Design Museum

The Design Musuem is lean on design.

So the exhibition concept is mixed up with different exhibits

and these are even poorly presented.

Even friends who are not into arts ask for it’s qualification.

I am wondering why anything changes over the years.

At least the best thing is it’s small dimensions so you

don’t have to spent to much time on it.

The Design Museum is mecca for those interested in things such as Edward Tufte's " The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". It's all about the history of nonverbal communications - taking complex data and turning it into information. They have a really neat overview of the London Tube and it's famous map - geographically imprecise, but now THE reference for millions of people. It was part of an exhibition "You Are Here: The Design of Information" through 5/15/05. There is also a cool section where the exhibit follows the major social trends over the twentieth century: worldwide travel, consumerism, internet, etc. A highly recommended visit!

I am a Design and Technology teacher and have been considering the Design Museum as a possible trip for the students.

How wrong I was. I saw it was £8.50 and naively thought that at that price it would be brilliant.

What did we get? Not much. The place is way too small for the name 'Design Museum'... and if you're expecting a 'design museum', forget it.

On the lower floor was a timeline of Design most of which would have been just as good out of a book (very few real objects) and, in the middle, a London-centric something or other which I found hard to fathom the content (and purpose) of. I am a fairly radical thinker when it comes to Art and Design, but even I was stumped by this one!

I went upstairs, confident in the treats that awaited me as Mariscal is one of my favourites and there was a show devoted to him. Oh dear... nothing like the number of original pieces there could or should have been. Disappointing.

Needless to say, I have had to strike this off my list as a possible trip for my students.