Who's Vera? Nobody really knows - not even Kirsty Minns and Érika Muller, formerly of Established & Sons, who discovered her in a collection of anonymous photographs at a Brighton vintage shop. The girl in the photos had no provenance; her name and age were both ascribed to her by the two design impresarios.
Last year Minns and Muller - who call themselves KM and ÉM - distributed some of the 'Vera' photos to ten industry friends, along with a mandate to tell her life story through the design of an original object. The products were exhibited alongside the images during the 2011 London Design Festival.
This year some of those same designers, and others, were asked to expand Vera's narrative by responding to a single image of the girl - one showing Vera at an assigned age of seven in a floral-print dress, holding a stick of candy floss in the sunshine. And though the participants were given a common launching point, they submitted wildly varied interpretations.
Printmaker Arlette Ess, for instance, responded with a fabric printed with a seascape infiltrated by gulls. The Mexican-born industrial designer Liliana Ovalle designed three oak and Corian boxes with hidden compartments inspired by visions of boardwalk shell games. Philippe Malouin, who last year designed a series of concrete 'vide poches' to honour Vera, this year constructed four miniature wood and copper boat-shaped tealight holders, washed in coastal pastels.
Minns herself came up with a little milk jug, its handle painted in the coloured stripes of the giant swirly lollipops found on the pier.
'Vera: Chapter 2' runs between 17 and 23 September, exhibited is this year's Brompton Design District hub at 4 Cromwell Place. And down the road at the chocolatier Cocomaya, you can sit at the 'Vera' table while refueling between shows.
The printmaker Arlette Ess responded to the brief with a fabric printed with a seascape infiltrated by gulls
The young Italian artist Giorgia Zanellato imagined characterful glass vessels in wicker sleeves she calls 'A Family Portrait'
Kirsty Minns's 'Lucky Yellow Cardigan' is a small milk jug with a handle painted in coloured stripes that mimic those giant swirly lollipops found on the pier
Mexican-born Liliana Ovalle designed three oak and Corian boxes with hidden compartments inspired by visions of boardwalk shell games. She calls them 'Vera Thinks of Boxes', from the narrative she constructed around the photograph
Philippe Malouin's 'Little Boat' tealight holders, his second contribution to the 'Vera' series, are made from wood and copper and washed in seaside pastels
The London design practice Study O Portable, founded by Bernadette Deddens and Tetsuo Mukai, came up with an hourglass called 'Sandglass'
The warped form of the glass, which distorts the flow of sand, represents the indeterminacy of time
'Metals' by craftsman Tomás Alonso, is a range of desktop items...
...and a circle of sliced copper...
... that transforms into a mobile. For last year's assignment, Alonso designed a series of wood shelves held together by leather harnesses
ADDRESS
Brompton Design District
4 Cromwell Place
London, SW7 2JE
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