Icon, December 2015

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My first feature for Icon Magazine, Nedre Foss Gård, a story about an Oslo bar created by product designers Anderssen & Voll, appeared in the December issue.

What happens when you let product designers loose on a bar and restaurant interior? If it’s Norwegian design studio Anderssen & Voll, they custom-design every single item.

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The Clerkenwell Post, November 2015

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In November, The Clerkenwell Post published Violin Solo, my story about violin-maker Andreas Hudelmayer who was also featured in my recent book Makers of East London.

Clerkenwell is full of craftspeople, but perhaps one of the more unusual is Andreas Hudelmayer – a luthier, or maker of stringed instruments based at Crafts Central. Katie Treggiden finds out how exactly a violin is made.

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onOffice, November 2015

November 2015’s issue of onOffice included The Next Nomads, an article I wrote about an Eindhoven co-working space called Tribes designed by Abrahams Crielaers. (All copy as submitted.)

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The way we work is changing. 95% of medium sized businesses now offer flexible working – and evolving technology combined with cost effective travel enables us to work from wherever the business is. People are also more likely to set up independent ventures and enjoy the freedom that comes with working for themselves: 70% more under 35s started their own business in 2013 versus 2006 and the figure was 55% for over 35s.

Targeting the estimated 1.7 million so-called ‘business nomads,’ ex-Regus CEO Eduard Schaepman has established new workspace concept, Tribes. “Regardless of whether they work for a large company or for themselves, today’s business nomads are increasingly a group in themselves,” he says. “Like-minded professionals who go where the business is; a group of people who care about the same things and have the same habits; a group with the same values, aspirations and practices.”

The first 1,500sqm Tribes space opened at Eindhoven’s Flight Forum in May, quickly followed by Rotterdam, and new premises are planned for Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, Arnhem, Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent this year. Workers can buy a one-day pass, a monthly membership, or rent permanent offices adjoining the shared spaces.

Flexible areas include meeting rooms, long tables where individuals can plug in laptops, sofa areas for informal working, library spaces cocooned in Pierre Frey wallpaper for more focused periods of concentration, picnic-style tables and a café area reflecting the trend for café working, and a reception desk that doubles up as a bar.

Interior designer Huguette Crielaers describes the project as having the same premise as flexible workspace giant Regus, but says, “Schaepman wanted to add something more to it, something to make it more special, more social and a bit hipper.”

That “something more” came from translating the idea of ‘business nomads’ into a brief that tasked Crielaers with taking inspiration from nomadic tribes, and specifically a book called Before They Pass Away – a record of three years that self-described ‘visual anthropologist’ Jimmy Nelson spent photographing vanishing indigenous cultures.

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“The book provided the DNA for our design concept,” says Crielaers. “We started by looking at the values shared by the nomadic tribes and our business nomads and decided that the space needed to be connecting, authentic, timeless, inspiring and then also a bit homely.”

The interior design takes its cues from the structures, shapes, materials and colours that surround the clans in Nelson’s book. “We wanted to get closer to the tribal colours and if you look at their clothes, their materials, their flags, the cushions they’re sitting on – they are all in certain colours,” says Crielaers. “It’s not a bright yellow, but a mustard yellow, not a bright green but a more moss green, it’s midnight blue, dark red, copper… so we started with those colours.”

An abundance of oversized indoor plants sit alongside natural materials like leather and wood. “We looked at what kind of materials the tribes use and saw that they really translated well, so we tried to integrate these authentic fabrics in our concept,” says Crielaers. The floor is tiled throughout with Fossil by Kasia Zareba for Ceramiche Refin and overlaid with Desso carpets marking routes through the space. “The tiles are a new stone design with a very tribal look, which we loved straight away,” says Crielaers.

A circular meeting table semi-enclosed with leather straps reflects the democratic arrangement of tribal meetings. “Most of the tribes in the book seemed to sit in a circle,” explains Crielaers. “So we had to make a tribe’s table – a circular table surrounded by something like a tent. There is no hierarchy and people can make eye contact more easily.”

The Masai Mara meeting room (all the meeting rooms are named after tribes) features a large waney-edged table with leather-clad chairs and artefacts sourced, via a local supplier, from Africa and Indonesia.

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The broad shape of the building made it difficult to get natural light into all parts of the space. The team at AbrahamsCrielaers played with the light that was available – roof lights, combined with the black foil that clads the glass entrance, cast playful shadows across the reception area. In other places they embraced the lack of natural light, creating darker “cosy” spaces. The standard ceiling panels have been painted navy blue to escape the typical office aesthetic and to make the space feel more intimate. Clusters of pendant lights sourced from Dutch Bone, including recycled plastic lights made in Columbia, add warmth. “If you want a homely look, lighting is incredibly important,” says Crielaers. “Lighting makes the difference between a standard office and something different.”

There are more direct references to the book, such as the photos of tribes people, interspersed with members of the Tribes team, that adorn the lockers, so users have a face to remember instead of just a number. Motivational quotes such as “And so the knights sat at a table without a head, thus offering equality to all those present (Sir Thomas Mallory)” and “Work for a cause, not for applause” were selected in collaboration with communications agency The Communication Company.

But it’s not just the visual aspects of the design that were inspired by the tribes Nelson depicted in his book. “The way the tribes live is very inclusive,” says Crielaers. “Whereas in our culture you’re either in or you’re out, especially when it comes to workplaces, where you’re either of working age or you’re too old to join in.” The team are hoping to replicate the tribes’ connection with older generations by offering retired professionals free membership in exchange for making themselves available to younger entrepreneurs for advice and guidance.

The ultimate question is the difference the space makes to the people who work there. “It is much more fun to work somewhere like this,” posits Crielaers. “And I do think joy and happiness make you more productive.” And it seems she’s right. As Shawn Achor said in his TEDx Talk, The Happy Secret to Better Work, “If you can raise somebody’s level of positivity, their brain experiences what we call a ‘happiness advantage.’ Your brain in ‘positive’ performs significantly better than in ‘negative’, ‘neutral’ or ‘stressed’. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, we’ve found that every single business outcome improves.”

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25 Beautiful Homes, October 2015

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Two Become One, my homes feature about how Eugenie Nixon and husband Guy combined their flats into one spacious family home, appeared in October’s issue of 25 Beautiful Homes. (All copy as submitted.)

Eugenie Nixon and husband Guy lived across two apartments for a decade before finally joining them into the family home they’d dreamed of. Not ones to do things in the conventional order, Eugene was pregnant with their first child when the flat above Guy’s came onto the market, so she snapped it up. For ten years, the couple and their growing family – they now have two boys, plus Guy’s older sons – lived in both apartments, with bedrooms in one and living rooms in the other. They moved between the two via the communal staircase. ‘The neighbours didn’t mind,’ laughs Eugene. ‘They got quite used to seeing us come and go in our pyjamas.’

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Elle Decoration, October 2015

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My first article for Elle Decoration appeared in the October edition – an eight page feature on the winners of the British Design Awards, entitled Elle Decoration British Design Awards 2015. (All copy is as submitted)

Now in their 14th year, the ELLE Decoration British Design Awards, held in association with John Lewis, celebrate and reward the best of British design. This year we have decided to recognise emerging designers who have made an impact over the last 12 months. We concentrated our search on UK-based creatives, brands, designers and manufacturers who have been working in the industry for less than five years. Thousands of ELLE Decoration readers nominated young talent across the six categories Here, we announce the shortlist.

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The Clerkenwell Post, September 2015

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I wrote The Whole Spectrum for the September / October 2015 issue of The Clerkenwell Post – a preview of 100% Design with a special focus on their theme of colour and local exhibitors. (All copy as submitted.)

As the London Design Festival approaches, Katie Treggiden talks to the trend forecaster behind 100% Design’s 12 Colours for 2016 and shares her picks of Clerkenwell-based exhibitors.

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Crafts Magazine, July / August 2015

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I recently spent an incredibly inspiring hour and half interviewing Benchmark co-founder Sean Sutcliffe for Crafts – the magazine for contemporary craft published by the Crafts Council. The outcome of our conversation appeared in the latest issue of the magazine… (All copy is as submitted.)

The Fixer: Sean Sutcliffe

The furniture maker talks to Katie Treggiden about the first Fixperts residency, the importance of making in education and his love of Concord.

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Into The Fold (Guardian Weekend Magazine)

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My second article for the Guardian appeared on Saturday 27 June – a story about the trend for origami inspired homewares. (All copy is as submitted.)

Into the Fold

In an increasingly digital world, designers are turning to folded paper as both material and muse. Katie Treggiden explores the trend for origami-inspired homewares.

In a light-filled east London studio, designer Kyla McCallum is folding paper. Sheet by sheet, she makes 11 folds in each of 70 pieces of Italian parchment. She talks as she works, barely watching what she’s doing, her hands moving automatically.

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American Hardwood Export Council, April 2015

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I was recently commissioned by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) to write a series of four essays for their microsite, charting the progress of a project called the Invisible Store of Happiness, an installation for Clerkenwell Design Week by furniture designer Sebastian Cox and sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon. This is the third essay entitled Marking. (All copy is as supplied.)

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The Clerkenwell Post, May 2015

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May’s issue of the Clerkenwell Post featured Touch Wood my story about the Invisible Store of Happiness – a collaboration between the American Hardwood Export Council, Sebastian Cox and Laura Ellen Bacon that resulted in a site-specific installation for Clerkenwell Design Week.

Clerkenwell Design Week is known for making an impact – not least with its much talked about street installations. Katie Treggiden goes behind the scenes to find out more about the three-metre high American hardwood structure that furniture designer Sebastian Cox and outdoor sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon are making for the archway at the Order of Saint John.

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American Hardwood Export Council, March 2015

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I was recently commissioned by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) to write a series of four essays for their microsite, charting the progress of a project called the Invisible Store of Happiness, an installation for Clerkenwell Design Week by furniture designer Sebastian Cox and sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon. This is the second essay, entitled Designing (all copy as supplied):

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D&AD, January 2014

The D&AD has just published an article I wrote last year about the importance of design in education, featuring Jay Osgerby, David Irwin and John Miller…
David Irwin

In May 2013, John Miller, co-founder of furniture brand MARK, curated an exhibition called Making Designers, inspired by the fact that he still owned things he’d designed and made at school and could still remember every detail of designing and making them. He suspected he might not be alone.

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Clippings, December 2013

From March until December 2013, I wrote a weekly feature for the Clippings online magazine. This is an article I wrote just before Christmas about the Danish concept of Hygge.
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Start to think about Christmas, and if you’re anything like me, the images that spring to mind are less a romantic scene of Dickensian bliss and more to-do lists, family politics, and piles of plastic toys that play second fiddle to the boxes they came in. It seems to get more commercialised, more expensive and more stressful every year. I’m not about to suggest moving to a world cup model and only having Christmas every four years in a rotating host country (my other half’s bright idea), but I am about to suggest slowing down.

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Mookum, December 2013

Mookum is a new online shop, specifically curating and producing products from new designers. As someone who is passionate about promoting new and independent designers, when they asked me to write a series of Q&As, I jumped at the chance. This one is with David Derksen.
David Derksen

Q&A David Derksen

During Dutch Design Week, a swinging pendulum full of ink hanged from the ceiling in the centre of an industrial space in Eindhoven (NL). Each plate arranged on the floor below received part of a mathematically precise drawing and a selection of randomly falling ink droplets. The result was spectacular. The result was Oscillation Plates by David Derksen. I had to find out more.

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Mookum, December 2013

Mookum is a new online shop, specifically curating and producing products from new designers. As someone who is passionate about promoting new and independent designers, when they asked me to write a series of Q&As, I jumped at the chance. This one is with Leonhard Pfieifer.
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Q&A with Leonhard Pfeifer

I met Leonhard Pfeifer at the London Design Festival earlier this year and despite being at a party where gin was being served in teacups, we were quickly immersed in a deep conversation about the importance of following your passion and doing what you love. In 2003, Leon returned to his furniture roots establishing his own studio in East London. I was keen to find out more – we talked good days, bad days, nature in New Zealand versus London and how to overcome creative block.

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MidCentury Magazine, December 2013

In November 2013 I visited The Homewood, one of only two Modernist properties owned by the National Trust, and interviewed resident curator, David Scott, for MidCentury Magazine.
The Homewood

Image ©National Trust Images/Stuart Cox

The National Trust owns just two Mid Century properties. One of them is The Homewood in Esher, Surrey. It’s not only a striking example of early British Modernism by a talented young architect, it’s also a record of his life.

Patrick Gwynne designed the Homewood in 1937, aged 24, as a home for his parents, himself and his sister. It replaced their Victorian villa on the same plot, and was completed in 1938. The family celebrated with a party – Pimms was followed by dinner on the terrace. For a year “we danced like mad,” said Patrick. Great entertainers, they made full use of the living room’s sprung floor and built-in gramophone.

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Mookum, December 2013

Mookum is a new online shop, specifically curating and producing products from new designers. As someone who is passionate about promoting new and independent designers, when they asked me to write a series of Q&As, I jumped at the chance. This one is with Lindsey Lang.
Lindsey Lang

Q&A with Lindsey Lang

Despite her youth, her Joss-Stone-esque looks and her recent emergence onto the design scene, Lindsey Lang immediately strikes you as a ‘grown-up.’ The designs she creates, the way she handles her business and her general demeanour all have a sense of wisdom beyond their years. I was keen to find out more about what makes her tick. We talked Grace Kelly, yoga and yellow-orange.

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D&AD, November 2013

Following the 2013 London Design Festival, I wrote a series of articles for the D&AD about the materials that seemed popular. This has since been turned into a feature section on their website called “Inspired by Materials.” This piece was about bronze, copper and brass aka ‘warm metallics’.
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Tom Dixon has been using bronze, copper and brass since he launched his eponymous brand in 2002, but it seems the rest of the design world has taken a little while to catch on. Finally, these ‘warm metallics’ are everywhere. Bronze, copper and brass bring a touch of understated luxury to anything they touch. It might seem inappropriate in these austere times to appear too indulgent, but we all need a little bit of luxury, and that’s where these metal finishes come in. Warm metallics work particularly well with dark or neutral schemes where they can look quite Scandinavian, or combined with an industrial aesthetic to create a contrasting ‘rough luxe’ look.

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D&AD, October 2013

Following the 2013 London Design Festival I wrote a series of articles for the D&AD about the materials that seem to be en vogue at the moment. One of those was cork…
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My London Design Festival started when I walked across the bridge over the V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Galleries and encountered the first of many installations there. The bridge, for the duration of the festival, was covered in a cork flooring installation designed by FAT Architecture in collaboration with cork producer Amorim.

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Design Milk, October 2013

Another highlight of Dutch Design Week was the demonstration Floris Wubben gave me of how his Crown Vase is made. Here’s the post I wrote for Design Milk…
Floris Wubben

I went to Sectie-C to meet Floris Wubben where he had opened his studio up to the public alongside 79 other designers for Dutch Design Week. Floris very kindly gave me a demonstration of how his Crown Vase is made. Launched for Design Week, it’s so new that the first ones were still warm when he put them on the plinth!

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Design Milk, October 2013

This is a round-up post for Design Milk covering my favourite finds from Dutch Design Week 2013 in Eindhoven in my role as Editor at Large…
Dutch Design Week 2013

Eindhoven feels like a city of possibilities. It’s an industrial city, once populated by textile and cigar factories and latterly the Phillips empire—it’s now full of huge empty buildings. This could make it feel like its time has passed, but the creativity, optimism and confidence of this city makes it feel like it’s the brink of its big moment. Dutch Design Week offered incredible diversity – of disciplines, of new versus established designers and of applied versus conceptual work. These are just some of the things that caught my eye.

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Design Milk, October 2013

One of the absolute highlights of my trip to Eindhoven for Dutch Design Week was seeing Piet Hein Eek’s space – this is my report for American design blog, Design Milk…

Piet Hein Eek

Visiting Piet Hein Eek’s space was one of the most inspiring parts of my trip to Eindhoven for Dutch Design Week. In his final exam, Piet wrote: “If you want to function successfully and design beautiful objects, you need to make sure that your environment is a stimulating one and that you feel like a fish in water.” He said that creating this type of environment, your daily reality, is much more important than setting all kinds of goals for the future.

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We Heart, October 2013

I wrote a series of profile pieces for We Heart on the top graduates at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show as part of Dutch Design Week. This one is about Victoria Ledig and her Precious Skin project…
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Victoria Ledig is petit, attractive and immaculately presented, from her precarious heels to her perfect black bob. She is the last person you would expect to find in a slaughterhouse. And yet this is where her dedication to her graduate project at Design Academy Eindhoven took her. “It started with a fascination with leather as a material. I did an internship at Ecco, in the design department of a tannery in Dongen in the Netherlands. I started to get a feel for what a fantastic material leather is. You can do so much with it – you can turn it into something that seems almost artificial,” says Victoria. “I realised that the connection with what leather is and where it comes from has been lost, which is a pity in my eyes.”

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Design Milk, October 2013

This is my report for Design Milk from textile manufacturer Vlisco’s HQ in Eindhoven as part of Dutch Design Week 2013…
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You might assume that Vlisco was a West African company selling to the Dutch, but in fact quite the opposite is true. Vlisco have been making traditional batik fabric in Holland since 1846, when Pieter Fentener van Vlissingen founded the company. Because genuine Indonesian batik was very labor-intensive and therefore expensive, he spotted an opportunity to automate the dyeing process to make the fabrics more affordable.

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We Heart, October 2013

I wrote a series of profile pieces for online lifestyle magazine We Heart while in I was Eindhoven for Dutch Design Week. This one is on Bob de Graaf and his Species of Illumination project…
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“The movement of living creatures triggers sensations, emotions and communication,” says Bob de Graaf. “In 2011, I made a radio controlled box with an abstract ‘head’ on it, and released it in a park in Eindhoven. I was the invisible puppeteer who controlled an abstract form so that it moved as if it was living. I was amazed by all the different reactions it got. People started waving at it, petting it, chasing it, and speeding up their own movement in reaction to it. It was a big discovery for me: that such a simple thing could provoke such joy and fun in people. As Plato said: “You can discover more in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

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Design Milk, October 2013 (video)

In October I went to Eindhoven for Dutch Design Week and collaborated with Daniel Nelson to make a short film for Design Milk about the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show. We got the film live while we were still in Eindhoven making it the first film coverage to come out of Dutch Design Week…
Design Academy Eindhoven

The Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show was definitely one of the highlights of Dutch Design Week. Every year the Keep An Eye Foundation awards four students a grant of €11,000 to continue the work they’ve started at the academy. I spoke to five of the finalists about their work.

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We Heart, October 2013

The Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show was one of the highlights of Dutch Design Week. I wrote a series of profile pieces for online design and lifestyle magazine, We Heart, about some of the top graduates. This is a piece about Martijn van Strein and his project Dystopian Brutalist Outerwear.
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“How we think affects how things are.” So said Ilse Crawford as she explained the different types of work at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show titled Self Unself. Some of the work, whilst certainly fully resolved, remains conceptual in its ambition. One example is Dystopian Brutalist Outerwear by Martijn van Strein, winner of one of four Keep An Eye Foundation grants.

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Design Milk, September 2013

An in-depth look at the making of Joanna Ham’s newest venture into the art world – a series of complex screen prints entitled Woman…
JOANNA HAM

Joanna Ham is a really exciting new artist who burst onto the scene with the launch of her Woman series at Craft Central’s Imprint during the London Design Festival. Based in London, she is better known as the creative force behind homewares brand HAM, through which she creates bold black on white prints depicting farmyard animals taking part in uniquely human activities. Whilst beautifully created and meticulously executed, they perhaps bely the talent of this young artist, who has a BA(Hons) from The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University. If that’s the case, her newest work, released under her maiden name Joanna Ham, is about to set the record straight.

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Design Milk, September 2013

Another post as part of my Design Milk London Design Festival coverage – this time about an installation in the Royal Festival Hall as part of designersblock…
Gerald Lazerides

Gerald is a paper dog who was created in 2008 as part of a rebranding exercise carried out by British design studio Lazerian. Since then, it seems Gerald’s taken on a life of his own. Lazerian founder Liam Hopkins collaborated with fellow 3D designer Richard Sweeney to bring Gerald to life. The original Gerald was made from a flat paper pattern, which was hand cut, folded, and glued.

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Design Milk, September 2013

Bjorn Andersson launched at Tent London during the 2013 London Design Festival – I interviewed him for American design blog, Design Milk…
Bjorn Andersson

Bjorn Andersson spent 10 years working as an architect on projects that took him all over the world from New York to Shanghai. He has recently relocated to Berlin to open his own studio and focus on industrial and lighting design. The launch of his first product range Cutting Corners at Tent London marks the official launch of Bjorn Andersson Studio. He has already been named “Newcomer product of the month” by German architecture and design site BauNetz and now it’s our turn to get to know him…

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Design Milk, September 2013 (video)

This is the second part of a film I worked with the 100% Design film crew to make for Design Milk, talking to up-and-coming designers about their inspirations and making processes…
100% Design film

This is Part 2 of the inspirations and making stories behind some of our favorite designs at 100% Design in which four more designers tell us about their work. It was fascinating to discover that Steuart Padwick’s Penguin Pick-Up Table was designed in just an hour in response to an immediate need.

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Design Milk, September 2013 (video)

I worked with 100% Design’s film crew to create two short films for Design Milk, interviewing a number of up-and-coming designers about their inspirations – here’s the first one…
Lorna Syson 100% Design

2013 was another great year for 100% Design with the Emerging Brands and International Pavilion areas being particularly strong. We asked our favorite designers to tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind, and the making of, their products. Here are the first four – look out for Part 2.

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Design Milk, September 2013

This is a Q&A with textiles designer Sian Elin that I wrote for Design Milk. Sian was exhibiting at Tent London as part of the London Design Festival 2013…
Sian Elin

I have loved Sian Elin’s work since she launched at Tent London last year, so it was great to see her back one year on still going strong – and even launching new products. I thought it was about time I found out a bit more about what makes her tick. We talked eastern inspirations, what defines good design, and favourite colours

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Design Milk, September 2013

I worked with Tent London to curate a selection of 2013’s best design graduates, under than banner of BRINK. This is the post I wrote for Design Milk covering the results…
BRINK

My big project at the London Design Festival this year was BRINK, a collaboration with Tent London. I scoured graduate shows up and down (and outside of) the UK and curated my selection of 2013′s design graduates. Wonseok Jung studied robotics before doing his Masters at the Royal College of Art. The Bird is absolutely mesmerizing—the movement of its wings is slow and accurate. People were constantly wandering up to the stand with their heads tilted upwards, unable to take their eyes off it!

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Design Milk, September 2013

More coverage of the London Design Festival for Design Milk – well, editor Jaime keeps me busy! This one covers LDF stalwart, the Brompton Design District…
Brompton Design District

Having explored the V&A and the Young Creative Poland exhibition, the next stop on my tour of the Brompton Design District was Mint. Founded in 1998 by Lina Kanafani, it’s a must-visit in this part of town. Mint had curated an exhibition called ‘Cabinets of Curiosity’ for the Festival in collaboration with the Czech gallery, Krehky. New limited edition cabinets and the curiosities within them had been designed exclusively for Krehky. Each piece was selected by Mint based on its ability to incite wonder.

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Design Milk, September 2013

This is a profile piece I wrote for American design blog, Design Milk, on one of the stars of 2013’s London Design Festival, Kangan Arora…
Kangan Arora

I met Kangan Arora when she was exhibiting with other Central Saint Martins graduates at Pulse last year, so it was great to see her with her own stand at designjunction. We talked inspirations, childhood dreams, 60s Bollywood music and masala chai… here is the designer describing her work in her own words:

My country inspires me endlessly. I like visuals more than words. My work is about colour, print and pattern… and a bit more colour for good measure.

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Design Milk, September 2013

Another London Design Festival post for Design Milk, this time covering designersblock…
designersblock

Designersblock was back at the Southbank Centre for the second year and this time with a much larger presence extending right across the venue. Designersblock favorite, The New English was in the Clore Ballroom, with a typically quirky display – this time mugs on heads and plates on mannequins – of course!

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Design Milk, September 2013

This is the post I wrote for Design Milk covering my favourite London Design Festival show, Tent London…
Tent London

I think Tent was my favourite show at the London Design Festival again this year – it has loads of natural light (a rare treat during a week spent in basements, exhibition centres, and repurposed industrial buildings), a lovely relaxed festival vibe fuelled by good music and good coffee, and crucially a slew of new talent alongside established independent designer-makers.

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Design Milk, September 2013

My role as Editor at Large for Design Milk involves hopping all over Europe covering the design trade shows, and of course, this includes the London Design Festival. Here is the post I wrote covering one of the ‘big four’ designjunction…
designjunction

designjunction returned to the London Design Festival for its third iteration (its second in the former Royal Mail sorting office) with a cacophony of design, color, pattern and texture that was at times almost overwhelming in its intensity. Providing a moment of calm amongst the chaos, Thorody’s new fabric (above) is named after the founders’ cat Ivor!

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Design Milk, September 2013

This is a Q&A with design graduate Alex Mueller that I did for Design Milk as part of my LDF13 coverage – he’s definitely one to watch…
Alex Mueller

Every year at the London Design Festival there is one new designer who appears to be everywhere, one young person who bursts onto the scene with such gusto that they cannot be ignored – the ‘man of the match’ if you like. This year, that man was Alexander Mueller.

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Design Milk, September 2013

One of my favourite shows at 2013’s London Design Festival was Imprint, an exploration of the medium of print, at Craft Central. This is the post I wrote about it for American design blog, Design Milk…
Imprint Craft Central

Imprint at Craft Central was a celebration of print in all its forms. It showed that print can be more than just ink on paper – and it also showed that ink on paper can be pretty impressive in its own right. Even the poster (designed by Turnbull Grey) impressed with on-trend neon orange and grey and a gorgeous printerly quality.

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Design Milk, September 2013

Somewhat off the beaten track at 2013’s London Design Festival was Young Creative Poland – a showcase of Polish design. This is the post I wrote covering the event for Design Milk…
Young Creative Poland

Ognisko Polskie is on 55 Exhibition Road in Brompton’s design district. The Polish Hearth Club, as it translates, was opened in 1940 to provide a meeting place for emigrants, both during the war and in the following decades, after a communist regime was installed in Poland. “If the spirit of pre-war Warsaw has survived anywhere it is in the rooms of the Ognisko Polskie,” wrote historian Norman Davies.

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Design Milk, September 2013

This is a post on one of my favourite London Design Festival shows, 100% Norway, for American design blog, Design Milk…
100% Norway

It’s the 10th anniversary of 100% Norway and co-curators Henrietta Thompson and Benedicte Sunde have really pulled out all the stops to make this a stand-out show. In this short film, they talk about their curation of 10 established Norwegian designers alongside 10 rising stars.

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Design Milk, September 2013

Continuing in my coverage of the London Design Festival in my role as Editor at Large for Design Milk, this is a post on the new collaboration between Sebastian Wrong and Hay…
Wrong for Hay

On a cold, rainy day in London, I turned a corner into what Dan Cruickshank described as “one of the most evocative and most famous of London’s 18th century streets.” I found my way to number 16 and was ushered inside to another world.

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Design Milk, September 2013

Continuing my coverage of the London Design Festival for Design Milk, this is a post about the launch of the Mini Moderns Remix project at the East London Design Show…
Mini Moderns Remix

I’ve been a fan of Mini Moderns for as long as I’ve been going to the London Design Festival—I think the secret to their success is that they are constantly upping their game; constantly pushing themselves. Remix is the best example of this yet and a really exciting project.

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We Heart, September 2013

This is an article I wrote for online lifestyle magazine, We Heart, about Henry Richmond’s Young fusion between food and tableware…
henry richmond young

Ever since Heston Blumenthal got his hands on his first canister of liquid nitrogen, restaurants have had to raise their game. Eating out is no longer just about taste or sating hunger; it’s a ‘culinary experience’ for all the senses. With all this innovation in food, the tableware it’s served on has been somewhat left behind – but not any longer.

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Clippings, August 2013

From March to December 2013, I wrote a weekly feature for Clippings online magazine. This is an article I wrote about doing good with design.
The Living Furniture Project

Long time design writer for the London Evening Standard and Homes and Gardens, Barbara Chandler said recently: “I am pleased to find that increasingly ‘good’ design, formerly defined simply as a product that worked well and looked good, now has what I call a moral component.” I think she’s right – and I would add that the moral component is developing to encompass more than just being green.

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D&AD, July 2013

I was interested to know how people stay creative and inspired when they do it day in day out, so I wrote an article for the D&AD on that very subject…
stranger

Yoga, running, headstands. Art galleries, good books, time with friends. Getting away from your desk, away from the problem, away from it all. Total immersion followed by total distraction. Coffee, alcohol, mind-enhancing drugs. The ways in which we seek inspiration are as varied as the briefs we’re trying to crack.

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D&AD, May 2013

The D&AD sent me on a mission – to spend a day living by the ten rules of Lomography and report back – here’s what happened…
Lomo_01

Life Through The Lens Of A Lomo

The story of Lomography begins in 1991 when a group of Viennese students discover the Russian-made LOMO LC-A in a vintage camera shop in Prague. They spend the rest of their trip experimenting with it. The results are vibrant colours, deep saturation and vignettes that frame each shot. Effects caused by flaws in the camera, like sticky mechanisms and light leaks, fit their experimental aesthetic perfectly.

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D&AD, May 2013

Following Milan Design Week, I wrote an article for the D&AD in defence of concrete…
Beton Brut

Venerated architect Frank Lloyd Wright once wrote: “The concrete block? The cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world.” Concrete enthusiast and architect Leonard Koren cites people describing concrete as “hostile,” “ugly,” and even “aggressive,” and using phrases like “unrelenting stretches of coarse greyness” and “depressing soullessness.” Many people simply associate it with failed and rain-stained post-war social housing experiments.

And yet we’ve been using it for millennia – in its most basic form, it dates back to ancient Egypt. Today, concrete is the single most widely used material in the world. We produce 7.5billion m3 annually – that’s enough for a cubic metre for every person on the planet every year.

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