Lauren has a BA (hons) degree in Multimedia Textiles (first class honours) from Loughborough University School of Art and Design (2001) and an MA in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (2005).
Before completing her masters degree Lauren worked for two years as a designer maker, producing 3-dimensional textiles for gallery based and commercial applications. During this time she exhibited and sold work internationally as well as working on a number of commissions for companies in the areas of interior textiles, product design, lighting and car interiors. She was short-listed for the prestigious Jerwood Applied Arts Prize in 2002, which was exhibited at the Crafts Council Gallery in London and then toured nationally and won the Best Newcomer in Design at 100% Design exhibition in the same year.
Lauren's work crosses the boundaries of textile and product design. Facilitated by her MA in Industrial Design she explores function, form and usability in combination with decoration and making processes resulting in products and textiles with a focus on 'functional decoration'.
Material experimentation is still key to her work and has resulted in several awards including the iF Material Award 2005 for developments in her 'Noodle Block' range of 3D fabrics.
Since completing her MA, Lauren set up her own design company in London, where she works with manufacturers to produce her designs in large production runs for retail outlets as well as continuing to work on one-off pieces for gallery spaces. Recent commercial collaborations include concept car fabrics for Renault, decorative outdoor lighting for London Borough of Camden and a product collection for Habitat. She brings this knowledge of operating as a designer to her teaching practice.
For more information please see http://www.laurenmoriarty.co.uk/
CURRENT RESEARCH
Can Function Follow Decoration?
"Why do we decorate?"
Why do all the
human cultures that we know of decorate things? Why not just leave them
alone? Why put in all that extra, and apparently non-functional, energy?
The study investigates the use of decoration within the context of textile and product design. It asks the question 'Why do we decorate?' and aims to find out the purpose of decoration. Traditional textile design methods use pattern and decoration in a purely aesthetic way and at the other end of the scale, product designers frequently add decoration to a design almost as an afterthought after the form and function have been resolved. This study looks at the area between the two where decoration and ornament can also be functional, focussing on the use of decoration both structurally, where it forms the object, as well as applied surface pattern.
This identifies decoration as an important element of textile design which is currently used freely but not often analysed in terms of its purpose.
