About Last Week: LDF 2018
This year was set to be our biggest year yet for London Design Festival, and it didn’t disappoint. From Hackney to the Southbank, we immersed ourselves in captivating exhibitions, intimate talks and unexpected discoveries. Catch up on our activities below.
We opened the doors to Tala Studios
Hundreds of you came through our doors to see our new home. After 6 months of design and build, we were thrilled to see so many curious minds discovering our engineering lab, browsing our materials library, talking to our design team and learning about the air-purifying plants we’ve picked for the space. At night, the desks were cleared to make room for the dancefloor, brought to life courtesy of singer-songwriter, keyboardist and producer Amp Fiddler, who flew in from Detroit especially for the occasion. The truffle cheese toasties went down a treat too.
Designer Dialogues – In Conversation with Tom Raffield
Award winning designer Tom Raffield shared the sofa with our Design Director Joe Armitage for the first of our ‘Designer Dialogues’ talk series. Speaking about materiality and sustainability in lighting design, the designers agreed that they had “a massive obligation to create products that have as little impact as possible on the environment”.
Distributed Design Challenge
We collaborated with the Distributed Design Market Platform to welcome eight emerging designers into the studio and create lighting fixtures that could be manufactured anywhere in the world. With a time limit of five days and the constraints of using only 3D printers, CNC machines or laser cutters, we saw an incredible breadth in responses to a very challenging brief. Four of the winning designs will now go into prototyping, and you can see the finished pieces at Tala Studios until the end of September.
Basalt x Matter of Stuff
Our newest range, Basalt has been selected as part of an exhibition at the Matter of Stuff pop-up concept gallery. The space has been designed by Raw Edges and features an eclectic mix of pieces from emerging and established brands on the theme of new research in materiality. The exhibition is open until 31st October 2018, so pop in before it’s gone.
We are hosting a talk on the inspiration behind the range on Wednesday 10th October. For more information, drop us a line.
designjunction
300 of our Porcelain bulbs illuminated the bar on the top floor of the Barge House with a soft, warm light, offering tired exhibition visitors a brief respite amidst the madness.
Our top picks from around the fair
There was so much to see, it was impossible to cover everything. These were our favourite happenings from throughout the week.
Cameron Design House x Geronimo
Memory & Light by Arvo Pärt and Arup at the V&A
PlasticScene by Modern Design Review
A World of Ordinary Things by SCP
MultiPly at the V&A
And that’s a wrap! Another year, another festival, and we’re already thinking about next year. If you didn’t get the chance to visit Tala Studios during the festival, click here to book an appointment.
Photos by:
Issey Rider, Community Manager
