For A Limited Time Only

Beauty is only temporary, but your mind lasts you a lifetime.

Alicia Machado

There is an amazing corner of London within Kensington Gardens and what makes this space more exciting than most is that the space changes for a few months every summer. The Serpentine Gallery is a public gallery space where unlike many places around London entry is free. The emphasis is not only on the art and installations you go to visit but about the environment you visit them within.

Back in 2000 the space was first transformed by Zaha Hadid. She transformed the area by creating a suspended roof pavilion making 600sq metres of outside space for displaying art and which thousands came to visit. I think there was also something compelling about this being a temporary structure, you only had a limited amount of time to see it in, asThe Guardian says "briefly brilliant..."

Zaha Hadid 2007

Since then the Serpentine Gallery has commissioned a different architect to design a structure for the summer months. There are no budget restrictions and the only parameters the architect(s) are made to design within are that they have to take their inspiration from the name given by the gallery director. What follows is then 6 months of hectic design, construction and finding sponsorship to pay for it. Also part of the criteria to be considered is that you must never have had a building completed in the UK before. So this shocks me to think that architects such as Zaha Hadid, Kjetil Thorsen,Frank Ghery, Rem Koolhaas and artist Olafur Eliasson could apply. Thank god there are schemes like this around, it's unbelievable that architects of such caliber at the time of application and even some still to this day had never had a work commissioned for UK soil.

Daniel Libeskind 2001

Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen 2007

Frank Ghery 2008

This month the most recent design was unveiled. It is cost affective for today's economic climate, simple but stunning. When the sun is out it will reflect and create illusions of light from the mirrored surfaces which will be mesmerising. The design was submitted and produced by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Tokyo-based architecture firm SANAA and some have described the structure as 'a stealth bomber-like pavilion' or a 'delicate floating pool of water'.

What has become clear is that within this simple space so much can be created. The designs from the past 9 years have been incomparable to each other and the uniqueness of each is the main reason why the pavilion is always a success. The structures are stunning and amazingly interactive, my only wish is that they would remain more permanent but then I think that would defeat the reason for why they exist in the first place and the temporay nature of the structures is what helps creates such beauty in form.

Vorsprung durch Technik~ Advantage through Technology

Ever wondered where the name Audi comes from? My research has lead me to find out that Audi is a German company and part of the Volkswagen Group, the name Audi is based on a latin translation of the founder August Horch's surname which means 'to hear'. Horch started the company back in 1909 and here we are in 2009 and the company is still going strong with a great reputation and the interlinking 4 circle logo recognisable around the world.

To mark a successful 100 years Audi commissioned artist Gerry Judah to design and build a sculpture to be displayed at Goodwood and revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009. The sculpture shows so much movement and gives a great impression of speed as you wonder how fast the cars must be going to propel themselves into the sky. Sculpturer Judah explains “the sculpture had to have a celebratory theme and it also had to encompass the qualities of the Audi brand: sporty, prestigious and progressive". It's not a complex sculpture with a deep meaning it is what it is, but it is also a bold statement from Audi clearly showing that what was important to August Horch 100 years ago is still what remains at the heart of the business in 2009.

Gone For Lunch

I haven't posted many blogs recently because my mind has been far from the creative world. I have had a contractual job in the suited and booted world of finance for a few weeks. Meeting clients and brokering deals is a side of the world I don't often see, I also admit it's not a side I want to go back to that often either but it's interesting to observe. It helps me understand that without the trading side of the city the rest cannot revolve, it's a good perspective to see the working world from and something I can draw on, not only for skills but for the self reflection it gives me so i can see what I want to achieve. Although to switch between that world and my creative side is hard, at the end of the day I was so perplexed by the world I had been in all I wanted to do was switch off. So now I am back designing again and I thought I would search for others who are able to do more than one thing in their working day, who have more than one focus in their career and also have an ability to switch from one world to another whilst having an impact on both.

My investigations start with Leonardo da Vinci. One of the most influential artists of the past millennium but also a Botanist, Musician, Writer, Mathematician, Engineer and Anatomist, to name but a few. Mainly known to most of us for painting the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but while we admire this work what you may not know is that he also conceptualised a helicopter before there was the technology to build one, he came up with an idea which later became solar power, he devised a calculator and outlined a theory of plate tectonics. It is perhaps what he was developing aside from the paintings that may have had most impact on us without us even realising. Without Leonardo da Vinci's ability to traverse these worlds imagine how much we may have lost out on.

Lewis Carroll, author of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' but also a Mathematician, Logician, Photographer and Anglican Deacon. We all grew-up knowing Alice in Wonderland, through Lewis Carroll's writings he created a magical world with a mad hatter, cheshire cat and magical cake which made you grow & shrink, he brought us an unusual world of fantasy which is enchanting. Yet this same man was also a talented mathematician who was educated at Oxford University and for most of his life held a Mathematical Lectureship at the college. He brought us fiction but also at the other end of the spectrum he was calculating theories based on fact.

My investigations brought me to modern day and I admit that I was slightly taken aback to learn that Brian May known to most as a musician from Queen is also an Astrophysicist. Famous for being lead guitarist with Queen and writing songs such as 'We Will Rock You' and 'Bohemian Rhapody' in the past decade he has also graduated from Imperial College London with his Ph.D in Astrophysics . He is co author of Bang!- The Complete History of the Universe with Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott. These worlds couldn't be further apart yet he found passion in both to be able to have an impact.

Trying to find inspiration from someone of similar age to me I came across Serena Williams who is a huge success on the tennis courts and recently won the Ladies Singles title at Wimbledon, as well as many other tournaments over recent years. So I amazed to learn that Serena not only focuses her time on tennis but also fashion design and acting. I am aware that her dominance on the tennis court has helped in opening up other avenues for her to work within but this was created through her hard work and dedication to the sport and so these opportunities are, I feel, just reward for so much commitment. To achieve so much within the tennis profession takes alot of determination and time on the practice courts, so what I find inspirational is that whilst doing this she still finds extra time to be involved in setting up her own clothing range Aneres and is actively involved in designing the clothes for the range. Additionally she has appeared in character on ER and Law & Order as she looks to further extend her career. She is similar to George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Jamie Oliver and others in the world of celebrity who are using their position to do so many other things, striving out into other businesses, fighting causes and and are now becoming known to us for more than what initially brought them to the medias attention in the first place.

I have named only a few people above, but those I have written about all have a similar trait which I find inspirational. They aren't happy with what falls in front of them but that they have a desire to strive out and achieve more. That they have an inquisitive nature to find out more and they realise that they don't have to limit themselves to being just one thing. They pushed the boundaries and if one doors shut they have already opened many more and continue to experience and grow from a variety of different influences and I hope to draw inspiration from this the next time I move away from the world of design.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sara Genn

Music by Sara Genn featured on a TV show for NBC ~Lipstick Jungle

Sometimes you look for inspiration on the web, you see it in the street or you're flicking through a magazine. Inspiration more often than not comes from someone you don't know and who you'll never meet but whose work you'll admire hugely. But sometimes inspiration can come from someone close, someone on your own doorstep, a friend.

One of these friends is the talented Sara Genn, she is based in New York and has so many outlets for her creativity it's mind blowing. She is talented in so many way I am always in awe with what she produces and I often head back to her websites to see what's she up to as her creativity just oozes off the screen or through the speakers. A truly inspirational person and I thought i would just simply put her websites here for you to see for yourself.

Click on the websites below to visit her work

Saraphina

Songs for Longing

The Little, Lined Notebook

Sara Genn- Music

Summertime When The Living Is Easy

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world. ~Ada Louise Huxtable

London has been superbly hot and sunny for the past few weeks, it makes a nice change as England is not known for the best of summer weather. Additionally last year was exceptionally bad and I was reminded today how we ended up wearing our winter coats in June because it got so cold, so this year we are really making up for it. The change in Londoners is amazing to see, I am noticing that everyone is smiling more, the roads are suddenly full of people cycling to work rather than catching the underground. People are stopping to meet up with friends after work and we are all staying out late to extend our days, heading to pub gardens for a drink so we can catch the last few hours of sun together and once the sunsets the warm nights are still buzzing with people wanting to do anything but head home and indoors. There is a feeling of summery optimism which is very addictive, Summer '09 has a glow about it. To pass on this buzz I thought I would post a few photographers work on my blog which I have come across on Flickr.com I hope you catch the vibe and it helps to spread a bit of summery cheer into your day. Enjoy.

Christian Senger

sharaff

Stephen Murphy

Landahlauts

Olli Kekäläinen

Javiy

Javiy

Javiy

Found on ffffound.com

Found on ffffound.com