What I love about going to Premier Vision is that not only is it a great opportunity to peer ahead, check out trends and see cutting edge technologies that are the results of years of R&D but you get to pick up stuff (literally and mentally) that you might not normally find or have easy access to. Here’s a good example, it’s a beautifully produced colour journal called ‘Le fil du lin & du chanvre’ which gives an overview of how linen and hemp are being used across the board in design.

Le fil du lin & du chanvre, n°03

I also found ‘Geometric’, a brilliant book by Kapitza – a design studio up the road from here set up by 2 sisters. It’s great fun, loaded with 100 pattern fonts (shapes based on the forms of letters in the alphabet) and something I’m definitely looking forward to playing with. Some of the patterns reminded me of the Dutch artist and designer Karel Martens who is a favourite of mine. You can buy the book from the Kapitza online shop:

One last notable mention from Premier Vision: Jakob Schlaepfer’s brand new, awe-inspiring fabric ‘Secret Garden’, a shimmering silver gossamer with iridescent inks printed onto it. It’s one of those fabrics that photographs really don’t do justice to, you have to see it up close and feel it yourself. So, lucky me! Look out for this in the coming years time in clothing and interiors.

Posted in books, design, graphic design, pattern, review, technology, trends

I’m really looking forward to going to Premiere Vision Spring Summer 2011 show next week, this is the colour and textile forecasting show held in Paris twice a year. I have been going now for around 20 years; I find it very useful for colour development work, seeing the technical advancements that are happening in digital printing, weaving and machine printing. Sadly the famous trend forecaster Li Eldekoort doesn’t have any involvement with the audio visuals, a shame as they were very inspiring, she is really one of my favorites (see Sept Blog), you can still buy Bloom magazine at the newsagents but her View on Colour and INview are no longer in publication, luckily you can still buy back issues.

Indigo is on at the same venue; where you can buy designs directly from textile designers for the following season AW 11/12.

I’m constantly looking “out there ” for colour inspiration, on my early morning jogs (um… have only just started this so don’t hold your breath!) I have been watching some wonderful colour spreads. Not brilliantly in focus as snapped with my iphone whilst listening to my inspiring jogging music!

I really love the blues; lilacs mauves with the peaches and soft pastel yellows, there are an infinitesimal amount of colourways that you can work from using nature – its mouth watering!

Colour working Primrose Hill

Colour Work London Eye

Colour Work London Sky

Posted in colour, design, technology, textiles, trends

At Decode, currently on at the V&A, the first thing you see is Daniel Brown’s ‘On Growth and Form’. Commissioned for the Porter Gallery, it’s just outside the exhibition and is massive in size, about 4 metres high. But despite this big scale, its position makes the work easy to miss and that, along with the fact that it’s the only Daniel Brown piece in the exhibition, is a real shame.

In it, muted colours and delicate floral, organic forms are constantly morphing to make images that change and grow; the result is hypnotic and soothing. It reminded me of a Fischli and Weiss exhibition I saw at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris back in 1999, which included Sichtbare Welt (Visible World), an installation where they layered double-exposed images of flowers on top of each other. When these slides were projected in slow transition and at a huge scale you had an illusion of movement plus a blast of colour and beauty to mind-blowing effect. Brown uses more advanced technology but the emotional power is the same; awesome and calming.

Daniel Brown 'On Growth and Form'

Seeing Fischli & Weiss’ installation when I was about to start my first wallpaper collection was a real inspiration for me to make large-scale digital banner prints. It was just at the time when both digital photography and digital printing were becoming more affordable, helping pattern and imagery become more ubiquitous in interior design.

Brown has already been commissioned to produce works for private clients but I think something like ‘On Growth and Form’ would be great in a hospital or public space. And pretty soon it might be possible to have work like this in our homes.

Daniel Brown 'On Growth and Form'

I think designers and artists seem to turn to nature images at a time of change when something comforting is needed. Fischli & Weiss’ flower installation was touring as we were approaching the end of a millennium and Brown’s work is on show as we enter a new decade, and in a period of uncertainty.

Elsewhere at Decode interesting works included the kinetic artwork ‘Weave Mirror’ by Daniel Rozin which uses image-capture combined with hundreds of C-prints that organise themselves into a light and shadow, ‘woven’ picture of the person looking at the work. It sounds (and probably is) complicated but is beautiful to look at. Oasis, a lightbox with black sand creating amoeba-like forms, the splodgey, interactive piece ‘Body Paint’ and Aaron Koblin’s ‘Flight Patterns’ a visualisation of the flights across US airspace in a single day also stood out. Unfortunately ‘Dandelion’ by Sennep/Yoke wasn’t working but I’d love to have seen it.

Decode is at the V&A til April 11^th.

Here’s where you can read more about ‘Sichtbare’ by Fischli & Weiss.

Posted in art, botanical, design, review, technology

In 1957, Stanley Coren and Tristram Hull set up Hull Trader’s, a company to promote ‘new ideas, good design and sound workmanship’. It became part of what was more like a movement that supported the creativity and production processes of designers, artists and craftsmen, rather than simply exploiting “design” in the commercial way we see so often now.

This year, Heal’s celebrates its bicentenary. During the early part of the last century, the store’s mission had a similar honesty and integrity to Hull Trader’s’ and I think this legacy of really nurturing and championing good design is something it could revisit in a big way. Plans seem afoot to do so with furniture but by delving into it’s amazing archive of fabric and wallpaper prints there’s a real opportunity. Similarly, although it was Cath Kidston who made retro florals desirable again, Laura Ashley has a wealth of vintage designs, and not just flowery prints, locked away, which could be tapped into, brought out and up-to-date, enabling them to take the world by storm again. Adopting this approach has really helped brands like Liberty and Sanderson’s reinvigorate themselves and it’s exciting to see. Back in 2004, Charlotte Abrahams in her article ‘Morris dance’ wrote this about a then-floundering Sanderson’s, “…here is our cry: face the challenge… You are sitting on one of the most exciting decorative archives in the world. All it needs is a bit of rethink (a colour update here, a change of scale there) and we’ll all come running.” They did and it worked. If you were a design-led company once, it’s worth reminding yourself of exactly that and a good way of doing this is to look back into your history and find inspiration in the design archive. All it takes is a bit of bravery but within their own treasure troves, these companies could find the key to a brighter future.

Posted in design, interior design, pattern, textiles, vintage, wallpaper

Don’t know where the time goes but it seems we are now entering February, I have been back to the Museum of Everything twice as I just cant get enough of it and its local to me and I still find it sooooo inspiring. Outsiders Art is just incredible, I had been aware of the well known names like Alfred Wallis and Scottie Wilson but had no idea there was so much wonderful work out there !

I also popped into another show local this time to my studio in Shoreditch called If you could Collaborate . It has some work in by our friends BMCH the very talented graphic designers Ben and Mark.  They have worked with us on our books, web, and printed materials.

For the show they’ve teamed up with product designers Smith&Wightman with a proposal for a new currency, all beautifully presented and very witty artifacts or maybe I should I say designifacts? The show is only on till Saturday so better hurry to catch it !

I was going to get some visuals to go with the following of this blog , but I guess you can all get that very easily yourselves so for a change I thought I would put something very happy ,very visually pleasing to the eye and very musical as a blast for the beginning of the new decade …hope you enjoy it as much as I do !

‘This too shall pass’ by OK GO Directed by Brian L. Perkins

Posted in art, design

This weekend we took a trip out of town to visit Pallant House in Chichester. Extended to show the modern and contemporary art collection of architect Colin St John Wilson which includes work by John Piper, Patrick Caulfield, Sir Peter Blake, Howard Hodgkin and Lucian Freud, I was there specifically to see the Henry Moore textiles exhibition.

Moore often collaborated with David Whitehead – a leading fabric printer and also with Zika Ascher – one of my true inspirations. Many years ago I spent a few weeks working at the Ascher studio surrounded by old screens whose colours told the company’s rich creative history.

Fame in Fabric, Pathe film of Ascher studio

In the mid-1940s Ascher was known for collaborating with a range of artists including Matisse, Cocteau, Derain, Piper and Cecil Beaton. He forged a long-term relationship with Moore and the current exhibition at Pallant House tells their story brilliant. Moore’s constant sketching using so many media and materials and the textiles produced with Ascher were an exercise in trying to get onto cloth was what usually done on paper.

Moore’s textiles featuring his drawings of reclining ladies, birds and his barbed wire motifs were produced using complex techniques such as discharge printing. Their joy comes from a direct sense of Moore’s mark-making and of the artist himself.

Nowadays this is often lost in fabric design, financial considerations tend to limit the ability to experiment with tricky, time-consuming processes, instead speed, volume and cost-effectiveness are the order of the day. This means that mainstream design and production that rely heavily on computers, which definitely has its own merits, but there is perhaps a kind of flatness or lack of character in the final product. I love seeing brushstrokes or the differing weights in a hand-drawn line. It’s something I try from time to time in my own pieces.

Flora detail

Like Moore and Ascher, what works best for me is mixing different aspects – a painterly feel, handmade or retro qualities – with contemporary colours and methods in order to try and create something entirely new.

Posted in botanical, colour, design, interior design, pattern, review, textiles

Getting out and about to absorb as much of the arts and culture available on my doorstep no doubt has a direct influence on my work but I also find a wealth of inspiration from online sources.

Now that all of Pathé’s newsreels are available online I’ve been checking a few out. They have an enormous archive covering news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970. The programmes about interior design and domestic life in general are especially fascinating. There are some great ones from the 1950s and 60s from which you can get a genuine insight into the materials, patterns, colours, furniture and other objects of that time.

Country Cottage – not sure if I like the final outcome of this but it’s fascinating to watch her striping the wallpaper in her finery , reminded me of seeing Gilbert and George recently blow torching the paint off a their front door in Spitafields all dressed up in their wonderful suits.

The Dome House – a great space to work in I wouldn’t mind one of these, I love how the windows open.

1953 Fashion Show – I love the stripey yachting outfit , how very NOW !

Carpets – Wilton and Axminster with some great shots of rural Britain and of hand knotting.

Another that I often delve into is VADS, the online resource for visual arts. It is managed by the Farnham Campus of the University College for the Creative Arts and is an extensive collection of images including fine art, illustration, advertising posters and textiles as well as including the Design Council’s slide collection and the London College of Fashion’s archive. Worth a look!

Posted in architecture, design, fashion, interior design, textiles, vintage

Still thinking about the Museum of Everything! I think a key to its success is that the exhibition redresses the balance of power held by the galleries, dealers and media, tipping it back towards the artists and the general public. You appreciate what you’re seeing on its merit, without preconceptions of the artists’ fame, reputation or ‘value’.

At the Museum, the presentation and atmosphere, almost like inside an art school, perfectly mirror Brett’s un-snobby and democratic approach to collecting. It feels like an antidote to how I often encounter art in the mainstream institutions, big art fairs and slick commercial central London galleries.

All the elements, from the little postcards, badges, handwritten signs, the sense of humour, tea and cake, the website and large-format catalogue are all executed with real warmth and personality.

The Museum Of Everything Exhibition 1, Front Cover of Catalogue

Posted in art, design, graphic design

Saw Michael Clark’s Company perform the Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed et all  last night at the Barbican, absolutely fantastic! The dancers, costumes by Body Map’s Stevie Stewart and sets totally mesmerising, Michael Clark is an iconic artisan and so inspiring.

Michael Clark Company © Jake Walters. Dancers Oxana Panchenko and Clair Thomas

I love his mix of punk with classical, it has an anarchical pulse to it. Memories of 1988 I am Kurious Oranj, Leigh Bowery and The Fall. It reminded me of the 80’s just left Camberwell and set up my print studio in Rotherhithe, a time in London that was full of negative influences on art and design beset by the Thatcher government. There was a growing movement of rebellion, art students holding sit ins at the Tate Britain in dispute with the forming of the London Institute which was to bastardise the London art colleges as we knew them, Nicholas Serota informing us that although he sympathised with our goal we would be carried out of the building by the police one by one, which we were!

It was a time when designers were challenging the craft aesthetic, following on from Punk, designers such as Stevie Stewart of Body Map the Hemmingway’s ‘Red or Dead’ at Camden market, John Moore’s inspirational shop ‘The House of Beauty and Culture’ in Hackney, Pam Hogg, with Tom Dixon, Judy Blame and Fric and Frack at the pivotal 1987 Crafts Council show ‘The Makers Eye’ that pushed the conceptual boundaries of craft and production methods.

“we were rebelling against the conservative, the bland….. We are striving for excitement” says Stevie Stewart of that time (Vogue UK, March 2003).

So seeing Michael Clark again reminded me of the movement – expressional, confrontational and non-conformist times which feels so different to the mass-production tribe of fashion of today. There may not have been much money around but there was the mentality of Do It Yourself which was much more inventive and personal.

Michael Clark mixes Punk with classical, creating a tantalising explosion in sound and colour especial in ‘COME, BEEN, GONE’ – stripy jackets over bright red body suits, against brilliant blue and orange backdrops with Jean Genie and Heroes blasting out loud from gigantic speakers… jaw dropping dance movements – it had a similarity to the Anish Kapoor I saw last week, the feeling of being immersed in to the deep rhythms of colour – pure genius! Thank You Michael Clark and team!

Go see at the Barbican till end of this week.

PS … forgot to mention great programme in the shape of a record sleeve designed by Malcolm Garrett.

BBC Michael Clark Interview

Posted in colour, design, fashion, review

For a while, I’ve been pondering the renewal in interest of hand-made, artisan goods. It’s a trend that has filtered down into everyday life, including food. But reading recently that Hermés is continuing to thrive during these economically challenging times, and Goyard just opening a store in London, again made me wonder about issues of craft, quality and desirability at the top end of the market.

In the mind of the consumer, genuinely luxurious goods are increasingly perceived as such through the knowledge they have been carefully hand-crafted, with a great deal of time and dedication by only a small number of individuals and in limited quantities. With this process comes an inherent one-offness, a quirk, difference or personalisation that the next piece from the same workshop won’t have. And it’s this resulting combination of uniqueness and subtlety is what distinguishes them as ‘luxe’.

The hospitality business and network Rough Luxe sums up the current mood and goes a step further; “Rough Luxe… is a new way of looking at luxury as part of time and not just as an object of consumption. Luxury should be an enriching personal experience and not simply the ownership or utilisation of an expensive object.”

THE ROUGH LUXE HOTEL LONDON

In my own industry there are a number of companies that are offering hand-painted papers and interior products. Others are re-creating the hand-made feel using machine and digital prints. It’s great that new technologies mean that quality and beauty are more widely available but there is an enduring respect and desire for craft.

Posted in craft, design, handmade, interior design, trends, vintage, wallpaper

That’s how Suzy Menkes once described Missoni in the International Herald Tribune. Italy has a strong tradition of craftsmanship in small, family run companies that started off in fabric-making and combined this with their interest in colour and pattern: Etro, Zegna and Ratti are other good examples.

The other day, I went to see the exhibition ‘Missoni: Daring to be Different’ at the Esoterick in Islington and listened to a talk by Luca Missoni, son of the founders Ottavio and Rosita Missoni. What impresses me about Missoni is the intimacy and creativity that the company has maintained even now, over 50 years later and such a big, global success.

Ottavio and Rosita Missoni. Source wikipedia

Missoni rug Kalahari Viola. Source Missoni Rugs Blog.

Missoni rug 'Kong'. Source Missoni Rugs Blog

For me, the other key to Missoni’s special identity lies in its meaningful and ongoing relationship with art. Missoni takes a genuine interest in the work of artists – people like Giacomo Balla, Sonia Delaunay and Gino Severini whose use of colour have been so influential on the company are truly valued and embraced by Missoni. This goes well beyond tie-ins such as Louis Vuitton with Stephen Sprouse and Takashi Murakami, deeper than Jurgen Teller photographing Cindy Sherman for Marc Jacobs’ adverts. And whilst the Missonis do collect they seem to draw this into their own work more than Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge who gathered objects and paintings for their home.

Posted in colour, design, fashion, pattern, review, textiles

We’ve just been at 100% Design then Decorex where I was chatting to Christopher Cole, son of the founder of Cole & Son and he too spoke of how, in the 1950s, very personal relationships with artists such as Lucienne Day and Eduardo Paolozzi were integral to the company’s identity. It’s the fruits of these collaborations that have endured, even though Cole & Son is no longer a small business. Similarly, the Palladio collections from Lightbown Aspinall and then Sanderson were so admired because of the involvement with artists and sense of craft.

Palladio Seven, Harlow. Designer Helen Dalby. Source Design Council Slide Collection, VADS

Palladio Seven, Sphere. Designer Deryck Healey & Rosemary Newson. Source Design Council Slide Collection, VADS

When your company is small, these relationships tend to be about celebrating the artists, their talent and the products that you make together.

Posted in design, interior design, pattern, wallpaper

I feel that when larger companies link up with artists and designers it becomes more about PR opportunities and boosting sales. Whether Debenhams or Topshop, Habitat or John Lewis, they’re all doing it. A few years ago when Graham & Brown undertook a project in conjunction with the Royal College of Art the results were really interesting and, I think, improved Graham and Brown’s status but I can’t help wondering whether it became yet another case of a marketing team jumping at the chance to use the word ‘designer’ and up the perception of creativity.

Of course, ‘designer’ ranges and products are so popular that they aren’t going to go away. But, there is a danger that we may suffer a designer overdose, especially in the case of particular names.

It seems that the same handful of designers, people like Marcel Wanders, Patricia Urquoia and Hella Jongerius are producing a wide range of products for the same four or five companies. It’s completely understandable for manufacturers to stick to these names as they’re a safe bet and will sell well but there is a downside – the resulting feeling of familiarity and homogeneity. The upside is that it becomes even easier for individuals and smaller companies to really stand out.

Posted in design, fashion, interior design, product design, trends

Companies like Cole & Son and Sanderson started life as family businesses, grew bigger and eventually were bought – a commonly recurring pattern of development. Often in the UK we complain that our manufacturing traditions are dying out and that we don’t nurture and retain our own talent. But I think in this country we are good at forming small, often family-run, innovative little companies, which do survive and make stuff in this country and we should congratulate ourselves on this more. And it’s these sorts of companies that are gaining more and more respect as the trend to question the big international chains and their mass-produced goods continues.

Channels, the furniture company and CTO Lighting have shown at 100% about as long as we have and they still continue to manufacture mostly in the UK, as do Timorous Beasties who showed at Designersblock. Naturally we’ve all felt economic ups and downs and that’s what is nice about being at a trade fair, the chance to catch up and find we’ve had similar experiences.

Looking around 100% and the London Design Festival it feels like there are lots of fantastic, small, family-based enterprises. In our corner of East London are Jason Bruges Studio and Forster Inc, a brother-and-sister companies, Foxall Associates, founded by two brothers and JAM, set up by Jamie Anley and his partner Astrid Zala – all of whom cover a range of creative disciplines and are becoming highly respected. Keeping it small and starting with family can really work.

Posted in design, interior design, wallpaper

I’m experimenting with shiny finishes, grainy metallics but instead of bling, I’m looking at how they exist alongside more muted colours such as dark grey, pinks, beige and camel. Have a look.

But, returning to bling for a moment..

Can you imaging landing on Earth from space, or being fast-forwarded from say Victorian times and seeing this? Aside from whether you would actually buy it, the affect is certainly dramatic, a Benz whizzed past me in Camden Town, I did a double take… was it mirrored or glass? I looked it up and found that there are loads of them!

Have a look on YouTube

Posted in botanical, design, pattern, product design, technology, trends, wallpaper