New Designers: Fresh Design Perspectives
It’s July. So, along with hot weather, Wimbledon and festivals, also means it’s time for New Designers. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, the event once again returns to London’s Islington Business Design Centre, with students from over 100 university courses descending, along with the outcomes of their higher education, ready to display.
ND24. Credit – Sam Frost
The event has always put graduates front and centre, and offers a chance for real-world interaction with a wider audience, with potential employers, press and design industry professionals flocking through the doors. New Designers has become synonymous with awards in recent years, with numerous accolades distributed to peer-reviewed pioneers over the two weeks, which this year take place 2-5 July and 9-12 July.
Maddie Sturmey
Each week focuses on an array of creative disciplines, with the first slot allocated to the likes of fashion, textiles and ceramics, and the second covering furniture, product and graphic design, among others. Visitors to both weeks can find fresh perspectives and plenty of innovation regardless of their interests. BA Product, Furniture, Ceramics graduate Maddie Sturmey of the University of Staffordshire, for instance, brings Cwtch, a minimal furniture collection produced from reclaimed oak and folded swathes of Welsh wool.
US Clarity Iona Tait
Taking a deep dive into the themes that affect our daily lives, many students create solution-focused projects, such as Iona Tait. During her time studying BA Product Design at the University of Sussex, she produced Clarity, a bacteria-detection kit made from recovered plastics. It is intended to empower wild swimmers against the potential risks of contaminated water caused as a result of the country’s water providers continuing to allow waste into our waterways across the UK.
ND 40Years Ambassadors. Credit – Mark Cocksedge
The exhibition’s evergreen ability to spotlight and nurture creative talent is underlined by the introduction of an ambassador program. Consisting of eight alumni who span the show’s four-decade history, the returning designers will take part in talks and podcasts, and share their experiences since first taking part in the event as graduates. The prestigious line-up includes Deadgood co-founder Elliot Brook, textile designer Margo Selby and Morrama founder Jo Barbard. The latter stresses the significance of ecological awareness in aspiring creatives, stating:
“When we come and visit the show now, it’s amazing to see the focus on sustainability and projects designed to meet the needs of underserved markets and audiences. We also come to find the next generation of talent.”
Georgia Gibbs
This year sees the return of ND Selects, formerly One Year In, which offers more recent alumni the opportunity to show their progress over the intervening three years since graduating. Curated by fellow alumna and design world stalwart, Louisa Pacifico, this year’s selection includes furniture studio JOSI. The invention of designer and Central Saint Martins graduate Georgia Gibbs, the studio focuses on minimising the resources required in producing her timber side tables. Her inclusion in the event represents another step in the right direction, having already won the Design and Sustainability award at the London Design Festival back in 2023.
Tom Moy Studio
Fellow furniture brand and week 2 ND Selects exhibitor, Tom Moy Studio, will also return with a range of timber products. Having initially started out in industrial designer, he became disillusioned by mass manufacturing and instead turned his attention to more sustainable practices that utilise hand-crafting methods to produce one-off pieces that inspire an emotional, and long-lasting, connection with their user. Inspired by forms and textures found in nature, his cabinets, dressers, tables, and seating are created predominantly from British hardwood and are built to last.
ND Educates. Credit – Sam Frost
This year also sees an increase in self-funded stands; a reflection of limited or uncertain university funding, which results in graduates partially or entirely covering their own costs, or simply not participating at all. While a worrying set of circumstances, the desire to be seen at the event remains a strong pull for many, with a BA Textile Design student from Cardiff Metropolitan University stating:
“The opportunity to have our work seen by people working within the textile industry, as well as getting used to putting our work out into a professional context, is a major draw for our cohort, but just as much is the opportunity to meet and get to know other textile students and see and be inspired by their passion for a subject that we hold just as much love for.”
ND Selects. Parita Thanyasirin
As well as discovering new and developing talent, visitors will also have the chance to purchase one of designers, products, artwork and jewellery, while taking in talks and workshops as part of the ND Educates programme. AEch day of the event will focus on themed talks and discussions in the morning, while turning the attention to education and career development in the afternoons.