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ANTARCTICA

"We stepped out of the cluttered fuselage into the blinding and eternal light of the ice of Mc Murdo Sound.  Mountains faded in lesser shades of blue into limitless distance.  Unmistakable Mount Erebus dominated the area with its whiff of volcanic steam."

"The Haglund lurched across the vast white stretched space of frozen sea, stopping often to check cracks in the ice.  Sometimes we had to drill the ice to see if it was thick enough to cross, and if not get down heavy timber spans."

"Both huts have been miraculously preserved.  In my mind I couldn’t help hearing that moment as the men departed, grabbing a few last things, and bustling out to slam the door on 100 years silence."

"We descended into a transcendent blue world, an attenuated needle eye 50 metres high and barely wide enough for our feet at the base.  Once again I was struck by the paradox of frozen stillness amidst such massive moving forces – the stretched out timescale I wished I could speed up to witness."

"Our helicopter traversed the Koettlitz glacier as it sweeps down over the sea, its surface a constantly changing miracle of patterns and colours, of brilliant blue meltpools, cracked white frost domes, traceries of black volcanic sand, and white snowdrifts.  I cried for all beauty out there in our world that is never seen, when so much ugliness constantly assaults us."

Every year Antarctica New Zealand takes two creative people down to the ice.  This year David has been selected.  His project aims to use Antarctica as a reference point for the development of a sustainable design ethic : how do we feel about the objects we surround ourselves with in a survival situation?  He believes that designers should take full responsibility for the products they create -- their manufacture, their use, and ultimately their disposal.  See Structures for Survival

He spent 12 days in December at New Zealand's Scott Base in the McMurdo Sound area.  Next year he will produce a new body of work, provisionally titled 'Design from Antarctica.'

Heartfelt gratitude to Antarctica NZ, Creative NZ and the staff of Scott Base for their support.

See also www.antarcticanz.govt.nz

PUBLIC LECTURE AT THE MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND, TE PAPA, Thursday October 21st, 7.00pm

DESIGN FOR SURVIVAL is a talk about how some designers have lost touch with the reality of living and instead have sold out to corporate greed, designing wasteful objects for mass consumption.  The need to persuade the consumer to buy more and more products ignores the profligate use of dwindling resources, and the destruction of our planet by pollution and global warming.  Maybe designers should sign an ethical code, much like the doctors' hippocratic oath?

VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM SUMMER WORKSHOP

David has been asked to lead one of the summer workshops at Boisbuchet in France that are run jointly by the Vitra Design Museum and the Pompidou Centre.  The workshop runs from 22.08 - 28.08.04. Also teaching this week are the Campana brothers from Brazil, and Claesson, Koivisto and Rune from Sweden.

More details: www.boisbuchet.com

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The New Zealand Design Space in their private gallery at Via Goito, 3 in the Brera district of Milan during the International Furniture Fair 2004.

The exhibition featured three New Zealand design companies: David, Simon James Design and Purple South. It was very well attended by retailers, specifiers and journalists.  On the second night there was an 'opening' party and the gallery was packed with an enthusiastic crowd.  Antipodean accents mingled with Italian and German.  Salmonella Dub and Fat Freddy rocked while NZ wines wines set off the taste of NZ green lipped mussels.  Rugged images of New Zealand landscape alternated with elegant furniture designs on the large screen at the back.

Afterwards Gilda Bodjardi of Interni magazine cited the NZ Design Space as one of the most inspiring influences of creativity in the entire Milan fair, alongside Marcel Wanders, Fabio Novembre.

Boffi have started manufacturing David's Sling under license and this could be seen at Boffi Solferino around the corner from Via Goito.

David is now being represented in Europe by Emily Knight Collections which is based in Milan -- see the links page for contact details.

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CHINESE CONFERENCE

An international design conference was recently held in Dongguan (Guangdong province) and David was an invited guest speaker.  He travelled to China in September and spoke about how design can be used to give a product commercial advantage.

DESIGNING FUTURES

In June David returned to Perth in Western Australia to work with the Designing Futures programme run by CraftWest.  He gave a number of seminars and lectures in Perth and the Albany area.  Go to the Links page for the Designing Futures link to find out more.

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David and Ruth (with Linda Trubridge) in their third and final showing in Salone Satellite at the Milan Furniture Fair.  Ruth's five light wands are flanked by David's 'Dondola' recliner and 'Arc' bench seat.

Visitor numbers were well down this year, and the general feeling was of low expectations and "hanging in there".  However, David was still able to expand his presence in Europe with some useful contacts for sales and manufacture.  For the second year running the Abitare daily magazine picked a design by David (this time 'Arc') in their pre-show review of the best things to look out for this year in Milan.  The DesignBoom calender featured David + Body Raft as the November picture.  And once again David was selected for the newly released International Design Yearbook with 'Sling'.

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At the 2002 Designers Institute of NZ Best Awards ceremony, Sling was nominated the joint winner in the product/furniture category.  The judges' comment:

"Sling can be justifiably described as iconic, elegant and resonant with the qualities of great technical skill and great design.  It has echoes of a Pacific ethos with the simplicity of form that belies the intellect and skill required to create it."

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In July Peter Webb, Fine art Auctioneers in Auckland, held their first auction of contemporary New Zealand design.   One of David's Body Rafts was sold to a local Art dealer for about NZ$13,000 (plus 12.5% premium).  The New Zealand Herald called this a record price for contemporary NZ design.  This is a five fold increase in little over a year -- contemporary design has to be a good investment!

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In April 2002 David returned to Milan to exhibit again in Salone Satellite with Pacific Edge.  He showed three new designs, Sling, Flip and a Lamp.  Two of these, Sling and the Lamp, have now been taken up by Cappellini for manufacture.  There were a number of other manufacturers very interested in Sling.

But this year his work was also on display elsewhere in Milan -- Cappellini had his Body Raft in Superstudio Piu and in their catalogue.  They had already displayed it in the Cologne Furniture Fair in January to critical acclaim.  And he had a Rocker design (Glide) included in the Designboom Rocker competition nominated shortlist at Sotheby's.

Once again, press coverage was very good, including Interni, Abitare (monthly), Wallpaper, the Financial Times and Raum und Wohnen among others.  In its show preview, the daily Abitare picked out the Body Raft as one of the best designs in Milan to look out for.  There was a designer profile and photo in Spazio Casa ("Return to Nature") and even a cartoon of the Body Raft in Mood magazine (above, courtesy of Luca ).

In April David exhibited in Salone Satellite which is part of the Milan Furniture Fair (Salone Internazionale del Mobile). He joined up with Ruth McDermott and Ede Wong, both from Sydney Australia, to form the group 'Pacific Edge.' Salone Satellite is in one of the pavilions of the enormous commercial fair. It aims to show the latest in "avant-garde" design by independent designers.

It was enormously successful: Pacific Edge's stand was judged one of the three runners-up in the Satellite Design Report awards. One of the judges was Tom Dixon, who is now products manager for 'Habitat', and he indicated that Habitat would like to stock the Body Raft.

There were many Italian manufacturers looking round Satellite for new products. A number of them expressed interest in the Body Raft, and currently David is negotiating a contract with Cappellini for the Body Raft to be manufactured under license in Italy. More information on this soon.

Durng the six day show, Pacific Edge gave out 77 press kits to journalists from 24 different countries, so watch out for lots of coverage in the international design press.

Members of the American Furniture Society invited David to be a guest speaker at their annual conference in Toronto in June 2000. His illustrated talk was called 'The Navigator'. It traced his journey -- both metaphorical and physical -- as a designer/maker, and related it to influences and experiences he encountered along the way.

He also worked for a week as Artist-in-Residence at nearby Sheridan College in the run up to the conference. He demonstrated the construction process of his new smaller garden bench seat 'Raft' (click on thumbnail for more information). This uses the 3M 'Jetweld' system and the presentation was very generously sponsored by 3M.

David has recently returned from Europe where he exhibited work at 100% Design and the Chelsea Craft Fair, both in London.

At 100% Design he was part of LOOP, a group of New Zealand designer/makers. There was an incredibly positive response to the Body Raft (click on thumbnail for more information), with a number of people even saying they thought it was the best thing in the show. Press from all over Europe requested an image. And an Italian manufacturer is interested in producing a commercial version if David can simplify the design. Following an invitation, he visited their factory near Milan.

Miilan 2004

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