Last news of 2010

Mark Lutyens:

Inter-studio collaboration

We are proud to present a beautiful collaboration made possible under the single roof of Great Western Studios. Designers, craftsmen and artists from within the building joined forces in a concept lead by Mark Lutyens Associates.

For several years, landscape designers Mark Lutyens and Catherine FitzGerald (Studio 111) have been working on a significant project in Wiltshire. They are creating new gardens around an early 18th century Grade 1 house, which was a near ruin, and is now being extensively restored.

Whilst already collaborating with the Olivia Musgrave (Studio 59) who has been commissioned to make a large sculptural piece for the centre of a formal pool, they are now working with Martha Freud, Sid Dawe and Danny Wootton (Studio 9) who are designing and installing a fantastical black pergola made from the gnarled timbers cut from the stag-head tops of the park's many ancient oak trees.

"Making gardens is all about putting a team together and then working together in a coordinated way" says Mark, "With most other projects, meetings are generally on site, invariably in the wind and rain. With this job we can pop in each other's studios or have a coffee in Steve's cafe. Although these particular clients have only visited us once here at Great Western Studios - and that was before the building was finished - they really liked it, not just the kaleidoscope of colour and ideas that hits you when you walk in but they could appreciate the benefits of having us all under one roof. I hope we do more of this in future"

Mark is very keen on nurturing this type of collaborations which can present a great benefit to both artists in the building and clients.

Honest Entertainment

It’s been party time for Honest Entertainment. In fact, it always is.

Relatively new in our building, Honest are ‘vibe engineers’. They create & design unforgettable environments producing media stunts, product launches, award ceremonies, festivals & sumptuous private parties.

Last few months in the Honest life have been incredibly busy; and rightly so because they had produced some pretty prestigious events: MTV Music Awards or London Fashion Awards to name a couple. And as Christmas are coming celebrities call professional party-makers for help too. Damien Hirst’s and Richard Branson’s private parties or a bash for the De Beers were some of the A-list Xmas parties that Honest vibed-up.

Moxon

Moxon Architects have won an international design competition to find ‘The Ultimate Drinking Fountain’ for London's eight Royal Parks. The standards were very high and the nine strong judging panel has selected the ‘Trumpet’, the design by Moxon, to be one of the two winners chosen from over 150 entries from 26 countries.

The winning designs were judged on aesthetics, robustness for life in a public park, ease of maintenance and installation, sustainability and environmental impact and affordability. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson launched the competition earlier this year and spoke highly of the project: “I am impressed by the high calibre of designs and delighted that two London designers have emerged winners, from very strong competition across the globe.”

The designs will now be produced as full-size mock-ups. The first working units will be in place in the Royal Parks next year. They could potentially be replicated not only in the Royal Parks, but in other Parks across the UK and worldwide.

The competition is one element of a partnership between the Royal Parks Foundation, the charity for London’s eight Royal Parks and the Tiffany & Co. Foundation. The £1million fountain restoration project called ‘Tiffany - Across the Water’ aims to restore the Royal Parks' historic drinking fountains and to install new ones where old ones are beyond repair.

HOT NEWCOMERS:

Not only the studio holders but also the GWS office has been very busy. Not only with the Open Studios but also trying to accommodate the needs of all the vast amount of people who would like to get a studio in the wonderful hub that GWS is. Here are some of our hot newcomers.

Jimmy Turrell

Many have surely noticed that at a certain point of passing through the atrium a splash of colours hits one’s eye. Yes, the neon sign, the snowboard and the posters are all work of illustrator and graphic artist Jimmy Turrell.

He studied at Liverpool School of Art and then at Central St Martin’s and in his work he combines a love of handmade collage, drawing, screenprinting and painting alongside digital mark making.

His clients to date include NIke, Channel 4, Saatchi and Saatchi, MTV, The New York Times, Universal Records, Dazed & Confused, The Wired, TheProdigy and many many more.

More at jimmyturrell.com

Afroditi Krassa

Another Central St Martins College of Art – as well as Royal College of Art – graduate, she worked at some of the world’s largest consultancies, designing strategies and products for international brands, such as Nokia, Jaguar and Casio.

She was the first ever female designer to be employed by the design super-duo SeymourPowell. At the age of 23, her redesign of the humble brassiere was televised by Channel 4 and sold more than 2M units in a year.

In 2002, Afroditi decided to go it alone and founded Afroditikrassa Ltd. The young designer’s work was immediately picked up by leading furniture and retail brands.

In 2004, she met Julian Metcalfe, one of London’s most innovative entrepreneurs, who invited her to conceive his new “baby” brand. Working obsessively for two months, she came back with a masterplan for Itsu - the beloved-by-londonders low fat food company that grew into a hugely successful chain of 25 stores in London and NYC in less than 5 years.

As well as branding and design of leading restaurant, office and retail establishments around the world, she has done collaborations with prestigious producers such as lighting for Ligne Roset and Innermost, furniture for E&Y and Bonaldo, packaging for Pret A Manger and WMF and products for British American Tobacco and Phillip Morris.

Constantly restless, Afroditi is currently working on the world’s first energy generating outdoor furniture range for a major European manufacturer.

More at

www.afroditi.com/about

Studio Fernando Gutierrez

This acclaimed graphic design studio started when, in 2006, Fernando Gutierrez left Pentagram London – where he was a partner – and established a studio of his own.

He’s probably most recognized for his work with Spanish National newspaper El Pais and Benetton’s Colors magazine. Also, his work for Argentinean publisher Losada has received wide acclaim (like the one he did in collaboration with Marion Deuchars, for instance).

Melissa Hunt feat. Tommy Penton

Big Tree-Jewllery – collaboration between jeweller Melissa Hunt and designer/illustrator Tommy Penton – gets picked up by The Magma Product shop for the Xmas rush.

It comprises a range of nine individually hand pierced silver charms presented in a countryside scene. The range of the gems, designed by Melissa Hunt, consists of nine separate creatures that are set in an illustrated tree and meadow meticulously drawn by Tommy Penton. A versatile fastener enables the pieces to be worn as a necklace, bracelet, dog tag or button-hole.

The sets are available at:

16 Earlham Street,

Covent Garden,

London, WC2H 9LNT; +44 (0)20 7240 7571

More at:

Tommy

Melissa

Karen Hobbs

Getting On is Back and Karen Hobbs from studio 43 is once again the Costume Designer. The series two is now on BBC 4 and BBC iplayer.

Reviewed here.

She was also the Costume Designer for Glitterbug Events at The Royal Fesival Hall on Bellowhedonism, the New Years Eve circus-themed party. Only just managing to keep her feet on the ground, whilst inflating some massive helium balloons, she managed to dodge lions, elephants and a giant cannon before decorating the silent disco .... with yet more balloons. And while having rattled around GWS when everyone was away for the Christmas break, she also came up with a Clown, Burlesque and Victorian dressing up box for the eleven piece party band Bellowhead. The results and their splendid rendition of Baggy Trousers can be seen on YouTube !

Jo Ratcliffe

It has definitely been a busy year for Jo Ratcliffe with numerous exciting commissions added to her portfolio.

Earlier on this year she worked with Capitol and Katy Perry doing all of the artwork for her releases, art directing and creating a new logo for her.

Later on contributed to the Visionaire 59 Fairytale that brought together many of today’s top contemporary artists and photographers to create a collection of books for children. Packaged in the form of an old-fashion-style book strap, this issue ranges in themes from the delightful to the philosophical. The proceeds of a portion of the issues will fund need-based scholarships to Blue School, a not-for-profit elementary school in New York City with an academic curriculum focused on creative learning. Jo’s illustrations accompany the text by Stéphanie Cohen Chaptan. Other contributors include Karen Kilimnik with story by Kirsten Dunst; Ugo Rondinone with musician/writer John Giorno; painter Richard Phillips with “Gossip Girl” writer Cecily von Ziegesar; musician/singer Björk and Sjón with artist Gabríela Fridriksdóttir.

The December’s Vogue is a ‘Star’ issue and stars and sparkles indeed shine from its pages with whirls curling throughout the magazine. This typography was one of Jo’s latest commissions.

And at last, if you happen to shop in H&M this Xmas, notice the new range of holiday gift packaging and the window designs that were created by Jo.

More at Jo's website

Sophie Mollins

In November Sophie Mollins has taken part in two exhibitions. ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall galleries and the Psychometry exhibition at the Core Gallery. It was an exhibition of works by 12 contemporary artists that channel and manifest the intangible and invisible through their work. It took its title from a practice employed by psychics and mediums whereby past events and personal histories are divined through physical contact with an object. Psychometry included photography, video, installation, sculpture and previously unseen work and considers the parallel between the artistic and psychometric practitioner.

More at Core Gallery

Joy Richardson’s latest exhibition War & Peace, Boys & Girls: Paintings and drawings is on display at the Green Room, National Theatre in South Bank until the 7^th of January.

A piece on Liza Campbell appeared in the Lady magazine’s November issue (23/11).

Bicycle Library

The routemaster you may know as the Bicycle library is getting more and more animated. They are now officially open and you can borrow some pretty spectacular bikes from them. Please, check the blog or the website in the new year for more information on opening times, events, etc.

Open Studios

We would like to thank you all again for participating in the Open Studios, it was lovely and we hope you enjoyed it.

Please, give us a little while and then come back to check the pictures on the Great Western Studios website.