PLATFORM: Simone Brewster

PLATFORM is an annual display dedicated to showcasing contemporary design practice. The second edition in the series presents the fascinating work of designer Simone Brewster. Free to visit, the display is open until January 2027. PLATFORM is an annual initiative to expand our exhibition and displays programme with free, year-long displays showcasing the work of a designer or studio who are making an impact on contemporary design discourse. Launched in 2025, it shows the broad reach of design in society and offers a unique opportunity for designers to share their work with the museum's visitors. The first PLATFORM display showcased the work of multi-disciplinary designer and artist Bethan Laura Wood. The second iteration of PLATFORM presents the work of London-based designer, educator and cultural change-maker Simone Brewster for her first-ever museum show. Every year, around the four walls of level 1, we showcase the work of a designer or studio making an impact on contemporary design. These displays open up a conversation about their practice and how and why they design, giving an insight into their studio and inspiring a new generation of designers. Simone Brewster is a designer whose work plays with form, working across scales and disciplines, defying a quick categorisation. She employs a visual language that is architectural and sculptural, rich with material histories and layered with references from palaeolithic fertility deities to African diasporic traditions. Brewster’s monographic display will centre on the fluidity of her interdisciplinary practice. Visitors will see the range of her design practice, from jewellery, furniture, sculpted forms to public architecture. Spanning four sections entitled 'Passages', 'Everyday Ornaments', 'Scales of Emotion' and 'Body Narratives', this monographic display will explore Brewster’s multidisciplinary practice, as well as the rich narratives and histories she imbues within her designs. This display will centre on the fluidity of Brewster’s practice: how past inspirations have informed her work and how her practice has evolved through experimentation. Exhibition highlights include the designer’s striking painted explorations of the female form, jewellery from her Ebony Revolution series, sculptural stepping stools crafted from ebonised tulipwood, and a vibrant 2.5m tall pillar originally commissioned for the London Design Festival 2023. The display unveils a brand-new work entitled ‘Negrita\' – a bench crafted in ebonised tulipwood wood employing the same structural language as its chaise and side table counterparts. It also features a sound piece that reconstructs the moods of the places Brewster references in her spatial work: the home, the forest, the temple, and the river. Alongside the display, the museum has published an accompanying publication, now available at the Design Museum Shop.