Die 10 schönsten Bambus Kreationen

You’ll find us in the Shed in front of the famous Farmiloe Building on St John Street, Clerkenwell – this is the centre point of the whole exhibition, which stretches across the many showrooms and gallery spaces of London’s creative quarter.

We’ll be releasing lots more information after the Milan Furniture Show has finished, at the end of this month. In the mean time, save the dates – we’ll see you there!

Anthea brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of contract projects from her years with Wilkhahn, Knoll and Heal’s as well as working as a freelance interior designer. Most recently, prior to joining Pli, she was A&D Sales and Marketing Account Manager for Wilkhahn. Anthea studied 3D Product & Furniture Design at Plymouth so she knows the industry from both ends: in fact her own designs have been exhibited at 100% Design and sold at Heal’s.

I’m sure many of you will have the opportunity to meet Anthea in the coming weeks and months. She can be reached at anthea@plidesign.co.uk or on 020 8670 6857.

The Pennyfields chair with the Whitechapel slim dining table

Being a small company, we could immediately rule out a lot of processes that came with the caveat of expensive tooling, large injection moulds etc. Another determining factor of the project was bamboo. This exceptional material had become a passion of mine since being introduced to it properly in 2007 when I started at Pli. I was also influenced by the resurgence of mid–century classics in the current market. At Pli, we already have a range of tables – Whitechapel – influenced by the Utility era, so it was a natural progression to move onto the benchmark of a furniture designer: the dining chair.

Some of the chairs that inspired me. I didn't get to sit on all of them unfortunately

To me, a successful mid–century design is an effortless balance of components that pushes the technical properties of the material just far enough, while all the time making sure the material finish remains at centre-stage. Take the PK9 chair by Poul Kjaerholm for example: the chrome steel base flows gracefully in to the almost–sculptural upholstered leather seat. It is so simple yet at a glance you can tell the design had been mulled over for months and years, and every part is just–so.

Armed with these ideas plus: cardboard, pencils, two glue guns (one never worked), plastic tube, wood dowel and a CAD suite (with printer), I spent the early evenings of last summer forming the silhouettes of the design. An early breakthrough was choosing to use turned bamboo for the legs rather than a more complex CNC machined part. The warm caramel finish complemented the gloss of painted steel, which I had also chosen as the structural material for the chair.

Using card and pencils for legs I thrashed out some quick ideas to see what parts people liked best.

Once I had a good idea of the geometry in CAD I made a "sit-on" mock up to test to see if it was actually what I wanted.

Despite some quick progress, in June I hit an early stumbling point. Some of the manufacturing processes I had initially chosen for the project because of the “no–tooling” criteria meant parts had become too expensive to make competitively in the current market. Fortunately, at the same time London Metropolitan University were offering members of the Metropolitan Works scheme to apply for grants under their ‘Metamorphosis’ program, which aim was to support the product development of London design businesses. I entered and subsequently won one of the grants in July. The grant helped transform the project, supplying the much needed finance and expertise, to let the design develop passed the restrictions of the initial brief. We produced a run of 10 prototypes and the ‘Pennyfields’ chair was launched during London Design Festival in September 2010.

Metropolitan Works' workshop facilities were used to make the 10 production prototypes

The Pennyfields on show at 'The Dock', Tom Dixon's Portobello headquarters

Since then the chair has had a lot of national and European media interest. A sample was quickly shipped to our Danish agent and featured first in Danish interiors magazine ‘Rum’ in November 2010. In the UK, OnOffice and Elle Decoration then covered the chair in the March 2011 editions. My work on the chair also helped me get to the shortlist in the ‘Homes & Gardens – Eco Designer of the Year’, won by Samuel Wilkinson for the ‘Plumen’ eco bulb which went on to win the coveted ‘Brit Insurance design of the year 2011’.

The future of the Pennyfields chair looks good with the first production batch currently in the pipeline, as well the Pennyfields café table and desk also available. So I am hoping this time next year I will be walking past a restaurant in London somewhere and see people enjoying their meal sitting on a Pennyfields chair.

Pli is bringing its furniture range to Midcentury.Modern for the third time on Sunday 20 March from 10am until 4 pm. It’s our favourite selling exhibition of the year, where we get to meet our customers face to face and offer bargains on end-of-line stock, prototypes, ex-display furniture and one-offs.

“Created as an unpretentious one stop shop for busy people who love collecting beautiful pieces for their homes, you can find everything for the eclectic abode from an original Eames rocker to a contemporary ceramic from a hot young British designer. Our shows attract a whole host of design luminaries. Regular visitors include Sheridan Coakley from SCP, the Conran design team, V and A, Barbican and South Bank shops buyers, designers Russell Pinch, Jonathan Adler, Orla Kiely, Margaret Howell and Matthew Hilton as well as famous artists including Dinos Chapman and Mike Nelson have been spotted brushing their hands over the rosewood and teak. More importantly it is a fun day out. Go straight through this link to find out http://www.modernshows.com/docs/shows/midmod/index.html“

See you there!

“In the year of Coronation Street’s 50th anniversary, the Ideal Home Show has taken one of the nation’s most iconic homes, shared by Ken and Deirdre Barlow, and given it the ultimate refurbishment in a before-and-after transformation…”

Channel 4′s George Clarke has transformed the old No.1 into a modern, eco home with Pli’s Reee, Grass, Whitechapel and Pennyfields ranges on show throughout. The furniture looks fantastic in this amazing, purpose-built home.

Now couldn’t be a better time to book tickets with our fantastic 10% off advance ticket rate offer. See details below…

Quote ‘IHSV11’ when you book online or call 0844 415 4144. A £1.50 per order transaction fee applies and must be booked before 26 March. Children aged 15 and under go free when accompanied by a paying adult.

This offer gives £11 weekday or £13 Weekend tickets