London Design Festival Shines

Just after the return to work from summer it was time for London to shine one last time as the London Design Festival (LDF) and London Fashion Week (LFW) turned our city into a glowing mass of creativity.

Celebrating its twelfth year the LDF held over 395 events across seven areas, from North to South and East to West, with something for everyone and whilst we think it would be impossible for anybody to see absolutely everything on offer we found plenty of inspiration everywhere we looked.

100% Design was the original catalyst and is still the largest design product show with a fascinating series of talks. Afroditi Krassa, the product designer turned interior designer ‘by accident’ when approached to design Itsu for its launch in the UK. Afroditi believes that Food and Beverage is driving the change in the Hospitality sector as a whole, where a more holistic approach to design is being considered. We completely agree that the smells, sounds and feeling of a space can be far more memorable than the visual impact alone.

Now in its sixth year Designjunction was relocated to Granary Square in King’s Cross and featured a striking façade to the main venue echoing the temporary nature of the area still under development. Split across two floors the furniture by Bethan Grey with intricate inlaid brass, 3D printed chair by Morgan and the Ballo flexible and transportable stool by Humanscale were particular highlights for us. With several spin off elements to see around the area as well such as the TFL Roundel Twitter Machine by Florian Dussopt and Water Experience by Dornbracht the wave-like water, light and sound display show.

For LFW the Makers House created by Burberry, set up home in the old Foyles bookstore on Charing Cross Road in collaboration with The New Craftsmen, featured a wide range of artists and artisans open to the public to view them at work. Resulting in a complete fashion and design exhibition, each day had a varied programme including readings of Orlando the Virginia Woolf novel that was behind the complete catwalk collection also available to view and buy.

As the seasons change and we passed another equinox one obvious theme linking the design disciplines throughout was the perfect balance between the personal and traditional approach and the latest direction in which design is going.