Design Archives seminar funded by the Design History Society will be held at the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton on Monday June 6, 2011 10:00 - 3:00 pm.

The aim of this seminar is to develop discussion about particular issues related to the archives of design organisations. As well as including museums, regional archives and university collections, it will engage design organisations that face the challenge of balancing the need to record and preserve their significant heritage with the current demands of records management in a digital era. The histories of design organisations are critical in explaining the wider context of how and why design is provoked, produced, and promoted in broad political and economic frameworks both nationally and internationally. Similarly, it is research into design organisations that has the most potential for engaging other disciplines and research communities, extending the remit of design history within and beyond the humanities.

Competition for greengaged places will be hot. Each day, 100 designers will take part in a series of debates, workshops, seminars, field trips and more — with each day taking a different theme. Everything is free of charge and can be booked online.

The week in view:

Monday:
Environmentally speaking, we’re in a bit of a mess, and we sort of know what we have to do: use less stuff whether it’s energy, materials or chemicals, cut carbon, relocalize and do things like trade in fairer ways. But we don’t. Ed Gillespie curates a day when we ask why is change happening so slowly, and what are the barriers, both behaviourally and in the context of design. This will be a day of challenges, questions and opportunities around the role of design in what we wear, what we eat, where we live and how we get around; food, fashion, homes and travel…provocative speakers, lively interactive debate and clothes-swapping: what more could you ask for?! The whole day will be hosted in partnership with the Talkaoke Wheel of Spiel, with live visualization from The People Speak webjockeys (No singing. No punch-ups).

Tuesday:
With a focus on the emerging structures of service design, author John Grant has curated a day looking at systems; why the fail and how we can redesign them. With a particular focus on banking, participants will be brainstorming new sustainable business models and presenting them to a dragon’s den from the banking system. It is impossible not be aware of by the continual rise and impact of new service networks; from Freecycle, Wikipedia and city car clubs through to transition towns. So, how can the design industry apply this approach of ‘holistic system design’ to benefit topical commercial issues?

Wednesday:
Ants can make zero waste, solar powered, sustainable architecture; how can we apply their ‘intelligence’ and 3.5 billion years of research and development to human focused, sustainable design? Join Michael Pawlyn, a pioneer of biomimetic architecture, and other prominent thinkers in this rapidly emerging area of design for this day of astounding talks and inspiring workshops.

Thursday:
Day four is a day to explore the fast moving convergence of craft values with the scale and possibility of mass production. The day involves hands-on creative thinking with break out workshops, and presentations to engage designers with a new approach to craft-based industrial processes.

Friday:
On the final day of greengaged, Dan Epstein, Head of Sustainability and Regeneration for the Olympic Delivery Authority is running a day on the use of natural and advanced materials in design. Through a series of debates and discussions he will be exploring issues and testing our preconceptions on how we define a sustainable material, what tools are available to help designers select sustainable materials and what support designers need when thinking about materials and design

Greengaged has been developed and organized by [re]design, thomas.matthews and the Sustainable Design Research Centre at Kingston University in association with the Design Council and supported by Saint Gobain.

The winner of the Prize, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, will be announced by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at a presentation ceremony followed by a reception on October 15, 2009, at Buckingham Palace. See the full list after the jump.

The Finalists

• David Adjaye is one of the most prominent and influential architects of his generation. His work – from the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo to the Idea Store in Whitechapel -always sets out to innovate and intrigue, combining an artist’s sensibility and vision with diverse, multidisciplinary approaches to design.
• Jeff Banks is a fashion entrepreneur who has for decades combined fashion design with outstanding skills as a communicator and businessman. He brought fashion design to a mass audience through The Clothes Show, which ran on BBC from 1986 – long before the later stream of makeover shows.
• Hussein Chalayan is known as one of the most creative fashion designers of his generation, bringing together artistic ambition, ingenuity and innovation in designs that carry an emotional intensity. His work has been seen at the Venice Art Biennale, Tate
• Wayne Hemingway first made a name as a fashion designer with subversive label Red or Dead. With Hemingway Design, he is now specialising in affordable, sustainable housing and fighting for higher standards in housebuilding and design.Modern and the Design Museum, and his clients include the musician Bjork.
• Eric Parry bases his architecture on the idea that old and new can combine to enhance each other, and the belief that architecture should enrich daily life and culture. Recent work includes the renewal of St Martin-in-the Fields in London and the award-winning 5 Aldermanbury Square, again in London.
• Michael Peters has in a 40-year career played a substantial role in fostering the idea that design is vital to business success, as well as doing much to have design itself taken seriously as an industry and a profession. His clients in branding and digital communications have included Nike, the BBC, Universal Studios, Vodafone, British Airways and the Conservative Party.
• Andrew Ritchie has dedicated himself to perfecting the design of a single product – the UK-manufactured Brompton folding bicycle. In the process, he has made it an international success story and built a business which has grown by 25% for the last three years.
• Peter Saville put graphic design on the map for millions of people through his iconic record sleeves and poster artwork that helped to create the Manchester music scene in the 1980s. Later, he moved into fashion art direction and interiors, and is now also Creative Director of the City of Manchester, with a remit covering transport, architecture and sustainability.
• Jay Smith and Howard Milton are the husband and wife team who combine creative excellence with commercial strength to create brands for household names such as KitKat, Lucozade, NatWest, Gillette, Dulux, Sharwoods, Switch and Sainsbury’s. They have designed for over a quarter of the UK’s top 100 grocery brands, and are currently the calming voice of the Government Swine Flu communications.

Former winners of the Prize include Thomas Heatherwick (2006); the architect Lord Foster of Thamesbank (2004); Habitat founder Sir Terence Conran (2003); Pentagram founder Kenneth Grange (2001) and inventor Sir James Dyson (1997).