Countdown to London Design Festival




Every year London goes design crazy for nine days as the London Design Festival rolls into town. And every year - like any good festival - while there is the inevitable feeling of excitement at so much being in one place at one time, there is also a looming sense of aghhh what do I see first? That anxious feeling of not wanting to miss anything can lead to paralysis - and you risk doing nothing. 

New designs at Tent London

A good place to start is the London Design Festival website which covers all the events - the mainstream things like the 100% Design trade show at Earl's Court - and the less obvious stuff too such as its hipper East End cousin Tent London which showcases contemporary and vintage design, architecture and interiors.

Trafalgar Square will be transformed by robots

You can find out about things like the crazy Outrace installation in Trafalgar Square by designers Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram. Eight industrial robots - on loan from Audi's car production line - will be set up in the square and will have LEDs attached to end of their mechanical tentacles. These robot arms can then be controlled by you from the Outrace website to make patterns of light in the darkness. It will be there from 16 - 23 September.

One way to grasp what is going on at the festival is to explore one geographical area at a time. The V&A in South Kensington is the hub of the whole festival - as it was last year when it increased visitor numbers by 30% - and will be hosting various events. Around town shops and galleries are staging their own events in the Brompton design district, on the South Bank, in Covent Garden, in Clerkenwell, and more.

Etch Light by Tom Dixon will be made and sold on site

One not-to-miss event is Global Industry at The Dock in West London - where Tom Dixon is rapidly establishing a design hub - and opening a permanent shop. Dutch design manufacturer Moooi is launching their first UK showroom and the Dock Kitchen is being relaunched as a permanent restaurant. It's always good to factor in a coffee break while trying to absorb cutting edge design. 

Over the next few weeks I will be covering more event highlights and posting more pictures. 

First class post

Seriously cute children's birthday cards from Lisa Jones Studio

Yes, I know these probably fall into the category of cards that adults buy for children but they are really buying for other adults. But since when do kids care about cards anyway? 

I like them because, a) I'm an adult, and b) they are cute without being twee. 

Not an easy task.
A London bus and a lollipop stop

Designer Lisa Jones and her partner Edward Underwood started out designing hand printed silk-screen stationery ten years ago. The range has now expanded to include cards, prints, tea towels and a children's book which features sixteen characterful creatures. 

Picture book with illustrations by Lisa Jones and rhymes by Joanna Skipwith, published by Silver Jungle 

These curiously engaging little critters are at the core of the card collection and are given a voice in the new book. If you're a sucker for cards featuring such, ahem, high brow subjects as smiling aliens or circus elephants then you may be interested in checking out the shopping section of the website. 

Loving the one-eyed alien (above)

Jazz age


Retro style Marilyn sunglasses

Robert Roope is a sixty-something optician from St Albans. He's also the designer behind these 1950s inspired retro-cool sunglasses and frames. 

Encouraged by his two sons, who both work at so-hip-it-hurts London ad agencies, he combined his love of specs with his love of jazzzzzzzzzzzzz. 

The result of this freestyle alchemy is Retrospecs and Black Eyewear - available from the Shoreditch shop No-One. You'll find frames with names such as the (Thelonius) Monk, the (John) Coltrane, the Dizzy (Gillespie, not Rascal) among others. 

It's a clever idea, and one that's bound to appeal to fashion-folk and beyond. Solid plastic frames have been enjoying a resurgence of late, the ghost of NHS glasses past having been firmly laid to rest in the irony box.

I'm putting two (jazz) hands in the air for these.

That's Nina as in Simone
And Buster as in Bailey

Retro classics

Jens Risom furniture at Rocket Gallery

It's not often you go shopping for furniture in an an art gallery, but here's your chance. 

Established in London's fashionable Shoreditch for the past 15 years Rocket Gallery is renowned for merging the lines between art and design with exhibitions that have a distinctly minimalist aesthetic. Although don't let that put you off. 

This time the gallery has collaborated with Danish-born American designer Jens Risom (aged 94, no less) and Benchmark furniture (co-founded by Sean Sutcliffe and Terence Conran) to showcase a re-issued collection of Risom's designs from the 1950s and 60s. And they are for sale. 

Showing something in a gallery gives the object a reverence not found on the average shop floor. It says, here is something special and it deserves to be admired. But this context can feel a bit sterile. So try to imagine this furniture in a home - add newspapers, coffee cups... people.

Risom's designs are not just objects of beauty (or art) they are useful, practical, elegant and comfortable. Not everything stands up to the glare of gallery lights, but I think these pieces do. 

This long table converts into a bench with the addition of a cushion, but doesn't quite make it to the end

Outside of a gallery this armchair and coffee table would probably look more relaxed


Remote control

So much trash to watch, so little time

This made me laugh. And really reminded me of when my brother and I would fight over what films we were going to watch at Christmas - when all the good ones were on - and actually circle them in the Radio Times (although that may have just been me). 

The TV planner is a dateless diary with a 'Don't Miss' TV section, space to write your own reviews and to give programmes marks out of ten. It's been designed by Lazy Oaf who have cleverly tapped into the minds of a generation nostalgic for the days when four channels seemed like a lot. And the arrival of the fifth was big news.  


Release your inner TV critic and rate that programme


Floating ferns

Sky Planter by Patrick Morris for Boskke

These are very cool. 

The Sky Planter is a plant pot suspended from the ceiling in which your chosen shrub will grow as normal, just upside down. There's a small reservoir in the top where you add the water, and a ceramic collar and plastic mesh combo on the bottom to stop the soil falling out. Read the FAQs if you need more reassurance. 

They look amazing in a group and they're actually fairly straightforward to pot and put up. If you've run out of floorspace or worktop, for your plants and herbs, you can utilise that large space above you (the ceiling) instead. I have seen the plants the designer grew in his own flat and they are thriving - and throwing some great herbaceous shapes.

On sale in the UK from Thorsten van Elten and the Design Museum shop, they've also been picked up by the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Upside down gardening the easy way


A world away

Posters by David Klein for TWA in the 1960s available from Travel on Paper

There's something very appealing about these vintage travel posters. They're evocative of a time when getting on a plane meant glamour and the promise of adventure, rather than shoe removal and clear plastic bags at a crowded airport. 

These ones were designed and illustrated by the American David Klein, for the airline TWA in the 1950s and 60s, and have come to define the post-war era of jet set travel. They've also become highly collectable, which is not that surprising since they still have an alluring power today. 

One of his illustrations, a 1956 TWA poster for New York City showing an abstract image of Times Square, is in the permanent collection of the MoMA. 


David Klein's stunning 1956 poster is in the MoMA

How times and perceptions change. It would be pretty hard to imagine today's low cost airlines running aspirational ad campaigns like these. Klagenfurt: fly Ryan Air - anyone? 

But then, they've no need to, because technological advances mean we've already Street Viewed our destination from every angle before we even get there - and we know exactly what it looks like.  

Be there or be square



A 9 foot robot by the Mechanical Alchemist standing tall on Clerkenwell Road

The streets were buzzing yesterday as the inaugural three day Clerkenwell Design Week got under way. 



Anyone can go along - it's free and you can register on the day - and I urge you to make the trip. The main hub is the spectacular Farmiloe's Building on St John Street which is housing a pop-up exhibition with displays by Tom Dixon, SCP, The Design Museum and many more. Plus all the local design companies and bars and restaurants are open too - just look out for the pink posters.

I heard a talk by architect George Clarke (off the telly) who talked mainly about his work overseas and the optimism and energy he meets there, versus the pessimism of the UK. His biggest UK issue being that there's less incentive to convert old buildings for re-use - of which there are many lying empty - as you have to pay VAT, whereas new builds are exempt.

I tried out a new product called the Ovei - a seating pod/private cocoon for surfing the net while at an exhibition. Although falling asleep inside it seemed like a major hazard - that and the door, which I hit my head on as I clambered out. 

I ate at Giant Robot (no relation to the one above) a very cool, and tasty, new diner-style restaurant serving Italian-American style tapas - it sounds weird, it's not. 


Giant Robot diner, 45 Clerkenwell Road, EC1

Unique feet

The Sneaker Colouring Book by Daniel Jarosch and Henrik Klingel

This caught my eye, it's a playful look at sneaker culture and the current obsession with customisation. As a sneaker (though I prefer to say trainers) devotee I'm tempted to get the felt tips out. 

Enter the competition here to colour in your favourite pair - there's £100 worth of books by publisher Laurence King up for grabs. 


Still going strong after 93 years: the Converse All Star

Sit down next to me


The Chairless 'chair' by Vitra: coming to a park near you
How about this for a summer craze? The Chairless is a strap that loops around your back and knees to make sitting on the ground feel a bit more like sitting on a chair. It's as simple as that - a temporary 'seat' you can roll up and keep in your pocket.
Picture the scene: you're in a park, at a festival, waiting for a train, you want to sit down, but there are no chairs, or handy walls to lean against. What do you do? Normally you would just sit on the ground with your arms hooked around your knees to prevent yourself falling backwards. But sitting like that occupies your hands. 
What if you could sit on the ground, lean back and remain hands-free to read a book or eat your lunch? 
Hmmmm
Check out the slick website which invites you to join the party and become... Chairless. It's an intoxicating blend of colourful photographs and authentic backstory, put to a melodic beat. 

And pretty convincing it is too.
The Chairless has got credibility - it was designed by a famous architect Alejandro Aravena. It's got heritage - it was inspired by the Ayoreo Indians of northern Paraguay, who use a length of twine as a seat strap. It's got soul - part of the proceeds go to the indigenous Paraguayans. 
All that for £20. So far, so good. 


The craze of the summer?

Thing is, there's still a part of me that can't help wondering whether this is an elaborate hoax - all that jazz for what is essentially a belt? 
I know it's not a joke because it has been made by high-end design firm Vitra. This is a company which sells chairs costing a few thousand pounds, so selling a seat strap for £20 is a canny idea - and in that context feels like a bargain.
Will people buy into it? I reckon it's one of those things where you either get it - or you don't. And you are unlikely to fall in between. 
Try one out for yourself when it's launched this week at the inaugural Clerkenwell Design Week 25 - 27 May. 





Consider this?

The Conran Shop meets student kitchen: the Cheese Grater Light

I'm not sure where Terence Conran is coming from on this one. 

The light is part of the Well Considered range of affordable household items at The Conran Shop - a timely and much appreciated enterprise seeing as everything else in there is so expensive - but, seriously, a cheese grater? 

I get the other stuff in the collection. The 16-piece white porcelain starter set of plates and bowls is timeless and useful, the red lacquered bentwood chair is a quirky take on a classic design, and the 1950s style Ercol-designed plank table would be good in a small space. 

Bentwood Chair in red lacquer

But the kitchen utensil as light fitting aesthetic? I don't really get how that fits into the well considered box. It looks like it was rescued from a halls of residence where it was being used to make cheese on toast in the dark.

Mind you the box itself is pretty nice, the brightly coloured graphic illustrations are by Spanish designer and artist Javier Mariscal. Who, incidentally, designed Cobi the mascot of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, which was apparently one of the most commercially successful of all time. 

So maybe Conran is on to something after all.

You can see the collection in Conran Shops, or at the pop-up shop at Westfield shopping centre until 6th June. 

The virtual daisy chain


Unhappy Hipsters blog
A wry commentary on architectural fads and fashions

There are some very funny people out there writing very funny blogs. One I always like is the one above, click on the link to read the caption for today's post. 

The anonymous author sources photographs of ultra-modern so hip it hurts architect-designed houses and the people who live in them. He/she then writes alternative captions - little thought bubbles which usually reveal a sense of unease within the seemingly perfect walls - that most definitely were not published with the original picture. 

A lot of the photos were taken for hip American design magazine Dwell which is the very definition of interior design porn.

What I like about the blog is the way it sends up the unachievable (for most of us) aspiration that glossy magazines do so well. For me, it's this essential element of schadenfreude which makes all the enviable floor-to-ceiling windows, and cantilevered balconies, a little bit easier to swallow.

Yes, the concrete walls are very cool, but is it any fun living there? It's a kind of reverse smugness that levels the playing field.

I first came across this site on the brilliant Swiss Miss blog. Her blog is a showcase for all that's cool and groovy and useful - or sometimes just things that make you smile - in design from typography to tea bags. There is always something on there you want to tell someone about, surely a mark of quality - and staggeringly it's been going nearly five years. I originally came across her via a recommendation from a friend. 

And so it goes on in the internet world, one blog leads to another, it's like a virtual daisy chain. And I like that too.

Party political, er... kitchen

Ikea's latest advert

Election fever has reached the advertising teams of more than just the political parties. Ikea are jumping on the bandwagon with a rather more idiosyncratic version of 'domestic policy'.

Click on the link above and scroll over their latest, and uncannily topical, kitchen designs.

Look out for the Kamerun - 'with its sleek and shiny deceptivia work surfaces, underpinned by the maggie'.

And Kleggi - 'this week's most popular kitchen, which has fotoshelvia for putting pictures of honeymoon periods'.


(thanks to Pete Wingfield for emailing this on)



Under the covers

Publishing alchemy: a nerdy book with curb appeal

It takes real skill to make a book called Landmarks of Chair Design something people want to pick up.

It is properly nerdy.

But then Charlotte and Peter Fiell - the publishers of this new book - know a thing or two about sexing up subjects like chairs and tables and lights. They have spent part of the last twenty years writing and editing design books for glossy pictorial publisher Taschen.

The decision to launch their own eponymously-titled publishing company in 2010 - the year of the read it on a screen iPad - is a bold move which suggests they have insight we don't. (Some people still read books?) And gives them extra kudos for doing something which seems a little counter-intuitive.

But then we expect a bit more from the Fiells. This is the Sotheby's trained couple who became experts on furniture of the 1950s and 60s when the mid-century period was deeply unfashionable. They are partly responsible - through books such as 1,000 Chairs and Design of the 20th Century - for its popularisation and revival today.

While one of their skills is undoubtedly foresight - how did they know Danish furniture would become so hot? - another is their ability to present fairly dry subject matters in a beautiful package. 

It's probably not the title that's selling this book: Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s

Their new collection of books is remarkable for the lush photography, high production values and uniformly bold, colourful and graphic covers. And what's written inside is pretty geek-friendly too.

The Fiells have been quoted as saying "society is increasingly gravitating from a literary culture to a visual culture". Which roughly translates as you need a picture to tell a story - perhaps now more than ever.

So will they sell many copies? That remains to be seen, but don't be surprised if an iPad-friendly version is available soon. While the Fiells may be standing up for traditional publishing - and the tactile delight of an actual book - they also have a pretty good track record of predicting the zeitgeist.

Using graphic design to sex up globalization: The Little Book of Shocking Global Facts


So hot right now

Time has really moved on in Spitalfields market.

Canteen restaurant: an early pioneer of the 'steel and glass' architecture in the new Spitalfields

Ten years ago Londoners were desperate to save the old market vibe - with its scruffy and makeshift stalls - from developers. In a highly publicised media campaign there were anxious articles written about gritty urban authenticity being stifled by corporate blandness. The City was encroaching. It was clearly doomed.

Walk around the area now and all that seems a bit hysterical - it is buzzing. Yes, there is a lot of concrete and steel and glass architecture - Norman Foster-designed offices were built at the western end of the market - but two thirds of the market was rebuilt. 

It has become a hub, not just for shops, bars and restaurants, but for weekly markets and arts events.

New kid on the block is The Lollipop Shoppe, a purveyor of modern furniture and accessories. 

It strikes me as being the epitome of the new Spitalfields. The shop building was redeveloped by groovy architects Found Associates and it sells highly desirable objects which have been thoughtfully sourced by the owners. It's the 2010 version of the marketplace, and it's pretty slick.

It's pretty obvious this is a very cool shop

The floor is black, the walls are black

The chairs stand alone, but they are not alone

The clock is melting


Doing it for the kids


Nostalgia for adults and shiny new stuff for children at Kids.Modern

It was back to Dulwich at the weekend for Kids.Modern - the design show for children whose parents yearn for the simple days of yesteryear, possibly a time before their own childhoods even, when the 'big family film companies' hadn't got their hooks into everything from clothes to toys to books.

Not that the films aren't loved and appreciated and enjoyed, because they truly are. As road trip movies go Cars is up there with Thelma & Louise.

What the show offers - just for one day - is an alternative to the familiar line-up of themed children's merchandise that follows a big cinema release. A respite from the repetitive cycle of branded socks, pyjamas, drink bottles and the rest.

The idea behind it all is to encourage children to let their imaginations run wild - without working from a Hollywood script.

No-one said it was going to be an easy sell.

Some people even brought their kids along

There were stands selling vintage children's books, child-friendly furniture, fancy dress costumes, hand-made cards and stationery, cardboard play houses and children's clothes.

So, I should probably admit at this point that I went without my kids. It's much easier to walk around in a cloud of nostalgia - musing on the wonder of childhood - without being repeatedly asked, 'Where's Ben 10?'

Needless to say, it was a riot of colour - not all of them primary - and very uplifting it was too. Here are some highlights.

Whimsical themes and sweet shop colours: knitted toys - just like your Granny used to make - mugs, cards and notebooks by Petra Boase


Wrestling masks optional: alternative fancy dress from I Wish I Was A





Not all girls wear pink: prints from Belle & Boo by artist Mandy Sutcliffe


One stand-out company was showing their award-winning range of toys made from that perennial parental favourite - wood.


For kids and kidults: the imaginative 74-piece PlayShapes by Miller Goodman which can be endlessly arranged to create wacky shapes and characters.



An original - and not made from plastic - present for the over 3s: Miller Goodman's versatile ShapeMaker wooden blocks. Bold, totemic and slightly scary.


The next show will be in the autumn, I'll keep you posted.




Pictures speak louder


Minimalism doesn't work for everyone: the creative's home office

This is the cover of a new picture-led interiors book by Japanese publishers Edition Paumes. It's called Bureaux a la Maison and it contains photographs of the home offices belonging to 25 creative people. 

How they were selected is unclear, but I think they are all based in France and they all do arty things for a living.

What working from home looks like in France

It's the latest in a series of books by the publisher that hone in on elements of the Northern European home and lifestyle (fave locations Paris, London, Stockholm, Copenhagen) in an affectionately voyeuristic way. It's all about the pictures, well it has to be, as the text is almost entirely in Japanese.

The only bit they translate is the title and the names of the owners. Previous book titles have varied from the romantic Stockholm's Love Apartments

to the you-wouldn't-think-they'd-get-a-whole-book-out-of it Children's Rooms London

to my all-time favourite completely bonkers and utterly non-translatable The parent's love-chiselled gifts for their tiny ones. I'm sorry, what?

But I kind of love the fact that they don't translate the whole thing into English, yet the book is on sale in the UK.

Not only do they seem to be saying - let's face it, homes and interiors books are all about the photos, but the Japanese script is an appealing typographical addition.

Plus it's always interesting to see your own culture through the eyes of another. Especially when they make Europeans look so reassuringly chic.


I heart this

Anthropologie: more like walking into someone's (very swanky) home than a shop

Fans of the American fashion and home emporium Anthropologie can rejoice as there are now two stores in London - the first on Regent Street, and now this one on the King's Road. 

I'm really into this shop, partly because it doesn't really feel like a shop, it's more like being through-the-keyhole in Stella McCartney's house and you're allowed to gawp at all her nice things without being arrested.

Everything is shown together so you'll find dresses, books, dinner plates and t-shirts all on the same stand. You might casually stumble across an enticing book about swimming outdoors in Britain's lakes and rivers (Wild Swim, by Kate Rew) while you're contemplating a floaty summer dress or a rustic-chic serving bowl.

Yes, it's shamelessly 'lifestyle' - in the sense that you're unlikely to be jumping into a freezing lake anytime soon despite the pull of the lush photography - but so what. 


Moss covered pillars? Quirky design features are everywhere

I like the fact they've really gone to town on their displays: blankets piled up on the back of a giant wooden horse, huge palm tree leaves bursting out above a bed, a water feature and tropical plants just for the hell of it. I was in a much better mood by the time I left.

The antithesis of the typical (and tedious) rail-after-rail-of-clothes shopping experience 



Great for squirrel watching



Nice space - but would you really get any work done? 

I imagine this is what Kevin 'Grand Designs' McCloud's office looks like. It ticks all the right boxes for a modern, architecturally inspiring workspace; there's lots of glass to give the effect of bringing the outside in, there's plenty of space for laying out plans on the floor, and there's just the right amount of intentionally thoughtful isolation. 

But let's be honest - and we know Kevin likes to tell it how it is - doesn't it make you want to just sit back, drink in hand and gaze out the window. If you did have any urge to exert yourself it might only be to rearrange everything so it still looked beautiful against the scenic backdrop - there are no hiding places for piles of junk in a see-through building.

This studio belongs to an artist called Marion Bembe (who looks like she's on top of her paperwork) and it's in a place called Riederau, in Upper Bavaria, Germany. The photograph is from 'Interiors Now! Vol. 1' published by Taschen.