London Design Festival: Tent 2014

I didn't go to Tent in the last London Design Festival and my classmates told me it was inspiring that I decided to go this year. Compared to 100% Design, it is less high-brand commercial, showing many works from small studios, individual designers or organisations. There is a high-brand fair downstairs, but I found Tent is more interesting that I can see many creative and meaningful works here.

These cushions are made of different materials, function as both cushion and storage. There is a magnet that can keep the two parts together. They reminds me Jing's project.

These lights can be put at anywhere, hanging, on the ground or on the wall, and grouped in whatever way you like. If the one is big enough, people can even sit on top of it and warm their bottom in the winter. They are from an individual designer. He told us if the environment is dark enough, we can even see the light coming out from both the top and the bottom of the light, which sounds amazing.

I like the rainbow colours in these furnitures as well as the patterns on them. And I also really like the furnitures in the following pictures. It will be heart-calming if I can have this kind of furnitures at home. The way that they kept part of the tree barks is fresh for me. 

The following designer's work is relevant to my direction. They are made of ceramics and in organic forms. 

I think she made some interesting decisions. She didn't simply imitate or interpret the elements from natural, but the viewers can still understand.  The piece blow actually makes me think about hills and villages in desert countries.

These lights are really beautiful. The artist is learning different weaving skills and combing them together. I really like the way that these repeating bamboo sticks gradually change into a totally different form. 

The hollow little details on the lights below are made by laser cutting. It is surprised for me that there is no burned edges on the paper. It is quite annoying when we cut something in the Uni and have the black edges. The designer said tried thousands of times to figure out the right setting for different paper. I think that is what we need to do.

London Design Festival: Design Junction 2014

The overall feeling that Design Junction gave to me is young, thriving, and vivid. There were many products had a sense of friendly and warm. 

This is a conceptual design shows that when people drive, there is a transparent information zone around them. They can choose the style they want. This probably will become a part of our daily life, but for now I have no idea how people can focus on driving when they are such a chaotic environment. The video looks really cool though.

The candle holders and the plates are found in the same shop. They have a strange black humour.  On the candle holder, the wax on the boy's face looks like his blood. The fish and chips one reminds me one of my proposal for the Urban task that given by Barnaby.

I really like these two chairs, from their elegant and light form to their comfortable colours. They are the chairs that I will want to have one at home. The oval shapes on the back of the chair recall me the tail of peacock. I had a seat on the big one, it was surprisedly stable.

The background of this lamp is dark grey green, which is not shown in the photo. When the yellow light shines through the wholes on the lamp, forming this colourful overlaid shape on the background, it is really splendid. 

This table reminds me Kasia's project.

It is hard for me to recognise the cover of these two works are made of ceramic, even I touched. I really like the ink-like texture on the surface as well as the colour combination of green and purple. I am admired that the designer can control the accuracy so well, since the inside of the work has to fit the cover after the cover has been fired.

This light is really funny that it can hold its balance and swing on the stick.

This artist covers the glass with copper sheet during making, and then the copper left this beautiful orange colour on the glass. The colour feels so natural.

Exhibition: Digital Evolution

This exhibition is in Barbican Centre, which has three sections.

The first one shows the developing history of digital technology, from almost the beginning of computer to nowadays.

It exhibits many old while global well-known digital games which reminded my childhood. I was so excited to see them, especially the Sims. 

When it comes to the CGI in movies, it is really surprised that even in 1980s, the animation and special effect was so real. the Young Sherlock for instance, there is a pretty amazing coloured glass knight inside.

And one of the most astonishing part for me is that How to Train Your Dragon 2 is also a part of the exhibition. It shows a video introducing software used in this movie for animation making that created by artists and engineers. By using this software, artists can adjust all the details by pushing here and there in real time which means they can play the animate, then stop to adjust, then play again directly to see the result. Before this, they have to close all of the rest to adjust one item by typing numbers, which they couldn't see the result straight away. The whole process took super long time. But what I feel admired is that even in that troubles, they still created such amazing works. It is hard to say the difference between these two episodes of How to Train Your Dragon if you just watch them.

Then some art projects about animation and using cemera to enteract with viewers have been showed, like giving you smoking eyes or turning your arms into wings when you stand infront of the carema.

In the second part of exhihition, people can experience some digital games on computer. I found one of my favourite parts in the whole exhibition here.

I found a game called Journey. The world is a endless desert with remains of cilvilisation. There are no many guides, words or instructions, you have to gradually ifind the way and the purpose of the journey. At certain time, you may be able to meet another person who is traveling. A random person could come from any countries. There is no way to talk or communicate with texts, while you can still make meaningless sounds. During the journey, you two may help and warm each other, all the way together of just part of journey. You may lost the other person and feel lonely, however you may meet a new one. It's just like our life that people come and go, some may stay with you while some are just passer-by. It is a game that worth tasting, with amazing music, sights and a sad ending.

While the last part of exhibition is playing laser lights. The lights can move, change shapes, and interact with peole. There were many times the light tried to escape from me.

Overall it is a fun exhibition, reminding you some old and showing some new.