the Design Museum

#DesignOfTheWeek | Celebrating the iconic cassette player that revolutionised the way we listen to music, the @sony Walkman 🎵 Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka wanted to listen to music privately on long flights, so created the first Sony Walkman. The TPS-L2 was the world's first low-cost portable stereo and went on sale in Japan in 1979, quickly becoming a huge hit with the public. Made from a blue and silver metal case, it was the first in a long line of portable audio players, and without it, we might not have the same objects such as iPods and MP3 players that we use today. See this design IRL in our free permanent collection display, Designer Maker User. Tap the link in bio to plan your visit.

#DesignDestinations | Frida Kahlo’s vibrant blue Home, La Casa Azul 💙 The painter spent much of her life at this house in Mexico City with her family and Diego Rivera, hosting artists from around the world. Frida and Diego intended to transform the home into a museum for everyone to appreciate. After her death, their friend, poet Carlos Pellicer, curated the exhibition design, and the house became entrusted to a foundation. Since its opening as a museum in the late 1950s, La Casa Azul and its surrounding gardens have showcased Frida's personal belongings, furnishings, books and artworks by both artists, capturing the atmosphere that inspired her incredible creativity. 📸 @galen_lowe

Explore a world of creativity at the Design Museum this summer 💞 🍐 Enzo Mari curated by @hansulrichobrist with Francesca Giacomelli (until September 2024) 💝 Barbie®: The Exhibition (opens 5 July 2024) 💙 Grazie Enzo: Contemporary Responses to Enzo Mari (free display until February 2025) 🔭 Future Observatory (free display until August 2024) ☀️ Design Researchers in Residence: Solar (free display until September 2024) 📺 Designer Maker User (our free permanent collection display) ☕ Enjoy food and drinks in the @matthewwilliamson -designed Design Kitchen Tap the link in bio to plan your next visit.

Out-of-this-world @Barbie 🚀 A major highlight of Barbie®: The Exhibition - which opens next week - will be the very first public display of a unique doll that has been into space. The Barbie is a likeness of @europeanspaceagency astronaut and Europe’s first female commander of the International Space Station, Samantha Cristoforetti. The doll spent six months orbiting the Earth on the @iss in 2022 as part of a landmark mission. The Cristoforetti doll has never been displayed since its return to Earth and its inclusion in our exhibition marks the latest chapter in Barbie’s association with space travel, which will be highlighted in the show. #BarbieTheExhibition opens on 5 July - tap the link in bio to book your tickets.

Who was Enzo Mari? 🤔 On top of being a groundbreaking designer, artist and teacher, Mari was also a person who was accepted to art school without a high school diploma, who was known as 'design's conscience', and who believed that the Nobel Prize should be awarded to two year olds. Discover more of Mari's life and work in 'Enzo Mari Curated by @hansulrichobrist with @francescagiacomelli_fg_ !!re!!_039;, which is currently on at the Design Museum until 8 September 2024, having been originally produced and presented by @triennalemilano in 2020. Tickets via the link in bio. #EnzoMariExhibition

A peek inside the first issue of the Future Observatory Journal 🔭 In her case study, Curatorial Director of Future Observatory Cher Potter looks at a new campus for conservation agriculture in Rwanda, created by non-profit architectural firm @massdesigngroup . The group believes in building processes that restore people’s relationships with their environments and they have developed a design approach – some even call it a ‘movement’ – known as Lo-Fab. Tap the link in bio to read the case study in full. #FutureObservatory #FOJournal

Postmodern pioneer Robert Venturi once challenged Mies van der Rohe’s statement ‘less is more’ which epitomised the modernist movement in one single phrase, with ‘less is a bore’. Challenging the principles of the movement with experimentation and wit, Venturi’s ‘less is a bore’ became the mantra for Postmodernism, a movement of warmer architecture centred around character and humour. American architect Robert Venturi was born #onthisday in 1925. 📷 The Children's Museum in Houston

Coming soon - @habitatuk ’s free interactive installation at the Design Museum, brought to life through immersive and interactive experiences that connect the design that’s shaped our homes for 60 years to ways we live in them. Free to attend and open to all from 10th July – 11th August in the atrium at the Design Museum, London.

#DesignOfTheWeek | The Red Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld is one of the most recognisable furniture designs of the twentieth century ❤️ The Dutch furniture designer and architect was born #onthisday in 1888, and his colour scheme of primary red, yellow, blue and black transforms the chair into a striking piece of art. His design blurs the lines between painting and sculpture, redefining what a household object can be.

You may recognise these classic calendars, but did you know they were designed by Enzo Mari? 📅 Formosa and Timor are pared-back, perpetual calendars that can be set by selecting the date and month from a deck of plastic cards, or from a fan or plastic strips, respectively. Infinitely reusable, they eliminate the need to change calendars at the end of every year and invite a moment of participation each day. See these designs IRL as part of our unmissable #EnzoMariExhibition , on now until 8 September 2024. Tap the link in bio to book your tickets (members go free!) 📷 Formosa. Perpetual wall calendar. 1963. Timor perpetualtable calendar. 1966. Danese Milano.

A look at our new publication for this year’s Design Researchers in Residence: Solar 📖 This free catalogue contains thought-provoking essays, case studies, and interviews by the 2023/24 cohort of Design Researchers in Residence. The cover, and section pages are designed by @malice.studio , who also created the visual identity of the show. These pages are created from a method of printing called cyanotype, which uses sunlight, and each copy includes a limited-edition dust jacket made from test prints. The images shown are from the publication in production, printed with solar-powered presses by Generation Press Book design. This new publication will be free and available on entry to ‘Design Researchers in Residence: Solar Display’. Tap the link in bio to plan your visit. #FutureObservatory

@Barbie -mania returns to London very soon, with the opening of our Barbie exhibition just two weeks away ❤️ ​ One of the most eagerly awaited exhibitions of the year, #BarbieTheExhibition charts the development of Barbie as a global icon, combining an overview of her design history with analyses of her cultural significance.​ ​ Tap the link in bio to book your tickets (members go free!)​ ​ 📸 Black Barbie, 1980 © Mattel, Inc