Author and design commentator Max Fraser has reached into his bulging contacts book for a good cause, charging the likes of Tom Dixon, BarberOsgerby and Max Lamb to create a work of art that expresses the 'Joy of Living' in aid of Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres. From a donut-like sculpture inspired by a chair design to a hand-stitched piece based on the Ishihara Plate test for colour-blindness, the resulting designs - which all started with a simple piece of graph paper - are now on sale at London's Somerset House.
Each signed artwork is priced at £250 but the name of the designer is not revealed until the item is purchased. Other contributing designers include Martino Gamper, Troika,
http://www.tnadesignstudio.co.uk/" target="_blank" >Tomoko Azumi and John Pawson.
Fraser, who was introduced to Maggie's soon after his mother died from the disease, chose the graph paper because it 'seems to trigger a certain nostalgia for designers, reminding them of the early days of drafting before computers took over.' The brief to the designers came from the mantra of Maggie's co-founder Maggie Keswick Jencks, who said that what matters above all, when facing cancer, is to 'not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying'.
’A Glass Half Full’
’Beacon of Hope’
’The Capital’
’Joy of being human’
’Joy’
’Boundless’
’Kiss’
’Rorschach’s Carnival’
’Rorschach’s Carnival’
Untitled
’Balance’
’Graphology’
A Change In The Weather
’Joy, sometimes hidden, never lost’
’Hands of Love’
’New York City Sunrise’
’Five Dancers’
’Selfeater (Agave autovora)’
’One for sorrow...’
’Shark’
ADDRESS
Somerset House
Strand
London WC2R 1LA
-
The gayest love story ever told: Jeremy Atherton Lin's memoir is a tribute to homeIn 'Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told', Jeremy Atherton Lin mixes memoir with a historical deep-dive into marriage equlaity
-
This monumental Valentino book is a true Italian fashion epicSpanning oral testimony, sketches and magazine spreads, ‘Valentino: A Grand Italian Epic’ (published by Taschen) charts the career of Valentino Garavani, whose mononymous Roman house would define a vision of Italian glamour
-
At the Royal Academy summer show, architecture and art combine as never beforeThe Royal Academy summer show is about to open in London; we toured the iconic annual exhibition and spoke to its curator for architecture, Farshid Moussavi
