The London Design Festival kicks off this weekend, bringing hundreds of design events to the city of London with it. The difficulty of narrowing down your schedule goes without saying, especially when each exhibition has so much to offer. That’s where we’re here to help—we’ve created this insider’s guide full of our favorite exhibits, workshops, launches and events to help as you navigate your way through the maze of well-designed things.
Material of the Year
This new exhibition was created to celebrate and explore the materials with the biggest impact on global design today. The first selected material? Jesmonite®!
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
Design Frontiers
Design Frontiers will highlight the thinking and working practices of 30 leading designers from around the world, ranging in fields from automotive design to fashion design. A highlight of the exhibition will be the launch of nolii, a lifestyle-led tech brand co-founded by LAYER’s Benjamin Hubert and tech entrepreneur Asad Hamir.
Plan your visit to Somerset House here.
Enlightened Design II
Held in The Crypt Gallery of St Pancras Parish Church, Enlightened Design II will feature lighting designs by various Dutch designers that light the way as you walk through the spooky halls of the old church. The name of the exhibition is almost ironic.
designjunction
Here’s what’s on at this year’s designjunction, home of all things spatial design. There’s a lot to experience here, so we suggest getting tickets before it’s too late.
Restoration Station x Yinka Ilori
This exhibition is an exciting collaboration between non-profit social enterprise Restoration Station and designer Yinka Ilori. Shoreditch-based Restoration Station runs workshops for people in recovery, teaching them skills in furniture restoration. Ilori will work with the program’s participants to restore pieces of furniture in line with his signature aesthetic.
Country Showcases and Galleries at London Design Fair
The London Design Fair features booths organized by country, making it difficult and slightly intimidating to choose a favorite. We have our eyes on Portugal, Finland and the Netherlands, but the Netherlands is in the lead simply because their show’s name is Dutch Stuff.
Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion
It’s no secret Cristóbal Balenciaga was a master of couture and helped shape todays fashion industry. This exhibition will feature over 100 of his designs, along with contemporary designers working in the same innovative tradition.
On Repeat
A series of talks, workshops and events focused on manual repetition in the design process held by Universal Design Studio and The Office Group.
Edit ’17
Twentyywentyone’s exhibition of classic and contemporary designs is sure to reflect a creative mix of materials, construction and form. The show will focus the use of raw materials wood, metal and glass.
Urban Cabin
Architect Sam Jacob and MINI LIVING’s Urban Cabin will be one of the Landmark Projects unveiled for the London Design Festival. The ongoing project by MINI explores the future of urban living—tiny spaces.
Bodo Sperlein x Loewe
Designer Bodo Sperlein has teamed up with Loewe to re-imagine the future of OLED, and we can’t wait to check out the sleek design in person.
Es Devlin’s set for Bizet’s CarmenThe British Land Celebration of Design Awards Exhibit
Past recipients of The British Land Celebration of Design Awards include Zaha Hadid, Marc Newson, Richard Rogers, Paul Smith, Thomas Heatherwick, Ron Arad, Dieter Rams and David Adjaye. The exhibition presented at this year’s festival will feature the work of all four 2017 winners—Es Devlin, Paul Priestman, Julian Melchiorri and Margaret Calvert.
There are so many more exhibitions to browse through that we had to omit to maintain our own sanity. Continue planning your schedule here.
Source: core77