Decorex 2014, featured in Fiera magazine
Fiera magazine launches today, a magazine which has been in production since before the summer casting a critical eye over the past few months of design festivals. Issue One was successfully funded on Kickstarter and is now available to buy.
The magazine is a joint venture between confessions of a design geek’s Katie Treggiden and magCulture’s Jeremy Leslie. (Katie and Jeremy, it’s time to breath a sigh of relief).
“Every year cities all over the world showcase their best new furniture and product design at dedicated fairs, design weeks and festivals. Whether you’re a designer, a buyer, a journalist, a student, or simply a design enthusiast, you’d love to be at every fair, meeting new designers and unearthing new trends for yourself. Fiera will make you feel as if you were.”
I was asked to report on Decorex during the London Design Festival to feature within the magazine’s round-up of shows. I pulled together the full feature below…
Referring to themselves as uncommon goods, A Rum Fellow showed their collection with justified pride at this year’s Decorex design show. Taking their Guatemalan-made homewares and upholstered pieces in to the Richmond tent was a wise move as these products are perfectly formed for the interiors market. Founder Caroline talked me through the concept from the individual panels, which are made and then joined to create upholstery for their furniture pieces. There are 15 intricate tapestry panels on the sofa, each panel is woven by a different artisan taking 4 weeks to produce. If you were searching for something special you need look no further than A Rum Fellow.
I was first introduced to Adam Nathaniel Furman’s work via Dezeen, in particular his Babelle collection of minions, or as the rest of us would call them…semi-Porcelain and 3D-printed stoneware objects. Exhibited as part of the genius Future Heritage stage within the second tent, Adam’s work joins my collection of the top 10 pieces from Decorex, most of which appear to be from journalist Corinne Julius’s curation. This work might not be ‘new’ in the truest sense, but I’m reminded every time that I see them that this man has a lot to offer, and if I fast-forward in to the future, no doubt we will see a lot more of Adam’s mind pour in to the kiln or printer.
Discovering Amy Jayne Hughes’s ceramic treasures, inspired by the late 17th and 18th Century Objets d’art from the Royal Sèvres Factory, was a real treat for the eye. Part of the Future Heritage exhibit, West Yorkshire-born Amy takes the concept of the formal and lavishly decorated objets, but with her edition stripped back to highlight the natural surface with each piece establishing a new dialogue between form and decoration.
In their second year at Decorex, Bert Frank showed pieces from their collection alongside the new bullet-like drop pendant with its barrel shape spun brass metal case directing this soft pool of light directly on to the area below. Bert Frank continue to produce great quality pieces for the domestic market but with an understated glamour, akin to the designs of the 1930s which would look great on their own or adorning the walls and ceilings of a restaurant or bar. This is one design duo to keep a close eye on.
Daybed’s appear to be a popular addition to any self-respecting furniture company these days. It is impossible to swing a canvas tote bag without hitting two or three daybeds within a show such as Decorex, and I assume this is because we are all taking daytime rests to relieve the suffering of having to work. I would hazard a guess that the day bed is so popular because it allows a designer to show pattern and texture on a wide, uninterrupted surface with bolsters to add shapes, in Bethan Laura Wood’s design she has used triangular shaped bolsters, which cross the lines of the day bed. Bethan has worked with applique techniques to create an intensely patterned daybed in a rainbow of bright colours inspired by the new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in Mexico.
Brixton-based Eley Kishimoto are no strangers to the interiors world, but when it comes to making products for the home they have not ventured fully in to this space. Launching their first wallpaper collection at Decorex was a bold and rewarding move as the duo, better known for their fashion textiles, were received so well that they picked up the ‘Best New Exhibitor’ award for their intense display of brightly-coloured and detailed wall coverings. We’re told that this is the first collection with more to come, which may bring with it an exciting new British design-house for the interiors space.
It has been some time since we saw Jennie Moncur’s work exhibited at a show such as Decorex, so it was a delight to see some old favourites alongside new tapestries shown as part of Corinne Julius’s Future Heritage collection. Jennie’s work is a window in to a world of colour and pattern with her more recent work taking on more delicate colours and patterns compared to the darker, more obstructed views she was working with in previous years. Weaving very strong graphic shapes is a lengthy task as the composition relies upon the regimented order of the block colours of the yarn.
Polyethylene, Teflon and Aluminium are not the usual materials that makers dash to when approaching a new forming process, and especially when the result is to become a vessel. “The emphasis of this exploration is on the unexpected but beautiful outcomes achieved from applying heat and pressure on the otherwise mundane plastic bag” explains Joe Bradford about his work on display at Future Heritage within Decorex. By forming the layers of the container and heating the material, fuses the layers and makes the object begin to move and shape in to the crumpled result. What we’re left with is a colourful and fascinating vase, which tells a new story about the plastic it was made from.
At the core of Michael Eden’s project is the ceramic container, an object primarily used since clay was first made durable for the storing, holding, and mixing of materials useful to man. “Three-dimensional printing allows the customisation of objects, and gives me the creative freedom to do things impossible with the wheel and clay” explains Michael on why the time-honoured tradition of using ceramic to make these decorative items is something he has moved on from to embrace the new technology we’re now able to use. This would explain why so many museums and galleries are taking pieces from Michael in to their permanent collections, as this is a historic moment, which may lead to seeing more of this process used or a short period by which we must remember new materials reigniting our interest in decorative accessories. Either way, I’m sure that Michael’s work will continue to innovate and excite many customers.
Neha Lad walked me through the intricate manner in which she has created her woven fabrics to explain how she has taken junkyard copper telephone wire to intertwine with discarded paper to create a beautifully elegant but cleverly recycled textiles which, to an extent, up-cycle old products in to a new piece fit for the homes of the rich and glamourous. Her techniques create a sumptuous material, which can be changed to patinate the material as the copper wire changes in colour.
In the four short years that Richard Brendon has been operating his design studio, he has created products with Patternity and Fortnum & Mason as well as being stocked in some of the world’s best boutiques and department stores. It is no surprise to see during the London Design Festival that Richard has introduced a new collection, Speck, which highlights the imperfections within the processes of firing ceramic. The red dot would traditionally be applied to the imperfections to highlight troubled areas, and with Richard’s latest design he celebrates this imperfection and creates a completely unique piece by integrating the highlighters. Richard never fails to create a stir, and he certainly continued this at Decorex.
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