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Glenn Adamson

From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Absent Minded

Sometimes, the most powerful expressive act is to take something away. This is a familiar idea to historians of twentieth century art, because of Robert Rauschenberg's famous...

null Glenn Adamson
From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

A Work in Progress: The Design and Printing of Eighteenth-Century Trade Cards

This post has been contributed by special guest star Dr. Philippa Hubbard, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick. This endearing pen and ink sketch, from around 1770,...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Fold Along Dotted Line

Since beginning this blog early in 2009, Ihave been trying to come up with examples in which preparatory sketches have a direct impact on a finished design. But only now, as 2010...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

License to Drill

This post has been contributed by Polly Hunter, a second-year MAstudent on the V&A/RCACourse in the History of Design. In it she discusses two extraordinary promotional images...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Edition of One

Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am to work at the V&A, and the past week has been one of those times. First we opened the majestic new Medieval and Renaissance...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

A Horse of a Different Colour

The V&A's current exhibition, Maharaja:The Spendour of India's RoyalCourts, got me looking around for related design drawings in the collection. Icame up with this...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

X Ray Specs

A small show currently on view in the V&A's Architecture Galleries, Europe and English Baroque:English Architecture 1660-1715, got me thinking about cross-sections in...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Ooh, Shiny

One of the fascinating things about design drawings, at least to me, is that you often can’t tell whether they are for presentation, for working out a design concept, or...

null Glenn Adamson
From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Jane Dillon: Ahead of the Curve

Here's a pop quiz for you.When was this chair designed? If you guessed 'last year,' Idon't blame you. It's got a fashion-forward pinkness about it, and the...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Omega: On and Off the Grid

The last time I blogged about an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, it was after the show had already closed. Not this time! Beyond Bloomsbury, an exhibition about the designs...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Photoplastic Protoplasm

The following is our first student 'guest post,' submitted by Ann Christie ... enjoy! I’m one of the students on the MA in History of Design at the V&A/RCA and...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

If you build it, will they shop?

Last week Itook my students from the V&A/Royal College of Art course in the History of Design to Westfield Shopping Centre, the mega-mall that was finished in Shepherd's...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Prick up your ears

Before the age of photocopiers and scanners, how did you make a copy of an image? In a sense, you didn't - prior to photography there was no means to make an exact replica of...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Fastest Pots in Town

Clay is not usually thought of as a sketching medium. In fact, ceramics are the ultimate in delayed gratification:you make the pot, then wait for it to dry, then fire it in a...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Russian Arc

The recent Tate Modern exhibition of Alexandr Rodchenko and Liubov Popova got me thinking about drawing as a tool of avant garde design. These two Russian artists made the leap...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Draw a Line and Follow It

One of my favorite art works is called "Zen for Head,"a performance piece by Nam Jun Paik. It is an interpretation of a 'score' by another artist, LaMonte Young,...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Out on the Tiles

A quiet but marvellous exhibition about Owen Jones, the great 19th century pattern designer best known for the compendium Grammar of Ornament (1856), has recently opened here at...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

A Game of Two Halves

If you haven't seen the terrific little show at the Courtauld called "Design Drawings from Renaissance Italy," you're too late:it closed on May 17. Icaught the...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Feat of clay

Here's the most amazing design model I've seen in a long time. I spotted it at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, a temple for motorcycle lovers everywhere.I'm...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

A Personal Introduction….and Initial Thoughts

I'mTristan Webber and for the last four years Ihave beentheSenior Tutor for the Womenswear Fashion Course at the Royal College of Art. Previous to this, I have been teaching...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

From airbrush to felt-tip

It’s unusual for a historian to have the opportunity to look at the complete working methods of a design office. Sketches and models are often thrown away once a project is...

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From Sketch to Product (2009 - 2011)

Worth a Thousand…

What does a craft historian, like myself, want to know about design? Mostly, how something gets made - and how people think about the process of making. It's a famously...

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