyprojects working on my own. When it came todesigning The HaНienda I specified the colour‘International Orange” to be painted in a partof the club. Tony Wilson became obsessedwith this name. He loved it. Many years laterin 2008 when I was asked to do an exhibitionat The Stanley Picker Gallery at KingstonUniversity I decided to title the exhibition:‘International Orange”. I used an image of TonyWilson wearing an elephant mask when hearrived at the first site meeting on the FactoryRecords Headquarters building project on theposter for the exhibition – co-designed withPeter Saville. It was my homage to Tony whohad sadly passed away in 2007. The exhibitionshowed collaborative work between myselfand a number of artist and designer friends.My last collaborative project with Peter Savillewas the design for Tony Wilson’s headstone.

PM. Many contemporary designers arecreating self initiated work that exists withoutthe parameters of a commercial brief. At thesame time artists are creating projects withindustrial and business clients. What are yourthoughts on this interdisciplinarycollaboration?BK. I am trying to do the former myself iecreate self initiated work without theparameters of a commercial brief (better still,without a client). However, one also needs agallery or someplace to show the work. Itwould also be nice to have funding for suchprojects. I like the idea of artists creating workwith industrial clients. It all makes the worldpotentially a richer place

PM. What are you working on right now?BK. We are designing an exhibition for theV&A - “British Design 1948 – 2012, Innovationin the Modern Age” opening 31 March 2012.We are also working on the design for a newspace at The Science Museum in SouthKensington - ‘Media Space’. This is a hybridgallery, workshop and social space containinga large photography gallery, workshop andcafe/bar. We are also completing the work onthe fifth site for our client Gymbox inFarringdon. Hopefully I am having a show ofmy own with collaborative work at the New ArtGallery Walsall sometime in 2014. I have also

recently produced a music video incollaboration with a company called ditto toaccompany a music track I made sometimearound 1979. We are currently trying to decidehow to launch this work into the airwaves.

PM. Who or what inspires you?BK. The countryside of the Yorkshire Daleswhere I grew up in a village calledAppletreewick, Marcel Duchamp, AndyWarhol, Richard Hamilton, the early work ofFrank Ghery, Coop Himmelblau, popularculture, the night sky, the inspiration of TonyWilson, my family, my friends and colleagues,colour, factories, materials and process.

PM. What’s the defining symbol of the north?BK. Yorkshire pudding (Claus Oldenburgstyle)

Above images from International Orange exhibition

Made North 26

MadeNorth

What are the opportunitiesfor the design sector in termsof encouraging greatercollaboration with business,manufacturing andtechnology to drive economicsuccess?

Max FraserLuke PearsonJason IftakharIlsa Parry

A series of presentations by northern businesses,opening up into a paneldiscussion exploring anddebating some tangibleactions to help the north ofEngland take advantage of a new age of design,innovation and technology.

Max Fraser is the owner of independent publishing company Spotlight Press, whichspecialises in publications about contemporary design. Recent titles includeLONDON DESIGN GUIDE (2009 & 2011), and DEZEEN BOOK OF IDEAS (2011).

Starting his career as a design author, Fraser’s previous titles include the bestsellingbook series Design UK (2001, 2003). His publication Designers on Design (co-written with Sir Terence Conran, 2004) highlighted the world’s influential designleaders; he also wrote a monograph, BOEK, on the eminent Dutch designer PietHein Eek (2006), as well OFFECCT: Voices - a book about leading Swedish furniturebrand OFFECCT (2010).

Max’s role as an editor naturally extends into his work as a curator of contemporarydesign exhibitions. His most recent was the successful touring exhibition Lab Craftfor the Crafts Council, exploring the use of digital technologies in contemporary craftpractice.

Furthermore, Max advises and nurtures new designers, showcasing their talent atexhibitions in London, Milan, Tokyo and New York. He contributes articles andcommentary to numerous magazines and newspapers and lectures internationally.He has advised on judging panels for a number of prestigious design awards.

As a consultant for private companies and government bodies, he is an authority oncontemporary design and offers insight into the current ethos and direction of design.

Design Author /Journalist / CuratorPublisher Spotlight Press

Made North 27

Max Fraser

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Images

1. London Design Guide 2012-2013

2. DEZEEN Book of Ideas

3. Lab Craft Exhibition

Image: Sophie Mutevelian

Made North 28

Luke trained in Industrial Design at The Central St Martins School of Art in London,(BA Hons 1991) before completing a Masters Degree MA (RCA) in Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art in 1993. He then worked as Senior Designer with RossLovegrove in London and on a variety of furniture & product design projects of hisown before joining Tom to found PearsonLloyd. Luke taught for a number of years atEcole Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne in Switzerland and ran a Platform on the DesignProducts course at the Royal College of Art for 6 years. Luke Pearson was recentlyawarded with the distinction of Royal Designer for Industry.

Founded in 1999 by Luke Pearson and Tom Lloyd, PearsonLloyd is a multi-disciplinaryconsultancy for product, furniture, interiors, design research and strategy.PearsonLloyd’s work aims to bridge a series of fundamental cultural and technicalgaps: between industrial design and the conception of furniture, between consultancyand the atelier, and between mass production and craft. Embracing everything fromaircraft interiors and city spaces to hospital environments and the constantly evolvingmodern workplace, the studio’s work reflects ongoing research into the relationshipbetween people and the complex built environments they inhabit. This involves thestudio in broad and apparently disparate areas of activity, yet certain challenges arecommon to the various projects undertaken by the team. Accordingly, the studio’s workis not only a visual response to the DNA of a client’s brand, but a reflection of thisprocess of research and understanding.

Luke PearsonCo-Founder / Director PearsonLloyd Design

Referencewww.pearsonlloyd.com

Images

1. Cobi Chair design in collaboration with Steelcase Design Studio

2. Comode for Kirton Healthcare in conjunction with The Design Council

3. PARCS office designs for Bene

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Designing Demand is the Design Council’sbusiness development programme.

While these are testing times formanufacturing, a fresh perspective andpractical guidance from an independentthird party can be valuable to companiesfacing business challenges; the mentoringservice from the Design Council, for whichapplications are now open, can providethese benefits at a highly subsidised rate.

Designing Demand allows businesses tobenefit from dedicated mentoring andadvice on how design could help shapehow a business can tackle today’shurdles and plans for long term growth.

It is open to small and medium sizedmanufacturing businesses with anappetite for growth and innovation.

Designing Demand has been running fornearly ten years. Over the last four years650 businesses have been mentored.An independent evaluation of theprogramme earlier this year showed thatbusinesses can expect, for every poundinvested in design, a typical return of over£25.

The programme, part of theGovernment’s business support portfolio,Solutions for Business, helps businessesunderstand how design, usedstrategically, can be an effective tool toboost performance and increasecompetitiveness and profit.

Applications are currently beingconsidered for places on the programmeso if you would like to apply pleasecomplete and submit the application assoon as possible. It can be downloadedfrom the Design Council website:www.designcouncil.org.uk/business.

If you have any questions or would like to talk to someone in more detail, then [email protected]

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We all live in a fluid world that becomes moreunpredictable by the day. Outcomes andbehaviours are becoming harder to predictand the margin allowed for error growsnarrower. Now, more than ever before, weneed to find a way to form a real synergybetween the business and design worlds,because there are some really big issues thatare reaching breaking point out there…andthis is just the beginning!

To business, design is often seen as agrowing necessity to be purchased, looselyapplied and quickly gotten out of the way, sothe real work of running a business can bedone. It is always hard to measure andquantify what difference it has made and it’scertainly not yet seen as an integral, ongoingessential thread that a business wanting tostand any chance of surviving, let alonethriving in the future, should be embracing ona weekly, if not daily basis!

To design, business can be viewed as arepetitive daily drawl of commerce-basedentities whose only concern about thecustomer is how much money they have intheir pockets and how best to convince themto make their next purchase. Convenientlyforgetting that business are the people whokeep them in employment and the reason fortheir obsession with costs, margins, profit andloss is because sustainability is something somuch more than an environmental issue, it’sabout finding a way for the business tosupport itself.

The truth is that both these worlds are tryingto solve many of the same problems and areactually working towards similar goals, justalong different paths.

Like the world, the consumer is constantlychanging. Every day that passes they becomebetter educated, more connected and theexpectation of what a company / business /brand should be grows.

Nowadays you can no longer sell a thing…be it a service or a product, to consumer orbusiness, something by itself is no longerenough. Today, you have to create the wholeexperience around what you are selling tohave a viable business. You have to takepeople on a journey, tell a story that can bebought into…build something customers wantto be a part of, something they can love!

This elusive magic which, while oftendreamed about, is of course a little harder tofind. It is not in any one person, nor does itreside in a certain place. It is not about howmuch money you throw at something or some

secret technique that only an elite fewpossess. It is the by-product of a greatrelationship. It is what happens in the spacebetween people who are genuinely workingtogether. Sure you need expertise and sometalent, but it’s chemistry that you’re reallyafter… that’s what really makes great productsand services and builds brand loyalty.

Business and design are inextricably linked,they cannot exist without each other and thetime has come where we need to do morethan just work together. Bringing yourdiscipline or specialism to the table so youcan just walk away with your cheque is dead.Bitching and moaning about people is not partof the game anymore! If you want to be thebest at what you do, you need a symbioticcollective mind. A place where people cometogether to learn from each other. You have toenjoy the process and learn to love theproblems, revel in the challenges and trustthat somewhere beyond the horizon there isan answer, that without each other, you willnever find.

The future of business is interdependent,because we’re all going to have to be able toconstantly change and adapt. Just like youfound your accountant, the solicitor you’d goto in a crisis and why you depend on yourfriends…it’s about trust. These relationshipsare formed over time by meeting up, talkingand sharing experiences.

Business has only ever approached design,task in hand, needing an immediate answerand that’s not how we create the culture weso badly need.

The best strategy for dealing with futureunknowns is to start preparing early, beforethey reach crisis point. We’re going to have tosolve problems we don’t even know exist yetand only way to do that is to build aconversation with as flexible, diverse andcreative a network as possible.

Made North Design Collaboration30

Bridging the Business - Design Divide

Jonny DouglasDirector Jonny Douglas Ltd

Despite the fact theydesperately need eachother, we still seem to existin a universe where thesetwo camps stand divided;struggling to see the realvalue in what the other cantruly do or how they couldbenefit each other…andeveryone else.

Having trained as a product designer at bothCoventry and Sheffield Hallam Universities, Jonny founded his maverick innovation studioin 2006; a consultancy which specialises in‘difference engineering’ for companies,projects and people.

Jonny is an accomplished and inspirationalchange catalyst, at the heart of a diverserange of initiatives that seek to push theboundaries of the possible through creativity,collaboration and design. He works with amultitude of disciplines to create industryredefining products and services with histrademark ‘thinking inside the box’ approach.

He is co-founder of Designed in Sheffield, amarque which sits alongside the Made inSheffield brand; created to recognise andpromote design excellence for the city.

As Pecha Kucha Sheffield city organiser withhis business partner Pennie Raven and theirteam he continues to curate eclecticpresentation showcases that entertain,educate and inspire hundreds.

Jonny also works on strategic level planningprojects for the City and CDI Sector withinSheffield.

Made North Designer Showcase02

MADE NORTH Showcase

Patrick MurphyCreative Director,Culture North

The MADE NORTH project takes the form of a yearly design conference and a curatedexhibition/showcase featuring a range ofproducts by designers from the north ofEngland. It brings an exciting mix ofcontemporary design to a wider audienceand presents opportunities for people tointeract with, learn about and buy the work.

The Slow Food movement is well known,striving to preserve and promote regionalcuisine. Well think of the MADE NORTHShowcase (and soon to be opened onlineand physical retail store) in the sameway!

We want to promote awareness ofcontemporary northern design so thatdesign lovers can enjoy and invest in thediverse and talented range of designerswe boast in this area. We want to make iteasier to buy their work helping you toinvest in excellent design and thenorthern economy. MADE NORTH workswith both new and established northerndesigners and we consider the impact ofdesign and its manufactureenvironmentally, socially, ethically andeconomically.

At the heart of the MADE NORTH projectis a desire to reconnect people with thesource of the things that they buy for theirhomes and lifestyle. We aim to put a faceand personality to designers andproducers and make buying local andregional design fun. Just imagine theglow of satisfaction you will get sitting inyour favourite chair, next to that superstylish table and sipping from your newmug knowing who made it and where itcame from.

The MADE NORTH Designer ShowcaseExhibition will tour venues across thenorth and then feature within the LondonDesign Festival in October 2012. Pleasevisit www.madenorth.co.uk for venueinformation.

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At Deadgood the vision is to develop aleading British design brand that specialisesin producing the highest quality furnitureand interior products.

The mission is to offer an excellence indesign and an uncompromisingcommitment to quality and it is their aim toconsistently strive to create objects that areboth beautiful and unique. They aim to bringpassion, fun and enjoyment into everythingthey do, offering customers products thatare designed and built to truly stand the testof time.

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John Green is an award winning designer,designing furniture and lifestyle products formanufacture. John’s approach is simple – tocreate innovative and functional designs thatpeople can’t resist.

On top of developing products for his ownbrand John works as a freelance designer,collaborating with other designers andmanufacturers.

His PANTONE® Wallstore is now licensed toItalian company SELETTI for manufactureand distribution and other products are soldthrough retailers such as online favouritesPedlars.

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Swifty Scooters aim is simply to produce thebest adult kick scooters in the world. Throughthe power of design and engineering SwiftyScooters demonstrates a 21st centuryrelevance to urban mobility, answering theneed to save time and have fun.

Swifty Scooters takes pride in its localsourcing policy, and is designed andmanufactured in Manchester, UK. By usinglocal manufacturing, they keep their carbonfootprint to a minimum and support the localeconomy. They also feel passionately aboutupholding Britain’s heritage for qualitymanufacturing and innovation. TheSwiftyONE is designed for life.

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Lazerian is a creative practice that began in2006, set up by Liam Hopkins, a Manchesterborn designer-maker. Based in an ex-hatfactory in Manchester, the practice is focusedon the creation of functional objects throughplayful investigation of materials andprocesses, and seeks to imbue objects with abit of soul.

The practice works on a variety of projects,including furniture, interiors, and objects.Lazerian designs are available from selectedretailers and the online shop.

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Made North Designer Showcase

As a practice David Irwin works for leadingmanufacturers and design led companiessuch as Habitat, Deadgood and GardinerRichardson and operates specifically withinthe spectrum of contemporary furniture,product and lighting design.

The studio’s design focus is rooted inmaterial exploration and driven by a desire to assign purpose to both traditional andcontemporary manufacturing processes.The goal with all of David Irwin’s work is tocombine a strong concept with fundamentalusefulness.

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Superfauna was formed in Newcastle in theNorth East of England in 2010. The companyis comprised of two award winning designersAmy Levinson and Daniel Rose.

One of their first collaborations is a range ofTrophy Heads, using laser-cut cardboard toproduce interlocking structures. The 3D formis an interpretation of an original illustrationwhich emphasize key visual elements (suchas oversized elaborate antlers on a stag) tocreate a much more striking, sophisticatedand fulfilling product.

The heads are available in 3 sizes so can beplaces in a diverse range of locations.

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REthinkthings is a design led product brandfounded and directed by Ilsa Parry, winner ofBBC Design for Life with Phillippe Starck.Ilsa’s vision is to offer unique, exciting andambitious products with character andmeaning to retailers, public spaces andconsumers by licensing the most inventivedesigns from a carefully selected network ofcreatives.

Ilsa Parry also operates independently as acreativity consultant, freelance designer andbrand representative working withorganisations including; Bo Concept, Lego,Boss Design, McDonalds, Sony and Unilever.

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RASKL Limited is a design firm specialisingin the design and production of highlypersonalised and individual furniture, as wellas offering prototyping services to thefurniture, interiors and constructionindustries.

They are now using their broad experience todevelop a range of innovative furniture aimedat the retail market all incorporating cleverassembly methods to reduce labour costswhile maintaining and continuing theaesthetics which have built RASKL’spopularity.

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Ellen Thomas is a furniture, product &interior accessories designer based inNewcastle upon Tyne. Her work is inspired bythe past and brings a contemporary twist tothe iconic.

Ellen’s work is opposed to today's disposableattitudes and her focus is to create beautifulcontemporary designs with added value. Indoing so she hopes that her pieces will bekept and cherished.

Ellen has worked on a variety of projects,including furniture, lighting and interioraccessories

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Psalt Design was formed by Tom McKeown,Richard Bell and David Powell after studyingand graduating from Furniture and Productdesign at Sheffield Hallam University. Theopportunity was available for a design studioto be formed in Sheffield, a city which allhave great admiration and affection for interms of its industrial and creative history.

Their aim was to start Psalt Design as astudio to develop furniture and productcollections and to also provide a basis forclient and commission work.

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Image-making is central to Nous Vous.They have a bold, graphic visual languagesuited to a range of applications such asillustration, print design, animation and digitalmedia. They are interested in exploring newprocesses, working towards the mostappropriate outcome for each project.They explore their collaborative practice mostdistinctly via exhibitions, which take the formof group shows and improvised installations.

They are very much open to working withother design studios, artists and institution -it allows them to meet interesting people, andencounter things they never normally would.

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DED are a nose to tail creative agency with a hard-earned reputation for being innovative,adaptable, influential and extremely effective.

Design, branding and art, more thancomfortably, share the same bed at DED,with the latter being available throughwww.iamded.com andwww.picturesonwalls.com.

DED also produce its very own wallpaperrange 'Paper Voyeur', available direct orthrough the exquisite Coco de Mer. As seenin Museum of Sex (NY), Agent Provocateur,Wallpaper and Icon magazine.

Image. Created using DED's artist pack on Granimator for the iPad

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Westergaard Designs comprises a uniquecollection of furniture and products lovinglycreated by young designer PollyWestergaard. The designs are heavilyinfluenced by Polly’s cultural heritage, fromboth her Danish ancestry and her Britishroots. This fusion of cultural perspectivesresults in chic, contemporary, innovativepieces, designed for longevity whilst retaininga fresh take on modern living. Polly exploreselements of past trends in her work, updatingtraditional designs for contemporary living,drawing on the influences of historical piecesand examining the ways in which thesedesigns can be re-invented to function intoday’s interiors.

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DesignedMade was established in March2009 by product designer JonathanKrawczuk with the intention of producing a range of simple and striking products,designed and made in Britain.

The brand is committed to supporting theUK craft and manufacturing industries andrepresents an evolution of Britain’s proudindustrial heritage – bringing together theideas and vision of a younger generationwith the skills and expertise of traditionalmanufacturers.

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