13 January 2023  

Meet the Makers from Beirut, Lebanon

Join us from 5.30pm on Thursday 19th January at Our Street Studio, Union Street for refreshments and chats with Lebanese Ahla Fawda founder, Imane Assaf, international artist, Don Wright and Lebanese American University design student, Sandra Bou Ghanem.

At 6pm, Imane, Don and Sandra will share how they use plastic waste to support Beirut’s communities through Lebanon’s crises, give live hands-on demo’s and an opportunity for you to create your own product!

They would love to meet and learn from as many creatives as possible during their visit to Dundee and gain insights into different sustainable design practices. So please pop along, meet the makers from Beirut, Lebanon and share what you do!

This event is aimed at local designers, creatives, innovators, students and recent graduates.

 

For more information about their visit and further opportunities, please click here
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Beirut’s Ahla Fawda in residence at V&A Dundee’s Plastic Lab
4 January 2023  

Beirut’s Ahla Fawda in residence at V&A Dundee’s Plastic Lab

We were delighted to host Imane Assaf and Don Wright of Ahla Fawda, Beirut, and Lebanese American University design student, Sandra Bou Ghanem, in collaboration with V&A Dundee in January 2023.

Ahla Fawda’s founder Imane Assaf and Scottish upcycling artist, Don Wright, shared how they use plastic waste to support Beirut’s communities through Lebanon’s crises and thrived on the opportunity to learned from designers from across Dundee and Scotland.

V&A Dundee hosted a free, drop-in public talk with Imane, Don and Sandra on Wednesday 18th January 2023. This was delivered as part of Plastic: Remaking Our World’s Plastic Lab’s series of events.

Find out more about this talk and Q&A at V&A Dundee here
On Thursday 19th January, we hosted a free Meet the Maker event at Our Street Studio on Union Street, with Imane, Don and Sandra where they shared how they support Beirut’s communities through creativity, gave live hands-on demo’s and led an informal workshop.

Founded in Beirut, City of Literature, Lebanon in 2014, Ahla Fawda is an NGO which responds to the urgent humanitarian needs of its community.

Lebanon is grappling with economic and financial crises, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequences of the 2020 Beirut Port explosion. As a result, many people living in Beirut cannot afford to meet their basic needs.

In the face of this, Ahla Fawda works to support their community and in 2021 they designed a plastic exchange initiative which provides people with food and other basic supplies in exchange for household plastic waste. This plastic is then sold to recycling companies, used to make new products and in creative design workshops, outreach activities and projects with local schools.

By reframing plastic waste as a valuable untapped resource, Ahla Fawda is supporting communities in need, changing perspectives on what is considered rubbish and creating circular economies.

If you would like to make a donation to Ahla Fawda, please click here
https://youtu.be/vdrElQQ1c-M
Sandra Bou Ghanem who is working in partnership with Ahla Fawda, is a Lebanese American University fashion design student designing a new fashion system, where garments are studied from an anthropologist point of view and treated from a raw material perspective.

This fashion system is based on design techniques for recycling and upcycling waste materials which are an essential component of responsive design methodologies for the fashion industry.

“IMPOSTER”
A post-individualistic vision of fashion

With a focus on upcycling and recycling waste materials, Sandra has laser cut previously owned CDs and transformed them into these statement sequins.

Her raincoat is a commentary on the process of dry cleaning; looking at how we treat our clothes and take advantage of our environment. By merging the dry cleaning plastic bag with a deconstructed and upcycled shirt, Sandra has morphed these garments to produce these raincoats and provide a new way to protect ourselves.

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MEET THE MAKERS FROM BEIRUT, LEBANON
Design Installation, UNESCO city of design Dundee
UNESCO Creative Cities Network
29 November 2022  

Dundee’s Designer Christmas Trees 2022

In cities all around the world, festive tree displays are a highlight of the season. Beautiful and inspiring trees are created by designers who combine festive traditions and contemporary design.
This year, in partnership with Dundee City Council, we have commissioned five designers and creative practitioners to create bespoke and unique ‘Christmas Trees’ as part of Dundee’s Festive Celebrations.

The Trees form part of a display located beside Dundee’s Living Christmas Tree at City Churches.

Rather than simply decorating a tree, the brief sought designers who would create a ‘tree’ which tells its own story. The ‘Christmas Tree’ was the central focus and inspiration, but final designs could have any form and we now have 5 very different trees from the same brief.

Considering the environmental impact of large-scale festivities and the commitment from the city to celebrate our own living Christmas tree, this project centres the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle. All elements of the trees and their decorations are made from 100% reused or recycled materials.

Each tree has its own story in sustainability and design.

 

Unity in Diversity
by Carrie Varjavandi

Trees have always been revered in all cultures. The “Clootie Trees” that travelling people in Scotland created have their parallel in Mongolia where strips of cloth are tied to trees and prayers are offered for loved ones.

Carrie’s tree comprises of textile elements created by many hands. The Kindred Clothing project was the first to participate in workshops to create wrappings for this tree. They used leftover fabric from sewing projects and Dundee fashion brand Isolated Heroes. More leftover materials were added to by subsequent groups that participated. Children from Andie’s Sewing School, pupils and staff from Baldragon Academy, students from the University of Dundee, the Thursday Group at the Maxwell Centre, the Baha’i Community of Dundee, Carrie’s friends and neighbours all contributed their efforts to make the 800 plus wrappings that were needed to clothe the tree.

Bringing all the multi-coloured and textured wrappings together in the form of a Christmas Tree creates a colourful and exuberant celebration of unity in diversity.

 

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
by Caishnah Nevans

Caishnah’s tree perfectly embodies her love of vinyl records with her work surrounding music and memories. The tree reflects the important part music plays in festive memories as well as giving records a new lease of life.

Despite the recent revival in vinyl sales, it is still very much a medium that is easily damaged and therefore rendered useless. The records were sourced from record shops and auction sites throughout Scotland.

Caishnah returned to live in Dundee in 2021 to be closer to her family and help her dad close his business to retire. The fabrication materials came from her father’s scrap yard of building materials and working together made this a special retirement project, as well as reflection of the important of family at Christmas time.

The inspiration for the tree came from the record tile print which is used often in Caishnah’s designs for her brand Lola Polooza and her love of projects that spark musical memories and discussions around music.

Twitter: @lolapoloozauk

Instagram: @lolapoloozauk

 

Tree
by Helm Young Team with Barry Reed

Last year some of the local young people aged 16 -18 attending Helm came up with the idea of making wooden Christmas Trees made from recycled pallets.

When discussing the idea of this competition some of the young people attending Helm now thought of using the idea of last year’s tree and updating it to with the guidance and support of Helm Instructors, Barry – Furniture designer/maker background, Audrey Art Therapist/Artist and Malcolm, Spick and Spanners mechanic/welder, of making a tree with a Spiral Design.

Facebook: /helmtraining

 

Retro Celebrations
by Billy Hutchison

Billy graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in 2001 and currently lives/works as an Artist/Illustrator in Dundee, Scotland, mainly painting landscapes for private commissions. Having taken part in his first public Wild in Art trail Oor Wullie’s BIG Bucket Trail in 2019, Billy went on to take part in Dundee’s Festive Windows project in 2020, and the Rocket Round Leicester trail in 2021, and now Dundee’s Designer Christmas Trees too.

For Billy’s tree, he used recycled/used aluminium soft drink cans as they are malleable and light. The pyramid shape of the tree is inspired by the rooftops of turrets of buildings in Dundee and from 1960’s aluminium ornamental vintage Christmas trees.

Twitter: @hutchison2014

Instagram: @billyhutchisonart

 

Once A Tree
by Rio Moore

Rio is no stranger to taking part in Public Art Trails she was the artist for Oor Bowie 2016, Peacock Penguin 2018, Oor Freddie 2019, Woodland Spirit 2019, Brave Wee Boy 2019 and most recently Wildlife Warrior for Giraffe about Town (Edinburgh).

In recent years Rio has moved towards community-based art, leading on the development of community arts projects for ScrapAntics, a creative recycling company based in Dundee. She lead on such projects as Festival of Light, Reflections and Moby a 10ft whale made completely out of recycled materials for COP26 and currently to be found in the Wellgate.

For ‘Once a Tree’ Rio was inspired by the papier-mâché dome at Mills Observatory as a way of utilising recycled materials; the majority of which were once a tree – She liked the notion that it’s come full circle and is a reminder of how much paper and card gets used at this time of year.

Spot the reference to peacock feathers at the top! A homage to Dundee’s links with India.

Facebook: /kitchimama

Instagram: @kitchimama

 

The trees will be on display until 28 December 2022

#designdundee

View stream on flickr

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Christmas Tree made from recycled green bottles beside a fountain in Paris, another recycled bottle tree is in the background
OPEN CALL: Dundee Christmas Trees
28 November 2022  

Dundee’s Designer Christmas Trees

In cities all around the world, festive tree displays are a highlight of the season. Beautiful and inspiring trees are created by designers who combine festive traditions and contemporary design.

This year, in partnership with Dundee City Council, we have commissioned five designers and creative practitioners to create bespoke and unique ‘Christmas Trees’ as part of Dundee’s Festive Celebrations.

The Trees form part of a display located beside Dundee’s Living Christmas Tree at City Churches.

Rather than simply decorating a tree, the brief sought designers who would create a ‘tree’ which tells its own story. The ‘Christmas Tree’ was the central focus and inspiration, but final designs could have any form and we now have 5 very different trees from the same brief.

Considering the environmental impact of large-scale festivities and the commitment from the city to celebrate our own living Christmas tree, this project centres the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle. All elements of the trees and their decorations are made from 100% reused or recycled materials.

Each tree has its own story in sustainability and design.

 

Unity in Diversity by Carrie Varjavandi

Trees have always been revered in all cultures. The “Clootie Trees” that travelling people in Scotland created have their parallel in Mongolia where strips of cloth are tied to trees and prayers are offered for loved ones.

Carrie’s tree comprises of textile elements created by many hands. The Kindred Clothing project was the first to participate in workshops to create wrappings for this tree. They used leftover fabric from sewing projects and Dundee fashion brand Isolated Heroes. More leftover materials were added to by subsequent groups that participated. Children from Andie’s Sewing School, pupils and staff from Baldragon Academy, students from the University of Dundee, the Thursday Group at the Maxwell Centre, the Baha’i Community of Dundee, Carrie’s friends and neighbours all contributed their efforts to make the 800 plus wrappings that were needed to clothe the tree.

Bringing all the multi-coloured and textured wrappings together in the form of a Christmas Tree creates a colourful and exuberant celebration of unity in diversity.

 

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree by Caishnah Nevans

Caishnah’s tree perfectly embodies her love of vinyl records with her work surrounding music and memories. The tree reflects the important part music plays in festive memories as well as giving records a new lease of life.

Despite the recent revival in vinyl sales, it is still very much a medium that is easily damaged and therefore rendered useless. The records were sourced from record shops and auction sites throughout Scotland.

Caishnah returned to live in Dundee in 2021 to be closer to her family and help her dad close his business to retire. The fabrication materials came from her father’s scrap yard of building materials and working together made this a special retirement project, as well as reflection of the important of family at Christmas time.

The inspiration for the tree came from the record tile print which is used often in Caishnah’s designs for her brand Lola Polooza and her love of projects that spark musical memories and discussions around music.

Twitter: @lolapoloozauk

Instagram: lolapoloozauk

 

Tree by Helm Young Team with Barry Reed

Last year some of the local young people aged 16 -18 attending Helm came up with the idea of making wooden Christmas Trees made from recycled pallets.

When discussing the idea of this competition some of the young people attending Helm now thought of using the idea of last year’s tree and updating it to with the guidance and support of Helm Instructors, Barry – Furniture designer/maker background, Audrey Art Therapist/Artist and Malcolm, Spick and Spanners mechanic/welder, of making a tree with a Spiral Design.

Facebook: /helmtraining

 

Retro Celebrations by Billy Hutchison 

Billy graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in 2001 and currently lives/works as an Artist/Illustrator in Dundee, Scotland, mainly painting landscapes for private commissions. Having taken part in his first public Wild in Art trail Oor Wullie’s BIG Bucket Trail in 2019, Billy went on to take part in Dundee’s Festive Windows project in 2020, and the Rocket Round Leicester trail in 2021, and now Dundee’s Designer Christmas Trees too.

For Billy’s tree, he used recycled/used aluminium soft drink cans as they are malleable and light. The pyramid shape of the tree is inspired by the rooftops of turrets of buildings in Dundee and from 1960’s aluminium ornamental vintage Christmas trees.

Twitter: @hutchison2014

Instagram: billyhutchisonart

 

Once A Tree by Rio Moore

Rio is no stranger to taking part in Public Art Trails she was the artist for Oor Bowie 2016, Peacock Penguin 2018, Oor Freddie 2019, Woodland Spirit 2019, Brave Wee Boy 2019 and most recently Wildlife Warrior for Giraffe about Town (Edinburgh).

In recent years Rio has moved towards community-based art, leading on the development of community arts projects for ScrapAntics, a creative recycling company based in Dundee. She lead on such projects as Festival of Light, Reflections and Moby a 10ft whale made completely out of recycled materials for COP26 and currently to be found in the Wellgate.

For ‘Once a Tree’ Rio was inspired by the papier-mâché dome at Mills Observatory as a way of utilising recycled materials; the majority of which were once a tree – She liked the notion that it’s come full circle and is a reminder of how much paper and card gets used at this time of year.

Spot the reference to peacock feathers at the top! A homage to Dundee’s links with India.

Facebook: /kitchimama

Instagram: @kitchimama

 

The trees will be on display until 29 December 2022.

3 October 2022  

POP-UP SHOP: SRD Fashion Festival 2022

Join the Scotland Re:Design (SRD) collective who will be promoting each other and selling from a Pop-Up shop at Our Street Studio on Union Street, within the 2022 Scottish Fashion Festival from Wednesday 16th – Sunday 20th November.

Our central and spacious premises are on Union Street right across and up the road from V&A Dundee, a few doors up from McIntyre’s Hair Salon, and around the corner from hotels such as the festival partners the Malmaison.

Our space includes original plaster detailing, a large street window and fitting room. There’s also an office, kitchen and staff bathroom (downstairs).

SRD can host accessories, apparel, makers, textiles, anything in Fashion & Textiles when it comes to the shop.

The store will be manned, so you do not have to be there – though we do recommend that you attend when you can as greater sales are achieved when you are present to meet your customers. You will need to provide biographies, product descriptions, price lists etc. so that the team have knowledge of your products.

COST: £210

for 5 days from Wednesday 16th – Sunday 20th November

The listed price is inclusive of VAT, a full VAT invoice can be sent to you should you need it for your records.

REGISTER HERE

Please complete the form, and then pay HERE to secure your space

We would also like to host ‘Meet the Designer’ events! This will be an advertised time where you will be in the shop and customers can come to chat to you about you and your work.

On Thursday 17th November, there will be a late night shopping evening.

To apply for further opportunities such as SRD’s Fashion Festival’s Opening Gala Runway, visit their website here

 

#SRD22 #bringfashionhome #PerfectStage

 

Christmas Tree made from recycled green bottles beside a fountain in Paris, another recycled bottle tree is in the background
21 September 2022  

OPEN CALL: Dundee Christmas Trees

Call out for five designers to create a sustainable, bespoke, outdoor ‘Christmas Tree’.

In cities all around the world, festive tree displays are a highlight of the season. Beautiful and inspiring trees are created by designers who combine festive traditions and contemporary design.

This year, UNESCO City of Design and V&A Dundee in partnership with Dundee City Council are looking to commission five designers or creative practitioners to create bespoke and unique ‘Christmas Trees’ as part of Dundee’s Festive Celebrations.

The ‘Trees’ will form part of a display located beside Dundee’s Living Christmas Tree at City Churches.

Rather than simply decorating a tree, this brief seeks designers who will create a ‘tree’ which tells its own story. The design must use the ‘Christmas Tree’ as the central focus and inspiration, but final designs can take any form.

The project is seeking creative, unique designs which respond to the concept of a central Christmas Tree in festival celebrations. While the main inspiration for this brief is the Christmas Tree, we are looking for responses that celebrate the diversity of the winter period from different perspectives.

Considering the environmental impact of large-scale festivities and the commitment from the city to celebrate our own living Christmas tree, this project centres the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle. All elements of the ‘tree’ and its decoration must be made from 100% reused or recycled materials.

This opportunity is open to:

  • Designers and makers who live or work in Dundee (defined as living or work address with a DD1 – DD7 postcode)
  • Designers from Dundeee (defined as DD1 – DD7 postcode) and recent graduates (graduating in the last 4 years from a Dundee university)

Each designer / creative practitioners will be awarded £2500 to cover all materials, production, installation and fee.

Read the full brief and apply here

Deadline for submissions: 12 Noon, Wednesday 5th October. 

Designers awarded: By Monday 10th October

Install date: Thursday 17th November

If you have any questions regarding the project please email contact@dundeecityofdesign.com

Travel Mug Dundee Designers
16 January 2020  

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: CODE Souvenir Dundee

Dundee’s UNESCO City of Design team are issuing the first CODE Souvenir Dundee call for proposals. This call invites Dundee designers-producers to submit souvenir items for inclusion in the first CODE Souvenir Dundee catalogue.

The goal is to select an array of items for publication in a catalogue for distribution. CODE Souvenir is an original concept developed by Montréal. Whether presented to dignitaries, partners, companies, VIPs, tourists or Dundonians themselves, the items highlight the design know-how and creativity of Dundee designers. The catalogue will be distributed in print and also available online, launching in Summer 2020.

The deadline for submissions is 5pm on the 12th February 2020.

Each applicant can submit as many items as they wish, however each item must be submitted separately.

Each submission includes:

  • A completed version of the Item Identification File (Appendix A); one file per item submitted);
  • A maximum of 3 (minimum of 1) photos showing the product;
  • A sample of the  item as it would be sold;

For full submission guidelines and information on how to submit your item(s) to CODE Souvenir Dundee, click here.

For any enquiries, please email contact@dundeecityofdesign.com

[1]. CODE is an original concept by Raban Ruddigkeit of the Berlin agency ® ruddigkeit corporate ideas. CODE is an acronym for City Of Design and marks a city’s particular character (“DNA”).

[2]. To view the previous edition of the Montréal catalogue visit designmontreal.com/en/code-souvenir-montreal.

30 November 2016  

Glowing Review of Dundee’s First Design Festival by designcurial.com

An international design magazine specialising in sharing stories of design excellence from around the world, has dedicated a 10 page feature to Dundee, a UNESCO City of Design, following a visit to the city for the first Design Festival held in May 2016.

The article, entitled “Something In The City” acknowledges Dundee’s unique UNESCO City of Design title and refers to the city’s “inventiveness, resilience and spirit” describing Dundee as a “city that has a hell of a story to tell about the role of design and inventiveness in its own history.”

Please take a read of this fascinating feature here

In between time spent at the Design Festival, London based design journalist Veronica Simpson visited many of Dundee’s architectural landmarks, attended Duncan of Jordanstone’s College of Art & Design graduate degree show, took part in one of Pecha Kucha Night’s organised by Creative Dundee and paid a visit to Frank Gehry’s “mold-breaking design” for ‘Maggie’s Centre’ situated in the grounds of Ninewells Hospital.

Along with an insight into the Kengo Kuma designed ‘V&A Museum of Design Dundee’ opening in 2018, the feature shines an architectural spotlight on High Mill at Verdant Works, Shed 25 at City Quay, Fleet Collective, Harris Academy and Dundee House.

The article makes reference to Dundee’s thriving native design industry fed by design schools and research centres, and practising groups of creators and designers. It  concludes with “spending time in Dundee during the Design Festival, a clever layering of events combined to demonstrate a critical mass of culture, cannot fail to impress the interested visitor.”

Cinema
25 August 2016  

Dundee International Design Challenge

Homelessness is a wickedly complex problem that, without exception, pervades societies across the globe. As a progressive 21st century city, and the UK’s first designated UNESCO City of Design, we are launching the inaugural Dundee Design Challenge to help tackle this problem head on.