Photo by Halima O.
Last Thursday the first ever Creative Review tweetup took place at London’s Design Museum. As Amelia had so many other engagments – what with it being both London Fashion Week and the London Design Festival – she asked me to report back on how things went.
A twitter mashup, page photo by ShantyUK.
I’ve been tweeting for Creative Review for about sixteen months now, and it’s always been obvious that there’s a community made up of a particular type of creative person that uses the network; generally the friendly type keen to share news of things that interest them. The tweetup was a chance for them to come together, no matter what their creative discipline, but the bulk of guests comprised illustrators and graphic designers.
Collaborative doodles. Photo by ShantyUK.
Proceedings kicked off at seven in the Museum’s lobby, with guests enjoying a free drink courtesy of the only commercial sponsor of the evening. The Design Museum had kept its shop open and a cash bar was operating too. The event was partnered by Moleskine and the LEGO group, and as well as the drink, on arrival each guest received a little CR branded Moleskine sketchbook.
Collaborative doodling.
Activities started with a bit of sketching too. There was a ‘never-ending’ 2 x 8 metre roll of 200gsm sketchpaper covering a large square table that fit about a dozen people around it, and a load of fibre-tipped pens, pencils and charcoal for filling it up with scribble. Several people seemed to spend most of the night immersed in this one activity, but they missed out on the rest of what the museum had to offer. After a couple of drinks, a bit of a chat and a doodle, most went on to explore the rest of the space, arriving first at the impressive BRIT Designs of the Year exhibition, which will soon be coming to an end. As well as featuring some impressive sustainability projects.
Communal LEGO building.
For many, the main event took place on the very top floor of the Museum, in the just opened John Pawson exhibition. This exhibition is one of pristine minimalism, with a beautiful reproduction of a Japanese monastery, a hall-spanning bench made from Douglas fir and a floor embedded with materials product design arranged with as much care and forethought as a feng shui-inspired garden. Very few of the guests would have been able to enjoy this peaceful impression however, as by the time most of the more sociable crowd arrived on the third floor, the space had been taken over by cross-legged adults attempting to build representations of their ideal homes from LEGO.
A LEGO installation.
When it came to the time for me to announce that LEGO play was almost at an end and the evening’s piece de resistance was about to be unveiled, there were more than several looks of disappointment. Still, everyone got to keep the LEGO that they hadn’t made use of, which was not an inconsiderable amount. The final stage of the evening was an impromptu exhibition put together by Creative Review staff that was comprised of individual pieces of work the guests had brought along with them. Here’s a look at some of the work that was done on the night: with photos taken by various attendees.
Illustration by Jitesh Patel. Photo by ShantyUK.
All in all most people seemed to get a kick out of the evening, and there’s been plenty of talk at Creative Review about putting on something similar in the future, perhaps looking north though, to Birmingham, Manchester or Scotland. In the meantime you can follow me on twitter @NeilAyres.
Categories ,Creative Review, ,Design Museum, ,Jitesh Patel, ,John Pawson, ,Lego, ,Moleskine, ,Neil Ayres, ,ShantyUK, ,Tweetup, ,twitter
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