She showed a slide of various designs using tomatoes, and preceded to say that at one time she had a massive obsession with tomatoes. Then moving on there was an obsession with chairs. During this time she collected chairs, and over time had acquired 123 chairs in total. She also created the “Nonsense stools” where she hand stenciled phrases on stools. Later she created another set of stools for a railcar café in the UK, and then another set for London College of Communications.

Other Obsessions she talks about are

• Neon Signs
• Pasting cheap paper on the floor (which immediately made me want to do the same, if I didn’t have carpeting.)
• Putting patterns on floors
• Patterns in general
• Spraying and painting on wood

A concept that she had talked about which I loved is what she called Future Vintage. It was the idea of taking cues and inspiration from previous decades that (dare I say it) you may be obsessed with, and using that as a reference without actually replicating it. It’s how you can design something that has a sixties kind of feeling without actually looking like it came straight out of the sixties. It’s learning to take the things you like best about a certain period of time and/or place and making it a modern piece.

Morag Myerscough

Over the years Morag has concentrated on working way beyond the restrictions of 2-D and creates and curates many different types of work including a train as a café, numerous exhibitions, interpreting buildings plus running her own gallery and shop »her house«. Myerscough believes that wayfinding is not purely about a series of signs but as much about bringing out the narrative in the built environment, enhancing the physical experience, it is very important how people feel when they move through a space, if they can move easily almost unconsciously and if you can make them smile and feel happy that is one of the best outcomes. Morag studied at St Martin's and the Royal College of Art. Starting Studio Myerscough in 1993.

Speaker page

Though I focused on obsessions Myerscough’s talk this afternoon was not titled Obsessions. Her presentation today was called “Knowing me, Knowing You”, and as she described, to her it meant connecting with people. What a better way to connect with people than to put yourself completely out there and not just admit your obsessions, but, as she did, take your obsessions and just go with it. Your obsessions at their rawest are just who you are, so the best way to show them seems to be just to embrace them as Morag Myerscough has done, and without a doubt, will continue to do.

Text — Ashley Hampton