Nobody’s perfect. So why should design be? In a world of mass production, where objects nearly always look identical to each other, a little imperfection can add some much needed character. Especially when it’s the result of a handmade process.

This year’s Designers in Residence programme at the Design Museum in London is exploring this idea. Four designers - Simon Hasan, Hye-Yeon Park, Will Shannon and Jade Folawiyo - have been commissioned to create products that consider the idea of imperfection in an object, environment or experience.

Hasan is showing a series of stools, created using a process called cuir bouilli in which leather is boiled so it can be stretched and then hardened around a frame. His aim is to address how craft could be used in the manufacturing of a mass-produced object. Shannon meanwhile is showing his Autonomous Workplace no004, a mobile production machine that reduces old wooden furniture to pulp, which can then be moulded into new items. These new objects retain elements of the original, creating an aesthetic that cleverly references the recycling process.

Increasingly it seems that people want to see traces of craft and handmade processes in products they buy. We really like how the Designers in Residence show is exploring how to create a solution to this need, and we hope it might even inspire brands that sell mass produced items to take imperfection a bit more seriously. The Artists in Residence exhibition is showing at the Design Museum until the 22nd January 2012.

Photos: Luke Hayes