Surface thinking

Yesterday, two of our Interior Designers visited the Surface Design Show at the Business Design Centre in Islington to discover the latest materials, future thinking and design inspiration.

Theresa Brown and Jessica Haycox attended the ‘Light School’ seminar programme, which was both engaging and stimulating providing an illuminating insight into designing with light. Peter Veale of Firefly provided the stand out talk on ‘What to do and what not to do when lighting restaurants’ which offered valuable learning on how to approach the design process to create the perfect atmosphere. Theresa and Jessica discovered the latest lighting trends and furthered their knowledge of the relationship between light and surfaces in restaurants and bars.

The seminar discussed the ‘Top 6’ considerations in creating the perfect environment, which can be the biggest hurdle going from a glossy CGI visual and converting that into reality.

The best tips that were taken away was not being afraid of using layered lighting, illuminating textured surfaces, feature pendant lights, intimate table lights, keeping spaces unlit to create silhouettes against very bright spaces and accent lighting within feature graphics and joinery, all combined in one space. With each having a specific purpose and value creates a delightful outcome with pockets of interest.

Away from the Light School amongst all the bright and clever material displays Theresa discovered an integrated charging surface produced by Corian using wireless energy (inductive coupling) to a receiver within or attached to your smartphone. The futuristic view of our work environments, hospitality and public spaces is fast becoming a reality.

For more information: www.surfacedesignshow.com