London based Italian inventor & designer | Founder & Creative Director of Special Projects

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.

Illustrator

Milène Larsson is an award-winning, seasoned international news, current affairs and documentary producer/director/reporter covering issues spanning from the environment, gender norms, women’s social status and civil rights, to culture, travel and migration, which she has reported on extensively in the British Media Awards winning documentary series Europe or Die. She’s currently co-Head of Video for VICE and based in London.

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.