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Designing freedom

Considered to be the new “Made in Italy”, Californian design has impacted so many aspects of our lives, pioneering tools of personal liberation, from LSD to surfboards and iPhones.

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  • 23 May 2017
  • London

From skateboards to iPhones and start-up garages, the exhibition explores how “designed in California”, the new “Made in Italy”, expresses a distinctive approach to design and life. On show at the Design Museum in London, “California. Designing Freedom” is composed of over 200 objects, curated in five thematic sections.

<b>Top:</b> Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider, 1969. <b>Above:</b> Waymo's prototype self-driving car. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017
Free Speech Movement, 1964. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017
Alternative Vehicle System Test Bed VSTB rover. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017
Corita Kent, <i>Power Up</i>. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017
Google material design, making of. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017
Susan Kare notebook, courtesy kareprints.com. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017
Map of the world drawn entirely by using Facebook connections in 2015. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017

  California’s drive to create tools of personal liberation is explored through a diverse landscape ranging from LSD blotting paper and political posters to portable technology. While California’s mid-century modernism is well documented, this is the first exhibition to examine the state’s current global reach. Picking up the story in the 1960s, the exhibition charts the journey from counterculture to Silicon Valley’s tech culture.

DIY Bacterial Gene Engineering CRISPR Kit. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017

This ambitious survey brings together political posters, personal computers and self-driving cars but also looks beyond hardware to explore how user interface designers in the Bay Area are shaping some of our most common daily experiences. The five thematic sessions are “Go where you want: tools of movement and escape”, “See what you want: tools of perception and fantasy”, “Say what you want: Tools of self-expression and rebellion”, “Make what you want: tools of production and self-reliance” and “Join who you want: tools of collaboration and community”.

Buckminster Fuller, Geodesic Dome, 1954. The Design Museum, “California. Designing freedom”, London 2017
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