Designers' Voice

In this episode, you'll have the opportunity to eavesdrop on a candid conversation between Max Fraser, Editorial Director of Dezeen, and Grant Gibson, founder of Material Matters with Grant Gibson and the Material Matters Fair.

Max Fraser

Max Fraser began his design career in publishing with two editions of Design UK through a partnership with Conran Octopus, books which I have proudly on my own bookcase. A key moment followed with the publication of Designers on Design, which Max co-authored with Sir Terrance Conran, before he launched his own publishing imprint Spotlight Press which brought us 4 editions of the London Design Guide amongst many other publications on design.

Max doesn’t stop at publishing his own titles but often works alongside internationally renowned design studios and brands to write books of their behalf. Max often writes for the world’s design press, consults on brand editorial, and sits on the design stage to interview designers. Max not at all shy to ask the tricky questions, especially when discussing sustainability and the design sector’s contribution to the climate crisis. This interest has directed him to focus not on ‘new this’ or ‘new that’ but on exposing the misunderstanding and misdemeanours of the world of the world, championing clever ideas to minimise the mundane and maximise change.

In March 2023 it was announced that Max would channel his expertise into a new role as Editorial Director of the world’s premier design magazine, Dezeen.

dezeen.com

Grant Gibson

I’m sure that I’m not the only person who enjoys listening to Grant Gibson speak with such genuine interest, and care, with designers and craftspeople on his thoroughly engaging podcast, Material Matters with Grant Gibson. His conversations straddle the divide between the professional and personal, with listeners learning how guests found their chosen material and how it shaped their lives and careers. In fact, Grant’s podcast episodes have been downloaded in excess of 400,000 times! And, I’ve got to tell you, that my recent favourites have been interviews with Carl Clarkin, Donna Wilson and Polly Morgan.

2022 saw Grant, along with his co-founder William Knight, launch the Material Matters Fair, which will return to Oxo Tower Wharf again this September to investigate how the design industry can address issues around the circular economy and why material intelligence is so important to all our lives.

Grant has had an enviable career, editing many of the UK’s highly respected design and craft publications, including Blueprint, RIBA Journal and Crafts. He was the launch editor of the London Design Festival Guide and regularly takes to the stage to interview guests in person at leading international events.

materialmatters.design

Presented and produced by Alys Bryan, filmed and edited by Daniel Budda.

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In this episode, you'll have the opportunity to eavesdrop on a candid conversation between Paula Day, the Founder of the Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation, and Corin Mellor, the Creative Director at David Mellor. Together, they share their experiences as custodians of their parents' iconic designs. Meeting for the first time, Paula and Corin delve into their distinct journeys growing up with designers as parents and how they each ensure the preservation of the pioneering designs created by Robin and Lucienne Day, and David Mellor. Moreover, they explore strategies for heritage brands to maintain their relevance in a competitive retail market.

Paula Day

Paula Day is the only child of furniture designer, Robin Day and textiles designer, Lucienne Day, both pioneers of modern design for over 7 decades and two of my personal design heroes. They each deserve design hero status primarily because they designed with a core aim to improve people’s lives through the designs they bought for their homes but also because they were each independently fearless in their approach to new materials, forms and techniques.

Paula is a writer, poet and garden designer with a Cambridge degree and a doctorate in English Literature.

I have had the pleasure to hear Paula speak many times about her parent’s work which is part of her role as founder of the Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation, a design education charity launched in 2012.

Public speaking is something Paula does regularly alongside events and exhibitions, two notable events must be Robin Day Works in Wood, an exhibition in 2015 at the V&A Museum which celebrated the centenary of Robin’s birth, and two years later to celebrate the centenary of Lucienne’s birth, the Arts University Bournemouth exhibition Lucienne Day: Living Design.

robinandluciennedayfoundation.org

Corin Mellor

Corin Mellor is the son of David Mellor, one of Britain’s best known cutlery designers with an expertise in ‘good design which will endure’ including his iconic traffic light and bus shelter designs.

Corin’s mother, Fiona MacCarthy, was an extremely well regarded biographer and cultural historian whose own interest in design permeated her work with publications including Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus, William Morris: A Life for our Time and All Things Bright and Beautiful: British Design 1830 to Today.

I must share here that I was born in Sheffield, the steel city, and grew up learning about my city’s heritage in steel and cutlery. It’s perhaps not surprising that I have always felt drawn to David’s ‘good, everyday design’, and that he was the person I chose to interview back in 2001 for my BA. It was an honour to meet him and to tour his Hathersage factory together, just a stones throw away from where we sit for this recording.

Corin studied Product Design at Kingston University before working for a London based architect. He joined his farther in the family business and took the lead in 2002 when his father retired.

Corin has followed his father’s design ethos, which was perhaps inevitable as he says, ‘work and life have always happened in the same space.’

davidmellordesign.com

Presented and produced by Alys Bryan, filmed and edited by Daniel Budda.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, you'll have the opportunity to eavesdrop on a candid conversation between Becky and Gareth as they delve into the world of design education. They begin by defining what design education means and provide insights into its current landscape. The discussion takes a deep dive into their roles as design educators and how educators can influence the future of design. Their conversation covers degree programming, shaping critical skills, and even their differing perspectives on teaching ethics within the design realm. Throughout the conversation, they emphasize the significance of effective communication for designers, underscore the role of industry relationships, and issue a compelling call for radical design.

Professor Becky Earley

When I sat down to write this introduction it seemed like a daunting task, how could I condense her career and ongoing projects into just a couple of hundred words! No doubt there will be bits I’ve missed, and Becky will need to fill in the gaps within her conversation with Gareth.

Becky is UAL Chair of Circular Design Futures and the Founder and Leader of multiple research centres at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London. She’s a researcher and award-winning team leader, with her research encompassing making materials, prototyping, exhibition curating, and writing.

The threads throughout Becky’s research, workshops, communication, and textiles work are those of sustainability and activism. Her work has been drawn together through not only the co-founding of World Circular Textiles Day, launch in 2020, but also through her book Design Materials and Making for Social Change, published recently in June 2023.

beckyearley.com

Professor Gareth Williams

I want to start my introduction to Professor Gareth Williams by telling you about the first time I met Gareth over 20 years ago. In his role as Curator of 20th Century and Contemporary Furniture at the V&A, Gareth welcomed all the first-year students on my degree course into the V&A where we were given white gloves and an exhibition chair to measure and record before we went back to the studio to create drawings and a scale model. What an enormous privilege and I suspect a particularly rare opportunity it was. What a pleasure it was to meet Gareth.

More importantly, whilst at the V&A Gareth drove the profile of contemporary design by curating or contributing to more than 15 successful design exhibitions and permanent gallery displays. Gareth followed that role with 5 years as Senior Tutor on the RCA’s world renowned MA Design Products course before moving to Middlesex University, first as Professor and Head of Design, and since 2022 as Deputy Dean for Quality, Enhancement and Development for the faculty of Arts and Creative Industry.

Gareth’s focus is now on design not in individual disciplines but rather on how design and the creative industries are taught.

mdx.ac.uk

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This episode allows us to eavesdrop on Gitta and Summer as they discuss exhibition design, specifically focussing on their experiences in designing sustainably. Gitta and Summer share the techniques and tools which they've incorporated into their design, development and evaluation processes. We have the opportunity to hear Gitta and Summer's ideals for how sustainability may be better addressed within exhibition design in the future, opening the door for us to join the conversation.

Gitta Gschwendtner

Gitta Gschwendtner is an installation, exhibition and furniture designer, known for her conceptually rigorous, visually intriguing and functional designs.

When my family and I visited the London Science Museum we were entirely absorbed by Science City, a permanent gallery exploring how science shaped London from 1550-1800, designed by Gitta in 2019.

This is not the only design of Gitta’s you will recognise, she has also worked with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Welcome Trust, the British Council, the British Museum, the South Bank Centre, Guys Hospital, the National Trust and many more. Gitta’s ability to interpret stories through her work has led to the design of many captivating pieces, including Chair Bench for the V&A Furniture Gallery and a series of my favourite designs, her Uncanny Lamps which are also in the V&A collection.I first met Gitta when she was my 2nd year tutor at university and I was extremely lucky to learn from Gitta as well as her long time collaboration partner Carl Clarkin.

Currently on Gitta’s desk is her work for the Urban Natures project for the Natural History Museum, along with the 3d interpretation designs for their gardens due to open in 2024.

gittagschwendtner.com

Summer Islam

Summer Islam is a founding director of Material Cultures, a not for profit organisation which brings together design, material research and high level strategic thinking to make meaningful progress towards a post carbon built environment. The design team provides design services working with the public, private and 3rd part organisations interested in developing and delivering a regenerative low carbon built environment. Summer’s work with Material Cultures spans design and research work, Summer also has educational experience with University of the Arts London, and teaching at the Bartlett University College London, London Met and University of Cambridge. Material Cultures’ design research was articulated through their book Material Cultures: Material Reform, published in 2022. Today we’ll learn more about Summer’s expertise in design including exhibition design which moves our thoughts and practises towards designing for a post carbon future.

materialcultures.org

Designers' Voice is a monthly audio series, each episode is recorded in person in a different location. This is a self funded project. Each episode is presented and produced by Alys Bryan, expertly filmed and edited by Daniel Budda.

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