Designers in Residence 2014: We reveal this year's fab four chosen by the Design Museum

We announced back in January that we are proud to be partnering with the Design Museum for its annual Designers in Residence programme. Now in its seventh year, the initiative showcases the work of four new and emerging designers and the theme set this year was disruption. Applicants have now been whittled down to the final four and it gives us great pleasure to exclusively introduce the Designers in Residence 2014, four eclectic creatives sure to each bring something very different to this year’s exhibition which opens on 10 September.

James is an architectural designer whose work spans interior design, urbanism, architecture, objects and interactions. He often uses humour as a means to exploring socio-political themes, as evidenced in his Royal College of Art masters project Free[tr]aid. This imagined a future where a cash-strapped UK had to privatise its international aid programme, leading to an Indian Aid Earning zone in north London. James also worked with aberrant architecture on its terrific tiny mobile theatre which was inspired by one of London’s most unusual entertainment impresarios.
www.jameschristian.co.uk

Designer and filmmaker Ilona is another RCA gradate who uses image, rhetoric and cinematic tropes to construct schemes and texts that investigate hypothetical situations. We featured Ilona’s Under Black Carpets project last year, an ongoing exploration into the perfect bank heist on which she is collaborating with the FBI and the Los Angeles police. Her other work includes a examination of legal issues which could arise from increased future space travel and a filmic depiction of a future where experiencing nature becomes the preserve of the rich and powerful.
www.ilonagaynor.co.uk

Torsten is a designer whose holistic approach combines his experiences in architecture and product design to create objects which are both aesthetically beguiling and challenge some of our preconceived notions about materials and making. He’s got a range of international influences having studied in Bath, Florence and Copenhagen and exhibited at this year’s Salone in Milan earning rave reviews in the process.
www.torstensherwood.com

Patrick’s multi-award-winning Studio PSK specialises in “object driven speculative design,” using design as a “medium to ask questions rather than provide answers.” Drawing on its multidisciplinary skills and working with a network of specialist collaborators, Studio PSK explores the shifting worlds of science, technology and society. Previous work has included an exploration of whether the parasite’s work in nature can be applied to a technological context and hand crafting a particle accelerator.
www.studiopsk.com