Clerkenwell Design Week: A design for the future

Guest blog by By Mandy Leeming, Interface Design & Development Manager

It’s that time of year again when the great and the good of the design world gather to show their wares at Clerkenwell Design Week, and there is certainly a palpable air of excitement at Interface HQ.

Clerkenwell Design Week is a unique celebration of furniture and product design, offering a varied programme of debates, discussions, exhibitions and workshops. For our designers at Interface, who are passionate about developing innovative, forward-thinking collections, this opportunity to talk design with other industry experts is one of the highlights of their events calendar.

This year we’ll be exhibiting Metropolis, our new thought-provoking collection inspired by the topical apocalyptic and rebirth design trend. Based on the prophecies and predictions around the wp-content/2012 apocalypse, Metropolis is our interpretation of the end of the world as we know it and, more importantly, the birth of a new future. You can see this exciting new collection brought to life on our website.

At Interface, we create collections based on the trends that pervade our culture and society. These trends resonate both with consumers and businesses, informing spending habits and inspiring lifestyles. Such themes act as catalysts for our designs, and each collection is essentially a documentation of the trends that influence us year-to-year, and represent the cultural landscape on a global scale. To keep up to date with our new collections, take a look at our blog which is regularly updated by our designers.

As well as proudly presenting Metropolis, we’ll also be hosting a programme of seminars and discussions with key industry professionals. On day one, ‘Trends and Inspiration in Design and Colour’, we’ll be focusing on British interior design in the 21st century with an interactive discussion led by none other than Vanessa Brady, president of the Society of British Interior Design. The panel will include Victoria Redshaw of Scarlet Opus, Sally Storey from Lighting Design International and one of our own concept designers, Hannah Harper.

We will also be welcoming Nicola Palmer, winner of the 2011 Graduate Fashion Week at the University of Central Lancashire, who will be hosting a discussion around the influence of fashion trends on interior design.

The second day will explore the opportunities and challenges of co-innovation, featuring a discussion – hosted by David Simoes-Brown from 100% Open – with a panel including Peter Handlgruber of Bene, Rowena Preiss from Philips and our senior vice president of product and innovation, Nigel Stansfield.

‘Design with Purpose’ will be the focus for the final day, featuring what I’m sure will be an animated discussion on the role of sustainability in design, a topic which is, of course, at the very heart of the Interface brand. The debate will be hosted by Elina Grigoriou of Grigoriou Interiors, with Yeshwant Mudaliar from M&S, Patrick Laine of WWF-UK, Paul Scrivener from MCM Architecture and our own Kelly Grainger making up the panel.

We will also be considering Biomimicry as a design principle in our afternoon workshop, to explore the ways in which nature solves problems and how we can use the principle of biomimicry in design.

Everyone is welcome to attend our seminars and discussions at Clerkenwell Design Week and further information can be found on our website. You can also use this page to register your attendance. We hope to see you there!

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