Thinking Tools. Design as a process – how writing instruments are created
The international exhibition provides insights into the design and creation of Lamy writing instruments, with artistic contributions from Christoph Niemann.
What makes up the convincing design of a functional item? And how is good product design created? The international “Thinking Tools” exhibition examines these questions.
Set up in 2016 on the occasion of the “50 years of Lamy design” anniversary, it has previously been seen at the Museum of Applied Art in Frankfurt and at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo.
LAMY thinking tools exhibition
The exhibition
“Thinking Tools” documents the design process at Lamy using original prototypes, models, sketches and drafts from the Lamy archive in Heidelberg.
For the exhibition, these have been viewed, documented and opened to the public for the first time.
On the one hand, the exhibits demonstrate the many stages that lie between concept, draft and realisation. On the other hand, they illustrate the marked complexity of the design process: this involves many people and demands close, continuous communication between corporate management, design, technology and marketing.
Christoph Niemann x Lamy
The artistic contributions of Christoph Niemann are a particular highlight of the exhibition. In these, the prestigious illustrator, whose works are familiar including from New Yorker, Wired, Time Magazine and blog column Abstract Sunday in the New York Times, has focused on illustrating creative thought and development processes.
His drawings and installations complement the exhibition with humorous statements about the meaning of writing instruments as “Thinking Tools”: as tools that help us to capture and form our thoughts.
“Thinking Tools” – the exhibition catalogue
To accompany the exhibition, an eponymous catalogue has been published by av Edition. This is available in bookshops worldwide.
Locations of the exhibition
Museum of Applied Art (Frankfurt, Germany)
24th September 2016 – 29th January 2017
21_21 Design Sight, (Tokyo, Japan)
3rd March – 8th April 2018
Curator: Prof Dr Klaus Klemp
Exhibition concept, design and communication:
Meiré und Meiré
thinking tools – preview event
