Deptford Design Market Challenge

The Deptford Design Market Challenge is a project exploring how used objects can be "redesigned" to give them new life.

Twenty-seven designers - including Stuart Haygarth, Martí Guixé, Martino Gamper and Maxim Velcovsky - have each been asked to select a second-hand object (above) bought at Deptford Market in London, and then to redesign it.

The designs shown here are Gitta Gschwendtner's light made of old shuttlecocks (top image); Conran Design's guitar reinvented as an iPod speaker (above); Simon Elvin's telephone built using instructions from a pile of Sixties DIY magazines; and Martino Gamper's reinvented child's musical box (bottom).

The project's website shows all 27 objects in both their before and after states.

The results will be on display at the Royal Festival Hall in London from 15-25 September, during the London Design Festival.

Details follow:

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A collaboration between Raw Nerve, Creative Lewisham Agency and the London Design Festival, the Deptford Design Market Challenge is bringing together an eclectic mix of 27 of the world’s top designers for an inventive and provocative project.

The designers, who include Conran and Partners, Stuart Haygarth, Martí Guixé, and Based Upon, have each been asked to pick a second-hand object – a paint box, a guitar, a basket of toy soldiers – bought from Deptford Market.

Their task is to challenge preconceptions of usefulness and beauty, using their talents to re-work the item, creating something unique, desirable and functional. To view all the items visit the Gallery.

By re-interpreting the discarded, the aim of the Market Challenge is to inspire and encourage designers to think about re-using what is available before creating an entirely new product from scratch. The possibilities for regeneration are endless: compressing or manipulating the object; reengineering it; using it as an image for a website.

The re-designed items, now transformed from humble bargains to design icons, will be displayed at the newly refurbished Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall as part of the London Design Festival, running from 15th – 25th September 2007.
Admission is free and open to everyone.

The designers who have taken up the challenge are:

&made • Alexander Taylor •Based Upon • Conran and Partners 
Daniel Brown • Daniel Eatock • Gitta Gschwendtner • Idol Hands 
Julia Lohmann • Karen Ryan • Kate Maestri • Life Is Suite
i • Linda Florence • Marti Guixe • Martino Gamper • Max Lamb
Maxim Velcovsky • Michael Cross • Nadine Jarvis • Peter Jensen
Rebecca Oldfield • Simon Elvins • Simon Heijdens • Squire and Partners
Maxim Velcovsky • Tony Mullin • Wemake