Mid-year, mid-projects, mid-life (did I really even think that last one?). Anyway we’re right in the thick of it here. As most of the studio hits the Highlands for some fresh air an update is overdue… What have we been doing then? Our usual work with the Design Council and the Design Museum, some project specific consultancy work, all of it interesting and good. I was invited to teach a Project Management module on the MDes Innovation and Creativity for Industry collaboration between University of the Arts and Cranfield which was unexpectedly rewarding.

But the things we really want to talk about we have to keep to ourselves, for now at least, though that Daniel is to curate something new and on a bigger platform than ever before is hardly a surprise. That we are in start-up mode for something self-initiated, risky and fun is something that’s been a long time a-coming too… And the proto-typing stage, due in September, will force us to update here sooner than before. Happy to share that we’re working with the fabulous Ben Stott as one of the first projects of his post-NB Studio life as well as the fast up-and-coming Kin.

Last words I’m feeling the need to mention some sad news we had recently, that designer, tutor, all round irritant and dear friend Gerrard O’Carroll died early this month. I’m so happy I knew him, worked with him and even taught with him occasionally. There’s no one like him.

Hurrah. The Incidental has been shortlisted for Designs of the Year at the Design Museum. “Recognising the best of contemporary design around the world” the little tiddler is in heady (and eclectic) company indeed. Which is one of the things we have enjoyed about the reformatting of the award from the previous Designer of the Year – we’re with Patrick Bourgoyne over at Creative Review who last year enjoyed the ‘the quirky and the controversial’ array on display…

It’s been interesting though. Apart from our surprise at making it through to shortlist, there’s a couple of other things about the process that have left us scratching our heads. Not least the credit: The Incidental was a genuine, honest to goodness, collaborative project (rare as hens teeth in our not inconsiderable experience). We might have initiated and steered it but Berg, Abake, electronest and the client were key, and foremost of dozens who input not least the reporters and tweeters. Plus the category question – what exactly is The Incidental? To reference it as newsletter or a website is to underplay some of it’s more interesting aspects – in particular the novel production and dissemination processes which are equally part of the design.

But hey we’re not complaining; very happy to be there and looking forward to seeing the exhibition (opening 17 February at the Design Museum).

Starting up is a funny phrase. ‘They’re starting up’ – oof – already I feel the tension. For us the founding of From Now On was less a startup and more a migration of existing projects into a new framework, making it easier for us to communicate what we do.

So yes, we underestimated what a name can do. For us and for our clients. And looking back on a year of change, in retrospect we were starting up; happily perhaps we just didn’t realise it at the time. Here’s to more up in 2010. And thanks to all the people we’ve worked with and who have helped us this year, in particular our 2009 clients:

ADI-FAD, Barcelona

The Aram Gallery

The British Council

Conran Octopus

The Design Council

The Design Museum

Estudio Mariscal, Barcelona

Imagination

Korean Design Foundation

LTH, Lund University

The Royal College of Art

TBWA/Stream

Tenerife Design Festival

Urban Salon

O dear, whatever we’ve been doing recently it evidently hasn’t included updating this website. We’ve been busy busying ourselves with:

• The Incidental, back (better?) for the British Council at the London Design Festival. Abake refined and polished and Jerome Rigaud at electronest crafted this online.

• Grassworks at the Aram Gallery – utility driven, flat pack, exceptional design – one of the better shows of the London Design Festival? Icon thinks so.

• The Design Museum has signed on their new building and we’re helping them think about their future.

• And last but not least a growing number of consultancy projects see us advising strategy and delivery issues on a number of museum, digital and branding related projects.

Now heads down and turn up the heating. It’s getting cold outside and we’ve got a top secret project to develop. More here (eventually).

We’ve been working with the Design Museum in London for a couple of years now, looking at future strategies for their Collections. More recently in addition Daniel has been curating not 1 but 2 exhibitions due to open there this summer. Now we’re just counting the days until the first, Super Contemporary, “celebrating the fearlessly progressive spirit of London’s greatest creative minds, past and present”, opens to the public on June 3 (and our lives get a lot less hectic).

For Super Contemporary (in spite of my pleading to be more sensible) he has commissioned 15 pieces of new work from London designers including Thomas Heatherwick, David Adjaye and Industrial Facility as well as a series of personal maps of London from for example Airside, Michael Marriott and Imagination. It’s really unusual to have all new work for a design exhibition of this scale (which usually would focus on existing material)… And the proof will be in the pudding, or actually in the Design Museum from 3 June til 04 October. More here and elsewhere soon I spect.

In the meantime there’s a cool tool, also commissioned as part of the exhibition, which invites the design or close-to-design community to map their collaborations and locate themselves in the London design landscape. Check out The Collabregater. With a name like that how could you resist?

I’ve been recruited on to the Designing Demand programme by the Design Council (“It will give you the skills you need to spot how design can boost performance and it will help you seize new-found design opportunities” no less) and started by spending a day workshopping design opportunities in an unpromising looking light industrial unit in Park Royal Industrial Estate. Biggest industrial park in Europe apparently, who knew. And I do hate a talk-shop. So what a revelation to come out so energised and inspired. You can meet some great people in industrial parks…

The British Council asked Daniel to guest curate the traditional British Council showcase in Milan Furniture Fair this year.

We put our heads together and steered them out of an exhibition and into a ‘new media experiment’.

The resultant project is a daily news sheet, map and website: The Incidental. It offers an information channel and platform to visitors, exhibitors and special guests via Twitter, Flickr, paper, pens and bicycle couriers. See an explanation of how it works here. A whole host of the most interesting people possible have contributed to the development and execution including Matt Jones, Schulze & Webb, Abake, Oscar Narud and Damian Barr.

The press release says:

It’s an admirable excursion the British Council have taken into uncharted territory. At best it will be the must-have document of this temporary coming together. At the very least it will be a fascinating demonstration of the possibilities and limitations of social networking technologies when pushed to engage real time in the real world with tangible outputs.

Even if you’re not in Milan you can contribute or observe…. Have a look – and then let us know what you think?