This was my first London Design Festival and I was unsure exactly what I was going to get. Was it going to be quirky, cutting-edge design or the bunch of faceless distributors that was the Birmingham Interiors show in January… well it was both really. The two boutique shows I went to, Tent and Designers Block, had some real creative flare, but we got round each exhibition in around 30 minutes. Whereas, at 100% Design in Earls Court, we really had to wade through a lot of fountain showers to find the gems of the exhibition.
Trends
Vintage
The Circa Vintage collection at Tent is a safe way to go when looking for design trends. We know most of it is good, otherwise it would have been thrown away years ago, but it is for a different reason that I think the vintage trend is a good one. The term “reuse” doesn’t get enough credit in environmental marketing; it is by far the most energy/waste friendly way of buying furniture, because the only reprocessing needed is a little elbow grease and a van ride or two. The key point here is to go authentic vintage — don’t cheat and go replica, because it is the patina that make these designs rich and desirable. You would only be selling yourself short otherwise. A popular piece in the circa vintage collection was the Eames DSW (below). I prefer the wooden leg version rather than the Eames DSR chrome legged version.
London Remade’s “Recycling Mixed Plastics” seminar was held at the Wellcome Collection building in Euston on Monday 29 September. I went along to listen and learn. It was good to see so many friendly faces in a very well attended event - there was standing room only at the back of the auditorium, emphasising how timely and interesting this subject is.
Thanks to the BMD Love Blog for this link to 100%’s new vox-designer video all about sustainable design.
I know about the designers and journalists Max Fraser and Aaron Stone have interviewed for this film but I don’t really know them for their work in overtly sustainable design projects yet - something to look into. Send in your examples of mainstream sustainable design and we’ll feature them in the comments feed here.
Alex and myself (Ed) did a whistle-stop tour of some of the main attractions on offer to see what 2008 had to offer. Here’s what caught my eye and captured my imagination at the London Design Festival.
Tent London exhibited a diverse range of furniture and lighting. The Wired Lamp by Something From Nothing caught my eye, a simple design that would work well in a contemporary interior. I also liked the painted wooden furniture by Meg Shirayama at Rocket, the wood / gloss paint combo gets mine and Alex’s nod for what’s hot in 2008.
Pli launched the Reee chair on Wednesday this week. Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate. We had a good party and I hear some of our friends carried on into the weee small hours.
But the main thing was for us to share the achievement of bringing an innovative product to market, with all the stakeholders, partners and well-wishers who have been instrumental in the project.
Pli began developing the Reee chair in 2006 with Sprout Design as the designer. Now we have a finished product, already in shops and installed in some homes, meeting rooms and (next week) lecture halls.
Here are some photos of the launch… (click to enlarge)
If you can’t make Christopher’s “100% Sustainable?” round table discussion to be held at London’s 100% Design exhibition in Earl’s Court 21 September, or you can’t get enough of Pli, you have another opportunity to catch us in the flesh. I will be attending a similar discussion for “100% Sustainable?” on 18 September. The topic to be explored is “What opportunities could a shift towards sustainable design offer individuals and companies within the design profession?” It starts at 3 pm on the 100% Sustainable? stand.
100% Design 2008
See Christopher’s post for registration details and more information about the event
I will be taking part in the “100% Sustainable?” round table discussion to be held at London’s 100% Design exhibition in Earl’s Court on 21 September.
The discussion will open up to take questions from the floor and it’ll be great to hear some testing questions and illuminating ideas, so come along if you’re available. It starts at 2 pm on the 100% Sustainable? stand.
100% Design 2008
There will be a seminar on each day of the exhibition. Sunday will be the best one. The seminars are free to exhibition visitors (that’s free to trade visitors too, if you register online before 12 September).
Here’s 100% Design’s description of the event… Read more »
Pli has been working towards sourcing all of our materials sustainably since we started in 2003. We have met and discussed novel, eco-friendly materials for our furniture designs with suppliers in India, China and all over the UK. We’ve built up a fair amount of knowledge and experience which we are eager to share with other designers.
So Pli was really pleased to be given the opportunity to talk at the Eco Design Network’s Big Picture Brunch in London on 18 September. Christopher Pett from Pli will be discussing our experience and ideas regarding from compostable panel furniture to biocomposites and recycled plastics.
The EDN Big Picture Brunch
There will be lots of interesting speakers there and we are looking forward to learning a lot and getting into some lively and illuminating discussions. Apparently the coffee and croissants are on the house so we hope to see you there! Read more »
Christopher Pett from Pli will be on the panel of the Materials Masterclass on Thursday September 18, as part of the Greengaged event series, hosted by the Design Council during the London Design Festival. The seminar will run from 2 pm until 3.30 pm and there are lots more interesting lectures and discussions to follow on that day. You can register here. Come along and get involved in the discussion — we want to make it an informed and productive event.
On Friday last week Pli was invited to deliver a 10 minute presentation at the Upcycling Textiles Symposium held Chelsea College of Art & Design. The day was run by TED (Textile Environment Design) and it aimed to encourage the London textile and fashion community to embrace sustainable thinking.
Tim and I attended the first session of the day. First up was a talk form Marie O’Mahony who co-authored Techno Textiles: Revolutionary Fabrics for Fashion and Design - books 1 and 2 plus many other textile based publications. Her talk was very interesting and walked us through some amazing concepts and case studies including some “living” fabric which had been grown from fungi and bacteria.
After learning the theory of Lean manufacture on day 7 it was time to put it into practice, this meant playing with Lego. The reason for the Lego was to demonstrate the difference between a ‘push’ style of manufacture, a traditional style of manufacture, and ‘pull’ style developed through Lean manufacture. A simple metaphor to explain what was to come is try and pulling a piece of string versus pushing it.
If you want results in manufacturing the current English trend is to go ‘Lean’. However this concept of ‘Lean’ manufacturing has been around since the 1960’s if not earlier. During this time post-WW2 Japan was rebuilding its manufacturing infrastructure and trying get rid of its reputation for low-quality products. American experts were sent to Japan to help the automotive manufacturers improve quality. Companies like Toyota and Yamaha embraced this quality driven Lean manufacturing style. From there, the Japanese made Lean manufacturing their own with unsurpassed levels of quality and manufacturing efficiency. Soon Europe began to implement its own style of lean manufacture. Nissan, Toyota, and Honda brought Lean manufacturing principles to the UK during the 90’s. Now these UK plants are leading the way in manufacturing innovation and efficiency.
Day 7 and 8 of the NPD course were delivered by Colin Allaway from London Manufacturing Advisory Service. He has worked in manufacturing for the past 37 years, for a wide range of companies from plastic caps to aerospace, so he soon had us up to speed on the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principles that lean manufacture is based around. Read more »
Giraffe Innovation ran a workshop in central London on Tuesday 17 June 08 aimed at helping businesses to understand and improve the carbon footprint of their packaging. Giraffe is one of the organisations behind the WEEE Man and therefore an inspiration for the Reee Chair which Pli has developed with Sprout Design and others. Click the image for more information on this event…
Two of us attended the workshop and we learned a lot about business attitudes to packaging. We have been trying to develop packaging designs that are courier-proof, easily recycled and made from sustainable materials. The information we gained from Giraffe has sent us back to the drawing board in a couple of places but generally speaking it has bolstered our confidence to continue on the route we have chosen. Read more »
Les Mandelbaum, co-founder and president of Umbra, is to our way of thinking. Here are his comments on his company’s sustainable product strategy from the floor of this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Show in New York. The interesting point he makes is that, once you have started down the road to sustainable design and product development, it eventually pervades the whole company and becomes an essential aspect of business and customer relations. The video chops off just when he gets into his stride.
This link came to us via Environmental Leader, a wide-ranging blog site about sustainable strategy for corporations. Worth a look. Read more »
Just a quick link to a Core77 gallery of new material.
From recycled chewing gum to transparent concrete, Core’s materials addict, Aart van Bezooyen, inspires us with the look and feel of Material Xperience 2008. This four day event in The Netherlands (April 23-26) showcases the latest materials for architecture and design.
Inspiration posts