PDT London Trip

In March we had the privilege of visiting London as a year group. 

During the trip we visited places such as the Design Museum, the Brand Museum, the V&A, and Heatherwick's Studio.

I had never been to London previous to this trip and i had an amazing time. There was design in every corner, from the architecture and even the seamless design on the tube system.

Over the course of the trip we were told to be observant. I collected images of fashion in the various exhibits we went to and compiled them in a collage for the Micro and Macro task.

The costuming at the Wes Anderson exibit was my favourite part of this task. In the collage there are the images of clothes on mannequins against a red background. The Brand Museum also has a lot of period fashion which was interesting to see. Some of it was in illustrations, graphics and others had the real pieces on mannequins.

My favourite day in London was the Thursday - the third day. In the morning, we went to Heatherwick Studio. Heatherwick Studio is a London-based design and architecture studio founded in 1994 by Thomas Heatherwick. The studio is known for working across multiple disciplines like architecture, urban design, product design, and public installations, rather than focusing only on traditional buildings. It is based in London, and they also have a studio in Shanghai. The Heatherwick Studio has grown into a team of over 250 designers, architects, engineers, and makers internationally.

We got a tour of the studio where they explained some of their most notable projects, accompanied by scale models. My personal favourite was the London bus design.

I love this design because of the sleek continuous glass going from the bottom left corner, that cuts diagonally across the rear of the bus and continues straight along the side for the passenger windows.

The interior features dark red walls with the stairs looking like they were carved into the space.

After visiting the Heatherwick Studio, it was so exciting to see these buses driving around London. It’s amazing to see that a design with so much thought and intent behind it ends up blending into the background for everyday use. For me, that’s what a good design is.

After Heatherwick’s, we visited Central Saint Martins College. 

We got a tour of their industrial design studios, and it was cool to see the differences between our own studio and theirs, as I’ve never seen another product design studio before. 

I found that it was similar to UL, but amplified to accommodate a larger number of students. I also felt that there was less of an emphasis on CAD and more on physical making. I loved that they had an entire library dedicated to art and design books, which is something I think we are lacking here at UL. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures there as we weren’t allowed, but the building lent itself to a collaborative work process between students in different courses in the ‘street’ – the lobby area where different ongoing projects would be exhibited.

Following Central Saint Martins, we went to Camden Market which, personally, wasn’t for me. However, it was nice to look around the shops and see the different types of fashion and clothing for my Micro Macro task.

To finish the day, I took a personal excursion to visit my friend in Stratford. He is currently studying at the London College of Fashion and gave me a tour of his building.

Similar to Central Saint Martins, there were open studio spaces for fashion design and a library with books purely focused on its discipline – fashion and business.

This was my perfect day in London. A day of sunny Weather, learning about design, visiting an old friend, and opening my eyes up to different design disciplines.

Sources: Heatherwick Studio