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Our pick of the participants in this year’s New Designers exhibition made clever solutions look effortless Jack Chivers, Bucks New University Chivers has used colourful wooden clothes pegs to create modular furniture (a shelving screen and hat stand). Other items on show include stools that can be inverted and mounted on the wall to create shelves (pictured) and a bento box-like desk and chair that collapses into a cube, with drawers painted in different shades of pastel.
Douglas Pulman, Plymouth University Douglas Pulman designed his Brace furniture range (pictured above) around a method of jointing that uses no screws, nails or glue. Wire braces wrap around each joint and are held secure by a simple wedge. The galvanised steel contrasts with the raw finish of the wood to give a utilitarian look. The range includes a shelving unit, bench and side table. Charlie Edwards, Bucks New University Edwards’ desk is finished in aluminium, giving it an industrial aesthetic. You pull out a drawer to support the work surface and when you close the lid there is a small shelf on which you can store an iPad and book.
Peter Iveson, University of Dundee Iveson spent a year in Africa, where he discovered the urgent need for better, more efficient lighting. This ingenious system uses a tea light, placed under an old Coke can, to turn a wheel, which generates enough electricity to power LEDs that give off 30 times more light than a candle (pictured above). Tobias Pitcher and Craig Lucas, University of Brighton The design duo, working under the name Aswego, created a rough and ready, thoughtfully presented black and white range that includes a desk, sofa and standard lamp. The desk has a surface that is built up in layers, so they can be changed when worn, and a light whose cord coils around the steel frame.
Scarlett San Martin, Nottingham Trent University San Martin showed Seren (pictured above), a seat with a maple frame crafted on a CNC machine with a hammock of handwoven cotton, and Angelo, a light whose shade is made of concrete mixed with glass to create a textured but translucent finish. Demitri Christodoulou, Bucks New University Christodoulou has created a daybed that makes playful reference to the old-fashioned stretcher. The wood is iroko and the piece, whose handles make it easy to transport, is designed for interior and exterior use.
Mark Colliass, Nottingham Trent University Colliass presented two stools, whose undulating white surface was streaked with bright strips of colour, designed to be further revealed when worn down. He also showed lights whose shades are created on his bike (pictured above). The front wheel spins a drum to throw each shade during a half hour ride. Edmund Pimm, University of Brighton Working in ash and pewter, Pimm has produced pieces of refined simplicity, including a bench and coat stand whose joins are wrapped in rope. He plans to sell a kit and publish his designs as open-source, so they can be produced in the home.
Olly Clarke, Loughborough University Clarke’s simple but elegant desk (pictured above) is covered in gunmetal grey linoleum, with the drawers lined bright red. The stratified layers of the top taper in pleasingly and the legs, in laminated birch plywood, can be easily removed for transporting. |
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