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Brendan Dawes

Brendan Dawes

Bio

Brendan Dawes is a designer and artist exploring the interaction of objects, people, technology and art using an eclectic mix of digital and analog materials.

Ever since his first experiences with the humble ZX81 back in the early eighties, Brendan has continued to explore the interplay of people, code, design and art through his work on brendandawes.com where he publishes ideas, toys and projects created from an eclectic mix of digital and analog objects.

His work is featured in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Manchester School of Art.

'Fillings for rectangles' is how he often describes his work. Over the years those rectangles have come in various shapes and sizes including websites, iPhone apps, posters, books, electronic circuits and pieces of plastic. Whilst his output takes on many forms, running through all his work are consistent themes of playfulness, curiosity and experimentation.

He believes passionately in putting new objects into the world that disrupt the status quo and ask questions about accepted practices; such as his Doodlebuzz news interface - a celebration of chance encounters and serendipity - featured in the Talk to Me exhibition at MoMA in New York and earlier won a D&AD award for interface design.

Session

Makers of Things

Brendan Dawes has always found it hard to refer to himself as a "web designer".

Equally mN, the company he helps run, no longer falls into an easily understandable box such as "web design agency".

Truth is the tools, services and opportunities that surround us mean that designers should now be breaking free from the shackles of any specific medium and instead embrace the craft of making in many different forms.

Wired tell us the web is dead. Apple tell us Flash is dead. But none of that matters. Ideas transcend the medium and the material.

In this session Brendan will take you through his journey so far,•À_from interaction design to product design, fuelled by naivety and tenacity and why these are exciting times for all of us.

Brendan also starred at:

Work