In support of the UK/UAE Year of Creative Collaboration, the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, the Emirate’s dedicated authority for Arts, Culture and Heritage, hosts an exhibition of British contemporary design at Design Days Dubai.

The curator of this exhibition, award-winning designer and author Suzanne Trocmé, selected 10 pioneers of British design based on their eclectic and alternative approaches. Some have tackled their design through invigorating old industries, while others pushed processes in the name of advancement. However, what unites them is that all of their works have been produced in the UK as one-off pieces or in small batch production and are shown for the first time in the UAE. Running alongside the exhibition, will be a series of talks and workshops hosted by the British-based designers, giving unparalleled access to UAE audiences.  

Amy Jayne Hughes

Ceramic artist Amy J Hughes works primarily in clay and is a keen illustrator working in an observational manner with exceptional command of her medium and an awareness of the heritage of ceramic craft.

Originally from Yorkshire but London based, the artist has exhibited internationally and was the first Ceramics and Industry Resident at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2015. The vases created for 1882 Ltd in slip-cast fine bone china seek to re-create the grandeur, opulence and sense of occasion of the Porcelain wares produced at the Royal Sèvres Factory in the late 17^th and 18^thCenturies.

Tryst Vase designed by Amy J Hughes

Bethan Gray

Award-winning Welsh designer Bethan Gray translates and transforms cultural references into timeless contemporary furniture pieces and regularly collaborates with craftsmen from the GCC to create her work.

Her new Shamsian Collection has been made in collaboration with Mohamad Reza Shamsian, a masterful Iranian artist, and his team of 70 highly skilled craftsmen based in Muscat, Oman.  

The collection is inspired by Omani architecture, and features intricate marquetry, a traditional Islamic craft dating back to the sixteenth century. Stained birds-eye maple combines with solid brass or iridescent mother of pearl. The Nizwa cabinet detail takes inspiration from the rounded architectural castellation patterning of the Nizwa Fort in Oman.

The designer is based in London.

Brodie Neill

Australian-born Brodie Neill is a London-based industrial designer. Neill studied at the University of Tasmania before completing postgraduate studies at the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA.

In London, Brodie quickly established himself within the industry through a progressive use of form, resulting in design accolades such as Time Magazine’s annual Design 100 which features the most influential designs of today.

Neill launched his contemporary furniture and lighting brand Made in Ratio in 2013.

His collection of custom-made chairs imbues a spirit of innovation with materiality at the forefront. The Cowrie easy chair is made from Ash-faced plywood and the multi-coloured Remix chaise longue is carved from reclaimed plastics and woods. The Pleat bench is milled from a single piece of Corian suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

Cowrie Chair designed by Brodie Neill

Fredrikson Stallard

Patrik Fredrikson and Ian Stallard began their collaboration in 1995 and have since become internationally recognised as leading exponents of British avant-garde design. They are well known for their ability to translate creativity into simple yet emotionally engaging furniture and product design. Their cutting edge and conceptually rigorous work has been acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the French National Art Collection. Their unique pieces are much sought after.

The Hurricane Mirror Silver piece combines a series of handmade polished aluminium mirrors that distorted light in abstract and painterly reflections. Other pieces consist of unique hand-carved, abstract polyurethane supported by raw steel elements. The Species series consist of amorphous, sculpted seating in shades of red and sculptures in green. Vendôme is a series of primeval- styled bronze candlesticks.

Kim Thomé

Norwegian-born designer Kim Thomé was first discovered as a second year student at London's Royal College of Art and had his first London exhibition before graduating

A newcomer to the industry Thomé nevertheless was commissioned to create a vast mechanical sculpture that has traveled from London's Victoria and Albert Museum to Shanghai. His most recent product design forms part of Swarovski's new Atelier table top range launched in Milan in 2016.  Recent commissions also include furniture for the Bloomberg headquarters in London.

Thomé has a playful approach to design, and a keen eye for colour and geometry, creating reflections and optical scenarios that can change at the discretion of the viewer or participant. One Way Mirror is held in place by solid walnut wedges in a black steel frame. Its reflectivity changes according to its surroundings. Round and Round magnifies as it sits on a central axis. All pieces are hand crafted.

Max Lamb

Max Lamb is a prolific British designer renowned for creating beautiful objects with materiality and traditional processes at their core. Lamb was the first contemporary designer to visit the 1882 Ltd Stoke-on-Trent bone china factory which employed 22,000 workers in its heyday now invigorated by the efforts of 4th and 5th generation family members through contemporary design

Crockery was crafted by Lamb using the tools of a stone mason for the molding process.

Philip Michael Wolfson

American-born Philip Michael Wolfson flourished in his design career as Zaha Hadid’s Head of Design for over ten years and remains based in London with a second studio in Miami. The architect's furniture pieces are seen in private collections and galleries worldwide but it is London where he has a greatest following for his pioneering work with materials and form.

Wolfson's sculptural and experimental furniture and functional art pieces are inspired by the early 20^th century Modernist movements, particularly Constructivism and Futurism. His unique approach to design and art is informed by the dynamics of fracture and fragmentation, the layering and manipulation of sometimes brutal materials into fluid shapes and forms. Light and shadow and are an integral part of his work.  

Eruption is a sculptural ‘functional surface’ in acrylic white stone

The prototype edition Mini Origami chairs are in acid patina steel.

The carbon fibre Lowlounger chairs are created in a range of colours

Why/Why Not derived is from the symbol '?' and Split Chair High and Split Chair Low are based on a minimalist stool with a gothic back

Why/Why Not designed by Michael Wolfson

Richard Woods

East London Hackney-based artist Richard Woods has been described as a designer, a craftsman, an architect and an interior decorator. He creates highly desirable furniture and transforms the façades and floors of buildings into installations using his signature bright colours, thick outlines and cartoonish wood effects.

Sebastian Wrong

Sebastian Wrong is a designer and a creative director and a specialist in modern manufacturing techniques. He founded and directed the contemporary design brand Established & Sons forging the way for individual and batch production pieces hand crafted in the UK with the premise to encourage British manufacturing. In 2011 the designer launched The Wrong Shop, an online platform selling unique, limited-edition prints by notable international artists and designers.

The pair of vast cartoonish benches were two of four originally site specific and produced for the entrance lobby of London's Victoria and Albert Museum for temporary exhibition.  

Silo Studio

Silo Studio is the design collaboration of Attua Aparicio Torinos and Oscar Lessing, who formed their partnership while studying Design at London's Royal College of Art until 2011. Coming from backgrounds in both engineering and design, the core of Silo Studio's work is to look at industrial processes and materials with an experimental approach with all development in house at their London studio where industrial machinery is at the core

By adopting a hands-on approach referred by the design duo as ‘handmade hi-tech’, the designers and inventors aim to discover possibilities that the production line cannot cover with a view to developing the expressive potential industrial materials offer to create a unique blend of craft and technology

With an ambition to create products that function and are affordable the studio creates pieces that indicate a thoughtfulness in process and in functionality despite the original aspect of each single design

Silo Studio have exhibited work at the Design Museum in London as well as with the British Council and have participated in Vienna Design Week

Newton's Buckets designed by Silo Studio

For advance tickets for Design Days Dubai, please click here.