 In spite of wider historical connotations in English, “design” increasingly means the alliance of visual creativity and commerce. This alliance is more frequently perceived as an irreconcilable tension. But Love & Money, organised jointly by the British Council and UK Trade & Investment, features twenty projects and designers that balance business ambition and commercial success with the invention and experimentation for which Britain’s creative industries are internationally renowned.
While British design has seen some of its most effective and radical work in the fast-changing and unequivocally commercial realms of publishing, branding and electronic media, the UK continues to field an impressive number of three-dimensional designers whose reputations lie in experimentation with form, material, process and meaning. Despite the economic pressure on manufacturing in Britain, a small number of enterprises prevail in the integration of design, engineering and manufacture for which the UK has been famed since Victorian times. Engineering and architecture partnerships have also produced bold new structures and extraordinary environmental conceptions that sit between architecture, engineering and sculpture. In fashion, energetic retail support for emerging designers ensures a lively relationship between the catwalk and Britain’s high street; while small fashion businesses integrate art, craft and outlandish catwalk visions with covetable collections for real-life retail.
The curators of this exhibition believe that great design equates to the maximum cultural significance produced within the parameters of a commercial brief, and that these twenty stories represent the attainment of that goal.
Love & Money launches in Tokyo, Japan (Ozone Plaza, 27 October – 7 November 2006) and then tours to Hong Kong (December 06), Indonesia (March / April ’07), Malaysia (May / June ’07), Thailand (July – September ’07), Taipei, Taiwan (101 Mall, 11th October-21st October '07) and Korea (November ’07).
The exhibition has been designed by Ab Rogers Design
Graphic Design by Praline
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