INSPIRED BY THE LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL

The London Design Festival is one of my favourite events in this great city. The variety that sits under the umbrella of design, the unpretentious contrast to London Fashion Week; and the many incredible ideas and inspirations gathered. I was ambitious this year: largely due to the lack to time available, I managed to get through Tent, Super Brand and Design Junction all in one morning. Before we get into the trends and highlights – here are is Sloane Stationery's guide to surviving the festival. 

  1. Know what you are looking for – it will be very hard to see everything and most of us don’t need to. Different events cater to different sections of design. 100% DESIGN and DECOREX are more for the interior design experts with fabrics and flooring to boot. LAPADA is my number one choice for antiques and TENT and DESIGN JUNCTION look more at products and furniture.
  2. Bring an umbrella – this is London in September – enough said.
  3. Register in August – as a trade professional (any business counts) you can usually get passes for free by registering early – all you need is a business card to verify.
  4. Print out your passes beforehand – otherwise, even if you’ve registered, it may take extra time to get in the door. Nobody likes to queue unnecessarily. 

On to the trends! This year did not disappoint. Incredible creativity along side the occasional moment of confusion (is a chair made of sharp pins really a good idea?) gave way to three key trends; metallic notes, layered prints and nature inspired lights. 

 

METALLIC ACCENTS

Metal was everywhere – from desktops to lighting, the favoured hues were copper and brass. 

Hanging lanterns – Dare Studio, copper lamps – Ola Wihlborg, silver plates – Victoria Delany, balloon coffee table – Duffy London, metallic mugs with patterned saucers – Richard Brendon.

 

LAYERED EFFECT

The use of transparent colour layered gave way to some interesting patterns and shapes. 

Pendants - Inca Starzinsky – SPIN Jewellery, desk - SHIN Kang, cushion – Parris Wakefield Additions, lamp – Freshwest, mirror – Lex Pott, glasses – Holly’s House, chair – Kishimoto Design

 

NATURE INSPIRED LIGHTING

Looking to nature has always been a design inspiration but this year took it to a whole new level. 

Willow installation – Sharon Marston, lamp – Adam Hoets, light bulb lights (un-identified), lightbox – Lilly’s Lightbox Company, standing jellyfish lamps – un-identified, straw hanging lamps – Louise Tucker.

 

On a final note – why not take the weight of the world off your shoulders – give it to Hercules – from Venus of Cupertino

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