Daniel Weil
b1953

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Daniel Weil qualified as an architect at the University of Buenos Aires in his native Argentina in 1977. He moved to London in the following year to study industrial design at the Royal College of Art, where he received his MA in 1981. From 1982 to 1990 he designed and manufactured his own products, including the Memphis Collection of 1982 and other objects, such as the Bag Radio. He joined the international design consultancy Pentagram as a partner in 1992.

Sir Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art, in an interview in Icon magazine, said that a turning point in design came when 'Daniel Weil first exhibited his radios in polythene bags with all the wires showing. His title was Homage to Duchamp... was he a designer at all, or was this sculpture? Later... a German book pinpointed that moment as when the modernist era of design ended and the postmodernist era began.'

Daniel Weil: Time Again was an exhibition at England & Co held to coincide with the London Design Festival and 100% Design in 2005. It brought together for the first time in the UK a collection of the inspired and peculiar creations of this internationally renowned designer. Some design products fall into the category of cult images and the Bag Radio, designed by Weil in 1981, is one of those celebrated objects. These innovative radios with their inner-workings visible, the components suspended in plastic bags, were included in the exhibition, in both the prototype versions and in the commercial edition made soon afterwards in Japan. The bag radios were inspired by Weil's belief that it is only 'tradition' that boxes-up radios and restricts their true visual language.

Time Again also included his sculpture/furniture such as clocks from his Time for All series and an array of other objects; drawings and concept sketches shed light on his creative process.

Weil was Unit Master at the Architectural Association for four years from 1982 and, from 1991 to 1995, Professor of Industrial Design, Vehicle Design and Design Management at the Royal College of Art, where he is now a Senior Fellow. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is represented in permanent public collections including MoMA in New York, the V&A in London, and the Israel Museum.