The Hidden Art Awards are a celebration of the best of the best Hidden Art members, those who have made the most of the year, taken part and excelled.  Last year saw the introduction of a number of new awards, including the Hidden Polymers Award for Overall Performance. The Hidden Polymer course was run in association with the Polymer Centre, and headed by Peter Cracknel and Marion Ingle

The first ever winner of this award, Michael Bell (a Jamaican born product and furniture designer), created a visually and physically strong polymer-based wastepaper basket.

 

“I was playing around with Origami, and came up with idea of a lampshade, which I started experimenting with and changing into different objects,” he says.  I was stuck for ideas, but the good thing with Peter and Marion is they are always willing to give you time outside of the course”. Materials were a big issue for Michael, and the resolution came after months of research and talks with Marion and Peter. The effort was worthwhile however, as Michael came away from the course with a strong, new product.

 

“It is a program that I would like to be run constantly, because I gained so much from it,” he says. “I knew about working with steel and metal, as did the other designers who were on there, like Jake Phipps. So we could have had the best ideas, but no knowledge about polymers. It wasn’t until you were on the course that you realised the possibilities of working with rotational moulding, blow moulding, and the other processes. I used to have a lot of ideas that never got out of the design stage because I had no knowledge of how they could ever be manufactured. The course showed me different ways to manufacture my products. It now influences my designs. It’s a whole new ethos of design for me, thinking about cost and manufacturing, and building a product from that viewpoint.”

 

Michael is a relatively new Hidden Art member, he was in Jamaica in 2006 designing some new products, when he felt he had something he could work with. “I was seriously thinking about going into the mainstream. I had a list of companies on a 100% Design leaflet from a few years ago. So I decided to email all of these companies, Vitra, SCP and everyone, and see if I could get ideas on how to get my designs on the market. It was Colin (Wilary, Hidden Art’s Event’s and Membership Assistant) who emailed me back and told me about Hidden Art being a Not-for-Profit Design Support Organisation. He asked me about becoming a member, and I was thinking about coming back to London anyway.”

 

“So when I met Colin he talked me through membership, and my first meeting was at the Innovative Routes to Market forum held at UBS in 2007. It was there where I first met Peter and Marion from the Polymers Centre.

 

Michael Bell knew that he was going to be a designer from an early age. “I’m from Jamaica, and in Jamaica there is a strong tradition for furniture makers. My family are generally very artistic, my Dad is a bespoke tailor here in England. He used to work with Paul Smith, early in their careers. “

 

“Originally my aim was to become an architect. So when I started studying I went down the road of working on furniture, with the idea of eventually working on buildings. But one day, a Scottish teacher of mine saw my sketches and said my drawing style looked a little like Phillip Starck’s. I said I had no idea who he was.

 

“The next day she brought in a book full of his early sketched designs, and from that point my passion was in furniture on its own, and thinking about the buildings became a thing of the past. I was the only student that year that was accepted to do a further course, Architecture and Furniture Design at London Guildhall. Unfortunately I didn’t get to finish the course for financial reasons. But they said the reason they accepted me on the course was because of my strong design ideas. Beyond college, most of my training was in Jamaica, where I was working with different people. That’s where I went through learning the carpentry side of furniture making, instead of just focusing on design.“

 

Michael says he has only fond memories of the Awards night in December, “winning boosted my confidence, it is good to have that recognition at such an early stage. The networking on the night was good as well, I met sixixis and I love their products. Knowing everyone there is talking and sharing ideas is great, the night summed up what Hidden Art offers, the network is definitely working.”