Category: designer desire

Designer Desire: William Plunkett

Montage of William Plunkett furniture designs

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/15/william-plunkett

William Plunkett (1928 – 2013) was born in India, moving to Britain in 1946 to join the Royal Artillery. After leaving the army in 1959, he attended Kingston School of Art to study basic design, furniture design and sculpture. After a stint working for A. and R. Duckworth Ltd (Aidron Duckworth had been a tutor at college), he founded William Plunkett Ltd in 1963. By 1977, he had sold William Plunkett Ltd to Giroflex, setting up Plunkett Plan Ltd the following year.

His upmarket designs retailed in department stores such as Heal’s and Liberty. His modernist pieces furnished embassies and leisure, business and retail outlets; including IBM, Russell & Bromley, Clarks, Ravel, Peter Lord and a bar on the QE2.

He was a multiple winner of Council of Industrial Design (CoID) awards. He won twice in 1968 for his Reigate rocking chair (seen top left in the above montage) and his Coulsdon coffee table (bottom right).

Reflecting on his long career, he revealed:

My generation of designers were idealists. We really believed we could make a difference to Britain by producing well-designed products.

Vintage examples of Plunkett’s furniture designs are available on 1stDibs and Etsy. Alternatively, twentytwentyone have reissued some of his designs.

Portrait of William Plunkettcredit

Additional image credits:
Artnet | Bonhams | Bukowskis |

Designer Desire: Yinka Ilori

Montage of Yinka Illori designs

Here’s an uplifting riot of colour to brighten your mood! It’s all brought to you courtesy of the British Nigerian artist and designer, Yinka Ilori.

He has collaborated widely – on outdoor public art, indoor décor, fashion, sport and homeware projects; working with numerous partners including Meta, The Conran Shop, Selfridges the V&A, the Red Cross and Lick. He’s been very busy of late.

Ilori is currently the official Artist in Residence for Heart of Hale, a new mixed use property project in London. During his residency, he’ll create a range of designs from permanent street furniture to temporary wall art. He has an upcoming exhibition at the Design Museum in summer 2022. A range of Fitflop footwear decorated with his signature designs is being launched in the summer. He received an MBE in 2021.

Shop his work on his web shop and check out more of his eye-popping work on his Insta.

(Nigeria) influences my work through my colour palette, my love of patterns and traditional Nigerian embellishments. It also influences my work through my use of traditional Nigerian folklore, which turns into words of wisdom that’s embedded within my design. My British heritage is also mixed in with my use of minimalistic lines and silhouettes, which is then mixed with my very loud and expressive use of colour, which comes from my Nigerian heritage. There’s a mixture of different influences that shaped me and made me the designer I am today. via Luxury London

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Designer Desire: Richard Shimell

Montage of Richard Shimell artworks

Portrait of Richard Shimellcredit

This week, I saw a tree linocut print created by Richard Shimell which I loved so much I went in search of more of his work.

We have an absolutely huge sycamore tree in our front garden that we take pleasure in observing on an almost daily basis. We see the way it ebbs and flows with the seasons – its bare-branched silhouette in the winter; the array of birds and insects that use it for food, nesting and shelter in the spring; the auburn leaves and whirligigs carpeting the ground beneath in the autumn. His studies remind me of this reassuring, annual cycle; the trees are the stars of the show!

Here he is giving a little insight into his practice:

I started printmaking late in life. After a career in journalism, I joined the Dartington Print Workshop as a complete beginner in 2010. It was a steep learning curve, but I stuck at it and eventually started selling my prints. I became a member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in 2016.
I live in a wooded landscape on the edge of Dartmoor, so am lucky enough to be surrounded by trees. I have a small studio at home with my own Hawthorn press.
I’m drawn to the simplicity of silhouettes and the complexity of branches. I enjoy all stages of the making process, from drawing to carving to printing.
I also make books, using my prints on the covers and enjoy experimenting with other forms of printmaking, including drypoint, collagraph and etching on lino.

You can purchase his works on his own website and select galleries in Devon, Cornwall, North Yorkshire, Norfolk, The Lake District and others.

Designer Desire: Peter Guggenbühler

Selection of Peter Guggenbühler ceramic designs for Altenstadt

Sometimes, it’s when you’re researching something completely unrelated that a titbit of information comes your way!

That was the case when I discovered that it was Peter Guggenbühler (1928-2007) who was responsible for the series of porcelain decanters for Altenkunstadt that we sold in the past (shown at the top of our montage above).

As well as the decanters, he designed the Das Variabile range of stylised animal figures. They each have detachable stained wood and ceramic eyes and each was given a name:

  • AJAX & BEJAX
  • Lion – “Zottl”
  • Alligator – “Fafnir”
  • Rabbit – “Guggi”
  • Owl – “Huhu”
  • Snail – Schlurf”
  • Frog – “Herr Q”
  • Cat – “Killer”
  • Hippo – “Hippo”
  • Crow – Krah”

In addition he has created vases, wall plaques and small-scale sculptures.

In 2014, there was a posthumous exhibition of his work at Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was entitled “Vom Umgang mit Porzellan, Elefanten und anderen Kreaturen – der Keramiker Peter Guggenbühler” which roughly translates as “The handling of porcelain, elephants and other creatures – the ceramist Peter Guggenbühler”. Here’s how the marketing material described it:

In its spring exhibition, the Staufen Ceramics Museum commemorates Peter Guggenbühler (1928-2008), who, after initial successes in Saarbrücken, returned to his hometown of Karlsruhe in 1961 and was one of the most respected representatives of his field in Baden-Württemberg in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Of course he didn’t behave like the proverbial elephant in a china shop, he loved the material too much for that. But he has thoroughly confused the expectations associated with porcelain. Instead of pleasing figures, he has all sorts of bizarre creatures that are clearly descended from elephants, crocodiles, rats and various horned and antlered animals, but which clearly show human traits and behaviour.
In addition to small sculptures, Guggenbühler created reliefs and tiles in which he opened up other venues for human comedy, such as theatres and pulpits. An artist with exuberant imagination who is worth rediscovering!

Check Etsy for items occasionally popping up for sale.