Design Storytelling

Oh, how can you not love this? An electric, Bucky inspired, geodesic surfing camper on bike wheels. Or as Fast Company describe it: “a wood-paneled Airstream.”

I love this so much because it reminds me of my great friend Polly Brotherwood, who I met while working at Heatherwick Studio. We became fast friends toiling away in Thomas’s workshop on intricate models of fabulous sculptural concepts. La belle Polly is a super talented designer who now lives in France.

She has always inspired me and this camper reminds me of her final project at Goldsmiths, many years ago, a customized camper inspired by her love of skateboarding and surfing (wish I had her wonderful sketches to show you).

Seems like Jay Nelson is a kindred spirit. Polly always loved, and I presume still does, the Cali laid back style. This is what Fast Company has to say about his work.

Glancing over Nelson’s projects, we’re struck by how brazenly Californian they are. Only in California - and in San Francisco in particular - would a wooden Airstream on tiny wheels not look out of place puttering around the streets.

Polly and I have a shared love of pod-like mobile structures (micro architecture) and I have fond memories of one summer, many moons ago, when we had an wonderful time working with Erwan Bouroullec at the Vitra Boisbuchet Summer Workshop making little pod shelters from plastic pipes and sellotape.

Hands on experiments with materials and form are something I really miss from my early design days, which is probably why Jay Nelson’s work has induced such nostalgia in me today. One day I will get back in that workshop.

And it looks like I’m not the only one who is nostalgic for making. Coincidentally Justin McGuirk has also tapped into this theme today in the Guardian:

The art of craft: the rise of the designer maker.