See Industrial Facility - Some Recent Projects which includes Under a Fiver and Tim Walker - PIctures both opening today.

The London-based product design studio Industrial Facility show Some Recent Projects alongside Under a Fiver, their selection of items that cost lest than £5.

Richard Rogers + Architects - From the House to the City has opened. See the exhibition of this key architect and his practice Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

Brit Insurance Designs of the Year is on until 27 April. Don't miss the best designs of last year in architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport.

The Design Museum, in association with Harrods, presents a series of lectures celebrating Design Icons. The events are selling out fast so book your ticket now.

April's Sunday workshops, 2 - 5pm, are for young designers to experiment with a range of design skills in our Young Designers of the Year workshop.

Wins the Design Museum's first Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award. See the exhibition of the hundred shortlisted designs in seven categories at the museum until 27 April.

See the house designed by Jean Prouvé at Tate Modern and the Jean Prouvé exhibition at the Design Museum. Joint ticket £8.50 available from Tate Modern or Design Museum.

Category winners revealed in product, fashion, interactive, furniture, interactive, transport and graphics for the Brit Insurance Design Awards 2008.

Beijing National Stadium by Herzog & De Meuron and Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition have been declared two of the most innovative and progressive international designs from the last 12 months – as announced by the Design Museum today across seven major design categories.

Other winners include Meyra-Ortopedia’s Mex-x wheelchair for kids, which trumps the Transport category, and One Laptop per child by Yves Béhar of Fuseproject, a groundbreaking programme taking the Product category. Hussein Chalayan walks away with the Fashion category for Airborne Autumn/Winter 07 with Martino Gamper’s 100 Chairs in 100 Days triumphant in the Furniture category.

All designs are part of the100-strong shortlist at the first ever Brit Insurance Designs of the Year exhibition at the Design Museum until April 27, with the seven winners now vying for the overall win at the prestigious inaugural Brit Insurance Design Awards, hosted by Wayne Hemingway next week on Tuesday 18 March.

The expert panel of judges includes Rolf Fehlbaum, Lars Müller and Antonio Citterio who spent hours deliberating the final seven.

Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum said: “The judges certainly had a difficult job in narrowing down such a comprehensive shortlist to just one winner per category. Their final selection however, is a definitive celebration of some of the most internationally innovative designs from the past year.”

See the house designed by Jean Prouvé at Tate Modern and the Jean Prouvé exhibition at the Design Museum. Joint ticket £8.50 available from Tate Modern or Design Museum.

See our current exhibitions Jean Prouvé - The Poetics of the Technical Object and Brit Insurance Designs of the Year this Friday 10pm at Design Overtime, entry from 6pm only £5.

The exhibition showcasing the 100 nominations for the Brit Insurance Design Awards is now open. See the best designs from the last twelve months in architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport.

100 projects
7 categories
1 winner
Brit Insurance Designs of the Year opens February 13

The first in an annual exploration of the most innovative, interesting and forward looking new work in design of all kinds. Selected from around the world, Brit Insurance Designs of the Year presents 100 projects nominated by a group of internationally respected design experts, curators, critics, practitioners and enthusiasts. These projects fall within seven categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. The exhibition gives an overview of the most significant achievements in design and architecture in the last 12 months, whether they are projects by a practice, a team or an individual.

An international jury, each with expertise in their respective fields, will select a winner for the Brit Insurance Design Awards, recognising the best of contemporary design from around the world in each category as well as an overall winner. These winners will be announced and presented in March 2008.

"This chic French designer, whose furniture can be found decorating the coolest of interiors and boutique art galleries, was actually a nuts and blots factory man." Time Out

The second floor of the Design Museum will be closed until 13 February for installation. Admission prices are reduced until our joint exhibition with Tate opens on 5 February.

The joint exhibition is Jean Prouve - The Poetics of the Technical Object at the Design Museum and La Maison Tropicale outside Tate Modern. Joint ticket for the house and exhibition is £8.50 for adults, £6.50 for concessions and £5 for students.

Maison Tropicale opens 5 February. A ticket entitles you to entry to the house at Tate Modern as well as the exhibition here.

The Design Museum, in partnership with Tate Modern, brings a house designed by architectural visionary Jean Prouvé to Britain for the first time thanks to New York hotelier André Balazs. The prototype house, designed by the French architect Jean Prouvé (1901-1984), for 1950s colonial West Africa, will be erected outside Tate Modern.

Maison Tropicale for Design Museum at Tate Modern is an extension of the Design Museum’s current exhibition Jean Prouvé – The Poetics of the Technical Object, and demonstrates the full scale and vision of Prouvé’s economy of design.

Supported by André Balazs, Lord and Lady Foster, Foster + Partners.

See Jean Prouvé The Poetics of the Technical Object, Matthew Williamson 10 Years in Fashion and JCB Dieselmax.

The museum is open until 10pm tonight. See Jean Prouvé - The Poetics of the Technical Object, Matthew Williamson - 10 Years in Fashion, JCB Dieselmax. The museum will be sprinkled with seasonal fun.

Jean Prouvé - The Poetics of the Technical Object opens tomorrow. Be the first to see the work of the radical and inspiring French designer and engineer.

Don't miss the new online Design Museum Shop going live this Thursday. Be the first to browse our extended range of the most desirable design products and books.

Friday 7 December, until 10pm, last admission 9.15pm
A Christmas extravaganza, Sparkle the Dark Up sees the return of glittering dance group The Actionettes. Take part in a designer-wrapping workshop, create fabulous festive cards, gingerbread people and decorations in a variety of workshops or drink warming mulled wine in the riverside bar.

Your final chance to enjoy the breadth and beauty of Zaha Hadid's visionary work in the largest exhibition ever held at the museum. Buy your ticket at Ticketweb now.

2 - 5pm Sunday 11, 18, 25 November

To celebrate the Design Museum’s new exhibition Matthew Williamson - 10 Years in Fashion, budding fashionistas can put their design skills and flair to the test and create their own ‘Fashion Fabulous’ accessories inspired by Williamson’s exuberant use of pattern, print and colour.

Are you aged 13-19? Have you got a passion for fashion? Want to see your work shown in the Design Museum and meet Matthew Williamson? BBC Blast can help!

For details of how to enter and competition rules, go to BBC Blast. All entries must be submitted by Friday 4 January 2008.

View the current competition entries.

Matthew Williamson is a unique success story within the British fashion industry. Ten years after setting out on his own as a fashion graduate in 1997, he now has a store in the heart of Mayfair, his collections are worn by celebrity clients including Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sienna Miller, and he is Creative Director at Pucci. This overview will present his most iconic designs and will deconstruct the process behind his work, illuminating his distinctive use of pattern, print and colour.

Open Friday 7 December + Friday 18 January until 10pm

Please note that due to installation work being carried out in the museum Matthew Williamson - 10 Years in Fashion is CLOSED 3, 4 + 5 December. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

INTRODUCTION TO FASHION & TEXTILES DESIGN
Three day course for 12 - 16 year olds
Mon 22, Tue 23 and Wed 24 October 2007
10.30am – 3.30pm each day
Course fee £95

Calling fashion and textiles designers if the future! Be inspired by the Matthew Williamson – 10 Years in Fashion which charts the rise of the golden boy of British fashion. For further information or to book a place please call the Education Department 020 7940 8782 or email education@designmuseum.org

Enter the Prix Émile Hermès, a competition open to young European designers. Winning entries will be exhibited at the Design Museum.

Hermès, in partnership with the Design Museum, is pleased to announce the launch of the Prix Émile Hermès. This competition is open to young European designers (professionals and students in their final year of studies).

The prize rewards 'the creation of innovative objects that are inspired by the theme “La légèreté au quotidien” (everyday lightness) applied to objects for travel and home'. Entry is open to designers aged under 40 and there is a combined prize fund of 90,000 euros.

Submit your registration here before 30 November 2007.

Calling fashion and textiles designers of the future! Be inspired by the Matthew Williamson – 10 Years in Fashion which charts the rise of the golden boy of British fashion. This exciting three day course offers budding fashion + textiles designers, aged 12 to 16 years, the chance to try their hands at a range of techniques and develop new skills to create textiles and design ideas inspired by Matthew Williamson’s distinctive use of pattern, print and colour. The course will be led by specialist fashion tutors and culminates in a fun catwalk show for family and friends. The course is aimed at beginners with a passion for fashion, no previous experience is necessary.

BOOKING
Booking is essential and places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. For further information or to book a place please call the Education Department 020 7940 8782 or email education@designmuseum.org

Last chance to see Friendly Fire - The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook. Last day Wednesday 10 October.

Jonathan Barnbrook has emerged in the past two decades as one of the UK’s most consistently innovative graphic designers. Pioneering graphic design with a social conscience, Barnbrook makes powerful statements about corporate culture, consumerism, war and international politics. Through his work in both commercial and non-commercial spheres he combines wit, political savvy and bitter irony in equal measures.

Friendly Fire traces Barnbrook's career from early experiments in pure typography and pioneering motion graphics in the early 1990s, to recent work, including his latest projects with collaborators such as the anti-corporate collective Adbusters. Drawn from the designer’s own archive, the work represented will span the wide range of disciplines in which the Barnbrook studio work, including one of their most pioneering areas – typeface design.

Design Overtime offers an after-hours opportunity to see the current Design Museum exhibitions, including the hit show Zaha Hadid - Architecture and Design. The Design Museum will become a hive of activity, with talks, debates and design workshops based around the theme of London architecture.

Contemplate the future of your city in an informal discussion, make a model of your ideal London building to be added to the “London of the Future Cityscape”, and listen to poetry readings by acclaimed London-based poets including Charles Bainbridge of The Guardian. A soundtrack for the evening will be supplied by the Shellac Sisters, four glamorous retro-chics who, dressed in all things vintage, will be playing 78rpm records on 1920s wind-up gramophones in the riverside bar.

BOOKING
Tickets are £5 and include all activities and exhibitions. Tickets available on the door or in advance.
E tickets@designmuseum.org
T 020 7940 8783.

Controversial and politically expressive graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook is joined by an invited panel to debate the motivation and consequences of the career paths designers choose and have to make.

Sundays 2, 9, 23, 30 September, 2-5pm
Bill Amberg's Wild Things
These workshops have been devised especially for the Design Museum by acclaimed leather designer-maker Bill Amberg. Using their newly acquired leather-working skills, kids can make and decorate a range of exciting, animal inspired leather accessories to take home with them.

Saturday 15 and Sunday16 September, 2-5pm
Ahoy There!
To celebrate the Thames Festival, kids can design and make their own flotilla of catamarans, boats and barges inspired by the Design Museum’s riverfront location.

This Sunday 2 September, from 2pm until 5pm, kids aged 5 to 11 can make and decorate a range of exciting, animal inspired leather accessories to take home with them. Book now!

7.15 - 8.30pm

Michael Harvey, Dylan Jones, Alexi Sayle, Stephen Bayley.

What influences car design? Does form win over function, or vice versa? How do you define a sensitively designed vehicle? What does your car say about you? Under the direction of BBC Top Gear Magazine Editor, Michael Harvey, this eclectic panel of contributors will informally debate these, and many more questions during the course of the evening. Joining Michael, will be the Editor of GQ, Dylan Jones; author, journalist and one of the best known commentators on modern culture, Stephen Bayley; and comedian and Independent columnist, Alexi Sayle.

In association with Citroën.

On Wednesdays and Sundays throughout August kids aged between 5 and 11 can join our Summer workshops. Make a beach kit or go carnvial crazy!

Sundays 5, 12, 19, 26 August, 2 – 5pm
Beach Life
Calling all surf dudes and beach bums! Come and celebrate summertime by designing and
making your own beach kit, including t-shirts, bags and sun-visors.

Buy your ticket for Beach Life online

Wednesdays 1, 8,15, 22, 29 August, 2 – 5pm
Carnival Crazy
It’s carnival season and your chance to test out your funky fashion skills. Design and make your
own fantasy carnival costume, including headdresses, sashes and masks.

Buy your ticket for Carnival Crazy online

More time to see the museum's current exhibitions. The museum will stay open until 6.45pm on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Last entry 6.15pm.

5 day course 6 –10 August
10.30am – 3.30pm daily
Our exciting animation summer school offers budding animators aged 12 to 16 years the
chance to try their hands at a range of moving image techniques and develop new skills to create short animated films. For further details and to book email education@designmuseum.org.

Enjoy the breadth and beauty of Zaha Hadid's visionary work in the largest exhibition ever held at the museum. Visit the Zaha Hadid - Architecture and Design exhibition blog.

Book now to hear Jonathan Barnbrook talk about his innovative graphic design. Monday 16 July, 7.15 - 8.30pm. Book now T 020 7940 8783 or E tickets@designmuseum.org

Enjoy the breadth and beauty of Zaha Hadid's visionary work in the largest exhibition ever held at the museum. Visit the exhibition blog.

Zaha Hadid - Architecture and Design opens today. Be the first to see the exhibition and see the breadth and beauty of her visionary work. Open every day 10am - 5.45pm.

Friendly Fire - The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook is now open. Immerse yourself in Jonathan Barnbrook's arresting guerilla graphics and radical typography.

Zaha Hadid Architecture and Design opens at the Design Museum tomorrow 10am. To celebrate we are projecting your thoughts on architecture on the museum tonight.

We are asking you to text your thoughts on architecture for projection on the Design Museum between 10pm and midnight. Let Zaha know what you think!

We are very grateful to Adrian Haffegee from the University of Reading Centre for Advanced Computing and Emerging Technologies(ACET) who is developing projected 3D sms text and sculptor Kate Allen who brought Adrian together with the museum.

The number to text is 07624806248.

Friendly Fire - The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook is now open. Immerse yourself in Jonathan Barnbrook's arresting guerilla graphics and radical typography.

Friendly Fire - The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook opens today. Immerse yourself in Jonathan Barnbrook's arresting guerilla graphics and radical typography.

Friendly Fire - The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook opens tomorrow. Immerse yourself in Jonathan Barnbrook's arrestingl guerilla graphics and radical typography.

Zaha Hadid - Architecture and Design opens 29 June. It is the largest exhibition undertaken by the museum. Check out the exhibition blog and buy your ticket here.

Last chance to see the acclaimed exhibition of design legend Luigi Colani. The exhibition closes this Sunday so hurry down!

Last chance to see the acclaimed exhibitions of design legends Ettore Sottsass and Luigi Colani. This is the last weekend for Sottsass so hurry down!

Visit the Zaha Hadid exhibition blog for a sneak preview of the exhibition, exclusive interviews, news and pictures.

On 29 June 2007 the first major UK exhibition of Zaha Hadid’s architecture and design opens at the Design Museum in London. Spanning two floors this is the largest project the museum has undertaken and will present her most significant past, present and future projects.

To facilitate a forum for debate, and to maximise the impact of the exhibition, the museum has launched this exhibition blog.

Edited by Marcus Fairs, from the design blog dezeen, the exhibition blog hopes to reveal something of the complex processes behind exhibition development, will report on the exhibition launch and then, when the show opens to the public, visitors will be encouraged to submit their exhibition reviews to the moderator for publication.

The Design Museum today announces that it will host a major exhibition of the work of architect Richard Rogers. This announcement is made on the day that the 73 year old British architect, is awarded the 2007 Pritzker Prize for Architecture, the highest honour within international architecture, at a ceremony in London. Richard Rogers & Architects – From the House to the City will open at the Design Museum, London, in April 2008.

On Friday 8 June Design Overtime returns. A last chance to see our Colani and Sottsass exhibitions and much, much more...

11 dancing spacewomen invade the Design Museum. 'Mr and Mrs Design Museum visitor, there is no cause for alarm.'

The Actionettes have been invited to our next late opening event. With their synchronised routines choreographed to songs by 60s girl groups, the Actionettes will be paying homage to the futuristic work of the maverick designer Luigi Colani.

Luigi Colani Translating Nature and Ettore Sottsass Work In Progress will be closing soon so Design Overtime returns to offer an entertaining and unexpected last chance to see these extraordinary and diverse exhibitions.

Professor Luigi Colani himself will be at the museum on the night. There will be a free drink for anyone who follows his example and comes dressed totally in white.

See the shows, enjoy the spectacle, build a Colani influenced rocket ship out of smoothie bottles, taste our special Colani cocktail or decorate a Colani cake. Design Overtime Colani Night will be out of this world experience.

BOOKING
Tickets are £5 and include all activities and exhibitions. Tickets available on the door or in advance from tickets@designmuseum.org or ticketweb.co.uk. (booking fee applies).

The Design Museum throws open its doors for an exciting day of fun, family friendly activities on Saturday 26 May. Click here for full programme.

Tickets still available to hear Stephen Bayley author, broadcaster and critic describe the early days of the Boilerhouse and the journey to create one of the world’s leading museums of modern and contemporary design.

Doors open at 6.45pm. Talk 7.15pm - 8.30pm. Tickets are £10 and include wine and exhibition viewing until 9pm.

Buy your ticket now

See the trailer for the Luigi Colani exhibition. The film was made by innovative animators Squint/Opera exclusively for the Colani exhibition.

Ettore Sottsass is 'the maestro' of Italian design. An 'unmissable retrospective' (Elle Decoration). 'Italy's greatest living designer' (The Times). ***** (The Telegraph).

Not going to the Milan furniture fair? Visit Ettore Sottsass - Work in Progress. An 'unmissable retrospective' (Elle Decoration) of 'Italy's greatest living designer' (The Times).

Disegnare nel tempo libero
Friday April 13 6 - 10pm

Design Overtime returns to the Design Museum on 13 April, offering another opportunity to explore, discover, participate, relax, and be surprised, outside normal museum opening hours.

With Ettore Sottsass – Work in Progress currently showing and Great Brits – Ingenious Therapies about to head off to the 2007 Milan Furniture Fair it’s only fitting that April’s Design Overtime will be talking Italian.

Sip an espresso and join in a debates, raise your glass to salute an opera recital, listen to a gallery talk accompanied by a roaming accordion player, and record your views in the back-to-basics chat room at the Olivetti typing pool.

Disegnare nel tempo libero, perche’ no?
Design Overtime, why not?

'Italy’s greatest living designer' exhibits at the Design Museum. The second floor of the museum has been transformed into a vivid showcase of the maestro's work.

Visit our new exhibitions celebrating Ettore Sottsass' 90th Birthday and look back on 25 years of design since the original Design Museum opened.

Ettore Sottsass - Work in Progress open 29 March until 10 June and 25/25 - Celebrating 25 Years of Design open 28 March until 22 June.

The Design Museum Shop is one of the exclusive stockists for Peter Marigold's new Make/Shift shelving system. Buy now from the Living section of the Design Museum Shop.

First seen in the Design Museum as part of Design Mart 2006, an exhibition of the best emerging designers, these ingenious shelves are lightweight, adaptable and available from the Design Museum Shop.

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

Those asked to select their favourite or most iconic design of the last 25 years for 25/25 - Celebrating 25 Years of Design (exhibition opens 29 March) include Maarten Baas, Mario Bellini, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Terence Conran, matali crasset, Ilse Crawford, James Dyson, Stefano Giovannoni, Konstantin Grcic, Gitta Gschwendtner, Martì Guixé, Jaime Hayon, Sam Hecht, John Hegarty, Gill Hicks, Matthew Hilton, James Irvine, John Maeda, David Mellor, Jasper Morrison, Dieter Rams, Richard and Ab Rogers, Richard Seymour and Dick Powell, Paul Smith and Deyan Sudjic.

Book tickets for 25/25 - Celebrating 25 Years of the Design Museum.

Sunday – 4, 11, 18 + 25 March 2pm – 5pm
Green Machines
Inspired by the exhibition Luigi Colani: Translating Nature, young vehicle designers are invited to road test their creativity to design and make their own organically designed model trucks, cars, motorbikes and go-carts.

Formula One - The Great Design Race, designed by Studio Myerscough, wins the Design Week award for best temporary exhibition against stiff competition. According to the judging panel Formula One at the Design Museum was 'felt to have just the right amount of technology and gloss to woo racing fans and novices alike.'

The shortlist:
London College of Fashion Graduate Show 2006 by Moving Brands
Speak to Me by Mode and 6A Architects for Dalton Maag
Tate Modern Interactive Zones by Ab Rogers Design
Puma International Charity Tram by GBH
Flos Architectural Frankfurt and Flos Architectural Milan by GBH
Dan Flavin:Dedications by Ico Design Consultancy for the Hayward Gallery

We would like to find out more about you and what you think about us in order to improve the museum and its services.

Please help us by taking a few minutes to fill in this survey which will take no more than 10 minutes.

Audiences London is conducting this research on the Design Museum's behalf so all the information you give will be treated confidentially, will not be passed to a third party and will not identify you in any way.

As a way of saying thank you for completing the survey, you can choose to enter your name into a prize draw to win £100 Amazon vouchers.

Click here to take part.

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Luigi Colani is one of the great mavericks of 20th Century design. Born in Berlin in 1928, with an art school training supplemented by studies in aerodynamics, he began his career working in the car industry. The king of customisers, Colani developed his own baroque idiom of boldly sculptured forms that spilled from cars to aircraft, and then into furniture and industrial objects. From 1982 he began to work in Japan, and his swooping sculpted forms transformed among other products, cameras for Canon, and headphones for Sony.

Luigi Colani: Translating Nature will be the first exhibition of Colani’s work in Britain.

Creating titles for early James Bond films and Rolling Stones album sleeves, the graphic designer and film-maker Robert Brownjohn was responsible for many of the most memorable images of the 1960s.

Audacious though Brownjohn’s work could be - from his title sequences for the Bond films Goldfinger and From Russia With Love, to print for the fashionable Robert Fraser Gallery - it was refined by the quality of his ideas and inspired juxtapositions of type and image. Robert Brownjohn’s subtle understanding of modern design was matched only by his raging appetite for modern life.

This exhibition, designed last year by Alan Fletcher, displays Brownjohn's simple execution of brilliant graphic ideas and offers visitors a great deal to admire in the work of these two designers.

In its closing weeks, don’t miss your last chance to view the work of one of the most influential figures in British graphic design. On Friday 16th February 2007 see acclaimed exhibition Alan Fletcher - fifty years of graphic work (and play) in the first of our late night openings (till 10pm). Take advantage of reduced ticket prices when the doors open at 6.45pm and enjoy the other activities taking place throughout the evening.
Tickets £5, available on the door.

We plan to have more late night openings which will include our Script debates so watch this space for regular updates on future events!

Alan Fletcher - fifty years of graphic work (and play) until 18 February. Open daily 10am - 5.45pm, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Closed Christmas Eve from 1.30pm.

One of the most influential figures in British graphic design, Alan Fletcher co-founded Fletcher/Forbes/Gill in the 1960s and Pentagram in the 1970s. He created iconic brand identities for clients such as Pirelli and the V&A and transformed book design in his role as consultant art editor to Phaidon Press with his spirited, witty and very personal style. To mark the donation of the Fletcher archive to its collection, the Design Museum presents his first retrospective including his commercial work for Penguin, Reuters and Shell, alongside more personal projects in lettering, collage and illustration.

There is no perfect chair' declares the designer Martino Gamper, who has been making a chair a day in a bid to make 100 chairs in 100 days.

Using a stock pile of discarded and donated chairs, in Confronting the Chair, Gamper creates his new chairs from elements of existing ones. By deconstructing the chair he gains a new insight into its construction and use of materials which informs the creation of the new design. The process is immediate, spontaneous like sketching in three dimensions. These chairs are displayed in the Design Museum alongside some selected by Gamper from the Design Museum collection.

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2005 presents the 32 titles short-listed for the Swiss Federal Office of Culture’s annual award in 2005.

The display in the café focuses on the competition and the work of Swiss-born designer, Laurent Benner, who, for the last three years, has been commissioned to design the catalogue to celebrate the winning titles. Working closely with Jon Hares, the pair has designed a publication which skilfully uses the printers and papers found in the winning books, enabling the reader to experience Swiss book design at first hand, giving a genuine insight into the breadth and quality of the designers, printers, bookbinders, photographers, illustrators and paper suppliers currently working across Switzerland today.

This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture.

The Design Museum Shop announces two late night shopping evenings on 19 and 20 December 2006. Choose from an exciting selection of products by the world’s leading designers including Alvar Aalto, Ettore Sottsass, Tord Boontje, Timorous Beasties and Marc Newson. This is a perfect opportunity to find a lastminute present for a design-conscious friend, as well as quirky stocking fillers, design cards and wrapping paper.

Adding to the festive atmosphere, the Design Museum Café will be serving Konditor & Cook mince pies and fragrant mulled wine, while musical entertainment will be provided by a magical marionette performance. Design Museum members receive a 10% discount at the Design Museum Shop and Café.

Visitors on both evenings will be offered the chance to view the current Design Museum exhibitions – Alan Fletcher: fifty years of graphic work (and play), Design Mart and Designing Modern Britain – at a reduced entry fee of £4 on admission between 6pm and 9pm. This will also be an opportunity to view the new exhibition Confronting the Chair – Martino Gamper.

Alan Fletcher (1931-2006) was among the most influential figures in the history of British graphic design. Co-founder of Fletcher/Forbes/Gill in the 1960’s and Pentagram in the 1970s, he created enduring graphic schemes including the identities of Reuters and the V&A. More recently in his role as Creative Director of Phaidon Press he had a major impact on book design. To mark the donation of Fletcher’s archive to its collection, the Design Museum will present the first retrospective of his work Alan Fletcher: fifty years of graphic work (and play) from 11 November 2006 to 18 February 2007.

As Creative Director of Phaidon since 1994, Fletcher set high design standards for the company’s books, with such bestselling titles as The Art Book, and The Silver Spoon. He has also told his personal design philosophy in his own publications including, in 2001, The Art of Looking Sideways. Phaidon published Alan Fletcher: Picturing and Poeting in November 2006.

The Design Museum today (26 October 2006) announces its programme of exhibitions for 2007. Under the new directorship of Deyan Sudjic, the upcoming exhibitions will span a broad range of design disciplines including product design, industrial design, architecture, fashion and graphics.

Highlights for the year include: Zaha Hadid – Architecture and Design, the first full scale show of Hadid’s work in the UK and the largest project undertaken by the Design Museum; Luigi Colani – Translating Nature, which will bring together Colani’s extraordinary large scale prototypes including aircraft, trucks and cars, as well as his streamlined furniture and product design; a celebration of ten years of Matthew Williamson in fashion, a unique success story of the British fashion industry, focusing on the key designs that have shaped Williamson’s career; and The Art of War, which will explore the ways in which innovation and design have worked through history in the extremis of war. The exhibition programme also includes monograph exhibitions on innovative British graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook and Ettore Sottsass, doyen of Italian design, as well as the Design Museum’s annual exhibition of new talent, Design Mart, which will relaunch in September 2007.

“We are working on a programme that looks at the whole range of what design can be – monograph shows on major figures like Sottsass and Hadid, as well as exhibitions that offer a spring board for young talent”, says Deyan Sudjic, “We want to bring together fashion, graphics, product design, and architecture, and show that they have a place at the heart of contemporary culture.”

The Design Museum will showcase the next generation of design stars in Design Mart, an annual survey of emerging designers from 20 September 2006 to 7 January 2007. As part of the Design Museum’s commitment to nurturing design talent, the exhibition will open during the London Design Festival, enabling the designers to showcase their work to industry and the media during a period in which the design world descends on London.

Among the designers who will participate in Design Mart 2006 are Viable, a London-based collective of lighting and product designers, the design partnership &made whose Climatised Objects address issues of world climate change and natural disaster, and Max Lamb whose design process draws on the physical landscape of his native Cornwall. Product designer Nadine Jarvis will exhibit her poetic cremation urns and bird feeders and Peter Marigold will install his temporary shelving solutions – Make/Shift and Prop. Philip Worthington, working with sophisticated light projection and computer technology, will offer visitors interactive and surreal “living” Shadow Monsters, while Tim Simpson will unveil his Natural Deselection project that plays on notions of Darwinian selection in the plant world.