University for the Creative Arts logoNorwich University of the Arts logoThe closing workshop in our AHRC-funded Design as Human Interface project, organised in partnernship by  Norwich University of the Arts, University for the Creative Arts and CREST,  will be held at the Design Museum, Shad Thames, London SE1 2YD on Wednesday 20 March 2013.

The workshop will feature presentations from Julia Lohmann, Gero Grundmann (Studio Bec) and Dr Rob Hillier (Norwich University of the Arts).

 

The workshop will start at 10am and conclude at 4.30pm in advance of the opening of the Design Museum’s new exhibition ‘Designs of the Year 2013’. The workshop will also include a curatorial tour of the Museum’s current ‘Extraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things’ exhibition.

10.00 Opening
10.15 Julia Lohmann – Victoria & Albert Museum Department of Seaweed
10.45 Gero Grundmann – Studio Bec
11.15 Dr Rob Hillier – One Thing After Another: Design, Dissemination, Detour
11.45 Design Museum Collection: Extraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Practical Workshop – Designing communications between exhibition visitors and things
16.00 Group presentations & discussions
16.30 Close

Evening Exhibition Opening – Designs of the Year 2013

Travel bursaries will be available to support participants traveling to the workshop from outside London. For further information, to register your interest in the workshop, and to arrange a travel bursary please contact Carole Day (CDay7@ucreative.ac.uk).

Click here for information about how to get to the Design Museum.

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About Julia Lohmann

Julia Lohmann is a designer based in London and Hamburg. She is inspired by the world outside of established design disciplines as well as by unusual and undervalued natural and manmade materials. Lohmann realises projects on the threshold between design, science and art which probe our attitudes towards the world that sustains us. Her objects and installations are exhibited worldwide and part of major private and public collections, e.g. the MoMA, New York. Lohmann is a Professor of Design at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg and has taught on the MA Design Products course at the Royal College of Art where she is currently engaged in a practice-based PhD studentship in conjunction with the Victoria & Albert Museum. Julia Lohmann also works as a visiting lecturer and at several UK and European design schools. She holds degrees in product and graphic design.

From April to October 2013, Julia Lohmann will run an open design residency studio entitled ‘The Department of Seaweed’ at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She is using the residency to continue her development of kelp as a design material and to publicly investigate potential new forms of collaborative craft, design and communication practice based around the marine plant.

For more information see www.julialohmann.co.uk

About Gero Grundmann

Gero Grundmann is a multidisciplinary designer based in London and Hamburg. He is interested in inclusive and sustainable design. Grundmann runs the London-based communication design consultancy Studio Bec and develops products and installations with his wife and partner, designer Julia Lohmann. He teaches at a number of European design schools, has co-authored an MA-level design curriculum, written and led numerous degree-level and postgraduate workshops and has mentored design students and practitioners in Europe and Asia. Gero Grundmann holds an MA in Communication Art and Design from the Royal College of Art and a Diploma in Translation from the Chartered Institute of Linguists. He is a former Research Associate of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design.

Since 2009, Gero Grundmann has led teams of designers in inclusive design workshops in Bosnia and Croatia, aiming to co-create a sustainable livelihood for the beneficiaries and employees of sheltered manufacturing workshops in the region. The design workshops have won Croatia’s highest design awards for concept, products and social entrepreneurship, with outcomes exhibited in Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Japan and the UK.

For more information see www.studiobec.com

About Dr Rob Hillier

Dr. Robert Hillier is a Senior Lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts. He designed and developed the Sylexiad range of fonts for adult dyslexic readers as part of his doctoral research. Hillier has presented his research findings at numerous design institutions and conferences, including the Design Principles and Practices Conference at University of California, Los Angeles (2012) and the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI)) Conference in Reykjavik (2011). Sylexiad has been featured in publications including, Communication Arts, Baseline, Novum, Étapes, Slanted, Ultrabold and the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice. A chapter about the typeface is also featured in the book Supporting Dyslexic Adults in Higher Education and the Workplace (2012). Sylexiad was included as part of the NEVERODDOREVEN exhibition at The Serpentine Gallery, London (2007). Hillier’s solo exhibitions include List Landscapes at The Norwich Arts Centre (2010) and Typologies. Making lists, marking time at the St. Bride Library, London. He has also exhibited work in the USA, Germany and South Korea and has won many information book design awards. His most recent project is “To-ing”, a self-authored book that was part of the NUA Cowbird symposium (2013).

See www.robsfonts.com for further details about Sylexiad.