Keeping it local: PDD at the London Design Festival 2013 | PDD

Keeping it local: PDD at the London Design Festival 2013

By PDD

on September 11 2013

The Creative Matrix is filled with brightly-coloured sticky notes as the PDD LDF team furiously sketched ideas for what we could do with the impressive 1,200 square feet of gallery space on Redchurch street. At last year’s LDF, over three days, we ran 2-hour Human-Centred Design (HCD) taster sessions in a small gallery space on Redchurch Street. This year, we secured a gallery three times the size for seven days-and we wanted to make the most of it.


Creative matrix, PDD

As we discussed the ideas on the Creative Matrix (one of the tools we use and teach regularly to guide and inspire idea generation), a couple of themes began to emerge, including the role culture plays in design both globally and locally. A few weeks earlier at a company outing in East London, we learned about graffiti and street artists from our tour guide, Karim Samuels. And we wondered whether we could collaborate with him on a project, combining our knowledge of culture and design in different countries, with his experience of the methods, materials, and moxie of the street artists around the world.

Working with Karim, we’ve created an exhibit exploring the work of graffiti writers and street artists from five cities (New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Sao Paolo and Berlin). And, as we’ll be in the heart of the street art scene in London, Karim will be running specially curated graffiti and street art tours  around East London, exploring how culture and context has influenced graffiti artists.


Karim Samuels graffiti and street art guide, PDD

Another idea that emerged from our idea generation session, was working with Colin Mulberg, who helps create exhibits for organisations like the V&A: we’ve been collaborating with him to design an inviting and informative exhibit. We’ve even delved into the history of Redchurch Street and East London (in the early 90s Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas started their illustrious careers in a humble studio/shop space in the area), to inform the activities we’ll be doing in the HCD taster workshops. But there’s still lots more to do, so back to work for us. We hope you can join us next week at the LDF!

PDD at London Design Festival, 17th-22nd September 2013
The Gallery, 50 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP
#LDF13
#HCDPDD
The graffiti and street art tours are ticketed, book here

Schedule and opening hours:

Tuesday 17th
11am-7pm

Wednesday 18th
11am-7pm
• HCD taster workshop: 3-5pm
• Drinks party: 7pm to late

Thursday 19th
11am-7pm
• HCD taster workshop: 3-5pm
• East London graffiti tour: 6pm

Friday 20th
11am-7pm
• HCD taster workshop: 3-5pm

Saturday 21st
12pm-5pm
• East London graffiti tour: 4pm

Sunday 22nd
12pm-5pm