out and about :: london’s libraries

Having recently joined the 20th Century Society, the boy and I joined them for “Lend us your books, a day ‘in Libris;'” a day exploring the development of the public library from the turn of the 20th century right through to the 21st; focusing on architecture, planning and design.

Peckham library

We started the day, bright and early, at Kensington Central Library.

out and about :: barbican

The boy and I recently spent an enlightening Sunday afternoon exploring the Barbican on one of their official architecture tours led by the very knowledgable Richard Burton.

Once voted Britain’s ugliest building, this 35 acre, Grade 2 listed estate has been the subject of much controversy and misunderstanding.

The Barbican

The word ‘barbican’ means

about and about :: wim crouwel in conversation

On March 31st I went to see Rick Poynor in conversation with Wim Crouwel and his son Mels Crouwel at the Design Museum. It was first in a series to mark the retrospective of the iconic graphic designer and typographer; Wim Crouwel, a Graphic Odyssey.

Wim Crouwel (photograph by Luke Hayes)

Afterwards, I plucked up the courage to speak to the man himself to ask for a short interview – and he said yes! But more of that later; first the talk…

thinking about :: design democracy

As part of the MyDeco Design Democracy Blog Awards process, I have been asked to write a blog post about what design democracy means to me.

dsadsa

I started by thinking about what the words ‘design’ and ‘democracy’ mean separately.

Design democracy definitions

From those definitions, I got to a definition of ‘design democracy’ that is about creating things around the needs of any user, regardless of who they are; which made me think of the Modernist movement…