So today is our final stop on the design week show trail and I’ve saved the rawer, more edgy Tent (or London Design Fair as its now been rebranded) for the finale.I love these shows, there’s always so much to inspire and provoke, things I instantly love, things I can’t stop thinking about and things which will never be me (but are totally right for others within the beautiful melting pot of modern design!). For those that are trend conscious I can report that at all shows I saw a lot of blush pink, light wood, terrazzo surfaces, plants, cork and geometrics but less brass, copper or concrete than last year. There was also a fair bit of Memphis-style Andy Warhol 80’s inspired pattern. With so much to digest it can be hard to whittle down favourites, but the elapse of time puts stand out exhibits into focus. So today I’m sharing my favourites from London Design Fair, including these amazing glass balloon lights (above) designed by Mateo Gonet, which makes the biggest impression on you?
Image: Design Soda
If you’ve seen my other design week posts you have probably spotted this before – terrazzo again! This time by talented maker who you can purchase through The Maker Place, Sevak Zargarian has been making these pieces for 3 years, well before the trend started to take off. I just love this chopping board and am highly tempted to buy one for display.
Image: Design Soda
This is such a sweet little company, Arran St East set up business a few years ago and everything they produce is made in their small studio overlooking a fruit and veg market in the heart of Dublin. As such they are inspired by their surroundings and the colour inspirations have cute names like pomegranate, pink grapefruit, cabbage and lemon named after the produce they are surrounded by. I do love a story behind a product so I’m a sucker for things like this, still all of these products are very lovely to feel and the tea mugs pictured come in two shapes, one to suit people that drink tea slowly (me) and need to keep heat in, and those that drink quickly (not me) can buy a mug with a shape that cools more speedily, clever huh?
Images: Christabel Balfour
These handwoven rugs are by the insanely talented Christabel Balfour who I did a short weaving course with earlier in the year (see blog post here). I absolutely love her work, it has both a rustic and precious charm if you see what I mean? She is inspired by nature taking shells, hills and marshes as inspiration, but also in pushing the boundaries of pattern design. Christabel’s display was so busy during preview night that I actually couldn’t get a people-free shot so Christabel is kindly letting me use images from her Instagram feed to illustrate her work. You can buy all of these pieces pictured through The Maker Place.
Image: Design Soda
Ah, Studio Custhom, always a festival highlight for me, they have to be in my top 20 UK companies, I am always wowed by their flair for surface and pattern. My stand out piece this year was the chaise longue made in collaboration with another design house I love – Another Country. So many things I would give to make this mine, it is entirely gorgeous.
Image: Design Soda
How adorable are these stripy dripped ceramic wares from Duck Ceramics? I’m such a fan, they are almost Scandinavian in their simplicity and so fresh looking. You can almost see the linen in the rustic kitchen where they belong and smell the bread in the oven can’t you?
Image: Design Soda
I love this wallpaper design, it’s stark geometry matched against vivid, slightly mad details from under the sea. It’s almost a design which shouldn’t work but it so does. Knowing the story behind it explains the juxtaposition, it is a collaboration between two artist friends with distinct and separate styles, one Finnish, one Brazilian, together they are known as Mervalia, when juxtaposed next to each other both designs come alive for me.
Image: Design Soda
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These tables by Atelier Schroeter are pretty well the most glamorous use of wood I’ve seen for a long time. They have a real seventies feel for me and would look completely brilliant in either a paired back or stylised setting.
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Image: Design Soda
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It may just be the trip to Lisbon in the summer but I’m noticing cork everywhere at the moment and coveting pretty much all of it! My husband and I were pretty obsessed with it on holiday, he wanted shoes I wanted a clutch (with geometric neon chevron cork pattern no less!). Neons seem to be the perfect combination to offset cork, I love these colour-pop Tres stools by Galula Studio, they are so angular looking but I reckon they’d be super comfortable.
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Image: Design Soda
You may have come across Margate based artist Zoe Murphys work on tv, I can think of at least two shows she’s appeared on, and with good reason, the revelation of screen-printing pattern onto old pieces of vintage furniture is pretty awesome. It was great to see her collection in real life with all of its neon punches of colour.
London Design Festival Part 2: Ten of the best from 100 Per Cent Design
Quick post today after a very heady wonderful week of design inspiration. On Wednesday I dropped by 100 Per Cent Design for the first time. I’ve always known it to be a great all rounder show that covers all bases of home design from build through to fittings and as such it’s not massively on my radar being a blogger. But as I was throwing myself in to everything this year I wanted to just drop by and see what all the fuss was about. I’m so glad I did, there was lots to see, so today I’m sharing my ten favourite things (actually I’ve snuck 11 in there but only 9 designers so in my logic this equals out!). Peruse at your leisure:
Images: Design Soda
I bought a piece of furniture from French company I-Bride for our first home 7 years ago and am amazed to see that they are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. I will be honest, it’s beautiful but not entirely practical since it seems to rely on rooms without skirting boards for its stability but notwithstanding this I really love the quirky concepts from this design company. In particular this goose lamp which appears in both images is perfect, check how that shade for a head is in perfect proportion, it all feels very un-French to me and I love it.
Image: Design Soda
Hand crafted wooden wares have been a staple trend over the last few years but sometimes you see something that is extra lovely, these spinning tops were one such example for me. They are made by Slovenian designer Atelje Mali as a part of the Noshi range.
Image: Design Soda
Another example from the beautiful Noshi range, this time a concrete cake stand, it sounds counterintuitive but the effect is stunning, the hem of the dish reminding you gently of dripping cream, very clever and very cool.
Image: Design Soda
This wallpaper is everything! Sure to cheer any space, NLXL lab have a raft of amazing papers including a fair few inspired by old packaging. This one is called Supermarket and is designed by Paola Navone, it reminds me of the supermarket toy products I used to play with as a child but more sophisticated, I would love to use this somewhere, it would look great in a bathroom for example or perhaps as a pop art note in a bright white kitchen.
Image: Design Soda
This sofa was so eye catching, I am rather in love with mustard coloured velvet and combined with the sleek lines of its frame this New York sofa from Padua-based Italian brand Saba stocked by Sagal is the epitome of relaxed high end taste.
Image: Design Soda
Original BTC – one of my favourite British design institutions, pretty much everything from their stable is a joy of design. I love the chalky white origami simplicity of these, they are so dreamlike.
Image: Design Soda
If you’re looking for really high quality hand produced wallpaper and you love bright colour and pattern then you’ve come to the right place with Bristol based firm Addicted to Patterns. I love these dancing ladies, they are very expensive and very gorgeous.
Image: Design Soda
This light may well have been the stand out piece for me, it’s obnoxiously big, so pretty hard to miss but for something so large it’s actually terribly elegant and to my mind slightly nature inspired, each strand on the pendant looks to me like another hanging dragonfly. It’s called Madaba and is made by lighting firm Mullan. If you are able to house it, I am very jealous of you, well done!
Image: Design Soda
I have mentioned Industville more than once on this blog before, and having bought from them online, it was really nice to see their whole range in real life with all of the modular options for finish, flex etc.
Image: Design Soda
Genuinely so ticked by this faux topiary pig, it may not be cutting edge design but it is such a great idea. It’s made by Bright Green who specialise in fake landscapes, how cool would it be to have a piece of topiary that’s perfectly executed and would stay that way. I feel our garden needs this!
Image: Design Soda
British design classic Coolicon first established in the 1930’s and used widely from factories to government buildings have collaborated with London Transport to bring out this rather special new range of lighting with tube maps inside the shade. You can pretty well have anything printed on the inside which is exciting and look at their 1930’s logo (which mirrors many of the design elements of the underground logo from the same era), industrial isn’t going away and this one is a keeper!
So, that’s it, Design week over for another year, I’ve had such a spectacular time this year and was so inspired by much of what I saw, not sure my feet have recovered yet but I can’t wait for next year already…
Gorgeous images! I’ve been following all the events this week on Instagram and I’m so gutted I couldn’t get the time off work to go. Going to have to put it in the diary for next year! x
Hi Karen
How funny, I was just about to sit down and catch up on your beautiful looking post on the fire station! Thank you so much, it’s not hard for the pics to look good when the items were all so fabulous. It’s a bit sad but I booked design week off six months ago, you should definitely come along next year, it’s exhausting but you’d love it x