Last week our design team visited London’s Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW). It is always a fun event, taking in so many different venues and installations across the area. The festival feel of the event really encourages exploration of all that Clerkenwell has to offer the design world, and this year seemed to be bigger and better than ever.
We started our visit on Tuesday by attending the Morgan London showroom for a talk by Chris Eckersley on Making Space. Chris is an artist and designer who has an ongoing obsession with drawings, along with Le Corbusier proportions and buildings of the early renaissance. The talk taught us to be more aware of our surroundings and explained the direct affect proportions can have on people’s comfort and their experience of an environment. Chris’ drawings were on display around the showroom, and it was a great to view those whilst enjoying Morgan’s new pieces such as the unusual asymmetric Valencia sofa.
Following the talk we popped into Shaw Contract Showroom for a quick coffee, before heading to The Modern Pantry for lunch. It was brilliant to be able to walk around in the sunshine before heading back to the office.
On Thursday we revelled in a full day out starting with a SBID networking breakfast at the Dyson Showroom hosted by VitrA. It was great to chat with other designers and suppliers and the conversation naturally turned to the highlights and must-sees of CDW.
We enjoyed a leisurely stroll towards Clerkenwell, calling into various showrooms en-route, to top up on inspiration. C.P. Hart had arranged a tour starting with lunch at the Hansgrohe showroom – here we jumped into the 4D virtual world of bathrooms using the latest technology. It was amazing seeing this first hand, although we all felt slightly ridiculous with an audience laughing at us moving around the virtual space!
Following this, C.P. Hart had arranged for Joanna Kellet of Clerkenwell Design Week to lead us on a ‘best bits’ tour, which was a great experience. We started at The Playbox, which was an interactive stand encouraging people to explore it’s capabilities by pulling out seats, adjusting surfaces, then at night it could all be packed down into a cube to form a light installation. Then we visited the BuzziJungle, The Beacon, the Next Generation Design Pavilion and the Double Vision sculpture, all of which you can see in our photos – all highly instagrammable!
The bright pop-up feel of CDW fitted perfectly with the gloriously sunny weather last week! The stunning flower displays of Bloomon showed how colour and design inspiration can be sourced from nature – they really complemented the tropical feel of other suppliers’ stands.
After the tour we were able to continue exploring the various participating Clerkenwell showrooms for more inspiration and networking, over a drink or two! CDW 2017 was a brilliant event that really showcased the creative talent of this pocket of London. We’re already looking forward to CDW 2018!
