London design week festival 2017 trends

September is the busiest time of year for the London design community and this year was no exception with the 15th edition of the London Design Festival taking place in various locations across the city.

With so much happening, it would be impossible to see everything in one day, so I focused in on the London Design Fair, Design Junction and Somerset House to see if I could get the measure of the emerging trends….

 

Sustainable & Recycled

Although the eco, urban jungle trend has been with us for a while now, we’re going to be seeing a more mature approach to recycled, sustainable design whereby products don’t look deliberately upcycled. Designers are building sustainability and impacts of production on the environment into their process from the very beginning. Materials are sourced locally and produced in-house where possible.

 

Marie-Louise Hellgren in collaboration with Stolab, the Lilla Snaland stool is made from waste birch using cut offs from their Lilla Aland chair.

 

Black Lighting

Slender, minimal forms and black powder coated metals are the order of the day for lighting. See it used in a number of ways within the structure and the lamps themselves frames. the Vibia North floor lamp at Designer Frontiers.

The Vibia North floor lamp at Design Frontiers, Somerset House.

 

Stylish Tech

It has taken a while for the everyday power cables and chargers to catch up with the sleek technologies we live with, but brands like the newly launched Nolii are redefining the ordinary with design-led cables and accessories. Created from the need to simplify our lives on the go, minimal style tech accessories are allowing us to charge up and sync wherever we are.

Nolii tech accessories to blend with your home, Design Frontiers.

 

Pale Wood and Plywood

The Scandinavian pale wood aesthetic is here to stay, with light oak, ash and birch the most popular materials for furniture and lighting.

A smooth finish. The Laakso dining chair, Made by Choice.

 

Plywood has fast transformed from what was considered a rather cheap construction material into something desirable in its own right with a contemporary feel, seen in a variety of forms including plant pots, tables and chairs.

 

High Texture, High Pattern

Experimentation with contrasting textures featured a lot this year – we had unglazed ceramics with gloss glazes inside, wood embossed with metal. I was fascinated by the work of Olivia Walker whose series of porcelain bowls and vases in white, black and rust were submerged in a fungus and coral like texture.

Organic textures, Olivia Walker Ceramics.

 

Intricate details, Vanessa Hogge Wallflowers.

 

Sharp angles and soft velvet, Tamasine Osher Design.

 

Olivia Aspinall Studio created a series of Terrazzo-esque vessels made from Jesmonite.

 

Plush velvet sat alongside polished brass and zinc in furniture. There was Jesmonite – the newest resin material which can be manipulated to replicate the look of any surface (in this case Terrazzo, as designed by Olivia Aspinall Studio).

By Tiffany from CURATE & DISPLAY.

Tiffany Grant-Riley is a freelance interior stylist and design writer based just outside London, in Kent. Her blog, Curate & Display focuses on minimal interiors, Scandinavian inspired design and slow living. She is currently renovating her Edwardian home in Chatham with her husband, two children and cat, surrounding by a growing collection of house plants.