25/25: Celebrating 25 Years of Design

Photo: Luke Hayes Photography

2007 marks 25 years since the opening of the Boilerhouse, the original incarnation of the Design Museum. To celebrate this significant anniversary, as plans are being made for a major expansion programme, the Design Museum has invited 25 designers and individuals with an interest in design, each to select an object that they believe represents the best, or the most characteristic design of the period.

From the 1983 Alessi Whistling Kettle, to the 2001 iPod designed by Jonathan Ive for Apple, the 25 selected designs, representing the best of industrial design, graphics, furniture, and fashion, designed or first manufactured between 1982 and 2007, will be exhibited at the Design Museum in 25/25 - Celebrating 25 Years of Design from 29 March to 22 June 2007. The exhibition will offer a fascinating overview of the most important moments and developments in design during this period, as well as an insight into the thoughts of these key designers and design commentators, including Terence Conran, founder of the Boilerhouse, fashion designer Paul Smith, designers David Mellor, Jaime Hayon, and the Design Museum's Director Deyan Sudjic.

Other selectors include architect Richard Rogers and designer Ab Rogers, industrial designer Dieter Rams, product designers Richard Seymour and Dick Powell of SeymourPowell, world renowned graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist John Maeda, and Dutch designer Maarten Baas.

Established by Terence Conran in 1981 in the basement of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the aim of the Boilerhouse was to put design at the centre of contemporary culture. It was a move to demonstrate both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance. Quickly outgrowing the V&A, in 1989 it moved on to become the Design Museum, in an architecturally striking transformation of a Thameside warehouse. Since then the Design Museum has emerged as an institution with international significance, playing a vital role in placing design and architecture on the cultural agenda.

The Design Museum: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/7244.html


25/25 The Selectors

Maarten Baas
Product designer

Mario Bellini
Architect, furniture and industrial designer

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
Industrial and product designers

Terence Conran
Designer, restaurateur, retailer, writer and founder of the Design Museum,

Matali Crasset
Designer

Ilse Crawford
Design strategist

James Dyson
Inventor and entrepreneur

Stefano Giovannoni
Architect, product and interior designer

Konstantin Grcic
Product designer

Gitta Gschwendtner
Product and exhibition designer

Martì Guixé
Industrial and product designer

Jaime Hayon
Product and interior designer

Sam Hecht
Designer and founding partner of Industrial Facility

John Hegarty
Chairman & Worldwide Creative Director of advertising agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty

Gill Hicks
Ambassador for Peace Direct

Matthew Hilton
Furniture designer

James Irvine
Industrial and product designer

John Maeda
Graphic designer, visual artist and computer scientist

David Mellor
Designer, manufacturer, craftsman and retailer

Jasper Morrison
Product and furniture designer

Dieter Rams
Industrial designer

Ab Rogers
Designer

Richard Rogers
Architect

Richard Seymour and Dick Powell
Senior partners of industrial design firm Seymour Powell

Paul Smith
Fashion designer and retailer

Deyan Sudjic
Director of the Design Museum

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