We have been quiet for a while on the blog front, focusing on big projects ( to follow later this year ) we seemed to have run out of time for blogging and updating the website...so with a wee re group and chat among ourselves, we decided that it is essential to keep updating what we are doing.
To help re launch our blog with wonderful inspirations, we sent Kate off to 100% Design at The Olympia; the weekend of September 23rd to London. http://www.100percentdesign.co.uk/ The design trade fair show has built up a buzz over the past few years and it is an ideal opportunity to view up coming trends, new products and source for on going projects.
Arriving at 12pm after a decent curry across the road in the local Indian ( one needed sustenance to prevent the terrible possibility from falling into 'Hanger'... Hunger + Anger + Hanger ) a good six hours were spent, chatting, poking, unfolding, touching, ooo-ing and ahh-ing, telling chairs that you loved them, listing to architectural talks, dancing on tiles, stroking wooden floors, picking up and putting down, signing up for every website available and basking under the warm glow of ( our favorite lighting stand ) Original BTC https://www.originalbtc.com/ . After the six hours of design immersion, all Kate was fit to do after was seek out 1/2 a pint of a lovely London Pride and head home to bed to wallow in all the pamphlets and brochures collected.
Here are a few of our favourites we hope you enjoy them too...
Original BTC
This amazing lighting service, most items take around 3 weeks to order, which is fantastic for projects with constrained time lines. Inspiration taken from British Industrial and 1940's iconic designs.
Love how the various sizes and shapes are hung with these ceramic fixings
A take on the Dudley Best Lamp, the adjustable wall lamp in cream is swoonsome.
The next port of call for more deliciousness lighting was Ebb & Flow http://ebbandflow.dk/
EBB & FLOW designs and produces lighting, and functional and decorative objects; a mix of British Classic Design and the elegant lines of Nordic style, it is a match made in heaven. Bespoke lighting using a mix of textiles, creating warmth, elegance and simplicity. All their lighting designs are made to bring delight and joy and they do...
It was not all illumenscents... furniture was on the agenda also. We fell across the wonderful stand of http://duquesaemalvada.com/
Sometimes in life you are so overcome with emotion for a piece of furniture that you have to stroke it and dream of spending days perched upon, drinking cocktails, reading Bukowski and contemplating all the creativity meshed into our wonderful planet... the Elizabeth 1st sofa allows you to do just that...
We also fell in love with the owners of http://www.jamesuk.com/ranges/ their functional yet beautiful hand crafted furniture are pieces that can be used in every day settings from commercial through to residential. Our favourite was the Newington Armchair...it was just so darn comfortable, perfect for hotel receptions and there is a little hint at what we were on hunt for!
Other furniture manufacturers which also caught our breath, the amazing simplicity and beauty of Johanson http://johansondesign.com/ and the sumptuousness of Bow & Arrow Upholstery http://www.bowandarrow-upholstery.com/
With over 100 stands of visual delightfulness we cannot at all talk about them here, to finish this blog for this week lets talk about tiles. We stumbled across, on our way out of 100% Design a small boutique manufacturing firm from Austria Karak Tiles http://karak.at/en/
The tiles this small family owned business produces are quite unbelievable, the colours and richness of the product is beyond anything we have seen in ceramics for a very long time. It is inspiring to see hand crafts making a return as there is a demand for boutique and hand crafted and not mass produced. If you have the budget for Karak, then we would suggest looking no further than Austria!
We have so much more to write about from this design show, and will try to filter in the amazing products we got to experience at this show. What a wonderful event 100% Design...looking forward to the next.