With over 180 brands spread over two venues, this year's presentation at designjunction was a diverse celebration of design. With the main event taking place at the former Central Saint Martin's building in Bloomsbury, visitors had a unique experience of inhabiting the hallways and studio spaces that incubated the ideas and dreams of young designers, some who were now showing their products on a professional stage.
A return to natural materials like wood and cane contrasted with designs enabled by technology. Tylko, a new Polish company backed by Yves Behar, demonstrated the power of augmented reality for furniture and product customization. Consumers can build and "place" customized furniture through an app on their mobile tablet or phone. British designer Benjamin Hubert rebranded his studio as Layer, presenting a collection of recent work—including an app and wearable that tracks the user's carbon footprint. Plastics manufacturer Curver debuted a new collection of products with a knit-like surface produced through a method of "deep-texture injection."
Overall, the mix of new products and ideas coupled with the design shopping experience at the Victoria House showed that design can be democratic, aspirational and inspirational.
Sam Dunne is a designer, strategist and writer based in London. Sam is founder of design strategy agency Cohere and Contributing Editor at Core77—reporting broadly on design, technology, food and object culture.
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New Tech and Old Materials at designjunction London 2015
Designjuction this year was a very good surprise! I also wrote about the most innovative highlights, find them on my blog: http://blog.openplanliving.net/london-design-festival-2015-highlights-designjunction/.