23rd July 2018

Ready Made Go: announcing the first designers

- written by Laura

On your marks, get set, Ready Made Go! This is the post you’ve been waiting for… the one where we reveal the first designers commissioned to create a product for Ace Hotel London Shoreditch pad as part of Ready Made Go 4. Their designs will be revealed during London Design Festival and embedded into the fabric of the hotel forevermore.

Curated by Laura Houseley of Modern Design Review, Ready Made Go started in 2014 to meet a real need from Ace Hotel. Every year, staff from the achingly cool hotel draw up a list of objects that would come in handy around the building and Laura selects five London-based designers willing to take on the challenge. So far 18 objects, artworks and installations have been commissioned as part of the project, from coat hooks to tables to ashtrays. Some are deeply practical – like Phillippe Malouin’s Hex door handles – others are entirely fun, PATTERNITY’s climbing wall for example.

James Shaw, work in progress for Ready Made Go 3.

Joining the ranks this year are Laetitia de Allegri and William Drye, who will each create a permanent product for Ace Hotel. The work of Swiss-born Laetitia de Allegri often has a graphic focus, from her geometric rugs to the ghostly Mise-en-abyme installation she made for the V&A for LDF 2015 to -ISH, a collection of furniture and home accessories made out of recycled material with Matteo Fogale. William Drye, on the other hand, is an emerging talent, who blew curator Laura away with his graduate show at Kingston. This year, the Ready Made Go brief will see each designer pair with a local social enterprise, showing the possibilities of collaboration between designers and the wider community.

Ian McIntyre in the studio making ceramics, Ready Made Go 3. Photography Jorn Tomter.

This year’s hand-picked group will set their hand to a collection of tabletop accessories especially designed for rooftop events, afternoon tea stands for restaurant Hoi Polloi, a games table for the lobby and wall hooks for every bedroom. They’ll also be an exhibition of all 18 products created for the project since its inception.

Want to know more about Ready Made Go’s curator Laura Houseley? Read our Q&A with her here.

Plastic Baroque installation by James Shaw outside Ace Hotel London Shoreditch for Ready Made Go 3.

To find out more about what we do for Ready Made Go, visit its client page here.