Conversation with Matt Wade. Partner: Kin. 15/01/10

In 2007, while still at Moving Brands, Matt worked with the FdA at Camberwell on a project that involved student groups working with designers at Moving Brands. He has since left Moving Brands to start his own studio, Kin, with partner Kevin Palmer formerly of Imagination. Kin are at the forefront of new developments in interactivity and environment design.

Here is what they say about themselves

We are kin, a research led, Interaction Design studio.

We study, we design, we share, we make. We are fascinated by the relationships we create with each other, with the things around us and the spaces we inhabit. We were established in April 2008 and over the last 3 years have delivered over 170 projects. We work for a diverse range of clients from electronics giants, to fashion labels, to charities.

Here is Derek’s account of his conversation with Matt:

Kin’s studio in Farrington has been set up to take full advantage of the potential multidisciplinary collaboration. Situated on the top two floors of a building opposite the tube, it consists of a loft space where up to 10 designers can work at two tables and the next floor a workshop with pegboards, pliers, screwdrivers for practical experiments and prototyping. Next to this workshop there is a recording studio belonging to sound designer Tim Burns who is a regular Kin collaborator. Matt & Kevin make up Kin’s creative core, but they have the potential to become a much larger team capable of working on projects that involve sound, environment design, motion graphics, film, and digital or physical interaction through the contribution of regular collaborators, such as arduino board expert John Nussey.

When interviewed Matt talked about being interested in working with graduates who were equally open such a flexible, multi disciplinary approach. One such graduate is Jamie Thompson who graduated from BA Graphic Design at Camberwell in 2009. After doing a placement with Moving Brands Jamie spent a majority of his final year at Camberwell working with Kin. Students like Jamie sometimes persue their professional work at the expense of their academic study. It would seem logical that education should support and nurture this sort of professional activity and provide a mechanism for reviewing and evaluating these experiences.

Kin’s website has a section devoted to education and Matt talked of being interested in developing relationships with educational institutions. The FdA project that Matt ran while at Moving Brands provided a valuable live experience for the students at Camberwell, but also provided a staff development exercise for Moving Brands and we talked about the need for collaborations between industry and education to be mutually beneficial. He now runs a regular project with Goldsmith’s college, that is similarly structured and has provided a number of future graduate collaborators. The real benefit of such projects for industry is this ‘heads up’ on future talent and for this reason Kin are committed to developing more projects like this in the future.

Another way Kin assess new talent is by providing regular placements. Matt talked about the importance of working with graduates and final year students and providing them with an opportunity to work on real projects. Like Matt Rice he recognises the potential for using placements to take part in R&D projects. To enable this to happen, he welcomed the idea of giving a student desk space and helping them work on a mutually beneficial project set by their course, in return for the ability to bring them in on projects as and when they were needed. For a small studio flexibility is extremely important.

Matt was at pains to point out that it is huge benefits for Kin to be involved in education; not just to check out new talent and be exposed to new ideas but also to provide them with exposure that will build their profile. Every time a student googles kin or posts something they have done on a blog it increases their online profile. When students like Jamie Thompson win awards and mention Kin in an interview it increases their profile and this is vital for a small studio.