Hybrid Vigor

Anything seems to go in design today: styles clash, boundaries blur and hipper-than-thou types talk of "hybridity." And few practitioners better reflect the pick-and-mix trend than Barcelona-based product designer Jaime Hayón. The 32-year-old Spaniard has a taste for the theatrical, so calling the latest overview of his work (at the Aram Gallery in London until Nov. 4) "Stage" is entirely appropriate. Playfulness is a hallmark, too. Having won a cult following in 2004 for his zany yet unsettling space-invader figurines — which were, not surprisingly, big in Japan — Hayón then broke through last year in that most conservative corner of...