100%

I've not been to the London Design Festival for 2 years due to unforeseen circumstances, so I am pretty pleased to be here for it this year!  

I try to grab details of UK furniture designers and suppliers.  If they are suitable, I specify them where I can.... lower carbon foot print etc etc.

Anyhow, Today saw the launch of Yo! Home.  I went to the press launch, really intriguing concept, and interesting to see Simon Woodroffe, founder of Yo! Sushi and Yo! Hotel in person.  

I'm not entirely convinced, but our cramped society is definitely moving in this direction.  Flexible housing/furniture...

Photos aren't great, it was pretty crowded!  Everyone very excited.

Simon Woodroffe - Yo! Man

Office changes to Bedroom

Hidey breakfast bar

Bed moves up to reveal seating area

I also saw Yves Behar having a chat to Dezeen's Marcus Fairs about his design ethos, etc.  Really inspiring chat.  Very focused on sustainability and designing a better world for everyone, not just us Western lucky ones.  It was set in the "virtual" auditorium, which was basically a space encompassed by fishing wire.  Maybe there were budget constraints this year, but whatever the reason, it worked really well, as we could still watch and listen, even if there wasn't space.

Compared to other years, I thought 100% was really innovative with lots of things I'd not seen before, including a stand by Fixperts and Bright sparks, who FIX things, rather than throw them away.  They even had a 3D printer for making bespoke parts.  Genius.

Off to Design Junction tonight.. TENT tomorrow.. no rest for the wicked?

Work-in-Progress

Finishing off a presentation for a Pop-Up concept today.  Almost done.... 

DARKROOM

I've been meaning to check out this shop for ages, but have only got around to it now.

I was really intrigued, as it seems like the ethos behind the store was something quite close to my heart.  Promoting one-off pieces and hard to find ranges.  Moving away from the mass-consumerism to pieces with emotive content and longevity.

I'm happy to say the store didn't disappoint.  Not only were the products on offer unique and lovely, they were displayed lovingly and the VM were arranged in colour stories, with accessories complementing each other.

Even though there were some pricey bits, you could find really lovely pieces for around a tenner (ceramic pot).

I've got my heart set on a massive African print cushion in turquoise .... when I have some more space at home!

DARKROOM

Lambs Conduit Street

Sun was blazing yesterday, so I took a stroll between meetings around Lambs Conduit Street.

Lots of boutiques, well worth a visit, especially if you are looking for gifts.

My favourites were The French House, which had some gorgeous pendent lamps from Hand and Eye Studio, Peregrine's PopUp shop with massive photo of their old family run factory at Cube, as well as Folk, loved the DIY effect detailing

I really went along to check out Darkroom.. more on that in the next post... 

Big Day Out - Paralympic Stylee

I was lucky enough to have a good friend offer me a spare ticket to the Paralympics on Wednesday.  Especially because I made zero effort to get any tickets!  

As you can well imagine, it was very inspirational watching the paralympians overcoming their conditions and excelling at sport, far better than I could! 

We were extremely lucky with the weather, blue skies all day, not a cloud in sight.  Which made the much debated sculpture by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond look striking against the bright blue sky.

I was pretty excited to go to Zaha's aquatic centre, and grateful for the "wings" that were added on, as that's where I was sat!  Very hard to get a good shot of the building because of them though, so will have to make a trip back to the park when the've been taken down.