Talking about a little place called London - Amy Tillery

Arkwright Scholarship Award 2011: Lewis Margetts - Mr. Price

On the Friday 28^th October, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend an award ceremony at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in London, for Lewis Margetts 12PAB, along with another 298 other students, who were given a scholarship by the prestigious Arkwright Foundation. 

The Arkwright Scholarship is highly valued by schools, universities and companies, and is awarded to students who achieve very highly in Electronics, Resistant Materials or Graphics at GCSE.  The scholarship is intellectually and financially rewarding and targets students who are interested in reading Engineering at University.  The lucky students are awarded £1000 over their two year A-Level course to put towards trips, University run courses, software or materials and components for their projects.  Students should take Product Design or Electronics, alongside Physics and/or Maths.  Engineering is a highly sought after career which is now being pushed as THE career to be in as we move into this next exciting time with the chancellor wanting to realise his ambition of made in Britain, created in Britain, designed in Britain and invented in Britain. 

The candidates sit an examination, and if they are successful, are asked to attend an interview at a local university.  If they pass the interview, they are awarded the scholarship by a charity, company or individual.  Lewis was successful and will use the money to buy a laptop so he can work on his A-Level Electronics coursework and run software like Circuit Wizard.  After his A-Levels, Lewis would like to read Electronic Engineering.  This was an exciting experience for Lewis, his parents and I, as we were able to celebrate all the hard work that Lewis had put in over the last two years with this prestigious award.  Well done Lewis, congratulations!

Design Heroes: Tom Dixon - Mr. Smith

If you're contemplating taking up welding, consider that it could go two ways - you have a fairly regular career path where you work as a welder in a garage or factory, alternatively; you could do what Tom Dixon did and become a design icon in the process...

Born in Tunisia in 1959, Dixon came to Huddersfield at the age of 4.  He dropped out of art school in 1980 and played in funk bands and organised warehouse parties.  Sometimes, necessity is the mother of all invention and following a motorcycle accident, Dixon taught himself to weld in order to fix his bike.  It was during this period that Dixon had trained himself as a designer-maker (with no technical guidance) and was starting to sell limited editions of his welded furniture.  He had sold sufficient amounts to justify opening a retail space - called Space.

Dixon continued his collaborations with other designers in his 'first proper job' as head of design at Habitat, where he has reissued archive designs by Verner Panton, Ettore Sottsass and Robin Day as well as commissioning new pieces from Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Ineke Hans and Marc Newson. He continues to initiate new projects as an independent designer and as creative director of Artek, the Finnish furniture manufacturer founded by the architect Alvar Aalto in the 1930s. “A kind friend once described me as a ‘vertebrate designer’,” Dixon said. “That means that I design from the bones outwards and am not really interested in surface.”

As Dixon's international reputation grew, he was approached by Italian furniture design company, Cappellini. He began to be taken seriously on the international stage as Cappellini worked to put some of his designs into major production. The "S" chair made Tom Dixon's name, evolving from early prototypes in his Creative Salvage days. It was initially woven with recycled rubber inner tubes, and then covered in rush, a material traditionally used for drop in seats. Cappellini were attracted by its sculptural form and amazing legless structure of bent steel frame. Launched by Cappellini with a vibrant felt upholstered covering in 1989, the "S" chair quickly reached iconic like status and now has a permanent place in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Dixon has since collaborated with Cappellini on many other projects, including the Bird Rocking chair, the Pylon table and chair and the tub chair to name but a few.

TOM DIXON the company was started by Tom Dixon and David Begg in 2002. Since its inception, the company has developed its own collection of contemporary lighting and furniture including the acclaimed Mirror Ball Collection of lights and more recently Copper Shade. TOM DIXON designs have entered the international major league through renowned shows at major venues like the Milan Furniture Fair and the London Design Museum, where Tom Dixon is currently nominated for Designer of the Year. Tom Dixon the designer is particularly well known for his earlier designs such as the S-chair, designed for Cappellini, and the rotationally moulded Jack Lamp which gained the Millennium Mark for Great British Design in 1998. He was awarded the OBE for services to British Design in 2000.
 

In 2004 a partnership was established between the TOM DIXON founders and the venture capital company Proventus, forming Design Research, which today owns and manages both TOM DIXON and Artek, the Finnish modernist furniture manufacturer which was established by Alvar Aalto in 1935. Additionally, Tom Dixon has also been the creative director for major furniture retailer Habitat since 1997.

It's worth pointing out that Dixon has no technical qualifications in design.  He is one my design heroes for his dedication to mastering a skill and turning it into a craft in order to produce consistently innovative and creative solutions to furniture and lighting.

Tom Dixon was awarded an OBE in 2000 for his services to British Design and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University - he now has the biggest honour of being the first William Farr Design Hero!

(thanks to the Design Museum and Arch 1 Design)

Topped off with a Hint of Lemon – Lewis Hull

On Tuesday 8^th November, James May’s Man Lab featured an icon of the design world. Unfortunately he pointed out the all the disadvantages of it and then destroyed it to make a common version of the product. Yes – I’m talking about the Alessi Juicy Salif. It may look like a tripod from War of the Worlds, but in fact it’s a lemon squeezer designed by Philippe Starck.

When Alessi first gave Starck the design brief, they asked for a tea tray. But instead, over a meal of squid sprinkled with lemon, Starck drew out probably his most famous product on a napkin stained with a variety of sauces.

Made from cast aluminium and then polished to give the mirror-like finish to it, it looks like something that has been brought back from the future, just not in a Delorean!

Ten years after its release of launch 10,000 were individually numbered and gold plated, but as the regular ones are heading towards £50 then special ones would have special exclusive prices - which begs the question, would you use this special edition to squeeze your lemons or would it be a decorative item?

But is the regular one really designed to be an efficient lemon squeezer? The space between the three legs, could you fit a glass or something to catch your juice in? Or is this lemon squeezer just another iconically designed product that doesn’t want to be in a cupboard collecting dust?

Construction Week Through the Eyes of Year 9 - Dominic Rose & Ryan Shucksmith

It all started when we arrived at school, 27 Year 9 pupils going to Construction Week 2011!  Placed into groups - we were with Mr. Smith.  It was a short drive to the Epic Centre at the Lincolnshire Showground.

When we arrived, there was a short briefing and were told that the most well behaved school would win the coveted Best School prize.  Then we were off, but it was just our luck to be the last to get an official to escort us to our first activity...

So what was involved in our first activity?  Well we had to a lesson in the techniques of plastering - we all had a go and in all honesty Dom was probably the best and I was quite bad.

The next activity was Block Paving, outdoors - and the path we were building would remain there always, unfortunately it was raining heavily so didn't get the chance to actually cement anything down.  But it turns out we were quite good at the herringbone effect they were after.

After a packed lunch, we moved onto environmental issues - it was interesting to find out how wasteful we are as a society ( a real eye-opener!)  After a short quiz, we made paper briquettes which is the process of making bricks from water and newspaper and that was quite messy but great.  My group managed to make 3 briquettes which we got to keep!

Bricklaying was the last activity for the day; this involved mixing mortar in a special way.  Laying the bricks to create a small part of a wall.  We had a demonstration and then got to have a go ourselves.  Some of us got on to a second layer but then ran out of time...

We made our way back, collected our briquettes and a goodie bag and got on the coach back to school.  This week, Mr. Smith informed us that we had won the trophy for Best School - we were very proud!

Good Luck Chuck! For the love of Converse All Star - Kyia Jollands

I pretty much live in my Converse!  They are by far the comfiest I've ever owned - and let's face it, they are SUPER COOL.

While Vans Lo-Pros have become more popular in the last year or two and not wanting to be mainstream - following the crowd, a sheep!  I have a pair of Converse lo tops in maroon.  Easily a design classic - iconic.  Converse have been around, well forever, they celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2008.

No shoe collection is complete without a pair of hi-tops, Chuck Taylors, All Star OX's, Evo's - pretty much everyone has a pair and I've never heard any complaints.

The original all-american basketball shoe...now owned by a 17-year old girl in England.

Will Farr Design Blog Rationale - Mr. Smith

 We in the Design & Technology department have kick-started the William Farr School design blog - wherein we will comment on goings on within the House of D&T (as it's called by no-one!) and also share our views on a subject we certainly have a lot of time for!

It's already been a big year, with a very wet Construction Week, Year 11 PIC Day - not to mention a trip to New York.  There's even more to come from what promises to be a tremndous year in the Arkwright building.  The A-Level and GCSE students are making steadfast progress with thir final year projects and will be getting ready to exhibit in June.

Whether it's products, graphics, interiors, fashion or architecture.  We'll be chipping in, along with the students, entries that will reflect our love of all things Design & Technology related.

In addition to D&T news, there'll also be features on various 'design classics' - products that have influenced the world and the creative process of the students and the teachers.