Ab Rogers is the judge of the Product Design category.
Born London in 1968 he is the founder and head of an eponymous multi-disciplinary studio in London. Handling jobs ranging from museum exhibitions to domestic interiors to websites and beyond, Ab Rogers Design creates extraordinary experiences from everyday objects, environments and contexts.
Originally trained as a cabinet maker, Ab moved to Liverpool in 1989 where he he set up a small build and design company called ARC. Specialising in custom-made furniture, ARC's clients included Tate Liverpool and Royal College of Art. In 1992, he founded the collective Ahead Ahead, which organised events, exhibitions and educational workshops bridging art, design and fabrication.
Ahead Ahead wound down in 1994, and Ab took a year out to work on sailing boats. His voyages took him around the Mediterranean and Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic three times. Influences from his year at sea play an important role in Ab's design work: high tensile fibres, ingenious storage solutions, the rolling motion of the water.
Upon returning to the UK, Ab enrolled in the Industrial Design MA programme at Royal College of Art. As a student, his work transformed domestic interiors by liberating wasted and forgotten space and making use of dynamic, flexible materials. His piece Jellyfish on a Leash, for example, was a floating table suspended from the ceiling by Dyneema strings. When in use, the cords were pulled taut to make a stable surface; when idle, the table could be stowed away in the ceiling. The piece exemplifies the continuing influence of Ab's time at sea and his adventurous use of materials such as high-performance fibres and dry knock-down systems.
After meeting at the RCA, Ab and Shona Kitchen co- founded Kitchen Rogers Design (KRD) in 1997. KRD’s approach was to use sensation and movement to explore how spaces and people adapt to one another. The studio sought to animate objects that are normally static and to bring life to spaces that are frequently lifeless. Major commissions included the Comme des Garçons store on rue du Faubourg St Honoré in Paris (FX International Interior Design Awards 2001 Winner – Best Store Design); the Al-Ostoura luxury department store in Kuwait City and the Michel Guillon flagship store on the Kings Road in London.
In 2004 Ab and Shona parted amicably and Ab set up his own studio – Ab Rogers Design (ARD). ARD is a multi-disciplinary design practice which constantly strives to devour its own boundaries, combining interior design, industrial design, installation, branding and communication. Clients include The Fat Duck, Little Chef, Emperor Moth, bespoke perfumers Miller Harris, New York’s first eco-friendly car service OZOcar; Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Design Museum London, the Science Museum London, the Australian Centre for Moving image, CaixaForum Madrid and Barcelona, Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Parc1, a mixed-used development on Yeouido Island, Seoul.
Ab co-curated the 2007 exhibition Richard Rogers + Architects at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which broke attendance records for architectural exhibitions at the Pompidou with over 150,000 visitors. The show later toured to the Design Museum London and Fundació "la Caixa" Barcelona and Madrid. Ab also curated Tactile Nature at the Kenny Schacter ROVE Gallery.
Ab is deeply committed to teaching design. He has lectured widely and has held various teaching roles, first as a Senior Lecturer in Furniture Design at Leeds Metropolitan University (1997-2001) and then as Senior Lecturer in Design Products at the RCA (2001 - 2004). Whilst at the RCA, he ran Platform 9 with Tjord Boontje looking at products and spaces that evolve and transform. Ab is an Honorary Fellow of the Minnesota Design Institute and was awarded the Stanley Picker Design Fellowship at Kingston University in 2009.
In all his projects and endeavours, Ab’s guiding principles are to investigate the sensual horizons of design. He seeks to bring objects to life and he achieves this by playing with materials, function, colour and energy, to invest a sense of magic and wonder into the everyday and to let the imagination run wild.
