Useful Simple Trust - The Tremendous Beginning

When I first moved to London a couple of years ago I took the first temp job I could get working as the admin monkey for ‘expedition’, an engineering firm headed up by Chris Wise (one of the Royal Designers for Industry), Sean Walsh and Ed McCann. Despite what I was expecting (the arts degree in me did not have a natural disposition toward rational, sciencey types), it actually turned out to be a really interesting place to work, and a place that would have a massive influence on me in the months to come… I ended up working as a part-graphic designer, part-art worker (part-admin monkey) and got to work on some pretty exciting projects and pitches (eg, the 2012 Olympic Velodrome, the Angel of the South) with some pretty exciting people, (eg, Chris Wise and sculptor Chris LeBrun). In fact it wasn’t until I left the company (exactly a year ago) that I realised how much I missed being part of a creative environment…to cut a long story short, I decided to abandon a place at dramaschool to pursue a career in design, where I could engage with, talk about and contribute to, the design scene on a daily basis... So yeah, a really important and inspirational place for me.

ANYWAY, to get to the point, last Thursday I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of the Useful Simple Trust, which in a nutshell is the coming together of expedition and graphic design company Thomas Matthews.

Both expedition and Thomas Matthews are exponents of design that is both beautiful and sustainable and this was an recurring theme for the evening, from the giant centrepiece lampshade made from recycled plastic bags and bamboo (the giant lightbulb was turned on as Chris Wise gave the official launch speech) through to the sustainably sourced Venison served to guests.

There were some really intriguing and charming features at the event, including an illuminated prism which invited people to engrave into the wax-coated plywood their own definitions of ‘Useful’, ‘Simple’ and ‘Beautiful’…

A short video explaining the ethos of the Trust was also shown on loop throughout the evening in the ‘Smallest Cinema in the World’ aka, a garden shed containing two deckchairs.

True to their mission, a delightfully useful, simple and beautiful evening which definitely lived up to the hype of the ‘Tremendous Beginning’…(although free champagne all night did not help in workshops the next day….)

So yes, people to keep an eye on (their newly launched website is pretty awesome) – they’re working on some pretty exciting stuff, which seems to be bridging the gap between sustainable and beautiful design…