Design graduates who shone brightly at this year’s New Designers, London
Every summer, New Designers lands at the Business Design Centre in London’s Angel. The event, now in its 30th edition, helps kick-start the careers of Britain’s bright young makers. Within its walls are over 3000 graduate talents from leading design courses across the country.
Split across two weeks and a multitude of disciplines, there is an overpowering amount of budding creatives who are fresh from their studies and ready to showcase their work. So one sunny Saturday, I went down to see some of the work on offer and here are a few of the lighting projects that caught my eye.
Jessica Travers
University: London South Bank University – BSc (Hons) Engineering Product Design
Design: Crea Luce
Nulty’s very own lighting design star Jessica Travers had work on display so I headed straight over to the London South Bank University stand to check out her final year project called Crea Luce.
Crea Luce is a flexible track lighting system that allows the user full control of the light, for both domestic and professional use.
The track is built from a parallel double helix system of silicon aluminium rods that are flexible and agile, taking the form of your desire. A selection of track fixtures are available to snap on and off the system, from ambient light to functional accent spotlighting.
Multiple bases are also available, allowing it to be installed almost everywhere, from an extravagant feature chandelier, to a simple bedside night light.
Flexibility and personalisation is always at the top of our lighting wish list at Nulty so we see the potential in this Meccano inspired lighting system – definitely something we would like to see on the market soon. Nice work JT!
James Filbin
University: Plymouth University – BA (Hons) 3D Design
Design: F.L.S (Faceted Lighting System)
James Filbin is exploring how 3D printing can enter the homeware market in an inexpensive and creative way. His work uses generative design to create a range of colourful faceted lights, aimed to enrich the atmosphere in any living environment. With a light weight skeletal structure of UPVC creating a ridged triangulated frame, with shadows defining the faceted form, the structure’s angular boldness is offset by the light being softly defused through a variety of coloured vellums.
Filbin has developed the Faceted Lighting System to create endless possibilities of unique shapes and arrangements that can be offered through additive manufacturing processes. His generative coding enables him to re-form any shape and transform it into a faceted light and he encourages the input of bespoke shapes.
I was really impressed by the complexity and ambition of Filbin’s design – touching on light art the concept has the potential to shake up the lighting world. With a Kickstarter campaign the future of the Faceted Lighting System is set to evolve into a very eclectic, new and exciting collection. Website: www.niblif.com
Belita Blake
University: University of Brighton – BA (Hons) 3D Design and Craft
Design: Mould Yours
This series of work questions consumers’ behaviours and their attachment to the possessions they surround themselves with at home.
As consumers drown in the market of the mass produced and the replicated, this project named, Mould Yours, aims to highlight the importance of skill and self through the creation of simplified contraptions for consumers to produce their own common household products; it pursues the notion by simplifying industrial processes into interactive platforms to reconnect maker and consumer. It explores and questions this topic through observing how simplistic hand motions can replace the mechanical elements used in industrial factories to truly depict the power of making. It considers this question and observes whether this process reconnects oneself with one’s possessions through a sense of self achievement.
Kits: designed to be a product in themselves for consumers to purchase and create their pendant lighting at home.
Each kit contains:
– Jesmonite weighed to produce one light plus extra for any repairs
– Mould parts
– Colour pigment of your choice
– Tape
– 1-3m flex cord in the colour of your choice with plug
– Lamp
– Bayonet lamp base
I particularly liked this project as it investigates our emotional connection to the objects we decorate our home with. It’s possibly one of the most ecological and sustainable designs on show at New Designers. I also like how Blake empowers the consumer by giving them the opportunity to be the designer of their own light shade. Admittedly the end result is not going to be to everyone’s taste but the aesthetic certainly taps into the raw DIY trend, which is popular in interior design at the moment. Website: www.belitablake.co.uk
Nottingham Trent Design Industries
BA (Hons) Furniture and Product Design
Oliver Priest
Design: Swing Lamp 001
Swing Lamp is a floor standing, living space task light. The form is inspired by the Bauhaus style and Modernist movement of the early 19th Century. The frame is constructed using mild steel and houses an aluminium ball and socket moveable joint. This is a unique selling point and allows for unlimited and easy flexibility (I should know I tested it). Swing Lamp’s classic design and unique selling point has a lot of potential – keep your eyes peeled folks!
Samuel Bellamy
Design: Moroccan Lamps
Samuel Bellamy was one of this year’s New Design Britain finalists. The Moroccan lamp range is a concept inspired by traditional Moroccan patterns. The three-scaled forms can be hung in a combination of clusters or as a single pendant. The warmth of the incandescent lamp visually reacts with the metallic tones, and the detailed filament creates a fissure of light, celebrating the iconic Moroccan shadow patterns. Available in aluminium, copper, brass and powder-coated finishes the range is sure to be a commercial hit. Website: www.bellamydesign.co.uk
Marc Wood
Design: Click Lamp
Click Lamp has an oak base and stand, grey braided flex and spun metal shade with options including copper, brass and aluminium. With a simple clean aesthetic, the lamp is designed with cost efficient, commercial manufacturing in mind. The stand has an internal pivot allowing the shade to ‘click’ into different height adjustments. Another minimalist design I can see doing commercially well – this product fuses practicality with the on trend scandi style.
Bloom Lighting Co
University: University of Lincoln – BA (Hons) Product Design
Bloom Lighting Co. is a collaboration of four UK product design students from the University of Lincoln who have fused nature and 3D printing technology to create a lighting collection.
Natalie Gartside
Design: Nimbus
A pendant light that plays with the complexity of nature with swirling and interlocking abstractions of cloud formations. The complexity of the design and level of detail means it can be made no other way.
I would love to see Nimbus scaled up or a range offering different sizes as a cluster of these cloud formations would look stunning. Certainly worth taking further as this has the potential to be an iconic piece. Website: www.nataliegartside.com
Laura Elliot
Design: Foam
Foam is a pendant light inspired by the ocean and erosion; a phenomenon of the natural world. The integrated roller bearing mechanism allows you to change the layers of shadows and bring new ones into focus whenever you want.
The dynamic aspect of this design is really quite special and a real selling point for the piece. I like how Elliot has not just thought about the form of her design but also the effect of light itself. Website: www.behance.net/lauralicelliott
Alex Bodley
Design: Strata
Strata is a concept inspired by the layers of age found in the circular patterns of a tree stump. The design fuses three ‘generations’ of manufacturing; stone carving, wooden carpentry and modern 3D printing. I like the concept behind Strata and the layered texture of the three materials together in one luminaire – perfect for an edgy industrial interior scheme. Website: bodley1.wix.com/alexbodley
Rebecca Donaghy
Design: Fleur
Fleur is a delicate modular LED light feature inspired by climbing flowers. I would love to see Fleur scaled up and cascading down a spiral or feature staircase. The intricacy of the design is really beautiful and uses 3D printing to its full potential. Website: rebeccadonagh5.wix.com/designer
Marit Lonnqvist
University: University of Portsmouth – BA (Hons) Graphic Design
Project: Doors into different spaces
One of the first pieces of work that really caught my eye was the poster artwork by Marit Lonnqvist, with layered type seemingly hung in suspension with a field of focus affected by depth. Lonnqvist explores the effect of light and shadow to take her graphic work to a new dimension. A 3D graphic designer in the making – I look forward to seeing more of Lonnqvist’s work in the future. Website: www.maritlon.com
The talent on show is as strong as ever and I was more than impressed by all the graduate’s efforts. When I exhibited at Free Range (a similar graduate design show at the Old Truman Brewery), I remember enjoying the chance to talk about my projects outside of university for the first time, and it’s great to see the next generation doing the same now. I’m sure many of them will return a few years down the line and look back with fondness in the same way I do now!
Blog by Karen Smart
