V.O.W N°11 (Video Of the Week, 14 - 20 March 2011)

Sharing design and spurring hope at the same time is more than just an impressive thing to do. And that’s exactly what over 100 leading UK designers are doing! In an effort to galvanize support for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centers design author Max Fraser, who lost his mother to cancer a few years ago, invited new and established UK designers to participate at the charity project Joy of Living and produce a unique art work. All the pieces of the participating designers will be exhibited at Somerset House in London from 15-21 March 2011 and will be sold at a fix price of £250 each. The profits will then go to Maggie’s charity, which helps people to build a life beyond cancer, helping to manage the impact of a diagnosis of cancer and to live with hope and determination.

The project invited designers to produce an artwork that expresses the Joy of Living-all starting from a simple sheet of A4 graph paper. The on-off works will be sold to people without knowing in advance the name of the designer who produced each work. In this way, people will “buy a piece to which they have a true emotional response”, Max Fraser explains. This noble cause aims to raise £50,000 for Maggie’s. Designers such as Tom Dixon, Terence Conran and Barber Osgerby are participating and contributing one work each.