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Clerkenwell Design Week 2024: Brands and product designs stirring the design fair
(L-R) UP sofa by Fora Form; Chair from the Rethinking Classics: S 32/S 64 DARK MELANGE collection by Sebastian Herkner for Thonet; and the Scene collection by Industrial Facility and +Halle
Image: (L-R) Courtesy of Fora Form; Courtesy of Sebastian Herkner and Thonet; Courtesy of Industrial Facility and +Halle
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Clerkenwell Design Week 2024: Brands and product designs stirring the design fair

STIR picks the best brand displays and activations at the Clerkenwell Design Week, which hosts a barrage of creative voices via creative showcases and collaborative works.

by Almas Sadique
Published on : May 22, 2024

Clerkenwell Design Week, currently running in London, UK, across 12 venues, is host to a variety of site-specific installations, art exhibitions, showcases of newfangled products and talents and an array of brand displays and activations. From lighting, furniture and homeware products to innovations in ceramic, finishes and atypical materials, the showcases at the design festival are myriad and all-encompassing. Open to the public from May 21 - 23, 2024, the fair, with 600 scheduled curated events, 160 design showrooms and 300 exhibitions, brings together some of the latest designs and launches by many established and upcoming designers and brands.

STIR picks a few favourite brand displays and activations at the design fair.

Thonet and Sebastian Herkner’s display as part of the German Collection

As part of the exhibition Herkner meets Breuer, at the design week, German designer Sebastian Herkner presents myriad colour iterations of erstwhile Hungarian-German architect Marcel Breuer’s chair designs Thonet S 32 and Thonet S 64. While the former is a cantilever chair, the latter comes with armrests. Herkner’s collection, curated for Thonet in 2024, is titled Rethinking Classics: S 32/S 64 DARK MELANGE and is displayed in Clerkenwell as part of the German Collection. This curation brings together a leading selection of acclaimed German brands and furniture. The Rethinking Classics: S 32/S 64 DARK MELANGE collection is adorned with natural hues on the wooden portions of the chair, which sit in contrast against dark opalescent cane work. “DARK MELANGE cane work shimmers, oscillating between a rich black, a dark chocolate brown and lighter tones. The reactive dyeing process produces subtle irregularities in the colour that give the material a particularly individual finish, accentuating the beauty of the natural product and its distinctive texture,” reads a description shared by the brand. The new DARK MELANGE version marks the first time Thonet had offered cane work in a dark variant.

Herkner and Thonet also showcase the 118 FV chairs as part of their collaborative showcase at the design event in Clerkenwell. Conceptualised by Herkner, the 118 FV chairs are the newest addition to the German designer’s range of Offenbach chairs or 118 chairs. Originally designed for Thonet, Herkner’s range of 118 chairs pays homage to the German company’s heritage, via the appropriation of the minimalist practices adopted by the brand’s founder, Michael Thonet. Hence, the chairs included within this range are made using the fewest possible elements of beech wood, all of which are finely chiselled and sleek. “The chair legs—characterised by their rounded backs and gentle front edges—echo the trapezoidal seat typical of Thonet chairs and the angle of the backrest is perfectly aligned with the chair’s seat," mentions the press release.

118 FV, the newest addition to the Offenbach chair range, is an armchair created by Herkner for fine dining settings. It features a larger seat, a wider, slightly more reclined backrest, and bentwood armrests for a comfortable lounging and dining experience. To keep the furniture design versatile, the chair comes in a variety of colours and different set options such as upholstery, classic canework or monochrome stained moulded plywood.

Matthew Burt’s showcase as part of the British Collection

British designer Matthew Burt’s furniture designs are exhibited at St James’ Church in Clerkenwell, as part of the British Collection, which showcases the works of local brands. Burt’s works, on display under the moniker Making from the Collection, comprise a selection of his brand’s most-loved and timeless designs and offering them as part of a made-to-order service. Some of these include the Coopered Carver chair, Swallowcliffe Barstool, a dressing table with a stool, the Loop Console Table and the Before You Go mirror. Revealing the simple things that inspire his designs, Burt shares, “I was gazing at our family Christmas tree and the ribbons that attached various baubles, their undulations catching my attention. Off I went to my sketchbook and the Loop table emerged.”

Industrial Facility and +Halle display the Scene collection

Conceived by London-based design studio Industrial Facility for the furniture brand +Halle, the Scene collection is a modular seating furniture that can easily be adapted in tandem with its environment. Developed in response to +Halle’s brief on 'defining', the Scene collection seeks to offer ways to focus and spaces to unwind. “During the annual briefing on ‘defining’, which took place in isolation during the pandemic, we had a very fruitful discussion around the idea of ownership in the public realm, how much privacy and distance an individual needs versus how much you are drawn to participating in a group or social space, even from afar. Such dialogues helped us draw up the criteria for how we can possibly come to define public seating in the future,” says Martin Halle, creative director at +Halle.

The Scene collection can be configured to accommodate many different kinds of designs Courtesy of Industrial Facility and +Halle

The modular bench units, which come in a variety of detachable backrests and varying seat widths, can be manipulated to create many different kinds of private and semi-private environments. “For a while, we have had the notion of a ‘third space’—if the home was the first and the office was the second, the third space acted as the in-between where people can meet to discuss freely. But today, the third space is becoming the second, an informal space, where you want to be creative, relying on other people, stimulation, interaction and conversation. I think Scene carries this multiplicity, providing a solution for these things to take place outside of the home,” says Sam Hecht, co-founder at Industrial Facility.

UP sofa by Fora Form

The UP sofa by Norwegian furniture manufacturer Fora Form is an atypically designed seating furniture. It comprises a tilted backrest that can alternatively serve as a comfortable seating spot, whilst also bearing the ability of serving as arm and lumbar support. The sofa collection, available in myriad colours, comprises different seating variations and can be easily configured in varying formats to fit into different environments. Fora Form, known for manufacturing social furniture and formatting ambient indoor spaces, mainly in Norway, employs expert craftsmanship techniques to build pieces that are timeless and long-lasting. “Our goal is to create workplaces good enough to match our homes. Our vision is to create furniture and places that enable good meetings between people. We know that people shape culture and that culture shapes people,” the brand shares. This vision speaks out with clarity via their sofa design for UP, currently on display at the Old Sessions House in Clerkenwell.

Cora lamp by Aromas del Campo

The Cora pendant lamp by Spanish brand Aromas del Campo is made out of synthetic leather and a variant of metal or ceramic. It comes in a variety of colours and embodies a minimalist mien, suitable for formal settings, but also for semi-formal and domestic spaces. On display for Clerkenwell Design Week, under Light, the lamp is stationed within the subterranean House of Detention, with other lamp designs conceptualised and made by an array of leading international lighting brands. Aromas del Campo, established in 1986, has since evolved from making potpourris and aromatic products to glass table lamps filled with dried flowers, and eventually mainstream lighting products. “We bet on technological design, functional and affordable lamps, with pure and simple lines but without neglecting the forms of Aromas,” the brand shares. All of their designs, including the Cora lamp, serves as an embodiment of the brand's journey and vision, whilst also exhibiting a prominent consideration for sustainability.

Solus and Refin present Laboratory

As part of Clerkenwell Design Week, London-based tile supplier Solus presents, within their showroom in Clerkenwell, the design exhibition Laboratory. The showcase is designed by architecture and design consultancy Holloway Li, in collaboration with ceramic brand Refin. The interactive installation, on view for three months, opens up the possibility of exploring microcosms hidden within ordinary materials, through experimental photography. Within the gallery space, visitors can explore the intricacies hidden within wax, metal and fresco, in three bespoke experimental stations.

“In an era saturated with digital post-production, we set ourselves a strict rule to generate these beautiful images purely via analogue methods, appearing at once microscopic and cosmic. For example, what appears at first glance to be a computer-generated image of a retreating ice cap turns out to be a ‘live’ physical recording of melting wax under intense magnification,” shares Alex Holloway, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Holloway Li. Moving through the specially designed installation, visitors can explore the purpose of the experiment in the first section, then move to consider examples and lastly, create their own microcosmic images using mounted cameras at the stations in the final section.

STIR, a media partner to the design event hopes to bring forth dynamic design facets and collaborative works from leading creatives. Clerkenwell Design Week is open to the public from May 21 - 23, 2024, across 12 venues in London.

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