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Great Exhibition of the North

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Series exploring the cultural life of the north of England.

Great Exhibition of the North: Design

26/07/2018

Design

BBC Radio 4 - Great Exhibition of the North, Design

Steph McGovern explores the design on display at the Great Exhibition of the North.

Design has a long and powerful history entwined with the north's manufacturing heritage. Steph McGovern meets some of those designers taking the area's traditions into the future.

The Great Exhibition of the North is devoting a considerable amount of space and energy to promoting the region's proud connection with design, born out of its long manufacturing history in textiles and ceramics, for example, and being taken forward today by designers working in digital and virtual spaces as well as with more traditional materials. 

Steph McGovern heads out to meet some of those designers, including leading figures in their respective industries as well as students whose degree show forms part of the Great Exhibition, and who will soon be setting out to make an impression in the professional world themselves. 

Steph speaks with the designers at Hedgehog Lab who lead the field in virtual reality design, and who have created a virtual historical tour of the area on the back of Stephenson's Rocket. She also meets master tailor Brita Hirsch and Professor Kate Fletcher, to hear how Hirsch's Great Northern Cloth embodies some of the sustainable ideas that inform the modern design world across the board. 

Steph also takes up the challenge laid down by the Exhibition organisers to design her own new product as part of the Get North Design Trail - and speaks with concept artist Matt Walker, whose many designs for TV and film include the Dr. Who sonic screwdriver, about how beauty and art are always vying with utility and function in all great design products.

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