London Design Festival & Fair: 3 high-profile shows that made the difference

The London Design Festival and London Design Fair are two concurrent events held in London, each year in September. Previously noticed, the London Design month is for us, one of the best design events on view nowadays. Many talents are discovered or brought to light there, and the exhibition format of the pieces is wide and varied. Between official exhibitions and incredible OFF shows, find out 3 events that literally steal the scene during this 2019 edition.

ADORNO at the London Design Festival / Crossovers

Founded in 2017, Adorno is a platform for promoting emerging designers, and which advocates collaboration as a tool to push up design communities. A kind of online catalog of the great design family and its actors, Adorno began in 2018, also at the London Design Fair, to become a curator and collaborated with others to exhibit pieces from their community.

This year the two founders, Kristian Snorre Andersen and Martin Clausenpresented Crossovers, or a large collection of works encompassing several countries, and brought together under a single umbrella. To enable this unique exhibition to best represent today's world, its issues, and trends, they have teamed up with renowned curators to target the best designers. Thus, Belgians, Danish, Finnish, French, Italian, Mexican, Norwegian, Swedish, Swiss and Turkish designers have been carefully selected and have thus participated in making Crossovers an eclectic event, where everyone has been able to make their own discoveries in terms of style.

Loving to highlight a clever mix of works representing both old and modern manufacturing techniques, Adorno has thus enabled these young talents whose names are more or less familiar to have their say and be represented at the London Design Festival, an event that is attended worldwide by the press, professionals and design enthusiasts. Below, discover a selection of projects on display, representing each selected country:

BELGIUM, curator Elien Haentjens

London Design Festival 2019: Adorno presents the Crossovers exhibition

DENMARK, Curator Pil Bredahl

FINLAND, Curator Sebastian Jansson

FRANCE, Curator François Le Blanc

ITALY, Curators Annalisa Rosso and Francesco Mainardi

MEXICO, Curators Ana Elena Mallet and Pilar Obeso

NORWAY, Curators Jannicke Kråkvik and Alessandro D'Orazio

SWEDEN, Curator Paola Bjaringer

SWITZERLAND, Curator Davide Fornari

TURKEY, Curator Gökhan Karakus

Relay Design Agency / Arcade Collection #1

For the first time, Relay Design Agency brought together designers under the name Arcade Collection #1 in London, showcasing unique pieces or limited edition sets of objects and furniture. The agency was particularly interested in the talents of the designers-makers for this edition of the London Design Festival, their way of approaching the material, transforming and sublimating it. Six studios were part of the adventure, including Attua Aparicio, HAHA Studio, Jochen Holz, Robin Grasby, Richard Healy and Silo Studio.

What's important to notice in this project is the common points that some pieces can have, and therefore some designers in their work and approach, although the works have been made completely separately. HAHA Studio and Silo Studio both highlighted anodized metal in their creations, when Attua Aparico and Jochen Holz experiment and explore glass work, as an integral part of sculptural lighting, for example, pushing back its limits and the properties we know about it.

Seeking to penetrate the depth and complexity of the material's surface, Arcade Collection #1, as a whole, combines the processes of industrial and serial production to adapt to another scale, that of the language of the artist's studio and his hand, allowing everyone to feel closer to the material and the peopl who shape it.

"Arcade performs as a commissioning platform allowing artists and designers to produce work outside of their regular remit. Arcade has a strong focus on experimentation, the only adherence is that all pieces, be they an item of furniture, lighting or an object, must have a perceivable function."

Neil Walsh, Managing Director at Relay Design Agency

London Design Festival 2019: Relay Design Agency presents Arcade Collection #1

M.A.H x dellostudio / Prototypes

Created in 2019 by Laura Fulmine, former editor of Grand Designs magazine and an accustomed personality to the creative universe as a whole, the gallery M.A.H. (Modern Art Hire) makes art objects, sculptures and furniture prototypes available to hire to any profession in the field. An innovative and very clever approach, as it is part of a certain contemporaneity in the promotion of artists and designers. Thus, for a project, a series of photographs, a clothing collection, you can now buy rare or even unique pieces at M.A.H, which is consistent with the principles of sustainable development and to allow the creative people to be paid differently.

During the London Design Festival 2019, the artistic director solicited the creativity of dellostudio, a nice collaboration between artists and designers Charlotte Taylor and Oscar Piccolowhose talent was particularly noticeable on Instagram lately. The duo, which successfully practises interior architecture, furniture design and exceptional set designs, has created a collection entitled Prototypes for the occasion. An undeniable reference to Laura Fulmine's approach by introducing with poetry the process of ephemeral creation.

Inspired by Greek and Roman architecture, and by the antiquity codes in general terms - at the heart of current trends - the duo designed a playful collection consisting of a table, four chairs, a bookcase, a room divider, and a coffee table. An abstract and organic design, handcrafted, that will undoubtedly inspire many other creative people for their own ongoing or future projects.