established & sons: design against the clock

during london design week british design and furniture manufacturing company established & sons hosted ‘design against the clock’, a week long series of workshops which took place inside the company’s gallery, established & sons limited on 2-3 duke street, st. james’s, london.

designer tord boontje working with a student on the installation
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design development director / co-founder of established & sons, sebastian wrong’s idea behind ‘design against the clock’ was to bring together artists and designers, giving them the opportunity for an eight hour period – one day – to work with a fixed budget to create something within the gallery environment. each day, a different artist / designer took over the space, working live, performing the process of making, production and material experimentation, engaging the public with their hands-on approach to design. you can watch a video of each workshop here.

installation in progress
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designboom was present during dutch-born london-based designer tord boontje‘s workshop, in which he collaborated with his students from the royal college of art. together, they explored color and space. boontje discussed how, ‘color is often the first thing we see about a product, what makes us think ‘yes’ or ‘no’ about something, however it is usually an afterthought in the design process.’ on this occasion, the team started with color and space, letting their installation take form and develop from that starting point. the abstract shape reflects the nature of the project, an expression of the team’s research and experimentation with no fixed outcome.

RCA students hard at work
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up close to the installation
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color!
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tord boontje with a student experimenting with color and pattern
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view of installation in progress
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detail
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tord boontje with his team of students
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studies in color and space
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other artists and designers who participated in the week-long event were: richard woods, sebastian wrong + lars frideen, gavin turk and committee.

richard woods’ haybale-inspired benches
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for his performance / workshop, designer richard woods was asked to create a piece of furniture that was functional. reminded of his childhood collecting hay bales and their usefulness as chairs, tables etc… woods took this memory to make multi-functional art objects. the hay bale pattern juxtaposed onto the benches is typical of woods’ style.

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committee, doorway out of found objects
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UK design duo committee (clare page and harry richardson) decided to create a doorway out of found objects. using DIY fixings, power tools and found objects, they created a freestanding space, a 3D collage assemblage of sorts.

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gavin turk clay tableware
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london-based artist gavin turk created a series of clay tableware. potter’s wheels were set-up in the gallery whereby turk invited the public to participate and get involved in the making process.

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sebastian wrong and lars frideen perspective shelf
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(right) images courtesy of gestalten tv

working with perspectives, designers sebastian wrong + lars frideen created a hanging shelf, exploring lines, shadow and form.

‘design against the clock’ at established & sons limited
image © designboom