Adrian Westaway Co-founder & Director of Technology and Magic at Special Projects Adrian is an inventor, engineer and experience designer on a mission to make the human-technology interaction meaningful and delightful. As co-founder of Special Projects he harnesses technology, inclusive research and magic thinking to devise design propositions that feel familiar yet wondrous. A self-taught magician since the age of 11 and full member of the Magic Circle, he relentlessly pursues his conviction that “designers should use magic thinking and try to introduce surprise, delight and fuzzy feeling in the things they create.” After becoming the first ever James Dyson Fellow in 2007, and a Fellow of the Royal Commission of 1851, in 2010, for his work on interactive lighting systems, Adrian built a playground in Peru, had whisky with Derren Brown as a student in Bristol, and tried to make his teachers disappear. His contagious passion for magic and engineering made him a beloved tutor and lecturer in Design & Innovation at Queen Mary University and the Royal College of Art, in London and a visiting faculty member at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. There he teaches ‘Magic and Design’, a nomadic workshop where students are introduced to methods of using design and technology to create enchanted products and experiences.

Director, Regular Practice

I'm from Cornwall. Anyone who knows me knows that I rant on about Cornwall. The longer I stay away from Cornwall (in London) the more I seem to rant about it. But I still like to go back as often as possible to do crazy stuff like cast metal furniture on the beach or carve chairs out of Cornish granite in the various quarries dotted around the countryside. Otherwise you will find me in my studio in deepest darkest Tottenham whittling a lump of material into a spoon or chair.

Since an early stage, Giacomo felt interested in the visual perception of the volumes, light, transparencies, light materials, and how the eye treats the mind with a thoughtful use of them. Bachelor in Product Design and a Master’s degree in Architecture provided him all the technical aspects of the use of strengths, understanding of materials and 3D modelling. Once has the technical knowledge and the convince of creating art, the material chose was the step to follow. The keenness of using a simple material whit shining properties became stronger thus after an examination of different materials the decision was to use brass and steel wire. In addition, the concept of using something cheap to create something precious is very attractive. Creating a net of sewed wire with specific mental patrons and the using the strengths, making reinforcement to create shapes and curvatures lead final sculptures and models. The process followed during the last four years has been an autodidactic process of discovering how the weight, the tensions and the structure of the net can get transformed into an art piece.

Lynnie’s style is a distinctive one, where a bold bright colour palate is used to great effect in the playful charismatic characters she creates. The development of these characters is the driving force of her work; producing mysterious, seductive creatures and powerful femme fatales. Women are mostly the subject of her pieces ­which she brings to life using ink, paint and paint pens. By working spontaneously the personalities evolve naturally into striking and engaging images which both shock and amuse, but always stimulate the eye.