California is one of my favourite places on the planet and when I saw this exhibition advertised, I was very keen to go and to understand more about how it came to have such a powerful influence on contemporary design. Not only that, I’d not yet been to the new Design Museum in Kensington, so it was being able to combine both, along with it being my Mother-in-Law’s Birthday that provided the perfect prompting for a day out.
The exhibition explores the ideas around how 60’s counterculture of surfers, feminists, gay and black activists and hippies all influenced the California design movement that has developed into Silicon Valley tech culture. It makes a bold point about how this has had such an effect on all of our lives that it means that we are now all, in some ways, now Californians.
The artefacts on show – which open with a shining sun and include films, magazine covers, posters, hardware, physical items, virtual reality, skateboards and acid tabs are grouped in 5 ‘zones’, all underpinned by the ‘freedom’ theme:
- Go where you want
- See what you want
- Say what you want
- Make what you want
- Join what you want
The exhibition doesn’t cover the usual territory that predecessors have – mid-century modernism; rather picking up in the ’60’s and coming right through to the present – and the near/now future, including the self-driving car. It’s packed with brilliant things to look at, read and imerse in. To be honest, the original concept paintings from Blade Runner are a highlight, and pretty much worth going to the show just for those.
I loved, loved, loved this exhibition.
We also took the opportunity to have a mooch round the Design Museum – which, actually was a bit unimpressive. There’s some lovely things, but it all seems very crammed in. They’ve given so much space over to the atrium/centre of the building, that it feels like the exhibits are secondary, which is a real shame. However, I loved seeing these typographical design systems for Britain’s roads, and the beautiful Kohnioor font from the Indian Type Foundry.
We lunched after at The Bluebird cafe in Chelsea. There were martini’s, obvs.
The ‘California: Designing Freedom’ show at the Design Museum runs until 15 October 2017, so there’s still time to take in the California vibe. To purchase tickets, visit the Design Museum’s website.
