Dundee Design Festival Residencies

We’re really pleased to announce our partnership with Dundee Design Festival to deliver the Designer x Factory residency programme. 

The programme has allowed us to place three designers with manufacturers in Scotland; allowing them to experiment with new processes and materials by being placed in the factories over a six month period. 

Following an open call in March 2017, a three-way panel including Make Works, design, fabrication and installation experts Old School Fabrications, and design studio Tom Pigeon selected and paired three designers with three Scotland-based manufacturers.

The designer /  manufacturer pairings are:

Florence Dwyer with Turnberry Rug Works

Florence Dwyer is an artist working with ceramics, carving patterns into small slabs of clay which she then glazes and res to form a series of miniature rug designs. Florence was paired with Turnberry Rug Works in Girvan, Ayrshire, so that she might develop her ideas into large-scale tufted rugs and objects for interiors.

Dawn Youll with The Glassblowing Workshop

Dawn Youll is a contemporary ceramicist working with traditional techniques such as modelling, mould making and slip casting. Dawn is working with The Glassblowing Workshop, scientific glassware specialists based at University of Glasgow.

Tommy Perman & Simon Kirby with FifeX

Tommy Perman is a designer, artist and musician based in Dundee. Tommy often works with scientist Professor Simon Kirby, who, alongside his research into the origin and evolution of language, collaborates with artists and musicians to explore issues of communication and culture in an increasingly connected world. Tommy and Simon are working with interactive designers and fabricators FifeX based in Tayport, Fife.

The residency is more about encouraging process rather than focussing too heavily on an end-product ready for market. Instead the three Designer x Factory partnerships will support play, and experimentation. To be given the time, space to develop their ideas, plus the expert support they’ll receive from technicians and machinists, is an opportunity many designers don’t often get. Similarly, factories will get the chance to work with individuals who see things that the production line does not. Hopefully it will pave the way for other collaborations between designers and manufacturers. 

We’re really excited about seeing what comes out of it an an exhibition of the work made by the designers during the residency will go on display in Autumn 2017.

More information about the residency programme and the festival here.