London Design Festival- instalment 2

What Kirsty Saw:

So sorry for the blog delay, but here finally is instalment 2; which includes Tent London and The Rocket Gallery:

FRIDAY (DAY) : I decided to saunter around, no rush getting to Tent early everyone will be at work, right? Wrong, this was the huge increasing queue for Tent, great for them not so great for us queuing as winter had finally arrived and it was very chilly. Thankfully on Brick Lane there are plenty of places to pick up a bargain scarf!

At the back of the queue :(

Warming up inside, where it was just a busy. This was definitely the busiest I’ve ever seen the show, perhaps with the relocation of Origin nearby in Spitalfields Market, East London is becoming more of a destination for design hungry visitors.

The Product Of Your Environment Stand, who I exhibited with back in January, Rebecca Chitty has some ace new products which included True Identity Jewellery, I like the Mine ring.

One mini exhibition that caught my eye and made me smile was the Everyday Delights show, put together by JJAM Curators Collective who challenged London-based designers to reinvent the classic yellow duster into something much more creative.

I love how this little chap has come from such humble beginnings, he’s not banal anymore!

Ercol had a strong presence this year (and thought-out the festival as usual). Within the space were three of the Beautiful Classic 355 Studio Couch, where Donna Wilson has added her own twist in the covers, though print, colour and fantastic tactile chunky knitting.

They also exhibited mixed material side tables (I want one) and a fun update of the Butterfly Chairs, in Smartie Pantones. Plus the winning design for their recent design competition the Messina Sofa, which really wasn’t my cup of tea unfortunately, but judge for yourself on their Flikr photostream.

I also chatted to a lovely lady on the SUPER W stand.

Super W represents a new superhero of the modern city, Super W is a social platform,where people exchange their wishes to create a sense of community and raise awareness about the local area.

This table top was a Wish for Brixton I really liked the subtle use of graphic lines and symbols and the ethos behind the whole project.

In the Tent Selects area the work of up and coming designers have been given their own showcase, one of my favourite pieces was Kirsten Reads Rubber dip moulded Container range (image above), the contrast in colour an texture between the rubber and spun metal materials, was really fresh and unlike anything else I’ve seen at recent graduate shows.

DesignBark by print designer Sarah Newman also caught my eye on the way out. The simple use of pattern and on trend colours were right up my street, I would love this on a T-shirt.

After several hours at Tent I went to discover some of the smaller destination in the East of London using the Pocket London Design Festival guide – it was a fleeting mission, as it was already 4.30.

Rocket Gallery in the Tea Building where there was a small exhibition of London based Japanese designer Tomoko Azumi.

The exhibition included the final pieces, but also had sketches, water colours and these exquisite beautifully made models, which i found most interesting. The above scale models were no more than 10 cms high. I love modelling up my designs but I’m just not patient enough to produce something like these.

Here you can see the scale model and the final piece.

There were also full-scale models which included the development of the new Joint table which was another collaboration between Benchmark and Azumi.