100% finished!

After four long days 100% Design London is finished! It's been hard work but well worth it. Buzzispace proved to be a real crowd-pleaser and enjoyed a lot of attention. All the products got love from the visitors but the new acoustic wallpaper, Buzziskin, proved to be a particular hit. Thank you from Relay to all those who made a special visit to come see us.



Having spent four days in Earls Court we saw a lot of design and wanted to highlight our top pieces.

Top Collection

The Capsule Collection by Ziglam & Brook for Deadgood with Bute fabrics. Created from offcuts of waste fabrics arranged to make a graduated run of colour tones and textures, the collection proves that ecological does not mean it cannot be contemporary.

Top Chair

Koln by Toni Palleja for ABR made up for the general lack of furniture at this years 100%. Coupled with his Bonn tables they made quite an impression with their retro lines mixed with contemporary processes and finishes.

We could not mention ABR and not talk about Maria USB by Luis Eslava. Complete with glowing LED heart no further explanation is needed...ave maria!



Top Lighting

Designer of the moment Benjamin Hubert made 100% Futures a must-see. His Labware series of lights proved a big hit with us at Relay and with more exciting products in the prototype stage Hubert is definitely a name you will see a lot in the future.


and finally our Top Accessory went to Torr, a vase by young belgian designer Nicolas Bovesse. Mixing marble, blown glass and stainless steel Torr' asethetic for science experiments at home echos Hubert's Labware. Clever and fun...we want one!

Minipoint by Ӧrjsӧ for Wallpaper*

Designed by Studio Construction/Bergboms for Ӧrjsӧ, the Minipoint collection made a welcome cameo on the Wallpaper* stand at 100% Design London this week. Amongst the rows of magazines and city guides the lighting collection looked very smart in white. Also part of the Wallpaper stand was shelving by Vitsoe. Designed by Dieter Rams in 1960 and celebrating its 50th birthday next year, the 606 Universal Shelving System still looks contemporary...timeless.

The (Design) Week so far....

So, 100% Design kicks off tomorrow at Earls Court. Please visit us with Buzzispace at Stand H16. The stand is looking superfine, even if we do say so ourselves. We're pleased to be neighbours of Deadgood and we know we are in good company by having Decode, Naughtone and our friends from No Chintz all in the vicinity.

100% Design is only one part in the London Design Festival whirl, so what else have we seen this week?
It's impossible to see everything, but as previously stated, we were impressed by the Eclectcollect pop up store.


We loved Michael Marriotts take on New York icon Kiosk at SCP East. Studio Toogood came up trumps with a very Memphis cafe at Portobello Dock. Words cannot do it justice.....


B&B Italia showed three interesting re-interpretations of the Naoto Fukasawa designed Papilio chair....


....and the Poltrona Frau showroom opening had the best cocktails in town.
All this and it's only Wednesday!

Lina Meier at EclectCollect

Lina Meier was the highlight of the Eclectcollect Pop Up showcase held at Studio 1.1 tonight. Putting forward her BarDeco collection for its long-awaited UK debut, it did not disappoint. Taking inspiration from minimal graphic design and the linear barcode, Meier's collection created bold combinations of form and material. For example the 'BarDeco Lampshade with Hook', combines powder coated steel and solid oak with the rubber of exposed electrical cables, and with a hook so that you can hang it anywhere in the room. We at Relay couldn't be more impressed.

See more of Lina Meier's work at the Eclectcollect Pop Up until 27th September.

www.eclectcollect.com
www.lm-design.co.uk

Relay Event

We thought we would get a head start on London Design Week (which officially starts tomorrow) by holding our first 'Relay Event' on Wednesday night. Kindly hosted by the amazing 'Do' on Beak St (thank you Andrew and the Do team), we collaborated to bring you the latest collections from Ӧrjsӧ and Zeitraum. Thank you to everyone who came along and made the evening a real success. We had a great time!

Big talking points for Örsjö were Ginko, their Wallpaper awarding winning pendant light, and Lean (below). Designed by Jenny Bӓck this beautiful floor light caused a real fuss on the night with it mix of brass, steel and rubber.


Zeitraum also caused a stir with their beautiful wooden furniture with many of their designs becoming the centre pieces of the display. Honourable mention needs to go to Tavola (an amazing American Walnut dining table), Code 1 shelving and High Noon (arched floor light) which added some drama to the lighting display.

The Zeitraum/Örsjö showcase will be in Do until the end of the month...after which we will be popping up for another 'Relay Event'...so watch this space!!

Subvision

Appearing out of the chaotic Hafercity in Hamburg - Subvision Festival had a hugely successful first outing this summer. Under the curatorship of Brigitte Kolle, the festival sought to bring together the worlds most interesting art and design initiatives. Housed in a series of shipping containers, flanked by purpose-built temporary auditoriums, each initiative produced exhibitions and events for the two week duration.

We at Relay particularly liked the project by F.A.I.T from Krakow, who collaborated with Hamburg based group Umschicten to transform their shipping containers into a luxurious villa for their artists and designers, complete with rooftop swimming pool.

Other great projects included Baltic Raw Org who specialise in creating pop-up architectural interventions. Overlooking the busy port they built Friland - a building whose use sits somewhere between that of an art gallery and a dance club.

The only disappointing point was the no-show from Copenhagen based designers N55, leaving their lonely geodesic globe looking abandoned on the side-lines.

www.subvision-hamburg.com

Icon Design Trail

As part of this years Icon Design Trail and in association the London Design Festival, Relay Design Agency and Do have collaborated to bring you the latest collections from Zeitraum and Ӧrjsӧ. Together we will be showcasing these two award winning design houses during the Design Festival at Do from 19th to 27th September - see you there.

Do

47 Beak Street
London 
W1F 9SE

www.do-shop.com

www.iconeye.com/designtrail

www.londondesignfestival.com

Reclaiming Seduction

Continuing the Barbican’s Radical Nature summer exhibition ICON editor Justin McGuirk chairs discussions with Jan Jongert from Dutch design firm 2012Architecten. Famed for their use of recycled and re-used materials they adapt to create innovative and ecological design which avoid the gimmicks and cut right to the point. Most famous was the use of Audi 100 windscreens as shelving units for the Duchi shoe shop in Scheveningen, The Hague. Including a central sitting area produced from left-over wood from a Rotterdam window factory it forms a bench as well as a footrest. Shoes can even be tested on a conveyor belt constructed from reclaimed supermarket cash desks. The entire shop design is composed from an astonishing 90% waste, yet in the talented hand of 2012 it is transformed into a seductive and smooth retail boutique.

Jan Jonhert discusses this and the projects on 20 August 2009 in the Redgrave Suite, Barbican Centre London.

Elle Decoration

The September issue of Elle Decoration features the stunning Stockholm apartment recently completed by Swedish architects Tham & Videgård Hansson.

The initial riot of colour which greets guests on arrival, is found to be more controlled on closer inspection. Strong, bright colours are used throughout, but colours are blocked to define areas. Each room was carefully developed as a reaction to the adjacent spaces. The design is painstakingly detailed.

To counter balance the colour, the decision was made that all furniture and lighting should be pure white. Svenkst Tenn and Artek pieces sit alongside new classics from Moooi and Design House Stockholm.


The main living space is dominated by a large U Form chandelier, designed by Elisabeth Henriksson for Örsjö.

Could we live there? Hmmm. That's a difficult question to answer, but are we glad someone had the vision to design it and they, in turn, had a client brave enough to commission it? Absolutely!

Summer Pavilions

It’s the last few day to catch the Driftwood Pavilion by the Architecture Association, so if you haven’t had a chance to head down to Bedford Square do it before the end of this week! Designed by students from Unit 2 of the prestigious Architecture school, it was originally based on a concept by 3rd year student Danecia Sibingo. The pavilion is the fourth in the annual AA Summer series, to learn more about it and past projects visit - www.aaschool.ac.uk




Also launched this month was the Annual Summer Pavilion by the Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens. This commission by the gallery is awarded to architects who have never built in the UK before and started back in 2000 with Zaha Hadid. This years offering is designed by Tokyo based Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, otherwise known as SANAA.

The pavilion will act as an extension of the gallery space and will host a number of events every Friday night under the title ‘Park Nights’ including poetry, performances and film screenings all the way to the end of September.

To learn more about events at the Serpentine over the summer and past Pavilion projects visit - www.serpentinegallery.org

Thinking inside the Box

With 100% Design on the horizon our friends at NoChintz have launched ‘The Box Project’ – a competition for North West creative talent. The Manchester based design team have designed a pre-fabricated micro-building - a 2x2x2m cube developed for ease of build and transport. Now they need something to fill it. The Box Project is a competition challenging entrants to design the function and reason for this 2mx2mx2m box which will be housed at 100% Design. The 15 finalists will be judged by a panel of respected experts, and the winner will have their creation made and showcased in September at 100% Design, the international design show in London.

Seeking to profile local creative talent and emerging designers from the North West we look forward to NoChintz' northern invasion of Earls Court this September.

To learn more about The Box Project and terms of entry go to www.theboxproject.co.uk

and to learn more about other NoChintz projects visit www.nochintz.co.uk