Castle Cellars
20. 02- 11.03.2001

CAUSE AND EFFECT (Great Britain), design
Jane Atfield, Cottrell Vermeulen, Softroom, 8vo, Sebastian Bergne, Rebecca & Mike, Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, Ian Wright, Julian Opie, Paul Plowman, Robin Day, Lucy Orta, Margaret Calvert, Elizabeth Callinicos, Elspeth Gibson

Lord Sainsbury of Turville, British Minister of Science and Innovation
will open the exhibition on Monday 19th February at 6 p.m. .

Why be a designer? The design education industry in Britain educates far more students in design than will ever find jobs as designers. Britain's limited manufacturing sector increasingly forces product designers overseas. Compared to other service industries, design will rarely make you wealthy and popular fame does not come easily. Despite these facts, applications to design school in Britain are up 150% since 1970.

8vo - Fluxus poster, 1998

Journalist Julia Thrift has rigorously interviewed eighteen British designers about what makes them do it. Among them are Cottrell & Vermeulen, architects responsible for the "Liliput" Portakabin nursery, Jane Atfield, entrepreneurial product designer, and Rebecca Brown and Mike Heath, radical information designers.

Their answers reveal a complex balance of personal creative compulsion with commercial necessity, social ideology and technical possibility. Above all the designers demonstrate their faith in the necessity and power of change

The exhibition sets a piece of work by each designer against his or her professed "motivation" in order for the visitor to judge how successfully the designer fulfils it. The exhibits include products, printed graphics, screen-based design and architectural models.

Cause and Effect displaces the stereotypical image of the designer as an egocentric, sometimes intolerant stylist with an image of an engaged believer in the synthesis of high creative commitment and commercial and social reality. It is a particularly persuasive vehicle for the promotion of design education.

Cause and Effect is co-curated by Julia Thrift, Emily Campbell of the British Council and Lucienne Roberts, graphic designer and co-signatory of the controversial graphic designers' Manifesto published in 1999 which urges designers to re-awaken a sense of the social value and purpose of their work. It is a touring exhibition designed by Roberts and Bob Wilkinson of Sans & Baum with Jerwood Prize-winning furniture designer Michael Marriot.

Julia Thrift, Emily Campbell, Lucienne Roberts

Cottrell & Vermeulen - Architects - Cardboard house model

Cause and Effect: Designers / exhibits

Jane Atfield - Product designer - 3 tea towels
Cottrell & Vermeulen - Architects - Cardboard house model
Softroom - Architects - Kielder Belvedere model + photo
8vo - Grahpic designers - rachunek telefoniczny + Telephone bill + Fluxus poster
Sebasian Bergne - Product designer - Light
Rebecca & Mike - Graphic designers - Micro-G zero gravity model
Nadim Ednan-Laperouse - Toy designers/manufacturers - Toy
Ian Wright - Illustrator - Wax crayon portrait
Julian Opie - Painter - Blur record cover
Paul Plowman - Video artist/animator - Advertising series for Philips on video
Robin Day - Furniture designer - Polyprop chair, 1963
Lucy Orta - Fashion designer/artist - Shelter clothing
Margaret Calvert - Graphic designer - "Children crossing" sign
Elizabeth Callinicos - Jeweller - "Fragile" clothing clip
Elspeth Gibson - Fashion designer - Dress
David Constantine - Wheelchair designer - Child's wheelchair

Programme prepared in co-operation with The British Council