Dezeen Magazine

Design Museum films show iconic objects travelling across London

London's Design Museum has commissioned a series of films showing classic objects from its collection making their own way to its new building, including a Vespa Clubman and an Anglepoise lamp (+ movies).

Design Museum Adopt an Object campaign
One of the Design Museum films shows an Anglepoise lamp riding in the back of a taxi across London

The 12 movies, which also feature an Apple iMac G3 riding a skateboard and a Valentine Typewriter hitching a lift, were created in collaboration with production studio The Mill.

This film shows Dieter Rams' Phonosuper SK5 turntables taking a spin in a rickshaw

Similarly, the Anglepoise lamp – designed in 1932 by British designer George Carwardine – is shown riding in the back of a taxi, while Dieter Rams' Phonosuper SK5 turntables take a spin in a rickshaw.

Design Museum Adopt an Object campaign
Dieter Rams designed the Phonosuper SK5 turntables in 1963

Other objects featured include the Campana Brother's Cartoon Chair, Sony's My First Sony children's microphone and tape deck, the GPO Tele 150 telephone, Richard Sapper's Melodic Kettle, Dyson's G-Force Cyclonic Vacuum Cleaner and Piero Russi's toaster for Trabo.

This film shows a Valentine Typewriter hitching a lift to the Design Museum's new building

The films form part of the Adopt an Object campaign, which invites members of the public to adopt objects from the Design Museum's collection to raise the final £1 million needed to pay for its new Kensington home.

In return for a £5 donation, each adopter will be sent a film showing their object making its way from Shad Thames to the new site.

Design Museum Adopt an Object campaign
The Valentine Typewriter was designed in 1969 by Ettore Sottsass

An interactive website designed by Fabrique also allows users to track their objects' journey as donations rise.

Josephine Chanter, head of communications and external affairs at the Design Museum, said that she believes the campaign will change the way the museum is individually supported in the future.

This film shows the Vespa Clubman making its way from Shad Thames to the new Kensington site

"A museum has to find the most interesting and compelling ways to engage with its audience to encourage them to become more involved with their public programmes and activities," she said.

Design Museum Adopt an Object campaign
The Vespa Clubman was designed in 1946 by Italian engineer Corradino D’Ascanio

The Design Museum, which formerly occupied a former 1940s banana warehouse in Shad Thames, will reopen in the former Commonwealth Institute at 224-238 Kensington High Street on 24 November 2016.

This film shows the Apple iMac G3 riding a skateboard

Pawson's conversion of the 1960s building will triple the museum's current exhibition spaces to almost 10,000 square metres, allowing the museum to accommodate the first permanent display of its collection, alongside two temporary exhibitions. It is hoped the move will bring in an extra 400,000 visitors each year.

Design Museum Adopt an Object campaign
Apple launched Jonathan Ive's iMac G3 in 1998

The designer's plans for the £83-million transformation of the Grade II*-listed building were first unveiled in 2012 and initially scheduled to complete in 2014.

But the renovation of the building – which has a distinctive hyperbolic paraboloid roof that dips at its centre – proved "inherently problematic architecturally", causing its opening to be delayed by two years.