Exclusive : Wayne Hemingway

Wayne Hemingway

The name Wayne Hemingway is synonymous with shaking things up, causing controversy and, moreover, bringing decent design to the masses.

And as we become ever more art,  culture  and design savvy his  ethos of using the latter to make life easier, happier and more community spirited has its finger on the future. No wonder he's recently been given an MBE.
But the Morecambe born designer is anything but high and mighty: he uses his talents for positive change and remains as down- to- earth as the market trader he once was.
OK, that stall became Red or Dead, the label he co- founded ( with wife Geraldine )  in 1982 which the couple  sold in 1996 -  turning them into multi- millionaires.
Red or Dead brought high fashion to the High Street, and, initially, was slated (“I still have the press cuttings” says Wayne ) for selling  their designer clothes to the likes of Top Shop and Miss Selfridge.
There’s no need to explain how the market has caught up, and now High Street stores actively seek out designers to work on exclusive ranges.

Now, with Hemingway Design, Wayne, 47, is involved with numerous, award-winning affordable housing, fashion and interiors projects, many tearing down the elitism of fashion and design and using them for positive change.

“ Design should make people happy. And there’s nothing we want more than to be happy,” he says  very seriously ( he seems pretty serious about most things.)
We meet as he's about to host the very first Brit Insurance Design Awards. He nominated three designs ( the overall winner was One Laptop per child  by Yves Behar of Fuseproject)  one of which , the East Beach Café in Littlehampton, made it to the final 100 shortlist.
Why did he choose the seaside eaterie?
“I chose stuff that benefits the community, something that makes an impact.
Jane Wood ( the café’s founder) wanted to change the existing caff from a nasty place that looked like a toilet selling nasty fish and chips.
She teamed up with architect Thomas Heatherwick and found it quite hard at the start and came up against opposition from the council, as it wasn’t going to be mock Victorian. It looks like something that’s been built in the 21st Century.
 People were quite scared at first. But good design should scare people. And it’s put Littlehampton on the map. It’s been a catalyst for change.”

It’s true that design is part of our lives now and we’re much more sophisticated at recognising and responding to a luxe interior over a limpid room; a clever, vivid logo over a knackered old font.
“Five million people watch Grand Designs!” exclaims Wayne. “ Five million! That’s unheard of.”

So why are now so visually aware?
“It’s human nature to want  communities to look better, to live better lives. We don’t all want grey boxes. It shows we’re not heathens.”
Wayne reckons that there isn’t a particular style or aesthetic now, but, rather, that “ design is open.”
Not only that, but these days designers themselves come from a wide background.
“When I was a teenager in Bradford, if I’d said to my mum I want to be a designer she’d have wondered what I was on about. She wouldn’t have known what a designer even did.”
But there were still some great designs around at that time.
“Yes, but made by those from a narrow, middle class background.
Now, it’s not elitist any more.”

So what makes a good design?
“Something that makes people’s lives easier. That’s what design is for. It has to be useful.”

Is it art?
“Art isn’t about industry, art is something you want, design is something you need. Designers are more commercial and like to make money, artists are used to starving! But, art and design should work together more, as they both come from the same angle. Art and design should both should be pushing pins into society.”

And long may Wayne’s pin-stabbing continue.

Loma-Ann Bonner

The Brit Insurance Design Awards, the first ever annual exhibition of the most innovative international designs from the past 12 months.
See the exhibition of the 100 shortlisted, at
The Design Museum, Shad Thames, London, SE1 2YD , www.designmuseum.org, until 27th April
Admission, £8.50, Concession, £6.50, Students, £5.00, Under 12’s Free

East Beach Café, Littlehampton, West Sussex, BN17 5NZ
www.eastbeachcafe.co.uk

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