Superbrands London: Old Truman Brewery

East London normally home to diverse cuisine, diverse fashion trends, textiles and much more, but for four days - it was home to one of two big design shows showcasing the best in interior design from worldwide brands. More than double its size from last year’s debut, Superbrands London displays the best in global design for your home and living. Inventive light shades, unique and cleverly designed furniture, as well as furnishings, materials and items designed specifically to stand out in your home, or for making your life that little bit easier and practical.

Tables made from broken bits of metal, screws, scrap metal and put together to form the most unique in living room décor, or the fold away table which changes from having 8 people round the table instead of 4 are some of the diverse items that make your home that little bit more special.

Superbrands didn’t just stick the plan, the exhibitors took that extra step in making it their own show. Each exhibitor had their own focus, design, plan and unique touch that made their product equally as clever and innovative as the next person. Their displays were catchy, without being too ‘salesman’ but the idea of interactivity wasn’t far behind. Product design was made so that audience could interact with the item specifically without making the task seem difficult. Items were made fun and easy, resourceful and practical without taking away a ‘cool’ element to it. Your mind set was pretty much taken over from the products in view, the displays, the exhibitors that had design passion and knew exactly what they wanted to do was inspiring and made you think that just about what’s inside the box, but also what’s outside the box as well. Life could be made all that much brighter with future designs in productivity. I can’t wait to see what next year brings!

By 

Melmarie Laccay

Walk the Light Cinimod Studio Philips Lighting: Entrance (via Tunnel) to the V&A Museum

When you walk through South Kensington Station and arrive at the tunnel entrance to the V&A, the first thing you notice is the changing lights above. You look up and the lights move while you move. Walk the Light does exactly as it says on the tin – it’s interactive and continues to amaze with the unpredictable combination of changing lights. Whilst you walk, it moves with you – you’re the ultimate controller. It changes colour when you walk with it, change direction and it changes with you and the colours are vivid, bright and bold. The more you play with it, the more it plays with you.

The tunnels of the underground are brightly lit at the V&A with this installation and with the lights walking with you every step of the way – it’s not your normal entrance into one of London’s most popular and most visited museum. It certainly brightened up my idea of the world of colour and what every shade and hue can do to you to get you interactive and walking the lights yourself!

By 

Melmarie Laccay

Photos by David Geewai Ho

We arrived at the newly refurbished B&B Italia store on Brompton Road after the huge select party launch on Wednesday, and were struck by the magnificence of the luxury design collections of B&B and Maxalto featuring at the front of the store.

Most prominently displayed on a spinning platform is the much acclaimed exclusive marble version of the iconic Tobi-Ishi table, which is the first project by British designers Ed Barber & Jay Osgerby in collaboration for B&B Italia. 

After following the cutting edge project in the main window, accompanied by a video of the designers in discussion, we also took a closer look at the countless lifestyle interiors presented in the extensive 2012 collections of B&B italia and Maxalto throughout the length of the store.

On Thursday night a talk was held, in keeping with the showroom title ‘Changing Perspectives‘ where leading figures discussed how design, manufacturing and innovation could help drive Europe out of recession. The showroom was extremely busy for the talks, where over 200 people were buzzing for the debate, “Can design Save Europe?”

When we caught a glimpse through the huge glass-wall windows of endless rows of chairs being placed on the showroom floor, we wished we could have been there to see the prominent speakers talk passionately about the future of design in this country! Figures included Architect David Chipperfield, Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, Designers, Martin Roth, Director of the V&A, Edwin Heathcote, Architecture and Design critic at the Financial Times and the event was chaired by Vicky Richardson, Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council. It was very well received and publicized extensively.

Although the exciting talk has finished, the showroom itself is open every day for visitors, where a vast array of exemplary designer collections are presented in exquisite surroundings for you to inspect

www.bebitalia.com

Hana Khan and Grace Carroll.

Press-release photos of Tobi-Ishi Table: #1 #2 #3

On Wednesday evening Gordon’s unveiled a limited edition range of bottles designed by Conran.

“The Ten Green Bottles collection is the beautiful result of an exciting collaboration between two iconic and very British brands. Inspired by our superior gin, the Conran team have created ten quintessentially British reinventions of our iconic green bottle.”

Inspired by the Conran textiles of the Sixties, they have created ten new fabric label patterns for Gordon’s, which will feature on one million bottles that will be available to buy in the UK from October.

For more information about the project visit the Gordon’s website.

http://www.gordons-gin.co.uk/conran/ten-green-bottles

By Kyla McCallum

UNDERSTORY by Catherine Aitken/ Eva Malschaert/ Pia Wüstenberg

Understory showcases a selection of new and previously unseen work as part of London Design Festival 2012.

three designers and one food designer combined their imaginary art and created a fairytale…

And all began in a forest…

They achieved to transfer its power and character into furniture and interior products…

Catherine Aitken (UK), Eva Malschaert (NL) and Pia Wüstenberg (GER/FIN) …. and Jasopo Sarzi invite you to their forest…. to walk, to feel, to see, to taste, to smell!!!!!

catherinelouiseaitken.co.uk

eva.malschaert.nl

piadesign.eu // utopiaandutility.eu

jacoposarzi.com // fooddesignworkshop.com

By Anastasia Mavromatidou

Amongst the beautifully crafted furniture at Bernhardt, there is a short film playing below the showroom. ‘Finding Charles Pollock’ details the life and work of this extraordinary man, from his leaving home at 15 to become an engineer with Chrysler motors (which he describes as ‘an education’), to his formal design education at Pratt Institute. Friends and colleagues highlight how his industrial background informed his aesthetic decisions and the 5 minute short finishes with a discussion between Pollock and head of Bernhardt, Jerry Helling regarding his their collaboration on new design, The CP Lounge. The new piece is on display upstairs, along with other commissioned pieces by young designers such as Noe Duchaufour-Lawrance, Jephson Rob and Lievore Altherr Molina.

The film can be viewed at http://bernhardtdesign.com/discover/pollock.html

Text: Ruth Gilbert/ Images: Olivia Woollam

On Tuesday the Design Council held a collaborative event in the V & A called Make and Do, exploring the public’s perception of British Design. People who attended the event were asked to discuss, write and draw about what British Design means to them. An illustrator then took snippets of people’s thoughts and ideas and drew them on a large canvas. Over the next few weeks the work will be developed to create a stop-motion animation to be featured on the Design Council website, depicting what British Design means to the wider public. If you’d like to see the final animation, follow @designcouncil for updates on the project.

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/about-us/Who-we-work-with/Partner-events/ldf/Make-and-Do-/

By Kyla McCallum

Designs on Chocolate is a collaborative project between leading designers and chocolatiers to create original sculptures made entirely from chocolate to represent London.

Tom Dixon has collaborated with Rococo to create The run down tower blocks of Brixton, while Lee Broom worked with William Curley to sculpt a replica ‘Tile Lamp’, Paul Cocksedge has used almost a thousand pieces from Hotel Chocolat’s range to create a wall-hanging QR code that interacts with the viewer and Faye Toogood has collaborated with Alex Mariz at Cocomaya to create Force of Nature, a bespoke reinterpretation of the ancient London Stone.

The four creations will be on show as part of Be Open Space at The Dock until Sunday 23rd September.

Force of Nature by Faye Toogood and Cocomaya

Faye Toogood has collaborated with the Alex Maritz of chocolatierCocomaya to create a bespoke reinterpretation of the ancient London Stone. The 900-year-old limestone relic is said to have formed part of an altar built by Brutus the Trojan, the mythological founder of London. Surrounding it is an ancient saying that reads: ‘So long as the Stone of Brutus is safe, so long will London flourish’.

Force of Nature draws on the magical powers of this relic. It is created from a sphere split perfectly, disrupting the perfect outer geometry and revealing the richness of the semi-precious chocolate stone. The inside is marbled and has an organic-formed cavity covered in crystallised geodes. The two halfspheres rest on a rough untempered-chocolate base.

www.fayetoogood.com

www.cocomaya.co.uk

Tile Lamp by Lee Broom and William Curley

Award-winning designer Lee Broom has teamed up with renowned chocolatier William Curley to create a truly unique piece. Inspired by Lee’s famous Tile Lamp, William and his team have created a replica lamp in solid chocolate. The tiles for Lee’s lamp are made by the factory which has produced the tiles for all the London Underground stations for the last hundred years. William Curley has taken a mould of Lee Broom’s trademark crest and created the lamp. The piece has a lampshade and a working

bulb.

“Creating a design for something to be constructed from chocolate is completely new to me so as a designer who loves to work with unusual materials I jumped at the chance. As all of my products are produced in the UK and being a London designer I felt that reproducing one of my own designs in chocolate worked well with the London theme and a lighting product seemed the most challenging and surreal”.

www.leebroom.com

www.williamcurley.co.uk

Gift by Paul Cocksedge and Hotel Chocolat

Paul Cocksedge has used almost a thousand pieces from Hotel Chocolat’srange of exquisitely crafted chocolates to create a wall-hanging pattern that interacts with the viewer - to become something beyond itself.

“I wanted to leave these beautiful pieces of chocolate as they were, instead of creating an object simply to be looked at, and so losing the whole idea of taste”, Paul explained. “The true art of the chocolatier appeals to your palate as well as your eyes, and through the process of placing these exquisite pieces in various patterns, the project started to grow…

“ Closer inspection of “Gift” reveals how the project comes alive. Taking its visual cues from the Iconic chocolate box, this large, intricate and colourful mosaic also conceals a secret - a graphic object that has become a familiar sight in public spaces recently: a QR code - and a surprise gift when you

scan it…!

The QR code leads the visitor to the Hotel Chocolat website where they are rewarded with a voucher. Following a journey through London to the company’s flagship store in Covent Garden, the voucher can be exchanged for a complimentary, limited edition chocolate box, specially made for the London Design Festival 2012. The chocolate’s journey from eye to mouth has been completed!

www.paulcocksedgestudio.com

www.hotelchocolat.co.uk

Chocolate Metropolis by Tom Dixon and Rococo Chocolate

The run down tower blocks of Brixton, the ever present scaffolding and cranes and shiny new towers for the financial super-classes that jostle for dominance of the future skyline - all modelled, carved and moulded in Rococo’s finest chocolate.

www.tomdixon.com

www.rococochocolates.com

By laurari

Lina Kanafini has curated a collection of phenomenal talent from creative designers, using new concepts and unusually innovative methods in the expression of their designs. Lina was quoted in Brompton Quarterly this month as saying that ironically perhaps, this year’s LDF will be a particularly special one because of the economic downturn; “In a depressed economy, designers work harder.” “They know it’s a difficult market and only new and interesting ideas are worth exhibiting.” In Lina’s eclectic shop, we explored this story in this hand-picked selection and discovered beautifully presented products that you wouldn’t expect to have eco-friendly or recycled materials…they certainly surprise you with it, and then you can’t ignore it, the little quirks are everywhere you glance!… You’re like a kid in a candy-shop, except you’re a design-student pointing your camera at everything!

The products have in common originality, and we were entirely intrigued by the idea of recycling soot, and 3D printing of light, so much so we spent a lot of our time over the festival in Lina’s shop, investigating details to pick out the story of their making. We wanted to get an insider’s view into these enchanting pieces from inception, through process to presenting the final design, but we had the privilege of seeing interesting pieces being collected and the showroom getting ready for the launch.

It’s definitely worth examining the possibilities of design at Lina’s shop, if you’re in the Brompton Design District over the festival period! Keep your eye out for the little shop sign directing you round the corner to Alexander Square.

www.mintshop.co.uk

- Hana Khan and Grace Carroll.

The showroom at Boffi Chelsea is a craftsman lead company developed in 1934 brim-full of novelties and luxury design items for the home and kitchen. On display for the first time in the UK are multifunctional aluminum metal shelves, that can also be bookcase and the Aprile Kitchen, now with thermo treated brushed acacia wood doors.

We were very impressed with all the items on display, and the interior design arrangements. The products gleam under spot lighting to perfectly illuminate every slick detail. We asked the team at Boffi what they thought of their exemplary store-room, and took lots of pictures of the stunning objects and magnificent material finishes.

1. How would you describe the showroom and collection in three

words?  Stunning, rich in materials and elegant.

2. Could you briefly talk us through a favourite piece or a piece in the showroom that has been particularly well received?

The K14 kitchen by Norbert Wangen, pure in design, refined display and the perfect combination of materials. In one word: gorgeous!

Visit www.boffiuk.com

- Hana Khan and Grace Carroll.

The Cosmic Sky new KeepCup Colour story for 2013 is being launched this week at the KeepCup Pop-Up store as part of the London Design Festival. Cosmic Sky takes it outside. Coffee on the run. The palette beckons; look up at the sky, take in the light shifting over the landscape.

If you are in London, come down and enjoy a free coffee by Climpson & Sons and take in the new range while enjoying bespoke interior created by Liqui design and KeepCup’s tricks of light. You can view the full Cosmic Sky range here http://www.keepcup.com/range/cosmic-sky

KeepCup Pop-Up store from 19th - 23rd September 2012

The Annexe 93-95 Sclater St, London.

www.liquidesign.co.uk/keepcup-popup

By laurari

Skandium is a huge store, beautifully diverse and absolutely loaded with high quality design in everything from cards and cutlery to stunning pieces of furniture manufactured to impeccable standards.

In the exhibition space on the first floor there are gorgeous pieces of furniture by Folkform’s Anna Holmquist and Chandra Ahsell, as well as the beautiful ‘credenzas’ created by Swedish designer Eva Schildt. Here old industrial processes and traditional craft techniques are explored thoughtfully and thoroughly to complete pieces with strong yet subtle characters. The store invites you to look more deeply in it’s exhibition space where designs are presented with accompanying publications.

Eva Schildt, who won the ‘Excellent Swedish Design Award 2002’ is welcomed into Skandium with her jaw-dropping Grace one, two and three, which feature directly at the entrance in the front store, and feature in the LDF guides. She describes her work as “just slightly different,” and uses “small unexpected surprises, to evoke curiousness”. We witnesses this engaging quality first hand and experienced the soft ergonomic details of the wood used. There is also a talk on the making of the pieces presented on the on the 22nd by the designers themselves, but you can also get an insight into the prowess of the craftsmen at work on the exquisite furniture in a video in the adjoining room.

Downstairs, there are even more beautifully presented pieces of furniture to get acquainted with, as well as lighting and decorative objects; an array of hanging lamps caught our eye, as well as some stacking wooden stools, but a personal favorite was in a selection of Arne Jacobsen stacking chairs. We found the showroom itself pretty stunning, and we were more than a little impressed! We were eager to take photographs so that more people can see the bounteous design finds curated here, but we couldn’t snap them all, so come on down and search for yourself!

Visit www.skandium.com

- Hana Khan and Grace Carroll.

A big black rubberised acoustic pod has landed at the centre of London’s Trafalgar Square. Designed by the acoustic engineers Arup, as part of The Tenth anniversary of ‘The London Design Festival.