The sun is out, the clouds have cleared and summer is here… well, sort of! Never-the-less with our Design Director visiting from Australia, what better way to pretend it’s not raining than to get ourselves all pumped up and inspired by the latest and greatest design in the industry at this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week.
Clerkenwell has now definitely earned its reputation as a must-see destination on the London design calendar and so this lunchtime we wandered down the road from our Angel studio to do some trend spotting.
Here are some of our favourite bits of this years show along with some key trends, which we have seen emerging over the past year in design.
We found a lot of bungee cord and coloured rope used for partitioning and in furniture. In particular we really like the way Renault have used orange cord on their exhibition stand to promote design details in their new concept car.
(We think we had the idea first in our new Pasta Remoli restaurant in Finsbury Park though!)
Felt, felt and more felt, we thought we might have seen the last of it after last years Design Junction show, but it seems the design industry has gone even more crazy for it. Not that it’s a bad thing- it’s a really nice way to soften a space and love the way new pastel colours have been represented in varying shades.
Pink is in! Or at least we think so. Mainly in either warmer dusty shades or represented in pastel salmon hues. This might possibly be promoted by Pantone’s prediction of ‘Marsala’ earlier this year. Either way it fits in with the gradually more feminine and refined move from the industrial trend that had adorned the nation that frankly, we’re quite happy to see the back of.
We really liked the way the Dezeen Watch Store had used give away apples as visual merchandising for hero product. Nice quirky idea playing on the apple watch. Also the use of beans in POS display counters, carefully selected for their complementary hues to match the watch straps on display.
We are firm believers that the devil is in the detail. Often the best design is that which is honest and true to the simplest production methods.
‘Live edged timber’ is back.. but with a more finished appearance that we’ve not seen before.
As you’ll have read in previous blog, we really love The Farmiloe Building. It’s a great space to showcase the newest design pieces and we couldn’t help but find ourselves pondering all the intricate details which give it so much charm.
Let us know your favourite bit & CDW… we’ll be back next year!
