Design-General - Page 5

Phaidon Design Classics

I contributed 20 entries to the Phaidon Design Classics project (published January 2006). This was an epic publication which came in a strangely impractical kind of frame/carrier which I believe was designed by Konstantin Grcic.

Claystation – Design Modelling and Creativity

A paper presented at the 3rd Engineering & Product Design Education International Conference, 15–16 September 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland. Co-author: Alex Milton. Subsequently printed in the book Crossing Design Boundaries, edited By Paul Rodgers, Libby Brodhurst, Duncan Hepburn

Smoke and Miros — Design and Magic

This paper looks at the connection between magic and creativity. The content was evolved at a Design Transformation Group conference.
This paper was presented at The 4th International Conference on Design and Emotion, 12^th-14^th June, 2004, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Co-Authors: Alex Milton, Cris Degroot, Debbie Wythe.

Play, Four Days and a 1/4 ton of Clay

This paper explores the use of play as a catalyst for creativity.
Presented at The 4th International Conference on Design and Emotion, 12^th-14^th June, 2004, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Co-Author: Alex Milton, Edinburgh College of Art

Alehop!

Open Source Design and Remedies Down on the Farm.

This piece was written for the catalogue of a brilliant exhibition organised by the Institute de Cultura de Barcelona, designed by Emili Padros and Ana Mir in 2003. The exhibition focused on ingenuity in design and engineering. Part of it dealt with local, organic and free-range problem solving, which was one of my great interests. It was a chance to get in touch with Mike Donovan of Practical Farm Ideas to discuss how communities can empower themselves and others to accelerate problem-solving. There is some mention of the internet, but bear in mind that this is 2003; Instructables was still over two years away (launched August 2005) and the most up-to-date ‘lifestyle’ example I had was Make magazine. I am pleased to say that at the time of writing this intro (March, 2019), Practical Farm Ideas is still going www.farmideas.co.uk, and still produces 4 issues a year, but most sharing takes place online, allowing this culture of innovation to really mushroom.

Christmas Card

Designing the college Christmas card always seemed to be a poisoned chalice — budget, deadline, client all extremely challenging — but I had a great time with this. For some reason it always had to have the theme of ‘stars.’ The detachable specs have holographic filters which turn light sources into stars. These had to be ordered from the US at great expense. The brilliant printers in London managed to match the colours exactly. I seem to remember they also ran off a few hundred invites for one of our course shows at the same time haha.

Sleeping Policemen

A Workshop in Cathexically Affective Design

This workshop was presented by myself and other members of the Design Transformation Group at the 3rd International Design Emotion Conference in Loughborough.

Thinking Thief — Designing out Misuse, Abuse and ‘Criminal’ Aesthetics

With Prof. Lorraine Gamman, a paper for the journal Ingenia, published February 2003. Documents a series of projects undertaken with MA students in collaboration with the Design Against Crime research centre at Central Saint Martins.

Harry Potter Interviews

The Great Hall Set (taken with Casio Wristcam!)

In July 2001 I was invited to the set of the first Harry Potter movie to interview the director, cast members and production designer. This commission was for Next Media (HK) — the only media company from Asia to be invited I believe. The junket style interviews were conducted in the Great Hall set, but we saw several other sets during the tour. This was in the pre-smartphone era, but I managed some pictures with the Casio Wristcam I had recently been given!