Highlights From London Design Festival 2017.

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Dearest Yellowtracers! Welcome to our highlights of London Design Festival 2017, where we bring you our round-up of the finest events and products #LDF17 had to offer, leaving no stone unturned, no press release unread, and no link unclicked. It will be just like we went there together.

Now in its fifteenth year, the Festival returned to venues and institutions across the city between the 16-24 September 2017. Our selection covers some of our favourite product releases, experimental designs, events, installations, pop-ups and all that jazz. In other words – we’ve got you covered. As always. Let’s do this!

‘Reflection Room’ by Australian-born London-based lighting artist and designer Flynn Talbot was an immersive, coloured light experience housed in the V&A Museum’s Prince Consort Gallery. The vaulted space was lit at each end to highlight and define the dramatic 35m length of the gallery, its ceiling structure and the audience walking within. “It is illuminated with my signature of complementary blue and orange lighting, and large gloss black Barrisol panels are used to expand the width of the space, offering a fragmented view of shifting colours, reflections and light,” said Talbot.

‘While We Wait’ by AAU Anastas was a tower made of robotically stacked cut stone blocks at V&A.The Bethlehem-based studio founders, Elias and Yousef Anastas, designed the installation as part of their research into contemporary stone construction methods.

Located in one of the V&A’s tapestry galleries, Ross Lovegrove used textile to create an enormous serpentine sculpture dubbed Transmission. Lovegrove was inspired by the 15th century Devonshire Hunting Tapestries in the creation of his 21.3-metre-long installation.

Not officially part of London Design Festival 2017, but a notable recenrtly opening none the less is Victoria & Albert Museum’s Members Room designed by Carmody Groarke. This spectacular interior features a mirror installations that provide reflected views of the spaces inside and outside the building.

Daydreaming Hub by Universal Design Studio was a slatted-timber pavilion in Shoreditch that offered a retreat for local office workers.

Exhibition view of My Canvas presented by Kvadrat.

Pigeon Service by Christien Meindertsma for “My Canvas”, Kvadrat, London 2017.

Simply Better Living by Studio Stabil for “My Canvas”, Kvadrat, London 2017.

Background(s) by Maria Jeglinska for “My Canvas”, Kvadrat, London 2017.

BROK Festival by Felipe Ribon for “My Canvas”, Kvadrat, London 2017.

Catwalk Bench by BCXSY for “My Canvas”, Kvadrat, London 2017.

Masks by GamFratesi for “My Canvas”, Kvadrat, London 2017.

Lion Dance Costume by Chen Chen & Kai Williams for “My Canvas”, Kvadrat, London 2017.

For the third consecutive year, Kvadrat presented an exhibition that brought together works by 19 up-and-coming and established designers from around the world, including the likes of GamFratesi and BCXSY. My Canvas explored the use of a Kvadrat favorite – Canvas – an upholstery textile created by Italian master colourist Giulio Ridolfo.

Presented in partnership with British Land, Camille Walala’s Villa Walala was an immersive, playful and colourful installation set within the heart of Broadgate.

Sam Jacob and MINI teamed up to create a micro home with an attached library. The tiny cabin was designed for a future in which homes become a shared resource.

The Trade Show exhibition by Faye Toogood brought together works from 50 designers, artists and architects. Toogood asked the likes of including Tom Dixon, Assemble and Henry Bourne to each donate a piece of their own work. In return, the British designer gifted them with a limited-edition version of one of her signature Spade chairs, which she cast in aluminium for the occasion. The show celebrates the centuries-old tradition of artists supporting one another by bartering their works in a mutually beneficial manner.

Celebrating his 10th London Design Festival, Lee Broom presented ‘On Reflection’, showcasing a darker dimension of some of his most iconic designs reimagined in all-black and presented with a surreal twist.

Dimore Studio staged (Un)Comfort Zoneinside London gallery Mazzoleni, a setting designed for the gallery’s collection of post-war Italian art. The installation combined the “elegance” of 1930s art deco with the “sexiness” of the 1970s.

At Seeds gallery, Matteo Cibic presented his signature playful-verging-on-bizarre looking ceramic and glass objects, designed for the plants of the future.

In celebration of 21 years of their collaboration, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby launched the Ballot Chair designed for Isokon Plu.

Benjamin Hubert of LAYER launched the AXYL collection for UK furniture brand Allermuir. Comprising a chair, a barstool and a café table, AXYL is made from recycled aluminium, using just 5% of the energy required to create new aluminium, also offers significant cost savings. The chair shells, stool tops and café table tops are available in a variety of low-impact materials, including recycled wood fibre, reclaimed timber and recycled nylon, offering an efficient way of re-using waste product from the furniture industry.

Designed by David Irwin for Another Country, Hardy Series is a range of furniture created to last for decades, inspired by the tradition of passing well-loved furniture down from generation to generation.

Monologue, contemporary concept store in Shoreditch, introduced the New York-based brand Matter Made, featuring lighting and furniture by designers including Philippe Malouin, Pedro Paulo Venzon and Jamie Gray.

Paul Smith hosted a celebration of Danish design, featuring a new collaboration of iconic Finn Juhl furniture matched with Paul Smith Maharam fabrics. The new exhibition takes place at Paul Smith No. 9 Albemarle Street flagship, and will run until October 14th.

Australian-born, London-based Brodie Neill presented Drop in the Ocean, an installation hosted at the Foster + Partners-designed ME London hotel. Neill worked with recycled ocean plastic to produce new furniture pieces as well as his waterfall-inspired installation.

London-based artist and designer Zuza Mengham has created a series of five angular sculptures made from mulched British lichens and Jesmonite.

For the third consecutive year, Ace Hotel London collaborated with Modern Design Review on Ready Made Go 3. Five London-based designers were commissioned to create objects and installations that were integrated into the fabric of the hotel, to be used and enjoyed by festival attendees and hotel guests during the week and beyond.

Australian-born Rotterdam-based Truly Truly presented new colours for their Daze Tables, inspired by hazy light streaming through a crack. See our previous coverage of these tables here.

On show at the Swedish Design Pavilion ‘The Offering’ by Glen Baghurst is a limited-edition monolithic cocktail table carved from solid Swedish Diabase Stone, produced with renowned Swedish stone specialist Kullaro. Baghurst is an Australian designer who divides his time between Malmö, Sweden and Sydney, Australia.

Aldo at Swedish Design Pavilion, Malmö-based Petra Lilja presented Steps/Diagonal collection of mirrors, vases, rug, cabinet, ottoman, chair and a rainbow lamp.

Founded by Maria Gustavsson, Swedish Ninja presented an entire collection of colourful and playful lighting and furniture. In order of appearance from top to bottom; group shot of the new pieces from the collection; C Mirror by Petra Lilja; Brick Candle Holders by Jenny Nordberg; Little Darling Lamp by Mara Gustavsson; Notebook Bench & Notebook Cabinet by Maria Gustavsson. Swoon!

Black Hollow Occasional Table; Hubba Bubba Lamp and Circuit Chandelier by Andréason & Leibel were also on show at Swedish Design Moves group exhibition.

Exhibition view of The Graduate(s) at Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

A Stool Experiment, Selfreflect 3.0 (2017) by Anton Hendrik Denys.

Selfreflect (2017) by Anton Hendrik Denys.

Inside Out (2016) by Kathrine Barbro Bendixen.

The Elemental Cabinet (2017) by Kostas Lambridis.

Fault Line (2017) by Priyanka Sharma.

Offcut 02 (2017) by Priyanka Sharma & Dushyant Bansal.

Strata (2017) by Priyanka Sharma & Dushyant Bansal.

Carpenters Workshop Gallery collaborated with design curator & trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort to highlight young talent gathered from Europe’s best design schools. The exhibition at the London gallery in Mayfair offered a platform to graduates as a steppingstone to promoting and producing their work, unveiling works from ECAL (Switzerland), Royal College of Art (United Kingdom), École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (France), Royal Danish Design Academy (Denmark), LUCA School of Arts (Belgium) and Design Academy Eindhoven (the Netherlands).

Minimalist Coat Stand, designed by Ida Linea Hildebrand, creative director at Danish brand Friends & Founders, in collaboration with designer Katrine Bjørn. Want!

Dhow Cabinet by British designer Bethan Gray, made by hand with vibrantly stained timber and brass marquetry.

Pop Rugs by British brand Deadgood are sheer pastel and pattern perfection. And… ummm, does anyone else see boobs?

CTO Lighting launched a new collaboration with Belgium-based designer Michael Verheyden. Definitely the best looking ‘oyster light’ I’ve ever seen!

‘Flare’ is the new collection of design driven fine bone china by British brands 1882 Ltd. in collaboration with PINCH.

Pulpo debuted a tableware collection, which includes bronze animals by Frankfurt-based Kai Linke, Memphis-style glassware by German designer Meike Harde and “fat lava” glazed ceramic vessels by Rudolph Schelling Webermann.

Christopher Jenner launched his Epicurean silver collection in collaboration with heritage silverware brand E&Co. The collection comprises 24 pieces and features luxurious iterations of sugar bowls, tea pots, salad servers, and so forth.

British furniture maker Sebastian Cox teamed up with researcher Ninela Ivanova to investigate mushroom mycelium and it’s potential in commercial furniture design. Called Mycelium + Timber, Cox and Ivanova’s project uses fungal material to create everyday products such as stools and lights with a suede-like texture.

Yinka Ilori is a London-based Nigerian designer who transforms old and abandoned chairs. Restoration Station is a not-for-profit social enterprise that uses the craft of furniture restoration to help those recovering from addiction. For London Design Festival 2017, the two joined forces to create a unique collection of furniture that reference the lives of the charity’s team of volunteers, each of whom unleashed their creative skills to craft their own expressive pieces.

SPLATWARE is one-of-a-kind tableware collection that “avoids the monotony of batch production”, conceived by architecture collective Assemble’s social enterprise Granby Workshop. Colourful plates and cups are made by hand squishing clay in a 60-tonne hydraulic press, resulting in entirely unique pieces. Happy happy, joy joy!

[All images courtesy of the designers & the press office.]

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