Exhibitions
Attending an international design exhibition such as ‘New Designers’ or ‘100% Design’ (London), ‘Greenhouse’ (Stockholm), or ‘SaloneSatellite’ (Milan) is an opportunity to gather an immense amount of information, understand current trends, and also confirm your instincts, feelings and thinking. Such events allow and encourage a cultural sharing of ideas and thoughts, and often signify the instigation or rejection of a trend.
Influence
Can it be done?
Opportunities to ask questions and engage in meaningful dialogue about practical and philosophical aspects of design are abundant. The senses are allowed to run riot, as triggers are continually stimulated. Visual statements are constantly invited and unconscious thoughts are prompted to emerge. Methods of production are frequently challenged and configurations, which may not have been considered plausible, are allowed to take centre stage. Exhibitions are theatre, a visual swatch that attracts and compels, and a performance that relays a myriad of contrasting messages.
The items that are exhibited are of primary importance, but to look around and absorb the peripheral considerations is also creatively beneficial. Compositions and moods that are generated act as secondary triggers and reinforce the predominant visual accents. To explore, wander, and keep an open mind, striking up conversations with the designers, makers and producers, feeds an important mental catalogue. All the experiences and references that are encountered will almost certainly be resurrected in some capacity in the future and be deemed invaluable.