There never seems to be a good place to start when planning out what I want to see during the London Design Festival. The largest takeover of design talent across London’s streets blows my mind and my regular schedule out of the water. This year I was working on a few different projects and clients including my labour of the last 4 months as a member of the team behind the Brixton Design Trail and excitedly getting to distribute Design Milk’s own LDF guide.
So let me run you through my manic week! It was an exciting mix this year of open studios, pop up talks and large installations. The mission I gave myself was to see parts of London I wouldn’t normally visit & go in at least 3 things recommended by someone else. With all my lovely blogger friends that wasn’t hard to achieve and continued to surprise me all throughout the week.
SATURDAY
The line up at the V&A includes not just the festival installations but the museum’s own diverse programme promoted special during the week. As always there were lots of large scale installations to wow sponsored by known names and varied materials that reflected the V&A’s amazing collection. Plywood structures in the courtyard, Czech glass on the top floor, a 3-D textile structure in the tapestry room; as the festival hub it houses a little or everything to inspire designers the world over.
This years talks programme; the Global Design Forum is a curated selection of talks, tours, debates and workshops lifting the lid on design innovation and shaping tomorrows creative questions. It’s a shame that at £15 a ticket I couldn’t budget going to any of the headline talks, though lots caught my eye. I did managed to catch one of my favourite typography experts speak at Font Selfie a free workshop to help people understand the personality of fonts run by Sarah Hyndman from Type Tasting.
The V&A is the centre of the festival but also the heart of the Brompton Design District which happen in the radius a light walk around the South Kensington underground. It’s a lovely place to soak in early in the morning for brunch; even more so during LDF, letting you go in to some lovely showrooms and open houses for a showcase of high end interiors. The must see from this year was definitely Peter Pilotto’s townhouse takeover in Cromwell Place a fashionable colour extravaganza that you wish you could live in all year around. It’s on till 13th October – if you missed it.
There were some nice retail treats include Skandium’s regular offering and the pop up from The Poundshop cart in their own garage space. Also on Brompton’s map The Design Museum which I took a trip to on SUNDAY 17th & The Serpentine Gallery both great things to experience this year on your next trip.
Here’s what I got up to on MONDAY >>
