Behind the Design

If you enjoyed this week's episode and want to know more about Tom Higham and his wealth of experience within the Arts community, have a listen to this audio extra from Episode 5!

It’s one thing to understand the potential of art to impact our everyday lives, its quite another to provide the drive to make it happen. As an Arts Professional, Tom Higham facilitates festivals, art projects and events. His role is to link us, the audience, with the art. It’s an arts organisation’s job, he says, to find something that we can connect to.By his own admission, he coasted through education until the combination of dead-end job and volunteering at film festivals provided the lightbulb moment. After a Masters in Cultural Management, his career rapidly evolved as he worked with artists, developers, designers, arts organisations and policy makers all over the world to curate and produce ambitious artworks and creative projects. Most recently, and closer to home for us, he’s taking on the role of Creative Director at York Mediale. He says: ‘’I am interested in the enabling power of digital technology, and inspired by well-considered, simple and effective ideas and artworks.’’ Ideal, then, for the Mediale with its strapline ‘’Art, Meet the Future.’’It’s through York’s 2018 Mediale that Tom’s and Stage One’s paths first crossed. Sitting between us and the artists whose work we help to create, we were interested to find out more about his role, perspective and thoughts on working in the creative industries. We’re joined in this episode by Mediale Chair, Tim Leigh, who also happens to be Stage One’s Sales and Marketing Director. LinksTom Higham York Mediale 2018York, UNESCO City of Media Arts York Guild of Media Arts Elliot Woods – Kimchi and Chips Memo Akten Jeremy Dellar

If you enjoyed this week's episode and want to know more about John Everiss and his years of experience with the RHS, have a listen to this audio extra from Episode 4!

John Everiss’s career is testimony to where deliberately contradicting a sibling can get you. Noticing his creative talent, his sister suggested a career in illustration. So John chose farming. The choice eventually paid off as lured back to more artistic endeavours, the well-rounded outdoor practical skills created the perfect balance for a multi RHS gold-medal-winning Garden Designer.This role, however, does not paint the full picture. John also turns his hand to sculpture, creating pieces imbued with strong narratives, often made in collaboration with charities. These pieces not only connect with people but allow them, in turn, to tell their stories. ‘’Sculpture,’’ he says, ‘’is a terrific tool to tell a powerful story.’’ His recent D-Day 75 garden, complete with ghostly figures struggling through the waves, is the perfect illustration. Installed at 2019’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, John then moved the garden lock, stock and barrel to the cliff top at Arromanches, over-looking Gold Beach. Here, it continues to commemorate those who took part in the Normandy Landings, while giving visitors the chance to pause, reflect and learn.We’ve worked with John on a number of projects for RHS Chelsea and knew there’d be plenty more stories to tell. We chatted to him at his home in Lancashire on a very wet afternoon. Perfect weather to catch up with a hands-on Garden Designer.LinksJohn Everiss Design D-Day Revisited, The D-Day 75 GardenBritish Army video from ArromanchesMeningitis Now Futures GardenMyeloma UK GardenWillow Garden project

If you enjoyed this week's episode and want to know more about Michael Eden and his fascinating career, have a listen to this audio extra from Episode 3!

You might think the worlds of pottery and 3D printing are poles apart yet for Michael Eden, the same thought processes are hard at work for both. Starting out on an Industrial Design course at Leeds Polytechnic, he spent years working as a potter making functional ceramics for galleries and retailers. It was the desire to create a website for this family-run business that gave rise to his fascination with the creative possibilities of code and a subsequent MPhil at the Royal College of Art.His website describes his work as ‘’sitting at the intersection of craft, design and art.’’ Potter’s wheel, pencil or code: all are valid tools and each has its place. Using computers and 3D printers, however, has freed Michael from physical constraints and given him an exciting medium with which to imbue his work with layers of narrative. When you look at a Michael Eden piece, all is not as as it seems: there is a wealth of surprises in all that detail! His career has taken him from Blackburn, where looking out over roof-tops triggered his love of design, pattern, colour and texture; to Boston where he spent last summer on a residency exploring the possibilities of ceramic 3D printing. The team at Fluxaxis, Stage One’s sister company, have been lucky enough to work with Michael and last year produced eighteen 3D printed pieces for his exhibition ‘Form & Transform’. Jake Augur, Fluxaxis Production Manager, joins the conversation which took place at Michael’s studio in the South Lakes. LinksMichael Eden: MakerWaddesdon Manor, ‘Form & Transform’Waddesdon Manor VideoFluxaxis ‘Form & Transform’

If you enjoyed this week's episode and want to know more about Paul Bonomini and his extraordinary works, have a listen to this audio extra from Episode 2!LinksWEEE man at The Eden Project

There can’t be many people whose careers mirror that of Paul Bonomini. As a multi-disciplinary designer, his output includes theatre sets, live events, conferences, visitor experiences, exhibitions and large-scale public sculptures. Paul is still developing and adding to his wide range of skills. His current focus lies in what, at first sight, appear to be opposite ends of the creative spectrum: bronze casting and 3D printing; yet his love of process, materials and getting his hands dirty are evident throughout his work, whatever the medium.From an Art Foundation at St Martin’s School of Art, then Theatre Design at Central St Martin’s, Paul has amassed decades of experience throughout both the entertainment and arts industries. More recently, he’s been drawn back to sculpture and last year exhibited his piece, ‘Deconstructed Cube Form 1’ at Venice Biennale. That particular title gives us a clue as to Paul’s interests: spatial relationships, hidden structures and visceral reactions. We’ve had the pleasure of working with Paul on many projects over the years including car launches, a whisky visitor experience, touring shows and public art pieces. We knew he’d make for interesting conversation!LinksRoyal Society of Sculptors Paul Bonomini Design Paul Bonomini Sculpture Morley CollegeThe WEEE Man

If you heard this week's episode you might be interested to learn more about Jo Fairfax and his fascinating work, and life.Have a listen to this audio extra from Episode 1!

Like the playful, participatory work he produces, Jo Fairfax defies categorisation. In fact, he isn’t keen on categorisation at all: ‘’I feel unsettled by the classifications of whatever, whether it is sculpture or architecture or art or design’’ he told Blueprint magazine back in 2011.That said, we hope he doesn’t mind if we say his work encompasses a fascinating mix of public art installations, holograms, sculpture, architectural and sculptural lighting, automata and interactive objects. Fascinated by nature and technology in equal measure, his work gently nudges us to respond, turning us from observers to participants by presenting us with the unexpected.Initially trained in sculpture, Jo has also studied holography at the Royal College of Art, undertaken an international residency at the Holocentre in New York and been awarded a NESTA Dream Time Award to develop his ideas into virtual reality. Committed to collaboration and excited by the potential of working with a range of different experts, he likes to work in ‘flexible clusters’, rolling teams of different skill sets and expertise.We were lucky enough to work with Jo on ‘Intersection’, a location and time-specific light sculpture in Leeds. We wondered if he might be up for a chat and luckily for us, he was. Episode 1 Links:Jo Fairfax StudioLine of LightTea Driven AutomataLighting of the London 2012 Olympic CauldronHeatherwick Studio 2012 Olympic CauldronIntersectionJo’s Vimeo Channel