Assa Ashuach

BA (hons) Product Design, MA Design Products

MA Design Suite Course Leader
Senior Lecturer - Design & Production

RAE Outcomes

Short Biography
Assa Ashuach was born in Israel, in 1969. He studied a BA in Product Design at the Betzalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Just after graduating, he opened a design studio that dealt mainly with design in cooperation with architects. One of the studio's major projects was the design of the Football stadium VIP lounge at Bloomfield Tel Aviv. He moved to London in 2001, where he continued to work on his studio's projects while completing a Design Products MA at the Royal College of Art. He graduated in 2003 and received the RCA Society and Thames & Hudson Art Book Award for 2003.
Ashuach's studio focuses today on three main tracks: product design, collaboration with architects and self-production. He exhibited at different galleries and museums and was invited to Japan by IDEE to show at the Esplanade Spiral Building in Tokyo. Some of his work was bought by The Contemporary Art Society for the Special Collection Scheme in London 2004. Assa's new furniture and lights were featured at the London design museum Tank and Atrium over the London Design festival and Frieze Art Fair 2005-6. Assa received the Design Museum and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Award and the red dot award for product design, 2006. Assa was invited to lead the new MA Design Suite at London Metropolitan University in 2007.

Professional Experience

Studio - Selected Projects 2000-2006

The HUB: public art commissions, UK

Materialise MGX: Product design and design consultancy, Belgium

Nigel Coats Architects: Product design consultancy, London
Barrel House Music Ltd.: Product design consultancy, London

KETER group of companies, headquarters, videoconference center, Herzelia, Israel: Mini architecture, furniture, lighting, software and user interface design.

Villa les Glaïeuls: Outdoor furniture limited edition, design for a private collector's villa in south of France, Cannes.

Football stadium VIP lounge at Bloomfield, Tel-Aviv, Israel: Lighting, lamp and furniture design in cooperation with the architect’s office Ilan Pivko.

The restaurant Brochette and the two restaurants Lemon Grass, Tel-Aviv, Israel: Lighting and interior design in cooperation with the architect’s office Yaniv Pardo.

3D user interface, YCD Multimedia, Israel: Designed a 3D user interface for YCD's major software.

IDEO London - 2004-2006 - Product design consultancy for the following projects:

Shekel Project: Interactive environment and objects in collaboration with IDEO Smart Space Unit.

Easy Phone for Vodafone UK: Product design and concept generation.

Accessories for the two Easy Phones: Product design and concept generation.

Nestlé's brand Maggi: Strategy development and product design.

Yaacov Kaufman Studio, Tel-Aviv, Israel - 1997-1999
Worked for Yaakov Kaufman, designer and professor at Betzalel Academy. Assisted him in Lighting, furniture, product and exhibition design.

AMLAH &Dental Quip - 1995-1996
R&D and industrial design of mechanical machinery.

Teaching

2006 - 2007
London Metropolitan University, Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media & Design: MA design suite course leader, Senior lecturer Design & Production (0.5)

2006
London Metropolitan University, Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media & Design: Visiting Research Fellow in Design & Production

Royal College of Art, Department of Design Products, London: Design Seminar

2005-6
London Metropolitan University, Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design: Teaching 3D design using digital tools and machinery.

2004
Royal College of Art, Departments of Vehicle Design and Design Products, London: Teaching 3D design.

Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London: Lecturing on recent work at the Department of Product Design.

2001
Betzalel Academy of Art & Design, Department of Industrial Design, Jerusalem: Teaching a course on 3D user interfaces, in collaboration with YCD Multimedia.

Selected Exhibitions

2007 - Trans Forms Assa Ashuach at Rabih Hage gallery, London

2007 - TCT '07, show and conference research paper, Coventry, UK

2007 - GIL china, travelling show and conferences, Gwangju, Shanghai, Beijing

2007 - Designmai, show and conference, Beryline

2007 - The Israel museum, a show and conference

2007 - ART Basel, Gabrielle Ammann Gallery

2006 - Shanghai Art Biennale, Contrasts Gallery

2006 - Gravity and Glow, Assa Ashuach and Tomoko Azumi, Metropolitan Works, London

2006 - Paris Fair, Conran Shop

2006 - Design Mart at the Design Museum, London

2006 - Design Museum Atrium, London

2006 - Gabrielle Amman Gallery, Köln, Germany

2005 - The Design Museum Tank, London

2005 - Ron Arad - The Master Selection, Sparda Bank, Muenster, Germany

2005 - Materialise at Gallery Forum Diffusion, Paris

2005 - The European Design Show, Design Museum, London

2005 - Sit? A show of contemporary seating, Geffrye museum, London

2005 - Two Liners, Assa Ashuach and Sam Buxto, Aram, Experimental Or New Gallery, London

2004 - Esplanade, Spiral building, IDEE show, Tokyo

2004 - Preserve your Instinct, a space in Shinjuku, Tokyo

2004 - The Daily Mail Concept Products Feature, Ideal Home Show, London

2004 - Step 2, Aram, Experimental Or New Gallery, London

2003 - Preserve your Instinct, Space in Kingly Court, London

2003 - RCA Show, Henry Moore Gallery, London

2003 - The Ideal City, Art Biennale Valencia

2002 - Dalsouple Robber stand, 100% Design, London

2002 - Moroso of scale Milano, touring exhibition for Moroso's 50th anniversary: Moroso show room, Milan, Galeria arte moderna, Udine.

2000 - Designers' Saturday, Langenthal, Switzerland.

2000 - Salone Satelite, Betzalel’s Stand, Milan

2000 - Yearly Design Exhibition, Exhibition Park, Tel-Aviv

Awards

2006 - winner of The Design Museum and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Award

2006 - winner of the Red Dot Award for product design

2004 - winner of the IDEE Award

2003 - winner of the RCA Society and Thames & Hudson Art Book Prize

2003 - shortlisted for the Science Museum Products of the Future Award

2003 - short-listed for the Kokuyo Award

2002 - highly commended in the 100% Rubber competition

2002 - runner-up in the Swarovski Crystal Emotion competition

2000 - winner of the Bezalel academy of Art & Design Lighting Competition

Collections

2007 - The British Council collection, UK

2007 - The HUB, Permanent installation, Collection, UK

2006 - Gabrielle Amman collection, Germany

2006 - Simon Mills private collection, London

2005 - Sir Ronald Cohen and Lady Cohen private collection, France

2004 - Manchester Art Gallery permanent collection, Manchester, UK

2004 - The Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme, London, UK

Sponsors

KETER Group of companies: sponsorship for MA/RCA

Autodesk: sponsorship for software and dedicated software solutions

EOS: sponsorship for SLS production and software solutions

Materialise.MGX: sponsorship for RP production and software solutions

Complex Matters: sponsorship for the production of dedicated software solutions