Design Festival

Every year when it’s London Design week I develop an anti-design attitude and feel reluctant to go and see anything. I feel overwhelmed by the amount of products out there that we don’t need. Obviously my middle age has something to do with this, some things I see are not new and I’ve seen them done better before.

 Even though sustainability is a big aspect of design now, it’s often not so integral and seems stuck on somehow.
Who needs something to hang their mugs on really? And how can you beat the classic kitchen chair. Then there’s the rise of the ‘concept’, e.g. useless objects that are supposed to “question our perception of…” whatever – this presumes none of us do this already!
So, I forced myself to go to one design event – staying south of the river I went to Designers Block at the Bargehouse. I did like this chair and table by Hendzel & Hunt from their Made in Peckham collection. Piecing together salvaged items is a style I’ve heard Oliver Heath refer to as Patchwork Chic. Look up Andrew Holmes on Craft Councils Photostore to see how he has been doing it since the early 1980’s.
Re using objects really usefully really excites me. Shannon Denny’s blog; Give Me One Good Raisin often picks out the best of these.
Very soon I’ll do a post on a really inspiring young designer who I think you’ll find really impressive.