Ross Lovegrove & Polaris Dawn
Transforming Space Data into an Object
CreativeWorkStudios has partnered with the Polaris Program and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® to tell a story that exists at the intersection of design, science, and human resilience. At the heart of this collaboration is Polaris Dawn — the first of up to three missions in the Polaris Program — a pioneering spaceflight aimed at pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in orbit.
While the mission explores the effects of spaceflight on the human body, St. Jude continues its mission here on Earth: leading global research and treatment efforts to defeat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Both are united by a shared goal — to better understand the human condition and push forward the limits of care, survival, and adaptation.
To interpret this convergence, CreativeWorkStudios invited renowned designer Ross Lovegrove to translate the data, emotion, and insight of the Polaris Dawn mission into visual and physical form. His practice — rooted in organic design, material intelligence, and a fascination with nature’s codes — offers a unique lens through which to reimagine our presence in extreme environments.
001. THE POLARISGO CHAIR
AN OBJECT BORN FROM NATURE
MADE TO ORDER, AVAILABLE ON POLARISGO.XYZ
PolarisGO is a limited-edition design artifact created in collaboration with industrial designer Ross Lovegrove. It is the first chair ever made using injected magnesium — a fusion of material innovation and sculptural vision, inspired directly by data from the Polaris Dawn space mission. This is not a conceptual object. It is a real, functional form, engineered from the shockwave data of a rocket launch and shaped by the principles of biomimicry. At its core, PolarisGO is an exploration: how can human-made design inherit the logic, beauty, and resilience of nature — and space?
Ross Lovegrove’s design practice has long been centered on what he calls organic essentialism — a process of reduction and transformation. He treats design not as decoration but as evolution. In PolarisGO, he translates the language of anatomy, energy, and natural form into a chair that feels both alien and familiar. The seat's wave pattern, radiating from four corners, is directly modeled from acoustic force data — a physical echo of the Polaris Dawn mission's takeoff. That pattern is more than aesthetic: it symbolizes the collective energy of the mission’s four astronauts, merging into one unified shape — a fusion of technology, humanity, and the unknown.
Each chair is cast in aerospace-grade magnesium and fitted with a custom aluminum alloy insert. These are materials chosen not just for their strength-to-weight ratio but for their symbolic resonance — materials that fly, materials that resist, materials used to explore. The chair is both delicate and elemental, existing at the intersection of industrial process and artistic gesture.
Only 210 pieces will be produced globally. 50% of all net proceeds will support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, anchoring the project’s celestial ambition with human impact on Earth. PolarisGO is an object that remembers the body — in orbit, in motion, in need — and gives back to it.
ROSS LOVEGROVE
Ross Lovegrove, born in 1958, graduated from Manchester Polytechnic with 1st Class BA Hons Industrial design in 1980 and took a Master of Design at the Royal College of Art, London in 1983. In the early 80’s worked as a designer for Frog Design in West Germany on tech projects for companies like Sony and Apple; he later moved to Paris as a consultant to Knoll International, for which he created the highly successful Alessandri Office System.
Invited to join the Atelier de Nimes in 1984, alongside with Jean Nouvel and Phillipe Stark, he consulted amongst others: Cacharel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Dupont. Returning to London in 1986 he has since worked on projects for Airbus Industries, Kartell, Ceccotti, Cappellini, Moroso, Luceplan, Driade, Peugeot, Apple, Issey Miyake, Vitra, Motorola, Biomega, LVMH, Narciso Rodriguez, Yamagiwa, Tag Heuer, Swarovski, Herman Miller, Artemide, Renault, Japan Airlines, Toyo Ito Architects, Kenzo, Valextra, GH Mumm, LG, F1, Samsung and KEF.
Winner of numerous international awards his work has been extensively published and exhibited internationally including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum NY, Axis Centre Japan, Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Design Museum, London, when in 1993 he curated the first permanent Design collection. His work is held in permanent collections of various design museums around the world including the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA), the Design Museum in London, the Vitra Design Museum, in Basel, the Die Neue Sammlung, in Munich and the Centre Pompidou, in Paris.
Ross Lovegrove Studio: rosslovegrove.com
POLARIS DAWN MISSION
Polaris Dawn is the first of three human spaceflights under the Polaris Program. The program is named after Polaris, a constellation of three stars more commonly known as the North Star, which has been a guiding light throughout human history to help us navigate the world and inspire progress.
Flying higher than any Dragon mission to date and reaching the highest Earth orbit ever flown. Orbiting through portions of the Van Allen radiation belt, Polaris Dawn conducted research with the aim of better understanding the effects of spaceflight and space radiation on human health. At approximately 700 kilometers above the Earth, the crew realised first-ever commercial extravehicular activity (EVA) with SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, upgraded from the current intravehicular (IVA) suit. Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require thousands of spacesuits; the development of this suit and the execution of the EVA will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions.
To learn more, visit the Polaris Dawn Website and follow the mission:
X (@PolarisProgram) and Instagram (@PolarisProgram).
ST JUDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its purpose is clear: Finding cures. Saving children.® It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. When St. Jude opened in 1962, childhood cancer was largely considered incurable. Since then, St. Jude has helped push the overall survival rate from 20% to more than 80%, and it won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude shares the breakthroughs it makes to help doctors and researchers at local hospitals and cancer centers around the world improve the quality of treatment and care for even more children. Because of generous donors, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food, so they can focus on helping their child live.
Visit St. Jude Inspire to discover powerful St. Jude stories of hope, strength, love and kindness. Support the St. Jude mission by donating at stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook, following St. Jude on X Instagram LinkedIn and TikTok, and subscribing to its YouTube channel.