September 22nd, 2015

“Traditional, artisanal & handcrafted” meet “Street art, geometrics & graffiti”

One of the events we always look forward to is London Design Week at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour. We love the trends emerging this season. Not only is the harbour decked out in Tiffany Blue, but we can also see a clear resurgence in some of our favourite themes with traditional, artisanal and handcrafted influences continuing to feature strongly across fabrics, furniture and an array of other products. We also love the variety with the modernist, geometric and street art elements creating some dramatic design schemes at the other end of the spectrum.

The Design Centre Chelsea Harbour looking lovely in Tiffany Blue!

Traditional, artisanal and handcrafted

This theme was already beginning to feature earlier in the year and has now continued strongly with many designs taking the best from the past and rooting it firmly in the present. Favourites included this collaboration between Victoria Bain and Whistler Leather with the intricately embroidered panels and tapes from Victoria Bain now adorning leather – we can see this working well on the back of a leather dining chair or across the drawers of a desk…

New collaboration between textile company Victoria Bain and Whistler Leather

In fabrics GP & J Baker has just launched an artisan collection using the ancient art of hand blocked printing, while Kravet’s new Nomad collection looks to Mongolian tribes that hark back to the 13th-century.

The new “Artisan” collection by GP & J Baker and “Nomad” by Kravet.

The traditional theme continues across ironmongery (with brass making a much awaited comeback!) and in bathroom design. In another collaboration the brassware specialist Samuel Heath and Royal Crown Derby have launched this decorative new shower/tap collection combining hand finished brassware and hand moulded and intricately decorated fine bone china.

New Collaboration between Samuel Heath and Royal Crown Derby

Street art, geometrics and graffiti

At the other end of the spectrum some of the more recent “painterly” trends have now morphed into these dramatic versions of street-art featuring a mixture of bold geometric and modernist designs. Again the key word here is “collaboration” – this time between contemporary textile brand Kirby Design and NYC based, British “doodle” artist Jon Burgerman to create the “rainbow scrawl” fabric you see on the far fight. The jury here in the office is still out on this one!

Collaboration between Kirby Design and Jon Burgerman

We do however love the new Street Art collection from Pierre Frey, working with a number of different artists and again taking inspiration from New York.

New street art collection from Pierre Frey

You can see more highlights from Focus 2015 on our Twitter feed https://twitter.com/hilaryjwhite