The Design Museum

Brit Insurance Design Awards: My Vote!

-Architecture: Magdeberg Open Air Library
The idea behind the Open Air Library seems to me to be almost as innovative as the structure itself, which was constructed of panels from an old warehouse. The library runs on the honor system, and I cannot think of anything quite so inspiring as a trust-based library. Honor and books have not gone the way of the dinosaur after all! (At least in Germany.)

-Furniture: Drop Table
I love how this elegant table can be so playful while avoiding obnoxious stock "playful" furniture attributes like bright color or odd shape. It reminds me of the glass table in my home that my grandmother bought in the '60s, but with a fun new twist. I love our glass table because my wonderfully intelligent bird is terrified of it (she thinks she'll fall into space if she strays from the wicker circle that supports the glass), and I can't help but giggle thinking of how my little bird would react to this psychadelic piece of furniture!

-Transport: Barclays Cycle Hire

I have not used this system of transport, but I see others utilizing these bikes all the time and they seem like a wonderful, green, efficient idea. In a city probably best know for its iconic (and dirty) tube system, the bicycles for rent seem like a fresh new take on public transport.

-Graphics: Homemade is Best

I'll confess, I'm still not entirely positive I understand the purpose of these images, but I just really like them. They make me want to look and look again, at the colors, at the patterns, and at the subject matter.

Fashion:

I'm going to kind of cheat and name Corrie Nielsen's garment my fashion design award winner. This garment won the museum's "Fashion Fringe" contest and was displayed at the foot of the main staircase. I loved it. I thought the style was evocative of the old Elizabethan garments we saw in our visit to the National Portrait Gallery, and the total effect of the garment was striking. I loved that it fit perfectly into London, as both a historically inspired piece as well as a modern, innovative design. I also really liked the way it was displayed, with utilitarian hooks and wire and gold and red mosaic panels in the background.

I like Wim Crouwel. I think his work is fun and eye-catching and different, and I truly admire the reputation he has cultivated. I will admit that I did not always "understand" his works, but I still appreciate them. I especially liked the phone book he did and the calendars. I thought his vision of using lower-case letters for the phone book was silly at first, but after seeing it, I was won over. It really was a lot easier and simpler to read that way. I absolutely loved his calendars. My favorite was the one that had the days of the week listed down the left hand side of the top panel, with the numbers of the days of the month to the right, in vertical lines, and the name of the month split in half across the spiral binding.

The Saatchi Gallery

I think the layout of the Saatchi Gallery encourages the viewer to look at the different pieces of art from different angles. The wide open spaces used for display really allow you to see all sides of the works on display, especially those that are three-dimensional. Examples of pieces that really needed to be looked at from different views are Juliana Cerqueira Leite's sculptures "Up" and "Down," Graham Hudson's "All my exes live in Tesco's" (which does but should not have an apostrophe between the o and the s in the title), and Tessa Farmer's "Swarm." All these pieces can be explored from every angle, which makes them just so much more interesting than if they had been stuck inside a glass case or roped off.

Leite's "Up" and "Down"

Mostly, I liked the sparse information given on the pieces in the gallery. I like that I was sort of able to interpret them however I felt. However, with some of the works, I did wish for just a little background. For example, without our guide's explanation of the "Up" and "Down" pieces, I never would have fully appreciated the process, and with those two, they seemed to be more about the process than the product. So in that case I was very glad I had the background. I think it's a thin line between too much information and the need for background, so in this case, I'm quite happy with the minimal explanations.

Certainly, I didn't personally enjoy everything in the collection, but I never expect to when I go to a museum or a gallery. This gallery, especially, is a little different because it represents the personal tastes of the patron. I do have to wonder what the heck is Mr. Saatchi really like, since his collection is so eclectic, but hey, it's his art so he can collect it however he wishes. On a personal level, there were some things that intrigued and fascinated me, like the "Swarm" piece by Farmer, some that I thought were nice ideas but I really did not want to look at, like Stephen Bishop's "Mountain Goat," some that I absolutely loved, like Richard Wilson's oil room, some that I actively didn't like, like the posters of spam mail, and some that I just really didn't understand at all, like the Spartacus Chetywnd's humanoid-ish sculptures. All in all, I think it does a pretty good job as a gallery, presenting pieces that at least provoke some sort of reaction out of most people.

Stephen Bishop, "Mountain Goat"

Graham Hudson's "All my exes live in Tesco's"

Dan Perfect, "Village"

Spartacus Chetywnd, "The Lizard" and "The Stick Insect"

My interpretation: Loch Ness monster meets KKK wacko on the left, and orange Stormtrooper meets platypus on the right. I really didn't know what to think of these.

Close-up of Farmer's "Swarm"

Wilson's oil room