Breakfast Talks with The Times 20 - 24 Sept 2010

Sharpen your mind over breakfast at the V&A

Five major thought-leaders share their insights into the world of the creative industries and design. Conversing with a leading journalist from The Times, remarkable figures from design, photography, politics and entrepreneurship come to the London Design Festival to stimulate thought, discussion and, occasionally, controversy. It's a great way to start your London Design Festival Day

Sponsored by The Times.

20 Sept Neville Brody, graphic designer and creator of the Anti Design Festival
Neville Brody is possibly one of the most influential graphic designers, typographers, art directors and brand strategists the UK has ever produced. He is also the inspiration behind this year's Anti Design Festival, which aims to defrost what he sees as '25 years of cultural deep freeze' in the UK. Brody is well known for this work on The Face and Arena magazine, and for his uncompromising views on design. Brody was recently appointed Head of Communication Art & Design department at the Royal College of Art.
Buy tickets for Neville Brody's breakfast talk

21 Sept Terry O'Neill, ground-breaking iconic photographer
Born in the East End of London, Terry O'Neill left school in 1952, aged 14, joining BOAC's technical photographic unit as a trainee. In 1959 he happened upon the sleeping figure of the Home Secretary Rab Butler at Heathrow airport and photographed him. The picture was snapped up by the Sunday Dispatch and the editor offered him a job. Moving to The Daily Sketch, his informal and spontaneous approach matched the style of rising stars like The Beatles and The Stones; Terry became much in demand, his star rising alongside those of his subjects. With his work appearing in Look, Life, Vogue, Paris Match, Rolling Stone, The Sunday Times Magazine and many others, he now had access to high-profile subjects,becoming one of the most published photographers of the 1960s and 1970s. Friendships with stars like Richard Burton and Michael Caine meant that he could bring people together for photographic shoots. When Elizabeth Taylor wanted to meet David Bowie, Terry brought them together for a series of classic pictures. During the 1980s Terry became the photographer of choice for Hollywood, and his commissions from the time are nothing short of a catalogue of global superstardom. Terry's success continued into the 1990s and with 66 pictures held by London's National Portrait Gallery, he is today revered as one the great British photographers.
Buy tickets for Terry O'Neill's Breakfast Talk

22 Sept Thomas Heatherwick, leading British designer
Thomas Heatherwick is the founder of Heatherwick Studio, a design studio formed in 1994 to make unique design projects happen. Today a team of 25 architects, designers and makers work from a combined studio and workshop in King's Cross, London, UK. The studio's work is widely recognised both in UK and internationally and commissions include a monastery in the South of England; a 300 room hotel tower in Hong Kong; the UK Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo in 2010 and the design of a new double-decker bus for London. Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a Senior Fellow at the Royal College of Art. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from four British Universities - Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Dundee, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Brighton. He has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize and in 2004, was the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry. He has served on numerous judging and advisory panels and has given lectures, tutorials and talks at the Hong Kong Business of Design Week, Yale University, London's Victoria and Albert Museum, and Brunel's SS Great Britain.
Buy tickets for Thomas Heatherwick's Breakfast Talk

23 Sept Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
Son of the art historian Marina Vaizey, The Hon Ed Vaizey MP was shadow Culture and Creative Industries Minister for four years before becoming Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries and joint Minister with Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. He has written regularly for The Guardian and The Sunday Times.
Buy tickets for Ed Vaizey MP's Breakfast talk

24 Sept Imran Ahmed, the business of fashion
Imran Amed is a fashion business adviser, writer and entrepreneur. Bringing a unique understanding of the creative and commercial sides of fashion and luxury, Imran has emerged as one of the industry's leading thinkers on digital media. In his consulting work for international luxury brands, private equity firms and independent investors, he acts as a bridge between the industry's most gifted creative and business talent and shapes strategies for the new digital reality. Previously, Imran was a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Com from McGill University.
Buy tickets for Imran Ahmed's Breakfast Talk

See the full listing of London Design Festival Events at the V&A