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LONDON DESIGN WEEK 2013 – DESIGN IS EVERYWHERE

hollypalmer
Oct 10, 2013
2 min read

The London Design Week (or London Design Festival), features work from designers around the world and mixes established designers with emerging talent.

The theme for LDF’s 11th year was “Design is Everywhere”, which, as the Arts Council puts it, reflects “the pervasive nature of design and the impact that it has on our everyday lives” http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/news/arts-council-news/design-everywhere-at-lond-design-festival-2013/

The Trends

1. Brass/copper is still on trend from last year, as well as complimentary autumnal colours. Examples include the Copper Mirror Series by Hunting & Narud and Sinkhole Vessels by Mexican designer Liliana Ovalle. Oranges, ochres and browns were ever present – our favourite piece by far was Charlotte Arvidsson’s woven leather chair.

2. Wood/traditional woodwork is making a massive comeback, as the Endless Stair outside the Tate Modern demonstrates. Tamasine Osher’s wooden lights make the most of it as a beautiful solid material, whereas Junction Fifteen’s Olly Stool uses it for detail. Nic Parnell’s Arbor Lamps use the natural and irregular shape of tree branches painted in solid bright colours to make them modern and quirky.

3. Brights – Nic Parnell’s Arbor Lights come in a range of bright and contrasting colours. There were a lot of accent colours around LDF2013 as well as contrasting shades working together in one piece. For example, the drawers by Gareth Batowski.

The Highlights

1. Endless Stair - Professor Alex de Rijke, director of dRMM, the architects leading the design for the structure said, “Endless Stair is a temporary sculpture designed to be endlessly reconfigured.” An Escher-esque inspired installation, the Endless Stair has a total of 187 steps.

2. Worlds first 3D printed Gun at the V&A - The V&A, the world’s largest museum of the decorative arts acquired two prototype Liberator guns. The gun sparked widespread concern over the ease with which weapons can now be produced on inexpensive printers when it was developed earlier this year. “Ugly and sinister objects demand the museum’s attention just as much as beautiful and beneficial ones do,” wrote Kieran Long, the V&A’s senior curator, “Museums should be topical, responding quickly to world events when they touch our areas of expertise.”

3. Wind Portal - Lebanese designer Najla El Zein’s 5000 spinning windmills, also at the V&A. Here you can see a wonderful little video narrated by the designer, detailing the installation and idea behind the portal: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/09/29/movie-the-wind-portal-by-najla-el-zein-studio-at-the-va/