In the Making, Design Museum - exhibition review

It’s a mesmerising thing, the apparent alchemy by which a lump of aluminium or plank of willow is transformed into a laptop or a cricket bat. We know what the finished things look like but the focus of the Design Museum’s new show is on the seductive appeal of everyday objects at the earlier stages of their production.

In a darkened room, more than 20 embryonic products are displayed on spotlit plinths as if they were precious sculptures. Each of the exhibits has been specially chosen by the show’s creators, London duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, designers of the 2012 Olympic torch. With their sharp eyes for detail they have selected products that look the most beautiful in this semi-raw state, or whose metamorphoses are the most captivating.

In the former category we have a French horn that is caught just before its tube is bent, and a twisted rod of coloured glass ready to produce a marble. Among the more dramatic displays is a single sheet of metal that already bears the shape of the front of a London Tube train.

What do we learn from this handsome little show? Mostly, I think, despite being asked to admire an ugly lump of aluminium destined to become a MacBook Pro, that it is the old processes and materials that still hold the greatest allure.