by Jessica Hazel.
Today marks the opening of the 5th Annual Designers In Residence exhibition at the Design Museum. The 2012 brief, entitled "Thrift," invited designers to explore whether or not it is more difficult to produce a refined design for £10 rather than £1,000. It's an apt brief for the times, encouraging designers to look at economy and resourcefulness. Out of a vast pool were pulled these 4 aspiring young designers:
Freyja Sewell
Having only just recently graduated from the University of Brighton, Freyja decided to focus on wool as a sustainable material, taking wool as a bi-product of the carpet-making industry and transforming it into colourful and sturdy furniture, of all things.
Lawrence has created some beautiful structures such as a pavilion and a series of rounded stools all from the strenuous process of bending plywood.
Yuri is drawing our attention to the mechanics of electronics via models such as a circuit board showing the London Underground to make us question why we think electronics are so overly complicated that we would rather buy something new rather than attempt to fix something broken.
Oscar Medley-Whitfield and Harry Trimble
This collaborative pair have found an unused and plentiful supply of Thames River clay from which to create geometrically beautiful products, inspired by Southwark's once thriving ceramics industry.
Jessica Hazel is a writer, blogger and director of Smoking Gun Vintage.
