Making Sense; Designing in London, curated by Mentsen and twentytwentyone, showcases the work of six design studios, each driven by a firm focus on material, process, and utility as part of the London Design Festival 2025.
The exhibition brings together for the first time the works of Elliott Denny, Jones Neville, Michael Marriott, Ian McIntyre, Mentsen, and Eleanor Pritchard.
Offering a unique collective perspective on navigating the space between handmade and industrial production, whilst exploring the intricacies and nuances of designing, making, and running a design studio in London.
Each piece in the exhibition was selected to shape interconnecting spaces for living, working, and learning, encouraging dialogue, exchange, and aesthetic cross-pollination across the diverse body of work.
The project began with a conversation between twentytwentyone and Mentsen exploring the possibilities of an exhibition around London made for the London Design Festival. As the plan formed a round-table discussion among the participating studios was scheduled, and topics agreed, delving into the commonalities, differences and challenges of operating a design studio in London. Mentsen has thoughtfully captured this conversation in a self-produced publication created to accompany the show. The special, limited-edition Making Sense book is available in-store and online.
Meet the Designers
Mentsen is a design studio founded by Japanese designers Yasuyuki Sakurai and Risa Sano. Working at the intersection of craft and industrial design, the practice spans a variety of mediums and scales, from furniture and product design to unique, handmade objects. The studio’s name, meaning “lines and surfaces”, reflects this broad and thoughtful approach.
Mentsen carefully balances efficiency, utility and elegance in their designs. In addition to working with commercial clients designing for manufacture, they also make handmade pieces in their London workshop and collaborate with architects and interior designers on projects.
Elliott Denny is a London-based designer specialising in ceramics, exploring industrial production and smaller scale commissions through his studio practice.
His work investigates how these often distinct methodologies can intersect and inform one another. Drawing inspiration from the built environment, Elliott looks beyond clay, engaging with other materials and their associated processes as a means to reimagine traditional approaches to ceramics.
Working across furniture, product design, and sculpture, Elliott employs a broad range of techniques. His practice includes the use of self-built production tools and innovative methods, pushing the boundaries of how ceramics can be made.
Jones Neville is a London-based design partnership founded by Simon Jones and Jack Neville. Working across furniture, product, and exhibition design, their practice spans a broad range of scales and disciplines. With Jones’ background in architecture and Neville’s training in furniture design, they bring a distinct perspective to their work, merging architectural insight with a hands-on understanding of materials, detail, and fabrication.
Central to their process is their workshop, where they design and make the majority of their work themselves. Through ongoing prototyping and testing, they refine ideas and resolve details directly through the process of making. This material and process-led approach results in a quiet, considered sensibility—shaped by practical decision-making and the efficiencies of self-production.
Michael Marriott is a London-based designer whose practice spans furniture, product design, exhibitions, interiors, and installations. A graduate of the London College of Furniture and the Royal College of Art, where he later taught, Michael has been a central figure in British design since the early 1990s.
Working from his East London studio, Michael is known for a utilitarian approach that values simplicity, economy, and a deep appreciation of materials. His furniture often utilises humble industrial components. Beyond commissioned work, he creates one-off or small-batch production, playfully using raw materials and found objects.
Michael has also created a series of exhibitions, with projects at the Design Museum, Camden Arts Centre, and Two Willow Road, to name a few. he also runs a online store for design objects sourced from around the globe, woodmetalplastic.com.
Ian McIntyre is a London-based ceramicist working across product design, craft, and research. With a background in applied art and industrial design, his practice spans studio editions, exhibition work, and objects developed for production. His approach blends traditional making with contemporary processes.
In 2011, he co-founded Studio Manifold, an independent design studio based in East London, and is one half of Supergroup, a platform for collaborative editions.
A significant project focused on the cultural and industrial heritage of red earthenware production in Stoke-on-Trent. Notably, he re-engineered the iconic Brown Betty Teapot, introducing innovations to bring the teapot's historic evolution up-to-date.
He currently lectures at Central Saint Martins while developing new work.
Eleanor Pritchard is a London-based weaver, known for her bold, modernist textiles with roots in British weaving traditions. Drawing inspiration from patterns found in natural landscapes and architecture, her work reinterprets vernacular design through a contemporary lens.
All fabrics are developed and sampled by hand on a dobby loom in her studio, before being woven in collaboration with UK mills, including a long-standing partnership with a family-run mill in Lancashire. Eleanor’s process-led approach celebrates colour, structure, and craftsmanship, with a strong emphasis on material integrity and thoughtful production.
The Making Sense Library by Jasper Morrison
“I started to notice that successful objects, that is, objects which are good to live with, seemed to share certain characteristics. They were never the result of aesthetic decisions alone, nor were they purely functional. They always balanced these two extremes with the additional consideration of the appropriateness of materials and their combination, of the human experience of using and living with the object, of the object's effect on its surroundings and of the communication of its purpose.”
— Jasper Morrison, From Everything but the Walls
As long-time admirers of Jasper Morrison’s work and his exceptional understanding of archetypes and object typologies that underpin our lived environment, Mentsen approached Jasper to make a concise selection of books to accompany the exhibition.
View the reading list.
Making Sense: Designing in London runs 17 – 21 September 2025
twentytwentyone, 18c River Street, London, EC1R 1XN.
Photography by Valeria Armeni and Mentsen.
Shop the Making Sense Edit
