London Design Festival Preview – Shoreditch Design District

Boasting LDF big guns including Tent, Origin and Tramshed, as well as innumerable small exhibitions and events, Shoreditch is undoubtedly one of the festival’s go-to destinations.

Rivington Street’s Tramshed will feature exhibition stalls, talks, seminars, music and more than 40 product launches, including Matthew Hilton’s Hal glass-top coffee table; De Vorm’s Clamp-a-Leg  table by Jorre van Ast and six new products from Autobahn, such as the industrial-looking Pill Lamp.

Meanwhile at the Truman Brewery, Tent’s globe-trotting spread of designs includes futuristic flat-pack seating from Oyadica, Japan; concrete benches from Ivanka, Budapest; a new take on tables from Nobody & Co, Milan; and furniture, lighting and home accessory launches from Denmark, France, Cyprus and Singapore.

Intel has collaborated with jotta on Remastered: A Visibly Smart Production, which will see prominent works from art history in digital form, showing how emerging technology can shape design practices.

Jotta will also present graduate graphic design showcase Emerge at Tent, with works selscted by graphic design heavyweights including Adrian Shaughnessy, Bunch, Crispin Finn and Wieden + Kennedy.

A new addition to the Tent canvas is Superbrands London, a business design event curated by design-marketing consultancy MVDW, emphasising the business of design rather than the cultural elements, according to organisers. Featured brands include Swarovski, Bang & Olufsen.

Contemporary Craft Fair Origin at Old Spitalfields Market will see craft including ceramics, furniture, metalwork, glass, fashion accessories, jewellery, and knitwear on display and for sale under one roof.

This year, Origin has partnered with London department store Liberty to create five new display windows featuring a selection of pieces from the exhibitors.

The lovely people at Seymour Powell will be collaborating with curatorial collective The Concept Lounge, running a programme of workshops, discussions and practical sessions entitled Ideas Generator, at the Gallery in Redchurch Street. The workshops will see the Seymour Powell team work with new designers to imagine a future in which energy consumption is strictly rationed, discussing ideas and concepts relating to the theme.

The British Council’s Architecture, Design, Fashion team will be using LDF to show 15 years of British Council commissions, exhibitions and projects, selling them off to fund the design projects of the future. The exhibition, entitled This Way Up , takes place in Hoxton. Curated by Pete Collard, it will include works from Tom Dixon, Peter Kennard, Pearson Lloyd and Anthony Burrill. The space will also host an up-cycling challenge where design students will compete to produce new products using recycled materials from the archive.

Other Shoreditch hotspots look set to be Lee Broom’s new upholstery collection, on Rivington Street; Redchurch Street’s Aubin Gallery’s exhibition of Dutch designers, Tuttobene and Protein’s Slow Tech exhibition, which will look at the importance of taking a break from screens and technology and making the most of some ‘digital downtime.’

Further afield in Shoreditch’ borough of Hackney, Victoria Park’s Residence gallery will be showing Donna Walker’s lighting pieces, all created from discarded, previously redundant materials.

For more information see http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

The London Design Festival runs from 17-25 September. See the Design Week blog for our previews of Brompton, Pimlico, 100% Design, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia Now and Clerkenwell.