Furniture Design Fads: What Is There To See During The London Design Festival

Looking for the current furniture design crazes? Industry publications and websites can never deliver the best. To find out about the current fads, visit design festivals: they are still the far best place for people of your interests. One of the biggest and most infamous in the world, The London Design Festival, will be here in three weeks commencing on 19th and finishing on 27th of September. Though this will only be its 6th year, it has already established into an institution respected and visited by thousands of design personnel of different origin. More than 200 events compounding the London Design Festival keep the visitors busy. It’s a real celebration of design originality and cultural liberty. You would need hundreds of hours to visit and enjoy all the events, so unfortunately you have to decide with care. To help you with this task, as a furniture professional from Toronto I have put together a short list of the most interesting events that shouldn't be missed by anyone who is planning on vising this festival.

Present-day furniture

The New Modernists
Viaduct, the main UK agent for the leading top European furniture making companies, celebrates their 20th birthday with this unique exhibition. Huge names like Maarten Van Severen, Bertjan Pot, Studio Job, Stefan Diez, Arik Levy and so many others will be involved. If you want to know something about present-day furniture, you can learn it there. I would go as far as saying that it's my personal favourite.

Molteni & C
Molteni & C have collaborated with Foster + Partners to create exceptional quality furniture with attention to design and engineering, materialized especially in the Arc Table. Moreover, Molteni & C will launch Sofa Chats on 24th September to celebrate and discuss the influence of Italian design.

Exclusive furniture

Armani/Casa
As an opposition to the modernists, these traditional Italian furniture professionals offer a wide range of luxurious pieces. Armani/Casa working exclusively with Rubelli will premier a brand new collection of fabrics. If you demand exclusive interiors, you should begin here.

Natuzzi
Apennine region designers lead the world in the production of high-end furniture, as can be seen at the exhibiton of Italian designer Natuzzi. Leather is the main choice this year, but there will be much more to see than sofas only. Celebrating 50 years in business this year, Natuzzi are proud to present a diverse range of products using leather in sculpture and photography.

National furniture design trends

Eyes On Spanish Design
Spanish creativity will be demonstrated by exhibitions of 9 leading designers, which will showcase their attitude to current trends in furniture and decorative trends. Contrast of various combinations of (non)traditional materials, simple shapes and manufacturing innovations (with the stress on sustainability) are their main features.

100% Norway
Norwegian designers have long been recognized for their unique approach to furniture and their display at this exhibition will certainly cool you down. These designers from the northernmost manufacturers will include newly created concepts as well as many of their most recognizable creations.

Experimental furniture

Grassworks
Why not devote some of your precious time to this small presentation of experimental furniture by Jair Straschnow. Self assembly furniture consisting of bamboo shoots that uses minimal glue and screws. Nice and relaxing after the previous orgies of shapes and materials.

Working On Time
Lamm (hosted by Sagal Group) launches a new collection of innovative furniture. The 'on-time' concept is simple. A chair that can be folded and stored, using a minimum of space and also providing a comfortable sitting experience when it needs to be used (unline the others that we had to use at University). 'Working' will be represented by a totally new concept of a table that is designed to 'fold-n-store', there-by creating a working environment that is very flexible.

Installations

White Light
Even excellent interior designs are useless when not seen properly, therefore lights are one of the keys for every home staging professionals. White Light installation combines lighting, furniture and film. Slamp, AVMazzega, Varaschin and Fratelli Boffi teamed-up to showcase the best.

Colour Creativity and Verner Panton
Peter Lassen produced a system called 'Montana' which is probably the best storage system in the world and has thousands of combinations. With the help of Verner Panton’s lighting, he is going to present the juicy color palette of his system. For more details about all the events, please visit the London Design Festival's official website.