In the Making at the Design Museum

In the process of making objects, materials and components often go through stages that look almost unrecognisable compared to the finished product. Even if we take them apart, we don’t always see the secret layers of manufacture.

Designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, who were behind the iconic London 2012 Olympic Torch, have chosen over 20 objects and display them at various stages of mid manufacture.

If you know and love the TV programme How It’s Made, you will be familiar with the fascinating factory processes of everyday objects, and some unguessable ways of putting things together. The French Horn – naturally we know it starts off as a long straight tube that gets bent into shape, but we don’t often get to see it pre-bent. The lozenge of metal that is still to be stamped as a £2 coin; the bucket shape of felt that is a hat before it’s steamed into fashion. Videos in the gallery show the journey of an object inside the factory, but these partly abstracted items are themselves like sculptures. If you’ve always wondered how glass marbles are made, the magical procedure is now revealed.

After viewing the objects, there are images of the completed items, and a wall of booklets to take, which fill in much more information about the history, materials and processes of each piece.

It’s a fascinating exhibition and an insight into the hands-on methods still required to produce sophisticated items. These objects indicate all the stages of thought that go into everyday creations.

Eleanor MacFarlane

In the Making is at the Design Museum from 22^nd January to 4^th May 2014, for further information visit here.