A complex design project with a strong conceptual and research component, Industrial Makeshift mixes medieval and craft traditions, mass production and unique pieces in its exploration of themes such as shopping, craft and industry, as well as, and more importantly, investigating the role of manual labour in the modern production system. Simon Hasan is not interested in creating objects for sale but rather (or also) objects that make people think about broader subjects.

So, when the organisers of the Blink festival invited him (with other artists/designers such as Laura Ellen Bacon, Jo Fairfax, Simon Heijdens and Summer Sundae) for two weekends (23 and 24 July, 30-31 July and 1 August) to produce a site-specific installation in the old 14th-century square in Northampton, he used the opportunity to prompt thought on the changing role of the traditional market square and new ways of selling, purchasing and exchanging objects.

The result is a series of 400 "unique" vases (i.e. all different from each other) produced with the medieval technique of cuir bouilli (boiled leather), used in the Middle Ages to make armour and already adopted by Hasan at last year's Furniture Fair for the performances of Craft Punk, a show organised by Design Miami. In another original choice, the vases are sold through a coin-operated vending machine at discount-store prices: £3 (3.5 Euro) each. This alone is enough to trigger debate but Hasan does not stop there.

The all-handmade craft products are shaped on moulds that imitate archetypes of mass production such as Coca-Cola bottles or other anonymous plastic objects that can be found in "Pound Shops". Every object is made of boiled leather, polyurethane resin, steel, brass and linen. There are also references to William Morris, the father of the Arts and Crafts Movement who expressed his great dissatisfaction with mass production in 1894. In the Hasan project, the unique pieces become "Makeshifts of the ubiquitous engineered products they are formed on". Elena Sommariva

British designer Simon Hasan (1973) imbues his work with a richness, heritage and texture borne from historical research, and a fascination for obscure crafts techniques. Graduating from the Royal College of Art's famed M.A. Design Products course in 2008, (where he learnt under Jurgen Bey, Ron Arad, Michael Marriott and Luke Pearson), Hasan's graduate collection of work immediately caught the attention of curators, gallerists, and collectors. Hasan's on-going research into the Medieval process of Cuir Bouilli falls into two distinct but related fields of enquiry – the decorative and the structural. Both applications confound preconceived notions of leather as a luxury material. He was a 2008/09 member of the Vauxhall Collective, a prestigious award set up by the car company Vauxhall. Hasan is currently planning a show of pieces commissioned by Johnson Trading Gallery to be held during London Design Festival.