LS:N wanted to explore the impact the recession was having on design with another members networking event last night that took place in the ‘rising cultural hub’ of Kings Cross. In the courtyard of Rabih Hage Gallery we met seven practitioners that are influencing design in a wider context, and therefore have an opinion to share. Captured below are some of the sound bites gathered from the roundtable debates by those of us who attended.

Logic leads to simplification
Sam Hecht, co-founder of Industrial Facility, who has worked with clients such as Muji spoke about his common sense approach of how logic leads to design simplification. By examining what is fundamentally relevant to the user and rediscovering the mundane encourages designers to be creative and produce surprising results. He didn’t appear to feel that the recession has affected design. If anything, it could be argued that his works embraces the increased need for functionality and discretion in design, as evident in his pared back solutions, like the Jetlag clock.