Magic in the mundane: Introducing Special Projects

Specialising in experience-led design, creative direction, engineering and technology, the forward-thinking duo has worked with a broad spectrum of clients including BBC, Blackberry, Burton, Google, Nokia, Logitech and many more that are so exciting we’re not even allowed to talk about them. 

Committed to using her penchant for design and invention to enrich the lives of ordinary people, Co-founder and Creative Director Clara focuses on the development of product innovation that allows end-users of all demographics to engage with technologies and concepts built to improve quality of life and bring a fruitful optimism to the way we address society’s cultural and practical needs. Read more about Clara’s diverse international background right here. 

Adrian, who boasts the enviable title of Co-founder and Director of technology and magic, is an inventor, engineer and self-taught magician. Spurred on by a belief that “designers should use magic thinking and try to introduce surprise, delight and fuzzy feeling in the things they create”, he uses his contagious faith in combining magic and engineering to create new user experiences and blend analogue and digital interactions into everyday life. Read more about Adrian’s creative journey, which includes lecturing in magic and design at top academic institutions, here.

Boasting a mind-blowing portfolio of work that seamlessly blends day-to-day convenience and habitual manoeuvres with incomprehensible levels of technological development and social science, we would highly recommend taking a walk through Special Project’s back catalogue of work. Highlights include Bit Planner (a majestic time planner made out of lego bricks) and Out of the Box (designed for Samsung to help elderly user engage with smart phone technology). 

If you’re still not completely hooked, do check out the pair’s intriguing upside down glitter waterfall portraits that have kept Sabine entertained for three straight weeks now. Alternatively, be sure to catch these brilliant talks:

100% Design | 22 September | 6-7pm

Super Talks | 23 September | 7-8pm