BLOND LABORATORY x London Design Festival 2024
Leading industrial design studio BLOND presents ‘BLOND LABORATORY’ during the London Design Festival 2024, a touring exhibition debuting in Milan earlier this year.
Seven leading industrial designers were invited to participate in ‘BLOND LABORATORY’ – a natural evolution of the studio’s ‘BLOND Artefacts’ initiative—reinforcing the primacy of real-world inspiration over the online. The exhibition, hosted in the heart of Shoreditch, invites visitors to delight in the seven unexpected creative responses to the challenge, supported by insight into the process and manufacture of each.
BLOND LABORATORY, London Design Festival 2024
A stellar roster of international designers Hirotaka Tako (Sony), John Tree (John Tree), Jon Marshall (Pentagram), Form Us With Love, Julie Richoz (Julie Richoz Studio), Maddalena Casadei (Maddalena Casadei Studio) and James Melia (BLOND) were invited to create new designs in response to real-world objects that are no longer readily in production.
Artefacts were chosen from a wider selection, each sourced by BLOND and ranging from items forgotten in lofts to charity shop discoveries, all within a budget of under £20. The brief was to submit a creative response to the artefact, tackled in their own signature style. ‘BLOND LABORATORY’ presents each solution, process and prototyped outcome in an exhibition curated by BLOND.
James Melia-Blond, Founder and Creative Director says:
“‘Our ‘BLOND Artefacts’ initiative began as a way to encourage the BLOND team to look around and find delight and inspiration in tangible objects from “real world” sources, which we feel are at risk of being lost due to the prevalence of online and AI-generated imagery. I am excited to present our guest designer’s contributions, displaying the versatility of the ‘BLOND artefact’ process—while staying true to their individual styles and approaches”
Design Responses
Hirotaka Tako found an unexpected connection between a marking gauge and Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Tako developed the original artefact into a poetic, yet functional lamp.
Form Us With Love developed the classic corkscrew with a signature utilitarian approach, into a bottle opener—retaining timeless charm whilst creating a versatile tool for opening a wide range of bottles.
Developing the crude, iron wire formation of the traditional whisk and taking inspiration from its role at the start of a meal—Jon Marshall manipulated the original shape to form a candelabra, adding glamour, with a gold finish.
Maddalena Casadei chose the humble mallet and in her design of a flashlight, retained the crushed rod aesthetic of so many tools, changing the function completely, by cleverly adapting the original design to house the electronic components.
Julie Richoz maintained the humility and humour of the iconic balance bird—adding function to a recognised ornamental object, exploring an extreme equilibrium and turning it into a decorative element.
James Melia takes the simplistic beauty and bound form of a timber basket, transferring the approach to a lamp, by utilising the power cable as a construction method—bringing the shade and light source together in a low-fidelity, almost humorous, way.
The natural form of bamboo is carefully manipulated to create a traditional Japanese ladle. John Tree takes the delicate precision of this original artefact, to create a finely balanced arm on a record player, exploring the lost qualities of ‘hi-fi’ equipment, whilst incorporating updated technologies.
BLOND LABORATORY x LDF 2024
1 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London, E2 8AA,
Opening dates: 16 – 22 September 2024
Daily opening times:
Monday 16th 10:00 – 16:00
Tuesday 17th 10:00 – 18:00
Wednesday 18th 10:00 – 18:00
Thursday 19th 10:00 – 18:00
Friday 20th 10:00 – 18:00
Saturday 21st 10:00 – 18:00
Sunday 22nd 10:00 – 14:00