This summer, three of us from Goldsmiths Design starting working with Raw Nerve to help on ‘The Deptford Design Market Challenge’, which was to be an exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall, on the Southbank, running during the design festival.

It was a very interesting experience, the three of us were given the initial brief of thinking about the aesthetic of the exhibition, the layout, and so on. The concept was to create something that was like a ‘heaven for objects’, and the point of the exhibition was to promote Deptford as a haven for little gems you might not find elsewhere. Essentially trying to get more people to come out of central to visit the market.

Around Thirty designers were invited to take part, and choose an object from the thrift market. They then went away and worked with the object to create something ‘desirable’.

Unfortunately i feel the concept was flawed from the beggining, to me it was almost prejudice against deptford market, the very fact that these were objects (most of them as junk) that a designer made nice, making them acceptable to be shown in central London, as if the objects had to go through this polishing process in order to be worthy.

The entire feeling of the market was lost because of this polishing, rather than the stress and claustrophobia, with all these colours and piles of junk, the feeling you are boxed in and having to step over and through to get to the stuff you want. It was a very wheelchair friendly well presented show. To me it almost mocked the Deptford thrift market, and inadvertidly the traders, something that I hope was not the intention.