HKD in Margate

There is always something new going on in the studio. Visiting designers and Artists join us for projects or residencies bringing new ideas and skills. With visitors from Korea, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Holland and Margate imagine a reunion picnic, what a feast! We’ll let you know if it ever happens. Our current visitors are Rosa and Alfonso. An Architect and Artist they came here from Spain for three months and now as that draws to a close we are all busy setting up new projects to try to keep them here. On the food theme they made us an amazing lunch which included this soup – Salmorejo - recommended!

To Infinity and Beyond: HKD visits Hong Kong.

Wish we could say that we are heading off to play (with a giant inflatable rubber duck!) but the team is delivering the Design Stage of the Hong Kong Space Museum.

We have been hard at work designing inter-galactic surf boards and dark matter tunnels, now its time to go through the 150+ exhibits with the client team in detail.

We welcome a new designer at HKD. Scarlett has come Full Circle

“It was one of the oddest surprises for me joining HKD in Margate. I have lived and worked most my life in London but am now back in the home town of my family.

My grandfather used to own sweet shops a stones throw away from Marine Studios.It is really odd to picture him making rock candy in the 1970’s . My mums stories of growing up in Margate include tales of dolphin aquariums near the Nayland Rock Hotel (can this be true?) and being the first child to live in Arlington house. My own childhood memories include avoiding the Scenic Railway I much preferred the tea cups!”

Scarlett is now based in Margate, she is busy designing space exhibits for Hong Kong. Strange how things work out!

HKD

Building on our successful appointment as designers of the Hong Kong Space Museum the team is in Singapore for start-up meetings for a new gallery about Alfred Russel Wallace for the Singapore Science Centre.

“There is a picture of Alfred Russel Wallace on the cover of the anthology of his works that I have lugged halfway around the world. It was taken in Singapore in 1862 and shows a man with full beard, hat, black frock coat, waistcoat and high collar. Stepping out into 32 degree heat with thunder clouds building overhead I am not thinking about the Theory of Evolution (that he proposed at the same time as Darwin), I can only wonder whether he took his coat off to collect beetles in the jungle? Someone will know, and I am off to meet them later today.”- Richard Houghton, Creative Director HKD

Tree with A View preview, and a history-telling game for the Ramsgate Tunnels

One lofty experiment and one that’s deep underground Prosper Together is a project that’s running several ‘experiments’ – unusual ideas and unlikely connections in untested partnerships – that aim to build cultural capacity in east Kent. We’re delighted to be involved in two of these experiments. Firstly, we’re hosting a private view of Tree with A View, a project by artist Alma Tischlerwood and eco-designer Jonathan Deacon on Friday 15th February from 6.30pm - 8.30pm. The project will create a walkable sculpture that offers a unique vantage point for observation and reflection on a site in St Margaret’s Bay. Secondly, we’re working with the Ramsgate Tunnels Heritage Group to prototype a game for a Ramsgate Tunnels. A fun game that respects the tunnels’ history We believe that games will draw younger people into a cultural heritage experience and we plan to link the gameplay to the tunnels’ structure. We’ve already used the freeware Unity 3D software to create a working model that shows how the game will work and we’re running a workshop at GEEK2013 that will invite people to develop their own ideas around the story of the tunnels. The game has to be fun to play but has to respect the tunnels’ history as a WWII air-raid shelter for over 300 families. Please get in touch with RTHG if you have any family stories about the Ramsgate Tunnels and if you want to take part in the games development workshop contact Rick at r.houghton@hkd.uk.com.

Can you hear the great tree calling? The third Adventures in Comics call for entries

If you’re a comics fan who creates – or longs to create – their own comics, then we invite you to pick up the third annual Adventures in Comics (AIC3) gauntlet.

We’re proud that AIC is now in its third year and that Paul Gravett, author of ‘1001 COMICS YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE’, will once again help organise the festival.

Call for entries – let your comic talents climb ‘THE GREAT TREE’
AIC3 throws down a two-page A4 comic challenge to all comers and this year’s title is ‘THE GREAT TREE’.

Follow these links to see previous year’s entries on the titles Mechanical elephant (2011) and Lifeboat (2012).

You can send your entries to AIC3 to info@hkd.uk.com.

And our alter egos are off to outer space via Hong Kong’s space museum

Busy, busy, busy. That’s us this year.
The ‘us’ in question is both Marine Studios – the people who brought you the aforementioned GEEK2013 and AIC3 – and HKD, the award-winning museum and exhibition designers.

By day we’re Marine Studios, a CIC company who are all about events, communication, and regeneration. And in our parallel corporate life (also by day – even we need to sleep sometimes) we wear our HKD hats.

Well, we would be wearing our HKD hats except we’re throwing them up in the air because we’ve won the job to redesign Hong Kong’s space museum. The museum’s egg-shaped dome (actually an ovoid hemisphere according to the project team) is a Hong Kong landmark, just next door to the famous Star ferry on Kowloon bay.

The project budget of roughly £2.4m will cover the refit with a host of new interactive exhibits. Our working brief is: ‘The story of the cosmos – back to the big bang, and forward to new adventures in space exploration’.

We’re already rolling on a tight schedule that will see the reworked and rethought museum re-embrace the universe in 2015.