SOLANGE AZAGURY-PARTRIDGE
BIOGRAPHY
1961 Born in London, where she spends her childhood.
1981 After graduating in French and Spanish from the University of Westminster,
she takes a stopgap job at a London costume jeweller, Butler & Wilson. Until then
Solange had no interest in jewellery.
1982 Goes to work for Gordon Watson, a 20th century antique dealer, where she
discovers the vintage 1930s, 1940s and 1950s jewels of Cartier, Van Cleef and
Boucheron.
1987 Makes her first piece of jewellery – an uncut diamond embedded in
a simple gold band – as her engagement ring.
1990 While pregnant with Otis, her first child, Solange sets up in business
to design and make jewellery.
1995 Opens her own shop on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill, west
London, designed as an over-sized jewellery box with magnifying glasses on the
window so passers-by can see the jewellery on display.
1997 Birth of Solange’s second child, her daughter, Mardi.
1998 Designs the interior of the Admiralty restaurant at Somerset House in
London. Unveils the Kinetic Collection of spinning, shaking and swinging jewellery.
2001 Launches the Cosmic Collection using an innovative technique of
inlaying hardstones with precious gems. Appointed creative director of Boucheron,
the 150 year-old Parisian jeweller with responsibility for all aspects of its visual
identity including the collection, shops and advertising.
2002 Unveils La Beauté Dangereuse, her first collection of jewellery for
Boucheron in which emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds are set in black gold.
2003 Solange Azagury-Partridge is nominated for the Design Museum’s Designer of
the Year prize.
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TORD BOONTJE
BIOGRAPHY
1968 Born in Enschede, Netherlands
1986 Enrols at the Design Academy, Eindhoven to study industrial design.
1990 Works for the Studio Alchimia design group in Milan.
1992 Moves to London to study for a master’s degree in industrial design at the
Royal College of Art; meets the glass designer Emma Woffenden who has been his
partner ever since.
1995 Designs exhibitions with Ulf Moritz in Amsterdam.
1996 Moves to Peckham, south London, and sets up a studio with Emma.
1997 Collaborates with Emma to produce the tranSglass collection of glass vases,
beakers and carafes made from used beer and wine bottles.
1998 Makes the Rough-and-Ready Chair in kit form from strips of pre-cut wood
using blankets as upholstery; starts to design products, such as eyewear, for the
fashion designer Alexander McQueen.
1999 Participates in the Stealing Beauty: British Design Now exhibition at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
2000 Tord and Emma’s daughter Evelyn is born; exhibits his Rough-and-Ready
furniture at Tate Modern, London.
2001 Designs the Wednesday Light and manufactures it on a batch production
basis; develops a collection of vases for Dartington Crystal.
2002 Returns to the Royal College of Art to teach industrial design; designs two
chandeliers – Blossom and Horse – for Swarovski’s Crystal Palace; develops
Garland, a less expensive version of the Wednesday Light for Habitat; solo
exhibition at the Barrett Marsden Gallery, London.
2003 Participates in the Great Brits exhibition organised by the Design Museum
and British Council at the 2003 Milan Furniture Fair; launches the Inflorescence
project in collaboration with Andrew Shoben and Andrew Allenson; shortlisted for
the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year award.
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JONATHAN IVE
BIOGRAPHY
1967 Born in London, where he spends his childhood.
1985 Studies design and art at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria
University).
1989 Becomes a partner at Tangerine, a London-based design consultancy where he
works on a wide range of products from power tools to wash basins.
1992 Moves to San Francisco to join the Apple design team.
1998 Appointed vice-president of industrial design at Apple. Launch of the original
iMac, which sells 2 million units in its first year.
1999 Introduction of the Apple iBook, the 22” Cinema Display, PowerMac G4
Tower and iSub.
2000 Launch of the Apple G4 Cube.
2001 Apple introduces the Titanium PowerBook G4 and the iPod portable MP3
player.
2002 Launch of the new sunflower-inspired iMac with 15” and 17” floating screens.
Introduction of the eMac, a version of the iMac specially developed for use in the
education sector.
2003 Apple launches the 12” PowerBook and the 17” PowerBook, which at 1” thick
and 6.8 lbs is the world’s slimmest and lightest 17” notebook computer. Jonathan
Ive is nominated for the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year prize.
© Design Museum
ROCKSTAR GAMES
BIOGRAPHY
1997 Launch of Grand Theft Auto, developed by DMA Design in Dundee and
Edinburgh.
1998 Rockstar Games founded by Sam and Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Gary
Foreman and Jamie King.
1999 Rockstar acquires DMA Design, which is renamed Rockstar North. Launch of
Grand Theft Auto II.
2001 Introduction of Grand Theft Auto III, which sells eight million copies
worldwide.
2002 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is launched in November after setting record
order levels all over the world.
2003 Rockstar Games is nominated for the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year
prize.
© Design Museum