HRH Prince Charles and Sir Jony Ive on designing for a better world

Sir Jony Ive signs off the website of his creative collective, LoveFrom, with two startling, contradictory words: ‘Love’ and ‘Fury’, connecting them with a meticulously drawn ampersand. They suggest a more complicated and surprising designer than the purist who gave the enigmatic first-generation iPhone its Dieter Rams-inspired calculator interface. Ive is unfailingly polite, solicitous and considerate in conversation, and yet every so often he uses the word ‘fury’ or ‘furious’, or ‘angry’. It makes him sound a bit like William Morris, who gave up design to campaign for socialism, complaining within the hearing of his clients of spending his life ‘ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich’. Ive certainly isn’t giving up design, but he suggests that, when discussing work in his studio, he is sometimes arguing with himself: ‘mostly it is an internal monologue’. He belongs to a generation of designers who grew up reading Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World, which made the notorious claim that ‘there are professions more dangerous than industrial design, but not many.’ His career to date has been inextricably associated with the giant company that has done more than most to define modern industrial production, and perhaps even modern life. Though he stepped down from the chief design officer role in 2019, he still has Apple as a client, as well as Ferrari and Airbnb.  Terra Carta: a new charter for the planet The Terra Carta Seal by LoveFrom Alongside his work for industry behemoths, Ive recently designed a seal for the Prince of Wales’ Terra Carta campaign, with the words ‘For Nature, People and Planet’ around the edge rendered in the specially drawn serif font, derived from the work of the 18th-century printer John Baskerville, that Ive reserves for his personal projects. The seal has an elegance and emotional punch that somehow hints at the sensibility of both William Blake and Damien Hirst. Terra Carta, named in a conscious echo of the 13th-century Magna Carta, is a document designed to guide business in averting climate catastrophe. Magna Carta, which promised trial by jury and the abolition of cruel and unusual punishment, was written with considerable elegance by the Archbishop of Canterbury of the time. The new Terra Carta, which aims to show that capitalism and enlightened self-interest are compatible with saving the planet, may have a Latin name, but its vocabulary is unsurprisingly accented by the language of modern management theory. With its frequent references to ‘road maps’, ‘value chains’ and ‘game changers’, Terra Carta aims to identify 13 fruitful areas for investment, including biomimicry, electric flight propulsion, carbon-neutral construction, nuclear fission, and green infrastructure.  It’s an approach that has drawn the attention of Greenwash.Earth, an Extinction Rebellion-backing activist group that calls out organisations that ‘claim to care about the natural world while knowingly destroying it’. They call Terra Carta ‘a great idea’ and say ‘we don’t think Terra Carta is greenwashing’. But they have expressed scepticism about some of the 450 organisations, which include HSBC and BP, that have signed up to support the document. As chancellor of the Royal College of Art (RCA), Ive does not confine himself to dressing in a colourful cod-medieval outfit once a year to officiate at the degree ceremony. He has worked with the Prince to kick-start what he calls a design lab at the college, to support the aims of Terra Carta, and perhaps to prove Papanek was wrong, even if he shares some of the latter’s concerns. Terra Carta Design Lab: the four winners  Terra Carta Design Lab winner: the Zero Emissions Livestock Project (Zelp) has designed a wearable device for cattle to neutralise methane emissions and improve animal welfare The Prince and Ive were at the college at the end of April to announce which four projects, chosen from 125 submissions made by RCA students and recent alumni, would share £200,000 from the Prince’s Sustainable Markets Initiative, and benefit from time with Ive and other advisors to find ways to use that money to take their ideas to market. The successful entrants range from a group of designers working on methods of dealing with the microplastic pollutant released from vehicle tyres, which, it turns out, is almost as damaging as single-use plastic, to a muffler device that can convert methane emissions from cows into comparatively less threatening CO2, as well as a waterproof textile that does not bleed harmful chemicals into the water table, and an idea for low-tech aerofoil-assisted reseeding projects for degraded natural environments. The four, plus two runners-up, have been chosen for their ability to make a visible difference, and how close they are to being realised. For example, the Zelp methane capture project set up by Francisco Norris, an RCA graduate from 2017, has already secured substantial investment and has 26 employees. ‘The design lab idea came from a conversation between Jony and the Prince,’ says RCA vice chancellor Paul Thompson. ‘It’s had a powerful impact on the whole RCA, bringing everybody together.’ Terra Carta Design Lab winner: the first totally recyclable outdoor performance textile, Amphitex by Amphibio will be made from recycled and plant-based feedstock  As Charles shook hands with the winners, he told his audience how proud he was to be associated with such remarkable ideas. He spoke of ‘the urgency of the crisis that confronts us in all directions,’ and of the need to find solutions rapidly, ‘through the combination of art, science and technology, that together have a better chance of winning this battle.’ Prince Charles and Jony Ive: a meeting of minds Ive first met Charles more than a decade ago when he and Steve Jobs went to Highgrove, the Prince’s private residence in Gloucestershire. He admires the Prince’s command of the issues confronting us on climate change, and even more the way in which he addresses them. ‘It’s easy to say the threat is too profound and too existential to do anything but retreat. With the certainty of knowledge that comes from looking at the issues for a long time, the Prince has described the problem, but his engagement does not come from fear.’ Ive confesses that he is an anxious person. As the reference to Love and Fury on LoveFrom’s website suggests, his strategy for dealing with that anxiety is to convert fear into fury. ‘Fear seems passive. I am more angry than I am fearful,’ he says. ‘It’s dangerous when you feel powerless in the face of a challenge. The thing about fear is that it is passive, corrosive and deeply unhealthy. It encourages you to retreat, because you don’t think you can effect change.’ Terra Carta Design Lab winner: Bike Ayaskan and Begum Ayaskan’s Aerseeds are pods that are designed to be carried by the wind to deliver nutrients and seeds to regenerate soils  When Ive talks about design, his language is fiercely moralistic. ‘I am angry that most of what is made seems so thoughtless. So many products do not deserve to exist. The minimum that they should do to justify themselves and consume all that material is that their designers should care about them.’  Ive is heartened both by the young designers whose work is the basis of the Terra Carta project, and by their ideas. He sees their work as ‘a wonderful antidote to dodging and retreating’. He is equally impressed by how articulate they are. ‘I used to struggle to speak, and to have heard every one of them talk with passion and knowledge, with fire in their bellies, but with no arrogance, was tremendously encouraging.’ Terra Carta Design Lab winner: the Tyre Collective’s device attaches to a wheel to capture the unseen synthetic rubber particles expelled by tyre wear, a major source of pollution  Ive is an optimist about what designers have to offer. As he sees it, design is still in flux. ‘We have lost sight of how recent industrialisation is. Unlike architecture, design is still a new profession. It developed by putting a design office on top of a manufacturing plant, then discovered authorship, and is still trying to find how to make sense of the equation. ‘To have heard every one of these young designers talk with passion and knowledge, with fire in their bellies, was tremendously encouraging’ – Jony Ive ‘I am struck by the conspicuous lack of a completely identifiable movement,’ continues Ive. ‘Perhaps the last one was Ettore Sottsass and Memphis. Perhaps because it’s easier to identify a movement that can be summarised by appearance.’ Terra Carta Design Lab runner-up: Shellworks uses bacteria to produce sustainable packaging for the beauty and personal care industry that is truly compostable, cost-competitive, aesthetic and effective If Ive has his way, the future of design is to combine the care of makers with the potential of contemporary industrial manufacturing. ‘In the 1980s, when manufacturing started to be outsourced from North America, it was not because of the rate for labour, it was because of skills that could not be found in other places. The narrative is that it was cheaper. That was not the case, it was to find capability. When you design, you must have a thorough understanding of materials, otherwise you get a fractured development of form. You often hear people apologising that things are not made the way that they wanted. I understand that excuse, but at Apple, I spent months at manufacturing sites, and my apology would have had no currency. ‘Makers never say, “it’s not been made quite the way that I wanted”. If it’s designed and made with care, a mass-produced object can have the resonances of a batch production. It comes down to motivation and the sacrifices you make for the exercise.’ Terra Carta Design Lab runner-up: Or:Bital Bloom is a data-driven artwork that ‘blooms’ in response to corporate and organisational adherence to sustainability targets and carbon emission reductions For Ive, design is about care, something that he once discussed with Jobs. It was a conversation from which his other sign-off word came. ‘He told me, “When you make something with care, even though you don’t know who the people using it will be, they will sense it. Care is a way to express our love for the species”.’ § The Wallpaper* August 2022 issue newsstand cover, featuring Prince Charles and Jony Ive, photographed in the Morning Room at Clarence House in St James’s, London, by Nick Knight  
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‘There is sculpture in everything, even in a chair’: Tom Sachs on his new Chicago exhibition

Furniture has long been part of artist Tom Sachs’ oeuvre. For over 30 years he’s been designing and building chairs, tables, cabinets and more, considering his furniture an extension of his sculpture practice. His ‘NASA’ chairs from his 2012 show sold out in five hours when he re-editioned them in 2017, and in the early days of his career, he was assisting Frank Gehry when Gehry designed his bent plywood chair for Knoll.  This week, Sachs unveils his first furniture show in the US in over 20 years, at Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, a building supported by Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation, established by Gates in 2010. The meticulously restored former bank has lent its first floor to Anthony Gallery for a year-long takeover. ‘Tom Sachs: Furniture’ (on view until 4 September 2022) is the fourth show to be presented by Anthony Gallery in the space.  The Shop Chair was Sachs’ first manufactured chair and made its debut appearance at Design Miami in 2017 at Salon 94’s gallery booth. Early versions using expensive polycarbonate were considered art pieces, but Sachs sought to create a more democratic version The exhibition will showcase a selection of new and past designs, including his ‘Shop Chair’, which appeared on Wallpaper’s April 2019 newsstand cover. Its plentiful holes are inspired by the so-called ‘lightening holes’ from Second World War aviation, when excess material was removed to make structures both lighter and stronger. ‘We drilled out as much as we could while still making sure there is support,’ Sachs told Wallpaper* at the time.  His armchair titled Crate Chair No 13 (2018) is crafted from found ConEd red and white barriers, a material he previously used in his mixed media artwork The Cabinet (2014).  Jeanneret Table No. 4 (2022) in plywood, latex paint and steel hardware Indeed, Sachs creates his pieces with evidence of their construction, almost delighting in the very practice of building. His fascination with the everyday plays out in his mixed-media sculptures, which often use ordinary-to-the-point-of-mundane materials. These are not cosy, comfortable designs; there’s not an upholstered cushion in sight. After all, Sachs is the artist who, regarding his long-term collaboration with Nike, told Wallpaper*: ‘I take the sock-liners out of my sneakers so that the ground is harder below so I can think clearer. I like to feel my skeletal structure because it’s within all of us.’ ConEd Altec Lamp (2022) in plywood and mixed media Although they are considered an extension of his art and sculpture practice, Sachs has encouraged people to use his chairs and wear his Nike collaboration trainers, preferring his work to be engaged with, rather than tiptoed around. The physical, elemental nature of the works offers an interesting contrast to Sachs’ exploration into NFTs, in particular with his Rocket Factory, which won him a Wallpaper* 2022 Design Award.  To mark the opening of the Chicago exhibition, Tom Sachs’ Rocket Factory will be doing a physical rocket launch on 8 July at Chicago’s Kenwood Gardens, another of the city’s South Side locations invested in by Theaster Gates. § Model Eighty Eight (2022), built from plywood and mixed media Vase (2021) in plywood, epoxy resin, fibreglass, latex paint and steel hardware    
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Gucci’s third high jewellery collection takes a world tour

Creative director Alessandro Michele goes on a fantastical Grand Tour for Gucci’s third high jewellery collection, ‘Hortus Deliciarum’. Beginning in the mid-19th century and tracing a route through to the 1970s, the collection begins with Roman landscapes and the brilliance of India’s architecture before travelling through to ancient Eastern and Western traditions, finally arriving in the New World with its nods to the beginning of the modernist movement. The collection is divided into five themes, each of which takes its cue from a different era. The first part looks to the Grand Tour, the rite of passage for Europeans in the 19th century, whose bid for culture and beauty is reflected in jewels that depict cultural landmarks from Rome in miniature form. The Colosseum, Piazza San Pietro, Pantheon, waterfalls at Tivoli and the Pyramid of Cestius are all drawn in cameos that sit in necklaces, bracelets, earrings and brooches set off by a rainbow of precious gems, including peridot, yellow beryl, red and pink spinel and fire opal. Colour also defines the second part of the collection, which is inspired by those who travel to India, their experience of the architecture and verdant gardens married with the bold silks of traditional Mogul garments, creating joyful and vivid high jewellery. Gold threaded with diamonds and enamel make for textured bracelets, while a necklace in a rainbow of coloured stones is a brilliant centrepiece. The third theme interprets ancient Greek myths in its celebration of the pearl, with white, cream and black pearls a milky foil for vivid topaz in earrings, brooches and pendants. It is an arresting juxtaposition that sets the tone for the fourth theme, nodding to the modernist codes of the 1930s and 1940s in a play with geometry and sharp architectural forms. Pop culture is the defining reference of the final theme, with pieces bringing the hedonism of the 1970s to life in a psychedelic explosion of emerald, green tourmalines and aquamarine. §  
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Best of Haute Couture Week A/W 2022

The haute couture collections represent the very pinnacle of Parisian savoir-faire, seeing the city’s historic houses – among them Dior, Chanel, and Balenciaga – flex the might of their ateliers to create clothing defined by breathtaking expressions of craft. But a new energy is emerging in the city too, seeing designers from Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli to John Galliano at Maison Margiela Artisanal explore what the historic art of couture means today. Here, in an ongoing review, the best of Haute Couture Week A/W 2022. Haute Couture A/W 2022, Chanel to Balenciaga Schiaparelli Daniel Roseberry’s latest collection for Schiaparelli saw the American creative director engage in a dialogue with designers past – a reflection of new exhibition ‘Shocking! The Surreal World of Elsa Schiaparelli’ at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which explores both the house namesake’s Surrealist influences and those whom she inspired in her wake, from Christian Lacroix to Azzedine Alaïa. So there were touches of Yves Saint Laurent (moulded breastplates, Van Gogh-inspired sunflowers), Jean Paul Gaultier (nipped nude corsetry) and Lacroix (giant gold crucifixes, vast flourishes of satin) appearing across a celebratory, unrestrained collection which bridged past and present. ‘I always talk about trying to achieve that state of creative innocence, of fighting to stay close to that person who fell in love with fashion and its possibilities,’ said Roseberry. ‘I hope that spirit comes through in this collection… [I hope people feel] the joy we felt [making it], of creating things, of getting to make beautiful objects that people will always remember.’ Dior The ‘tree of life’, a symbol which has traversed cultures and time, provided the starting point for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s latest haute couture collection at Dior (the house called it ‘an emblem of universal reach’). Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko – continuing a long line of female artists that have collaborated with the house under Grazia Chiuri’s tenure – created the set, which saw her folk-inspired embroideries blown up as the runway’s backdrop. Embroidery became central to this latest offering, with intricate motifs adorning cotton, wool, silk and cashmere dresses in romantic silhouettes – an expression, says the house, of the ‘virtuoso savoir-faire’ which has defined the Dior haute couture atelier since its beginnings. ‘Thanks to refined gestures of the hand,’ says Dior, ‘the tree of life is thus transformed into a manifesto for harmonious plurality, allowing a restoration of balance, if only momentarily’.  Chanel Virginie Viard described her latest couture outing as ‘graphic’ – a favourite word of forebear Karl Lagerfield, the designer noted – beginning with a shade of green inspired by a brightly hued jacket worn by Inès de la Fressange in a Chanel couture collection in the 1980s. Amid a colourful set by French artist Xavier Veilhan, such vivid swathes of colour were evident throughout a collection that ‘[invoked] geometric statements through optical illusions imbued with lightness and resolute modernity’, as the house described. Indeed, despite the multi-layered expressions of craft – hundreds of embroidered leaves, painted lace, delicate dustings of sequins and feathers – there was a clarity to Viard’s vision, with graphic motifs and sculptural silhouettes emerging throughout a collection which captured the French designer’s modern, easygoing take on the historic art of haute couture. Giorgio Armani Privé Giorgio Armani titled his latest Armani Privé collection ‘Pétillant’ which translates to English from French as ‘sparkling’ (the term is perhaps most associated with the traditional method of creating sparkling wine). Here though, it referenced a multiplicity of elements that shimmered in the show’s light – whether dangling bead fringing, sequin trims, or diaphanous mesh crystal tops. Another word the designer used was ‘realism’, noting that the louche silhouettes referenced the 1920s, finding particular inspiration in the art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. ‘Echoes of her rebellious elegance are felt in the succession of silhouettes, first minimal and linear, then voluminous and evanescent,’ said the house. ‘The light refracted by the embroidery takes over the persistent magical movement that sends a message of pure, feminine energy.’ Balenciaga For his second haute couture collection, Balenciaga creative director Demna looked towards an unexpected collaborator, the applied science division of car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. They had worked on the face-covering masks – ink-tinted, aerodynamic, anti-fog, moulded and polished by hand – worn by models across the collection’s first 38 looks. Combined with Demna’s contemporary riffs on haute couture (neoprene utilised as an alternative to traditional silk gazar, T-shirts bonded with aluminium for sculptural silhouettes, narrow-waisted corsets built into shirts) they had the uncanny effect which has defined the designer’s tenure at the house so far. The show ended with a series of increasingly grand gowns – such was the size of their crinolines that they barely fitted through the doorways of the salon-style rooms – and a slew of celebrity models, including Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa, for a defiant vision of what haute couture can look like today. Maison Margiela Artisanal During the pandemic, John Galliano proved adept at translating his vision for Maison Margiela into the digital realm; his various films, created in collaboration with Nick Knight, were some of the highlights of the lockdown genre. This season, returning to the runway with his Maison Margiela Artisanal line, Galliano noted that he wished to translate this newfound creative outlet into a physical experience. As such, ‘Cinema Inferno’ was born, an in-theatre happening which combined film, performance and runway show as a dynamic new way to showcase his collections at the house. The story itself transported the viewer to the American open road, tracing a couple through the Arizona desert, providing context for a collection which drew on the archetypes of the country’s style (cowboy hats, leather boots, denim and the like) and mixed them up with Galliano’s flair for eccentric, unrestrained glamour. Stay tuned for more Wallpaper* coverage from Haute Couture Week A/W 2022 §  
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