Design Debate

It's no secret that at Pickle Design , where I work, we love design classics . We've chosen to illustrate quite a few of them for newsletters and calendars over the years. I just love discovering good design, and the stories behind it. One illustration I did which never saw the light of day was the PH lamp system designed by Poul Henningsen for Danish lighting company Louis Poulsen . The distinctive three-shade system was developed during 1925–26, so a century later seemed like a very good excuse to bring it out again. Henningsen was fascinated by light but frustrated by glare. Rather than simply hiding the bulb, he took a much more scientific approach to controlling and softening the light it produced. The geometry of his shades was based on the logarithmic spiral, a form familiar from the natural world. By carefully calculating the curves and position of each shade, he could distribute the light more evenly and create a softer glow without the uncomfortabl...

I thought I would share the calendar we produced at Pickle Design for 2025. We've been creating these limited-edition calendars as gifts for clients and local businesses for around 20 years, and coming up with a new theme each time has become something of a tradition. Over the years we've illustrated everything from collective nouns for birds and time travel to an alphabet of graphic design, Cornish food and drinks from around the world. In 2014 we devoted the calendar entirely to iconic chairs , so for 2025 we decided to revisit the idea of design classics, but this time broaden things out. We’d also returned to the subject in 2016, asking what makes an iconic design a true design classic . We chose twelve objects whose shapes have become so familiar that you can recognise them from surprisingly little information. The Anglepoise lamp and Coca-Cola bottle are perfect examples. Rather than draw each object in full, we reduced them to partial silhouettes, lea...

Bentwood chairs in a café. At Pickle Design , where I work, we have a real appreciation of design classics. Those pieces of iconic design that transcend trends and are just, well, beautiful. They inspire countless generations of creatives and, as it turns out, our calendars too. For our 2025 poster calendar we focussed on 12 design classics, illustrated in minimal detail with pure white. You can see the finished Design Classics Calendar here . We also explored chair design in an earlier calendar. June 2017 saw us illustrate and celebrate Thonet's coat stand. The calendar theme reminded me of the newsletters we produced a few years back, celebrating iconic pieces of design , including the Thonet coat stand . We had one, if not an original then certainly closely inspired by one, in our hallway growing up. I think I took it for granted, slinging my coat on its wonderfully curvaceous hooks. But having taken the time to understand the process more...

Well this is a blast from the past, technically a bit before my time (born in the 1980s) but the Raleigh Chopper is a design classic I remember well. The British brand just this month have brought back their iconic 1972 bike keeping it as true to the original as possible, whilst also making sure it meets modern safety regs.  My first bike was a Raleigh and I loved it! Not quite as cool as the chopper though, I seem to remember it was gold in colour, a hand-me-down I loved. The Chopper made bikes cool, it was the bike all kids wanted in the 70s. Designer Alan Oakley based the look for the bike on Peter Fonda's motorbike in the 1960s movie classic Easy Rider. The tall handlebars and vintage graphics remain in this re-launched version, as well as the original colours of 'ultraviolet' and 'infrared'.  The new Mk2 took four years of pain-staking research, the company keen to not disappoint fans. They used 3D modelling of the original bike to produce the CAD designs for t...

Perusing Miss Moss I was reminded of a British design classic – that black sheep jumper! Miss Moss was actually featuring the wonderfully characterful dog paintings of Sally Muir, but it sent me straight back to the knitwear company she started with Joanna Osborne. The V&A has one of the sheep jumpers in its collection, which rather confirms its place in design history. Warm & Wonderful began in 1979, with Sally and Joanna selling their knitwear from a market stall in Covent Garden. Their sheep jumper in particular proved a hit: rows of little white sheep with one black sheep standing apart. A young Lady Diana Spencer wore the red version to a polo match in 1981 and it became inseparable from her image. David Bowie and Andy Warhol were amongst the other famous names who wore the design. I can see why it struck a chord. Joanna and Sally tapped into something many of us recognise – that feeling of being the odd one out ...

    Ooo these look lovely. I love a vintage car, they just encourage you to gaze, to stare and appreciate every line and curve. The beauty of these drawings is that they invite you to stay a while longer and take in every inch of the craftsmanship and skill.  Italian artist and photographer Alessandro Paglia has really captured the spirit of these classic pieces of design, all through hours of detailed pen work. His subjects range from a 1937 Bugatti Atlantic Type 57 to a 1970 Lamborghini Miura.  More than photography, Paglia's drawings are hyper-real making use of the paper's texture and creating artworks that go beyond black and white.  originally found at The Cool Hunter . 

Still so much to learn. It is both exciting when i stumble across new things and also overwhelming that there is so much good design - past and present - that I have not met yet. This morning I have learned about one of Australia's most celebrated furniture designers, Grant Featherston. Mid-century design is a bit of a love of mine, when we compiled our 2014 iconic chair design calendar that was a particular period we were drawn to. A combination of new materials and processes, clean, sleek and inviting design and a real nod to comfort that I just love.  So today I saw the classic and beautiful chairs of Grant Featherston re-invented for a new generation. His wife, Mary, and design partner has collaborated with Gordan Mather Industries and Grazia & Co to bring these perfected shapes back into production. Grant's first chair was the R152, created in 1951. Elegant tapered legs, curved plywood and a firm seat curved to reflect a perso...