Designers in Residence opened at the Design Museum in London last night, marking the unofficial start of the London Design Festival (which doesn't officially launch until Monday).

The show presents the work of five young designers: Sarah van Gameren, Chris O’Shea, Tomás Alonso (below), Richard Sweeney (top image) and Finn Magee (above).

Photos are by Luke Hayes.
Photos are by Luke Hayes.

Here's the Design Museum's announcement of the show from last month:

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DESIGNERS IN RESIDENCE 2007

DESIGN MUSEUM ANNOUNCES FIVE DESIGNERS SELECTED TO APPEAR IN FIRST ANNUAL SHOW

Designers in Residence launches at the Design Museum from 12 September to 14 October 2007, during the London Design Festival. A new annual exhibition, in which emerging product and furniture designers are invited to transform areas of the museum with their work, it aims to provide a springboard into the design world.

The 2007 Designers in Residence will be: Sarah van Gameren, Chris O’Shea, Tomás Alonso, Richard Sweeney and Finn Magee.

Exploring issues of mass production, consumption and accidental aesthetics within design, Sarah van Gameren’s Big Dipper (above), to be installed in the Riverside Hall, mechanically creates 24 candle wax chandeliers by dipping strings of wick in heated wax and allowing a frame to build up over a period of 12 hours, inviting the viewer to witness the birth of a product.

Interactive media designer Chris O’Shea focuses on creating works that encourage new methods of play and collaboration, challenging our perception of space and physical objects. For the exhibition he will create an interactive installation that allows visitors to see into areas of the Design Museum normally hidden from view (above).

Tomás Alonso will transform the Design Museum Café with new furniture and his modular plant system, Home Greenroom. As well as creating an interior eco-system, Alonso will give Café customers the chance to use his Stamp cutlery (above), a unique recyclable aluminium design.

Inspired by complex geometries, Richard Sweeney uses simple materials to explore both the handmade and machine manufactured multiple. In the Design Museum Tank, Sweeney’s exquisite paper forms will become a series of dramatic lights by night (above).

Situated in the Design Museum’s front entrance, Finn Magee’s new Flat Life project (above and below) will recreate the atmosphere of a designer’s studio. The work, drawing from the Design Museum’s collection, will question our interaction with images and response to design classics.

Design Museum Director, Deyan Sudjic said “We have opened up the museum to five very talented young designers and we are thrilled with the energy and imagination they have brought us. This is a showcase that will celebrate the potential of a range of very different designers at the start of their careers".

Presenting experimental forms and original concepts combined with unconventional techniques and sophisticated new technologies, Designers in Residence will reveal the dynamism of a new generation of designers, and will capture some of the prevailing themes in contemporary design culture.

>> read all our stories on the London Design Festival 2007 here