Liberty has teamed up with design curator Max Fraser over London Design Week, and the result is Design UK: an exciting array of contemporary furniture and home accessories showcased in the stunning Tudor building of the department store. As a collection of pieces they range from the handmade, intricately decorative wallpapers of Catherine Hammerton, to the simplified functional lines of NaughtOne’s ‘trace table’, each piece making a unique statement and yet fitting together surprisingly harmoniously.

The feeling of the show was of the importance of both the artist and artisan, with many pieces exhibiting a true respect for material and production. Favourite examples are the witty ‘Perfect Crime’ cast concrete chair by Peter Woollin and Kate Staddon which is shown opposite the innovative hand crafted leather and wood chair by Helen Murray .

Text seems to be playing an increasingly important role in product design, illustrated best here by Tracy Kendall’s bespoke wallpaper which was laser-cut with paragraphs of words, turning walls into stories.

Decoration of mundane objects is a topic that many young designers are addressing, none better in this show than Laurie Dickason’s  elegant sinewy switch decorations. Other impressive displays include Jess Shaw’s ‘Clarinet’ lighting and CJ O’Neill’s ‘Feeding Desire’ decorative plates pierced with words and images.

Favourite piece of the show however was ironically the only piece disguising its design to blend into its environment – the ‘Up and Over’ bookcase by Linden Davies, cleverly designed to make the books a         real feature of the room by encasing the door frame. A refreshingly      unassuming product creating a beautiful and personal result.

The Shop at Bluebird has donated a section of its floor space to the
Digital Wellbeing Showroom, a new kind of retail environment for digital
lifestyle products and services,launched as part of London Design Week. 

PSFK went along to see what exciting new things we could find, and were lucky enough to get a guided tour from Alexander Grünsteidl, one half of Digital Wellbeing Labs. He explained that the idea behind the concept was
to create a technological reflection of fashion trends for an integrated lifestyle,
and therefore the whole showroom will change its collection every two months
with the first installation being ‘Black and White’ in a reflection of current fashions.

With a history in product design, marketing, branding and anthropology between them, Alexander and his partner Priya Prakash have recognised that the downfall of many products comes from problems within the retail experience and so are working on how to remedy this and get people intrigued and excited by electronic products by prototyping different in-store models to help grow interest and understanding through honesty and interaction. They are also passionate about helping graduate designers engage with buyers in a commercial gallery space and so are offering these products alongside those from industry names such as Philips, Hulger and Marcel Wanders.

The result is an amazing array of new technologies, home accessories, and
products that cross the line into art pieces, all of which are arranged in a
communicative way that involves the buyer. Personal favourites from our
visit were the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus by Plumb Design, Intempo DAB radio
with interchangable artwork fascias, cable jewllery by Bless,
and SMS cross-
stitched message samplers by Kate Pemberton,  and that’s being selective- any of their wares would fit happily in PSFK’s office!! The next showroom, due to open in November, is entitled ‘Into the Woods’ and encompasses the relationship between technology and organic lifestyles- so look out for wooden computers and much more.

Digital Wellbeing Labs
The Shop at Bluebird

nb- Digital Wellbeing Labs are also working with Digital Plumbers, a company that will install and integrate any equipment to enable your digital lifestyle throughout your home in an easy to use format, a clever addition to the showroom and one we can forsee receiving a lot of business.