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Our selection from the Design Council’s Ones to Watch line-up, an event helping celebrate its 70th anniversary.

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Words by Emily Martin

Earlier this year the Design Council announced its 70 One to Watch with an assembled panel of judges, which included co-founder of makers' online marketplace Made.com and experts from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) selecting some of the most exciting up-and-coming designers in the UK to 'represent the future of British design'.

Showcased as part of Design Council's 70th anniversary celebrations, the designers have been selected from hundreds of entrants, covering design disciplines that included furniture design, architecture, and material experimentation.

And as we enter the start of the graduate show season FX takes a look at three of the 70 chosen by the Design Council for its One to Watch celebration who are already making an impact on the industry.

Marjan Van Abel

What
Making new technology fit into our lives, Van Abel incorporates technology into the home.

With Current Table, a table top created from a low-cost, thin-film, solar cell harvests energy from daylight to charge electronic appliances, such as smart phones and tablets.

Why
After identifying sunlight's ability to power appliances, Van Abel sought to explore the means to capture and store its energy for useful application.

Marjan Van Abel

She says: 'In the development of new technologies aesthetics are often subordinated to efficiency, and I would argue that this leads to poor integration with our living environment. Take for example solar panels, which are just stacked on top of a roof and barely integrated into the aesthetics of the building.'

Where
Design Council winners
Twitter: @marjanvanaubel

 

Ralph Joseph J Raposas

What
Petal Pegs was developed while Raposas was studying at Central Saint Martins, as part of a live brief with product company Joseph Joseph.

Each peg is manufactured using polypropylene polymer and a 'non-obstructive sprung' stainless-steel spring, which also includes an elastomer grip to prevent clothes from falling.

Why
'My final design was one of the solutions to solve everyday frustrations in the domestic space,' says Raposas, who designed Petal Pegs to organise and store clothes pegs.

Ralph Joseph J Raposas

'Clothes pegs are not intuitive objects to organise around the domestic space; they are easily lost and often left in redundant spaces,' he says. The product includes a specially designed hangable container, which holds up to 32 pegs.

Where
Design Council winners
Twitter: @raposas_ralph ralphraposas.co.uk

 

Neil Michels

What
Michels's 'Civic School' design uses budgets for regeneration to provide a building that the public and pupils can use. Identifying it in central Sheffield, Michels' design for it uses a 'civic functions' approach to revitalising the high street that challenges the 'norm of retail developments' and combines local authority education and regeneration.

Why
Currently working as an architecture assistant at Carmody Groarke, Michels says: 'This project was devised following the changes to the School Building Programme. With the Government's current 'baseline design' programme for school building beginning to result in school buildings no better than glorified sheds, I wished to ask "Can we build schools in a different way and make them more civic in the process?" '

Where
Design Council winners
carmodygroarke.com