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JAIME HAYON
SPANISH ARTIST-DESIGNER
BORN 1974
Jaime Hayon has had a long and illustrious
career for someone so young. After training
as an industrial designer in Madrid and
Paris he joined Fabrica – Benetton Group’s
communication research centre – in 1997,
where he directed the design department
until 2003. Jaime established his own studio
in 2000 and now runs offices in Spain, Japan
and Italy, pursuing a range of eclectic projects
that include product design, interior design,
curatorial roles and artistic installations.
Known for injecting humour and colour into
his designs, his boldness has helped his work
transcend the boundaries of the art and design
worlds. Hayon’s esteem for and knowledge
of artisan skills has allowed him to push the
boundaries of many mediums and functions.
His work has been widely exhibited at some
of the world’s best galleries and art fairs, and
Times magazine named him as one of the
world’s 100 leading creators.
JASPER MORRISON
BRITISH DESIGNER
BORN 1959
A Royal Designer for Industry since 2001,
Jasper Morrison is one of the UK’s most
respected and celebrated product designers.
He is known for his intellectual approach
to the design and appreciation of “normal”
objects and his deceptively simple, original
and contemporary aesthetic. Morrison
launched his first studio in London in 1986
after studying at Kingston University and the
Royal College of Art and rapidly established
himself internationally with installations at
the Documenta art exhibition in 1987 and at
the DAAD Gallery during the Berlin Design
Werkstadt in 1988. He has since been invited
to design everything from trams to tableware,
and his work is among the collections of the
world’s leading museums. Morrison’s interest
in archetypal objects led to a partnership
with Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa in
2006 on the seminal Super Normal exhibition
and the accompanying manifesto – the first
of a number of publications celebrating
everyday objects. His retrospective exhibition,
Thingness, opened at the Grand-Hornu in
Belgium in 2015 and is currently touring
Europe. Morrison now divides his time
between studios in Paris, Tokyo and London.
JO NAGASAKA
JAPANESE ARCHITECT
BORN 1971
Born in Osaka, Jo Nagasaka studied
architecture at the Tokyo National University
of Fine arts before founding his practice
Schemata Architects in Japan’s capital
in 1998. His work ranges from individual
products to large-scale installations,
interactive interiors and entire buildings, and
is characterised by an interest in bringing
new life into old objects and ideas with
modern solutions and techniques. Examples
include the Sayama Flat, a groundbreaking
renovation project in a post-war apartment
block in Sayama-shi, and the Happa Hotel, an
exhibition that temporarily turned a building of
disused offices and galleries into a new type
of hotel, with a workshop, bookstore, and
cafe. Both showcased Nagasaka’s ability to
repurpose and breathe new life into unloved
spaces and objects. Recent projects have
included the conversion of a Tokyo factory into
an artist’s studio with an indoor garden, and a
fashion boutique with an interior that is entirely
visible from the street.
JOHN BARNARD
BRITISH DESIGN ENGINEER
BORN 1946
John Barnard is one of the most innovative
racing car design engineers of his generation.
Barnard’s first experience in the limelight
came when his Chaparral 2K chassis
won the prestigious Indianapolis 500. He
pioneered and built the world’s first carbon
fibre monocoque, winning three consecutive
Formula One world championships for
McLaren. Uniquely he has been technical
director⁄ chief designer at both Ferrari and
McLaren. Headhunted by Ferrari he pioneered
for them the first hydro electronic gearbox, a
system that is now used by all Formula One
teams. His system of using paddles on the
steering wheel and an automatic clutch has
now migrated to road cars. Asked to re-join
Ferrari in 1992 he designed and built Ferraris
in the UK from 1993-1997. In 1995 Barnard
was awarded Royal Designer for Industry.
His Ferrari 641, one of the most beautiful
Ferrari racing cars, is in the MoMA, New York
permanent collection. His influence can be
seen in every single car on the grid today.
KLAUSER & CARPENTER
GERMAN/ BRITISH DESIGNERS
BORN 1972/1975
André Klauser moved to London from
Germany after training in Design at the
Fachhochschule Münster and began
working for Jasper Morrison in London in
1999. Ed Carpenter studied sculpture at
Kingston University. The duo met in 2000
while studying on the MA Design Products
course at the Royal College of Art. Both found
success and launched their own practices
immediately after graduating, with Carpenter’s
2001 Pigeon Light becoming an unexpected
icon and enduring bestseller in design and
museum shops around the world. After a
series of successful collaborations, they
formed Klauser & Carpenter, working with
Established & Sons and other pioneering
manufacturers internationally. They are both
directors of design at production company
Very Good & Proper, with the motto ‘measure
twice, cut once’. Klauser has also been a tutor
on the influential Design Products course at
the Royal College of Art.
KONSTANTIN GRCIC
GERMAN DESIGNER
BORN 1965
Konstantin Grcic trained as a cabinet maker
at The John Makepeace school before
completing his MA in Industrial Design at the
Royal College of Art in London. In 1991 he set
up his own practice Konstantin Grcic Industrial
Design (KGID) in Munich. Since 2018 the office
has established its permanent base in Berlin.
Known for pared-down pieces, Grcic is often
called a minimalist but the designer himself
prefers to speak of simplicity. His designs
are characterised by careful research and a
passion for technology and materials. Many
KGID designs have received international
design awards and are also a part of the
permanent collections at MoMA in New York,
Paris’ Centre Georges Pompidou and Die
Neue Sammlung, Munich.
He has received an array of international
design awards, such as the prestigious
Compasso d’Oro for his Mayday lamp in 2001,
the Myto chair in 2011 and the OK lamp in
2016. In 2010 he was named Designer of the
Year by Design Miami and in 2016 he was
awarded the Personality distinction for his
achievements by the German Design Council.
DESIGNERS
ALEXANDER TAYLOR
BRITISH DESIGNER
BORN 1975
Alexander Taylor is one the UK’s leading
design innovators. After establishing his studio
in 2002, the young designer was quickly
catapulted onto the international stage with
the launch of the Antlers coat hook, which
won multiple awards. This was followed by
the Fold light – a small lamp created from a
single sheet of folded metal – for Established &
Sons’ debut line in 2005, which has since been
acquired by museums including the MoMA,
New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
His natural curiosity for new manufacturing
techniques attracted sports brand Adidas,
a collaboration which led to the invention of
Primeknit, the brand’s first knitted single-piece
upper. Taylor continues to work as a creative
consultant for Adidas and has also produced
private commissions for David Gill Gallery and
the late Alexander McQueen.
AMANDA LEVETE
BRITISH ARCHITECT
BORN 1955
Celebrated for her innovative structures,
unique application of construction materials
and courageous architectural schemes,
Amanda Levete – founder and principal of
architecture studio AL_A – has established a
particularly impressive reputation as one of
Britain’s leading creatives. A recipient of the
Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling
Prize, one of the UK’s highest architectural
honours, her recent commissions include
the celebrated expansion of the Victoria
and Albert Museum in London, and a 1.5
million square foot luxury shopping mall
and hotel in Bangkok. Levete trained at the
Architectural Association and worked for
the British architect Richard Rogers before
joining Future Systems as a partner in 1989,
where she realised groundbreaking buildings
including the Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket
Ground and Selfridges department store in
Birmingham. Amanda is a trustee of leading
social innovation centre The Young Foundation
and has served as a trustee of influential arts
organisation Artangel for over a decade.
She is a regular radio and TV broadcaster,
writes for a number of publications, including
the New Statesman and Prospect, and
lectures worldwide.
BARBER & OSGERBY
BRITISH DESIGNERS
BORN 1969/1969
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby founded their
London studio in 1996 after graduating with
Master’s in Architecture from the prestigious
Royal College of Art in London. Their diverse
body of work spans industrial design, furniture,
lighting and site-specific installations, as
well as gallery and public commissions
such as the London 2012 Olympic Torch
and projects for the Royal Mint. Barber and
Osgerby’s work is held in permanent museum
collections around the world including
London’s V&A Museum and Design Museum,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2007 they
were awarded Royal Designers for Industry by
the Royal Society of Arts and in 2013 the duo
were each awarded an OBE for their services
to the design industry. Both hold honorary
doctorates of art and lecture internationally.
A definitive monograph of their work to date,
titled Projects, has just been published.
CARUSO ST JOHN
CANADIAN BRITISH/ BRITISH
ARCHITECTS BORN 1962/1959
Refined details and carefully chosen materials
are hallmarks of Caruso St John’s thoughtful
approach to architecture. Founded by Adam
Caruso and Peter St John in 1990, the practice
began its rise to international prominence with
the New Art Gallery in Walsall in 2000.
It has completed a string of award-winning
arts spaces, including the Newport Street
Gallery for Damien Hirst in London, which
won the 2016 Stirling Prize – the UK’s
highest accolade for a building – the Centre
of Contemporary Art in Nottingham and the
restructuring and extension of London’s V&A
Museum of Childhood. Caruso St John was
appointed architect for Tate Britain in 2007,
recently completing the museum’s acclaimed
renovation of the existing galleries and
public spaces, and has designed a series of
galleries for the Gagosian in London, Paris,
Hong Kong, and Rome. In 2011 Adam
Caruso was appointed Professor of
Architecture and Construction at the ETH
Zurich. Peter St John is currently an external
examiner at the Scott Sutherland School of
Architecture in Aberdeen and Cardiff School of
Architecture and a visiting professor at London
Metropolitan University.
DIMITRI BÄHLER
SWISS DESIGNER
BORN 1988
Swiss designer Dimitri Bähler launched his
own studio in Biel in 2014 and has since
been nominated for two Swiss Design
Awards, directed a string of workshops and
produced pieces for some of the world’s
most adventurous design brands. He studied
product design at ECAL in Switzerland
and at Design Academy Eindhoven in The
Netherlands, before moving back to the area
he grew up in to launch his practice. Bähler
describes his approach as spontaneous,
radical and poetic, but with a foundation in
substantial material and structural research.
In 2016, his experimental ceramics collection
VPTC – created to explore the relationship
between volumes, patterns, textures and
colours by using both digital and traditional
tools – was named as the grand prize winner
at Biennale Interieur, the respected design
biennial in Kortrijk, Belgium.
FEDERICO GREGORUTTI
ITALIAN DESIGNER
BORN 1968
Italian designer Federico Gregorutti started
his independent work as a scenographer
in 1990, producing wall paintings in public
spaces, discos, and private villas. In 2000,
Gregorutti extended his creative and
technical interests and began working as
an industrial designer. Since 2009, he has
been a vital part of the Established & Sons
team as production manager and continues
to design and experiment with a range of
processes and new materials.
FRANK
BRITISH DESIGNERS
BORN 1974/1974
Frank was founded by personal and
professional partners Paw West and Matt
Edmonds. Aberdeen native West and
Mancunian Edmonds met while they were
both studying furniture design at what is now
Buckinghamshire New University. Graduating
from their master’s degrees a year apart in
1996 and 1997, the duo had not originally
planned to work together, but the creative
union evolved out of their natural working
process. They established the Frank studio
in London in 2001. Influenced by industrial
infrastructures – such as motorways and
shipping – and Italian product design, Frank’s
approach is simultaneously pragmatic,
imaginative and complex. The duo believe
that each project defines its own method of
creating, with unique outcomes.
