Clerkenwell Design week

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Clerkenwell Design week

Hello! Welcome to my first blog.

Clerkenwell Design week

The event that everyone is talking about! During May, the Interiors’ team took a trip down to Clerkenwell to check out new brands and trends evolving in the furniture market. The question you are probably asking yourself is “what is it?” And why did I not attend? This is the 9th successful year that the event has taken place in the creative heart of London. CDW celebrates and explores the design industry and is attended by multiple international and UK brands. So if you like design, this is event is for you! #CDW2018

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With my paper map in hand (and google maps as backup) I set out to Boss Design where I had a guided tour of their showroom as well as stocking up with freebies (the ultimate perk of being a student drowned in debt). Their showroom was filled with a range of office furniture which highlighted an incoming trend entering the market, that is collaborative workspaces. However, the newest product they were launching called “ATOM” was right at centre stage. Unique, versatile and aesthetically pleasing is how I would personally describe the product. Have a look at the image on the right to see what you can create with ATOM. It was a great opportunity to see the most talked about product in person. That was only the upstairs of the showroom, downstairs paraded all the seating and soft furnishings. They showed me a mixture of new seating entering the market as well as new fabrics and colour palettes on trend.

After finally arriving into London (after the longest ever train journey) I caught the tube to Farringdon, then began my adventure on foot. My first stop was at St James’ Churchyard, here I saw a range of art installations, like the image on the left. The atmosphere in churchyard was filled with energy, excitement, fun and vibrant colours.

Heading back into the 25 degree heat and walking around London in circles for 20 minutes I managed to find OCEE Design. Note to self, next time take more water bottles to prevent dehydration.

Anyways…

Here they revealed the latest tech emerging, which is virtual reality. Let me break it down to those of you who are not tech geeks. It enables you to step into a virtual world that you have designed (i.e. an office) with the aid of VR goggles and you can explore the products in the space. If you didn’t understand that then google it! It is fantastic to see that the 3D design industry is offering new technology for you to present your designs. Being able to experience VR first-hand at OCEE did not disappoint either, it was weird yet great to see that technology like this is even possible. So on to the next showroom!

Connections’ showroom did not disappoint. Trendy and sophisticated are just two words that some it up. Distracted by all the soft seating like the Dixi and Kala chairs, in the spotlight were the collaborative products like Hive, Rooms and the Co-Table. In my opinion the product “Rooms” stood out (see the image below), it has been designed to let users create an informal or formal workspace to either collaborate, socialise or concentrate. Also, I should also mention that the product received the Mixology award in 2017 (you can thank me later Connections).

Yes, it’s that time where I can tell you about Kinnarps (my highlight). Here I met up with the rest of the Interiors’ team (who struggled with the basic task of catching a tube, don’t tell them you know!). I was simply AMAZED by how visually stunning their huge showroom was as soon as I walked in, their whole showroom oozed colour. However it was the product “Fields” that grabbed my attention the most. Such a versatile and unique product that offers the user multiple workspace opportunities. You can probably guess by now what it screams…yes “collaboration”. Fields is a contemporary product that shows what office furniture will look like in the future. This extensive range allows you to create breakout and meeting areas as well as concentration zones. For all those creatives out there, who may be re-vamping their office, pastel green, light grey and light blue are colours that are currently on trend. I could talk and talk about Kinnarps but instead you can look at the pictures I took so you can see how amazing they really are. Shout out to Kinnarps and thanks for the tour of your showroom!

Coming towards the end of a long day we had two more showrooms scheduled (at this point my legs stopped functioning). Our good old friends at Sven invited us down to see their new Ligni range, this collection has adopted the new Scandinavian style. #incomingnewtrend

Last stop Narbutas, finding this underground showroom was not as easy as you think. Narbutas’ most popular range on display was Nova Wood. This Scandinavian influenced design brings your office closer to nature whilst

maintaining a luxurious aesthetic. All the tables in this range have solid ash wooden legs and the table tops include melamine with ABS edging. See the two images at the bottom right to witness how nice Nova wood really is! Pairing wooden finishes with vibrant fabrics is a simple way to make your office modern and contemporary. This combination has been very with our recent projects.

7:43pm and it’s time to catch the train back home to Birmingham (finally relax!). Honestly I’ll say that CDW was a great networking experience for me. I’ve taken so much knowledge and inspiration back with me, it is definitely an event I would recommend. Roll on CDW 2019!