Category: DES

DES is developing eye-catchingly good looking fountains for the contemporary age. So here’s Dixon, a minty-fresh fountain designed & built by Simon Harlow & Lewis Harley, founders of Mirrl of Glasgow, & keen fountaineers.

DES presents three talks . . . we debate new ideas, explore new materials, take a look at the current design landscape & imagine a brighter future. Our first conversation, Design in Postnormal Times with celebrated academic Alice Twemlow, is now available online.

Recent graduate, Catriona Brown had long thought the ubiquitous plastic tree protector was a blot on the landscape, so she set out to design an alternative. Here Catriona tells the story of Shroom, her newly designed tree protector made of mycelium.

DES EDIT & SHOP brings word of the new Creative Spaces at Marchmont House, upcoming funded residencies at Cove Park & awards from QEST. And exceptional objects to buy . . here’s Urpflanza, a new lighting project inspired by brilliant brassicas.

DES signposts interesting things to see & do.

Contemporary horology is flourishing . . Scotland’s watchmakers Paulin, Instrmnt & anOrdain are making sure that time still moves, beautifully. Watch enthusiast James Hall celebrates the tick & the tock.

Archie Brennan was arguably the most inventive tapestry weaver of the 20th century. Here designer, Beca Lipscombe celebrates his work & spearheads a fundraising campaign lead by Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios and the Art Fund, to present a show of Brennan’s work. Summer 2020

‘Our fingertips contain a density of nerve endings and their differentiation is almost comparable to our eyes . . ’
educator & artist Stuart Bennett explores touch in our new touch-adverse era. Summer 2020

Episode Four – Bute Fabrics, its history and very contemporary collaborations with artists & designers including most recently, Ilana Halperin. Helen Voce reports from the island set in the Firth of Clyde

Kate Morgan writes about the process and practice of chair caning, and how this newly-learnt skill is offering sound, rhythm and vision within a quiet, lockdown Glasgow interior. Spring 2020

Thanks to support from Outset Contemporary Art Fund through their Outset Transformative Grant, Inverleith House, which sits at the heart of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, is to be transformed in to Climate House. Emma Nicolson tells us more.