The london design festival is in full swing. Many of my fellow bloggers will have covered key events. Here is one i’ve been involved in!
A few weeks ago I was invited by the london design festival team to participate in the moleskine sketch relay in collaboration with moleskine and the detour project. Each participating designer, 70 in total, was asked to respond to a series of questions:
1. To illustrate what objects, items, systems and details we could not live without in a private space or in the public domain.
2. To examine what needs improving within our personal or professional life.
3. We were asked to draw something we would like to design, but haven’t had the opportunity to design before.
We were told that the exhibition of moleskine japanese albums will run throughout the festival, 14-22 september 2013 at the victoria and albert museum, after which they will be donated to lettera27 and the detour project with our consent. Once the festival has finished the books will go into the detour archive as agreed and will travel with the project.
I ask you dear readers, how would you have responded? Well, it might come as no surprise that i accepted this invitation most graciously and felt very honoured to be part of this project. Let’s face it, I have been using moleskine sketchbooks for years and what an honour to have been asked to share a space with so many accomplished designers.
On the first day of the festival I attended a really interesting talk held by maria sebregondi, VP of brand equity and communication at moleskine, benjamin hubert, tracey neuls and anita taylor. The topic was the relevance of drawing in a digital age and it was chaired by angus montgomery, editor of design week.
Maria sebregondi (see below) is also on the board of lettera27 – a non-profit foundation, born in July 2006. “Its mission is to support the right to literacy, education, and the access to knowledge and information in africa. lettera27 is the 27th letter of the alphabet, the missing letter, the letter yet to be, the hybrid sign, the empty box, the link between oral and written words, the connection to the future, the intersection of analogic and digital”.
We were each sent a moleskine japanese album and were asked to fill 5 pages each.
It was heaving with people when i was photographing so had to find the rare moments when folks weren’t taking snaps and walking about.
I couldn’t photograph all 70 panels so here are a few of my favourites:
And here is mine.
As a thank you, each designer was sent a gift. We got a sketchbook, some moleskine pencils and the much coveted detour book, published in november 2012. Grazie mille.
Moleskine Sketch Relay
14 – 22 September
Gallery 220, Sackler Centre