Thirteen years in, the London Design Festival returns just in time to banish post-summer boredom. A busy calendar showcasing big names and up and coming talent across 8 days of installations, workshops, exhibitions and pop-ups, the event spans all corners of the city with a little something to satisfy every design persuasion.
Getting down to the good stuff, we preview with our top six highlights...
Getting down to the good stuff, we preview with our top six highlights...
1. Brown Betty: The Archetypal Teapot - Vitsoe Ceramicist Ian McIntyre leads an investigation into the ultimate tea-making vessel: the Brown Betty. A favourite among the Victorians, the Staffordshire red clay, Rockingham glaze teapot has become an icon of lo-fi British design, “not because of nostalgia,” McIntyre points out, “but because it’s the best at what it does.”
www.vitsoe.com
2. Below Stairs – Sir John Soane’s Museum A rare argument for hoarding, Sir John Soane’s home turned museum on Lincoln’s Inn Fields is packed with the rare and unusual, from work by Turner and Canaletto to a 3,000 year-old Egyptian Sarcophagus. Now at the end of a major renovation project, the museum celebrates with an exhibition featuring four contemporary designers, Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, Jasper Morrison, Martino Gamper and Paul Cocksedge, will display domestic pieces in the restored basement kitchen.
3. Error. – Present & Correct An ode to a pencil case essential, London’s finest stationers, Present & Correct, display a selection of over 200 erasers at their Islington store, “some old, some new, but all fine examples of colour, form and typography.”
4. Dean Edmonds Stacking/Packing – tokyobike London-based furniture designer Dean Edmonds shows off a selection of new work inspired by the ever-shrinking city home. Hosted by tokyobike the collection centres around space-saving stackable seating “that can move and stay with us creating something that is flexible yet reliable.”
www.deanedmonds.co.uk
5. 100% Norway – Old Truman Brewery Overshadowed by its celebrated neighbours, Norway looks to steal the limelight from Sweden and Denmark with a design showcase of its best producers. A collaboration between the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London, this year’s edition will feature ceramics, furniture, lighting and textiles mixing both contemporary and classic Nordic mid-century.
6. The Shoreditch Design Triangle With so much happening in and around East London, the area gets its very own mini festival featuring makers, businesses and designers based along the orange line. Ace Hotel displays fresh products from rising stars as part of Ready Made Go 2, Kvadrat play with “light, shape and layers” in a new textile-based installation and Vitra opens the doors to a pop-up office and lounge on Holywell Lane.