Jemma (with a J): The Design Museum.

I also managed to go to The Design Museum on my flying visit around London Town. It was in a really nice location, just off of Shad Thames. There were three exhibitions on - Mariscal: Drawing Life, Jan Kaplicky - Architect of the Future, but it was the Super Contemporary that had drawn me there.

Super Contemporary was best described by it's initial blurb in the leaflet. Stating: it is a "landmark exhibition that traces the city's creative networks" with a view to mapping out the "impact of London's recent past on the contemporary."

"As with planning a journey within London, there is no one way through this exhibition, it has numerous routes for you to take... explore and enjoy!"

After spending the past day and a half wandering around the city, sometimes in circles, I thought the layout accurately reflected the purpose for the exhibition. The main attraction is the timeline that runs around the edge of the room - it would take all day to read, it is mad that such a small room can contain so much information. If I was to make a crit it would maybe be that it wasn't too easy on the eye, a million things to take in at once and some of it was really high up and dimly lit, which made some stuff hard to read and photograph.

News & Culture, Architecture, Product, Communication and Fashion each had their own line, displaying each year/event with a decription, image and map. It followed events such as the founding of D&AD in 1962, the First Things First Manifesto, the Punk Movement and the Credit Crunch of 2009. It documented the swinging sixties with acknowledgement to 'Blow Up', Twiggy, The Who, The Beatles and The Stones. The likes of Vivienne Westwood, Mary Quant, Daniel Eatock, Jonathon Barnbrook and Peter Saville were also included. Artwork for Pink Floyd and A Clockwork Orange were also recognised, as was Channel 4's identity, and publications such as Creative Review and British Vogue when they featured Monolo Blahnik as the first male coverstar in 1974. It was also interesting to learn about retail innovations and to see the commissions for Road Signs, The British Rail Logo and Traffic Lights that are still in use decades later... the list of content is endless! This exhibition is a great archive of cultural and contextual events and how it inspires designers to communicate through their chosen media, whether it be fashion, graphics or architecture etc. It shapes awareness on how much people and events can change the perception of design and it definitely celebrates the scene. The core of the exhibition featured 15 commissions from different disciplines who were asked to design something that gives back to London. These were all really diverse and shows just how freethinking a creative in London can be. I like how it pointed out that there is no specific style to London and that it allows opposites to coexist and interact, whilst remaining independent.

I briefly looked at the Jan Kaplicky exhibition as it didn't really capture my imagination, however it was interesting to see more of his designs and understand his work as I previously only knew him as the architect behind the Selfridges store in Birmingham.

As for the Javier Mariscal exhibition, his work is not something that would inspire me or something that I would find visually attractive, but I loved how you stepped into the exhibition through the 'installation shower' (which featured 640 double sided illustrations) that brought you out into a fully illustrated environment.

"We like drawings to tickle our eyes"

I really liked some of the quotes on the wall, above, as well as "Life was so happy and easy that it bored me." I read that Mariscal doesn't just observe the world but tries to shape it, which was reflected in the commentary and layout. This was a really visual exhibition, with animations, installations and a vast amount of merchandise etc. so I have inc. a few extra piccies of this one.