13 September 2012
Designing for the Future: Scottish designers ready for V&A display
14th - 23rd September 2012
Room 220, Sackler Centre at the V&A, London
Some of the brightest design graduates to emerge from Scotland's internationally renowned art colleges are looking forward to having their work on display at the V&A in London over the next 10 days as part of this year's London Design Festival.
The 'Designing for the Future' exhibition presents the best new work by graduates from the Scottish art schools - Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Edinburgh College of Art, Gray's School of Art and The Glasgow School of Art.
The designs on display highlight the vital role of Scotland's art colleges in both inspiring and developing contemporary design talent.
"Scotland's art colleges, with their internationally renowned education and research, are helping to establish Scotland as a major centre of art and design. We are producing graduates who are leaders in their fields, here and across the world, and this display is an excellent example of why," said Seona Reid, Director of the Glasgow School of Art
Selected from 2011 degree shows, the work covers a wide variety of design disciplines from fashion, graphics, product and interior design to environmental and service design. The London Design Festival is one of the most important events on the global design calendar and this year is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
The exhibition is supported by V&A at Dundee and Creative Scotland. An earlier version of it was displayed at the Scottish Parliament.
Mark Kobine, a Product Design graduate from Edinburgh College of Art, is displaying his 'Recovery Toolkit', designed to help people recover from incidents of depression.
"The chance to show the Recovery Toolkit at the Scottish Parliament and now the V&A has been a fantastic opportunity to promote this project and to raise awareness of the issue of depression in the design world," said Mark. "Ideally I would love to see further research into how design can be leveraged to tackle this growing problem. It would be great to attract investment to onward develop these ideas with the aim of making then available to as many sufferers as possible. It has also been an amazing personal experience, a once in a lifetime opportunity!"
Rebecca Lindsay, a graduate in Interior & Environmental Design from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, said the London display was a chance to reach a whole new audience.
"This unique opportunity allows myself and my peers to showcase our work to an international audience and creates wonderful networking possibilities for the future," said Rebecca, designer of a project aimed at giving ill children and their parents a greater say in the design of hospital and other healthcare facilities. "For me as a designer my goal is to give a voice to key stakeholders who often go unheard and encourage others to see and learn from their perspectives. I hope to broaden public perception and allow them to experience the magic and extensive remit of design and the benefits that it can bring to society, expanding the scope and potential opportunity for design practice."
Ben Pawle, who graduated in Product Design from The Glasgow School of Art, has already been attracting attention from design blogs and media for his work, including designs created to help people with hemiplegia and a condom wrapper that can be opened with one hand.
"It's quite an honour to be able to show my work at the V&A and the support of the project from the display organisers and from the media so far has been overwhelming really," said Ben. "This is a great opportunity to showcase Scottish talent and get ideas and solutions that might otherwise stagnate in a portfolio, actually out there for people to see."
Natalia Lozano, Product Design graduate from Gray's School of Art, has designed Eat'n'Gone, a range of edible food packaging that eliminates waste.
"I hope this event will open a huge door for networking and making contacts who might be interested in providing support for taking Eat 'n Gone on to the next step!" said Natalia. "Being involved in a display like this at the V&A is a fantastic opportunity."
Work of all the designers involved in Designing for the Future can be viewed at a dedicated website at www.designingforthefuture.co.uk
Designing for the Future will also feature Kengo Kuma's architectural designs for the V&A at Dundee, the new international centre of design for Scotland.
Events to coincide with the display include 'Meet The Designers' sessions and `Culture Now' at the ICA, at which Philip Long, Director of V&A at Dundee, and Emmajane Avery, Head of the Department of Learning for the V&A, will be in conversation with BBC World Service broadcaster and co-founder of the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe newspaper FESTIVAL TIMES, Sheena McDonald.
Further details below.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Scotland's art colleges:
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) is the creative hub at the heart of the University of Dundee in Scotland. DJCAD is one of the top art schools in the UK, offering first-class undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in art and media, communication design and craft. DJCAD is part of the University of Dundee. At DJCAD, teaching and learning are led by research. Many faculty members are currently practitioners in art and design who are engaged in world class research.
www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/
Edinburgh College of Art
Edinburgh College of Art is an internationally recognised art college situated at the heart of one of Europe's most vibrant and creative capital cities. As part of the University of Edinburgh, we encourage and promote critical enquiry through creative practice and scholarly research across a very wide range of disciplines in architecture and landscape architecture, art, design, history of art and music. The School of Design encompasses subjects as diverse as fashion and performance costume to interior design, film and animation and design informatics. Our strong tradition of studio-based practice, innovative research and working across disciplines equips students to design excellence into people's lives.
www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art
Gray's School of Art
Gray's School of Art is an intimate, collaborative learning community in which students are tutored by practicing artists, designers and researchers of national and international standing. It is part of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
www.rgu.ac.uk/areas-of-study/subjects/art-and-design
The Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art is internationally recognised as one of Europe's foremost higher education institutions for creative education and research in fine art, design and architecture. It is a creative hothouse, a small concentrated community of committed people bound together by a shared visual language and a concern for visual culture. The GSA has one of the UK's largest postgraduate communities and its research profile extends across the areas of sustainability, health and wellbeing, urbanism and regeneration, and design innovation. It counts among its alumini intermational leaders in design and creativity from head of design for Jaguar Landrover to key designers with Apple (US), Amazon-Kindle (US) and Dyson International, and an enviable list of Turner Prize winners and nominees.
www.gsa.ac.uk
V&A at Dundee
V&A at Dundee will be the first ever purpose-built design museum to be constructed in the UK outside London. It will provide more than 1700 square metres of flexible gallery space and will be one of the largest dedicated exhibition spaces in Scotland. The galleries will host world-class exhibitions of international design, alongside displays devoted to outstanding Scottish design - historical, contemporary and of the future.
V&A at Dundee is being delivered by Design Dundee Ltd, a ground-breaking partnership between the Victoria and Albert Museum - the world's greatest museum of art and design - and Dundee City Council, the Universities of Dundee and Abertay Dundee, and Scottish Enterprise. The new building is being designed by a team led by architects Kengo Kuma & Associates.
For more information see www.vandaatdundee.com
Creative Scotland
Creative Scotland is the country's national development agency for the arts, screen and creative industries. It invests almost £75 million each year in Scotland's creative future and its vision is that Scotland is recognised as a leading creative nation - one that attracts, develops and retains talent, where the arts and creative industries are supported and celebrated and their economic contribution fully captured, an nation where the arts and creativity play a central part in the live education and well-being of our population.
www.creativescotland.com
About London Design Festival
Continually updated Festival details are published at www.londondesignfestival.com
Press information:
Dharine Surenthiran / Irene Kopitov / Judith Fereday
Camron, 7 Floral Street, London WC2E 9DH
Tel: +44(0)20 7420 1700
ldfteam@camronpr.com
RELATED EVENTS
Designing for the Future: Meet the designers
Tuesday 18 & Wednesday 19 September, 10am - 12pm
Gallery 220, V&A Sackler Centre, London
Meet the designers behind the show for an informal insight into the creative process driving their innovative approach to design.
Admission Free; drop in
Culture Now: Philip Long and Emmajane Avery in conversation with Sheena McDonald
Friday 21 September, 1-2pm,
ICA, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
Join Philip Long from V&A at Dundee and Emmajane Avery from the Victoria and Albert Museum in conversation with broadcaster Sheena McDonald, for a lunchtime talk at ICA.
£5; Free for ICA Members. For advance bookings visit www.ica.org.uk
For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07800 581902 |
