Head turning Clerkenwell Design Week

As designers, it's important to have a continual feed of inspiration and to allow those brilliant ideas to evolve when you are calm, in a positive mood and your mind is flowing. Luckily Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW) helps with all of those conditions.

With a fresh format in new venues and with an extended talks and events programme, 2016 has proved to be the most eye-catching yet in the festival’s seven years.

It’s a fantastic source of inspiration and once again, KSS turned out in full to enjoy everything that was on offer from a construction industry briefing on the potential Brexit to the relocation of the new Design Museum in Kensington. Following closely behind Milan, CDW offers the best time for London designers to catch up on new products in one of the most important design hubs in the world. With so many exhibitions and special installations, the main difficulty is selecting what to see and when so as to not miss out.

The biggest highlight had to be the new use of buildings not associated with design or exhibitions. CDW took over the whole of Fabric nightclub for the three days and the Tom Dixon installation in the Grade II listed St James’s Church. It is hoped the stunning tables and lighting features from Tom Dixon will remain for the near future to benefit the local community long after CDW has closed for this year and busy preparing 2017.