Design Talks

Observations on design

Highlights from Clerkenwell Design Week 2016

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Nargess

London is alive with creative energy and it is sometimes hard to keep up with the sheer volume of exhibitions and fairs celebrating visual culture. This week saw Clerkenwell Design Week celebrate its seventh year. The three-day event in May sees international brands, individual designers, and emerging young artists exhibit their latest creations in one of London’s oldest neighbourhoods – creating a striking contrast between the local architecture, old churches and historic buildings and the contemporary design and installations on show. The festival may be a relative newcomer to the scene, yet it has grown substantially in size, confidence and personality.

You enter CDW through St John’s Gate, where this year London studio Flea Folly Architects partnered with Hakwood to create an installation of stacked wood referencing the gate’s austere past. Along the route four glass-tile sculptures by Giles Miller Studio helped visitors navigate the fair.

CDW is as much about the products as the location, and one of the highlights was Icon’s House of Culture, an exhibition space dedicated to international brands and set up in the former Metropolitan Cold Stores in Smithfiled, now Fabric nightclub.

Here Stellar Works, the French/Japanese design brand with headquartered in Shanghai, showed its Valet Collection, first seen at Salone del Mobile in Milan. American designer David Rockwell collaborated with Stellar, interpreting the roots of the word valet for a series of fourteen beautifully crafted, unique furniture pieces that are relevant for contemporary living. We particularly like the clever shelving systems that offer combinations for book and vinyl storage, and a bar.

At EBB & Flow, Danish lighting designer Susanne Nielson with her passion for glass and textiles showed products based on a combination of British and Nordic designs. Elsewhere in Icon, the Scandinavian company NORR11 displayed its collection that aims to rethink classic designs for today with a strong focus on taking inspiration from the natural materials.

The British Collection offered an interesting line-up of local talent. Pluck, for instance, is a bespoke modern kitchen collection by 2MZ, a Brixton-based design studio. Here they have used traditional materials in a fresh way, the clutter-free environment allowing the clean lines and thoughtful application of colour to stand out.

Minale + Mann debuted The Workshop and the new Well Hung collection. An elegant, and a rather sexy, line of furniture that works with combining wood and metal including a cantilevered dining table in American walnut and copper, and the unfolding bureau that appears as if floating from the wall was inspired by the grand piano.

The dim lights and dark corridors The House of Detention, a former prison and very chilly on that day, offered an interesting space to exhibit Platform. Amongst the forty up-and-coming designers showing their work, we particularly liked the clever modular breadboard by Baker Street Boys who also showed their coffee table/stool designs that work with metal, wood and Perspex. And Rubertelli Design saw the London-based sculptor Stefano Rubertelli fuse the world of handmade and mass production to create striking, swirly lights that are almost pieces of art.

Over at Additions the display focused on interior products where Monica Bispo, a Brazilian born Italy based ceramic artist, offered her collection of ceramics. Inspired by artisanal craftsmanship, her pieces are both physically and visually handmade.

Tom Dixon has installed a large central chandelier in the main space of the beautiful seventeenth century church in Clerkenwell Green, as well as setting up a working environment and kitchen that will remain as permanent fixtures here.

Elsewhere, Sam Jacob Design created the 3D One Thing After Another for Sto Werkstatt. The concept aims to explore the dialogue between the digital and physical worlds. Much like a Russian Doll, the original garden shed structure is 3D scanned to create a larger digital copy for the outside with another tiny scaled copy housed inside.

Design Fields at Spa Field saw curated contemporary design on display including work by the main sponsor Renault. Here the carmaker’s focus was on the environment, displaying its futuristic EOLAB concept car that showcases over hundred sustainable innovations. Renault also collaborated with MA industrial design students at Central Saint Martins who were tasked to envisage the interior of a future autonomous car with some intriguing results.

The winning proposal Oura is a single wearable vehicle suit with a gesture-controlled, head-up display visor that uses virtual reality – the cabin is almost entirely stripped away so that the user can interact more closely with their environment as they travel.

Clerkenwell Design Week ran from 24-26 May 2016. To find out more about exhibiting or attending the 2017 fair visit here.

Read our reviews of previous Clerkenwell Design Week here.

Nargess Banks

Clerkenwell Design Week 2014

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Nargess

This week saw Clerkenwell Design Week gather international companies, individual designers, and emerging young artists in one of London’s oldest neighbourhoods creating a striking contrast between the local historic architecture and contemporary design. The three-day event, now in its fifth edition, sees some of Clerkenwell’s landmarks transforms into a large exhibition space.

You enter CDW through St John’s Gate, where this year the young design collaborative Russ + Henshaw worked with Turkishceramics to create Tile Mile, a site-specific installation that references Islamic art and architecture. The combination of the 7200 colourful ceramic tiles and mirrors, incorporated into the passageway beneath the 16th-century medieval arch, created quite a dazzling start to the show.

The fair’s hub was once again at the Farmiloe Building, which formed the backdrop to an installation by car marque and main sponsor Jaguar and light designer Foscarini. One of the fair’s highlights, the giant cascading structure features dozens of Foscarini’s Tuareg totemic LED lamps suspended from a crane attached to the dramatic atrium descending upon a Jaguar F-Type Coupé. The idea is to represent the sparks coming off from the back of this powerful sports car, and to express the lightness of the aluminium structure in both the car and the lights.

The imposing Victorian building also staged Design Factory showing work by international design studios including Artemide, Anglepoise, Folkform, Note Design Studio and Stellar Works. Here too there was a celebration of light, with some similar themes running through such as hooded hanging lamps and hand blown glass lights that celebrated the process of making.

Particularly notable were the light designs by French designer Marine Breynaert. Inspired by the contents she found in her grandfather’s old car garage, the former fashion designer utilises industrial screws and bolts for her new collection that she says is a marriage of ‘industrial heritage and a sense of contemporary poetry’.

CDW also saw a focus on design for usage rather than pure aesthetic value with tables, chairs and sofas that transform into various shapes for different functions. Additionally, craft was celebrated throughout the exhibition space. On the top floor of the Farmiloe Building, following a talk on the value of making in the age of digital printing, carpenter Barn The Spoon carved his way through a piece of log transforming it into a wonderful organic stool.

Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, The Order of St John hosted an exhibition of decorative designs; the House of Detention showed craft, and Crypt on the Green was dedicated to lifestyle objects. CDW also sees local studios open their doors to the public. This year Tailor my Tom Vac at Vitra dedicated the entire exhibition to industrial designer Ron Arad‘s chair with 23 architects and designers asked to re-interpret his iconic piece.

With the art and design festival season in full swing, it is pretty much impossible to keep up with all of the activities around the world. Each fair brings something unique to the table, and they each have their own regional charm. What they mostly do, though, is allow for a shared sense of creativity – even if just for a few days. This was particularly noticeable at CDW this year where established design studios rubbed shoulders with up-and-coming young artists and local crafts people. During these festival communities are created based on a shared interest in making our world a richer space through creativity.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

Read our reviews of previous Clerkenwell Design Week here. Also read about the new Jaguar F-Type Coupe here.

All rights and labelled images are covered by ©

Students interpret Jaguar design

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Nargess

This is an inspired take on Jaguar design by Royal College of Art students Ewan Gallimore and Claire Miller created for Clerkenwell Design Week 2013, which opened this week. The initial brief, put forward by Jaguar’s advanced studio in the UK to vehicle and textile design students, was to create a joint exterior and interior form study that expresses their vision of the marque’s future design language in either a sports or luxury context.

Ewan and Claire explain their art installation: ‘We began the project by looking at light, specifically the way the light falls within the space at Clerkenwell. We thought about how our form could accentuate this light and convey volume through its use of materials and our knowledge of how these materials react with one another.’

The installation’s form relates to the Jaguar brand through its sculptural volumes, use of materials and visual lightness – this being pivotal to the marque’s ongoing design language.

‘These elements helped us to create a sculpture that aimed to display a seamless transition between interior and exterior space,’ say the team.

Read more on Jaguar design as we speak with design director Ian Callum on future ideas and Julian Thomson of advanced design discusses on the new F-Type.

All rights and labelled images are covered by ©

Clerkenwell Design Week 2012

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Nargess

Clerkenwell Design Week, in its third year, is establishing itself on London’s design calendar. The event turns this creative-focused area of London into an exhibition space with numerous product launches, installations, screenings, talks and of course parties. It is a mini Milan Furniture Fair of sorts attracting both local and international designers, and design lovers.

Over at the event’s hub in the Farmiloe Building – a former lead/glass merchants warehouse – event sponsor Jaguar put on an interesting show creating a clay model of the C-X16 in order to give insight into how creative process of car making.

Highlights of the event included a six-meter tree by Ross Lovegrove – whose design studio incidentally is a stone-throw-away from us at DT – featuring clusters of LED lights at the tips of ten stalks.

Spring Forest was an enchanting installation by Draisci Studios and Fulton Umbrellas. Comprising hundreds of interlocking pink and red umbrellas, they form a surreal forest suspended in St James’ Church Garden.

Italian fashion house Missoni and Swedish flooring company Bolon joined forces to create an installation in the middle of St John’s Square, the entire erected house covered in the collection of exclusive woven floors by Missoni.

Others exhibits by international creatives included the miniscule chair by Danish designer Cecilie Manz for Fritz Hansen, work by Pierre Beucler and Jean-Christophe Poggioli, Warren Platner and Mark Krusin at Knoll; Benjamin Hubert’s chairs for Cappellini and Poltrona Frau, and the Bouroullec brothers revealed their innovative Pico porcelain tile range at Domus.

One highlight was a wonderful display of Portuguese design by the Colour Design Concept in the House of Detention. This new and dynamic agent and distributer specialises in Portuguese design with items ranging from internationally known designers such as Pritzker Prize winning architects Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura to less known craft persons and designers.

This year also saw designers from Eastern Europe represented, many of whom now live locally. These included Latvian designer Arthur Analts, who showed the Wow shelf and Led Zeppelin ladder.

Luckily not everything on exhibit was transient. A pretty cool lighting concept called Solar Tree by Italian lighting company Artemide installed in Clerkenwell’s St John’s Square will remain there until September.

After a day spent exploring, visitors cooled down with a topple of Sipsmith gin from the London distillery at Gen Lane pop-up gin bar in the Farmiloe building created by emerging London-based designers Alexander Hills and Mathew Freeman.

Clerkenwell Design Week ran from 22-24 May 2012. Read highlights of previous events here.

Clerkenwell Design Week: Highlights

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Rachel Calton

The sun shone on the second instalment of Clerkenwell Design Week in May, which secured its spot in the design calendar this year with a steady throughflow of specifiers, architects and designers.

Devoid of the tired trademarks of traditional trade shows CDW showcased the parades of showrooms that populate Clerkenwell Road, St Johns Street and the surrounding area in central London, each branded for the event with hot pink signage inviting onlookers in to look, drink and chat.

The festival’s centre point the Farmiloe Building, an impressive warehouse a stones’ throw from Smithfield, showcased furniture and lighting from the likes of Ligne Roset, Nigel Coates, The Design Museum, Jennifer Newman and James UK, with a picnic area and coffee barista providing the perfect outdoor hub. Meanwhile the House of Detention (an old Victorian Prison off Clerkenwell Close) housed a contemporary crowd including Timorous Beasties, Droog and Hendzel and Hunt.

British designers such as Russell Pinch (Pinch Design) Sean Dare (Dare Studio) both stood out for refined and classic design. Jennifer Newman’s aluminium A-Frame Bench in signal yellow stood out, and Hay Bales by Richard Woods & Sebastian Wrong, cushioned seating blocks inspired by Woods’ childhood were fun. Dezeen’s watch store, with watches by big name designers and more boutique brands made a welcome break from desks and chairs.

Come Friday, as people nursed their heads wondering at what point they stopped counting the times their glasses got refuelled over the event, not a lot of desk work got done. Hopefully the mingling, debate and discovery of new nooks of this design district will have made suitable amends.

Guest blogger Rachel Calton

Clerkenwell Design Week 2011 ran from 24 – 26 May. Read more about CDW 2010.