Are the most recent furniture design trends high up on your list of interests? Magazines and websites are not the best source. You need to go out and see all the colors, shapes and curves personally and there are no better opportunities than design festivals. For over a week London will be showing again one of the most infamous design festivals in the world - London Design Festival, commencing on 19th of September. Even if this will only be its 6th anniversary, it has already established into an institution respected and attended by thousands of design professionals of different origin. More than 200 events compounding the London Design Festival keep the visitors busy. It’s a real festivity of design creativity and cultural liberty. It’s a real shame that there’s no time to see all the events. One has to decide with care which to visit. Since this isn’t an easy task, as a Toronto furniture professional I decided to choose the most important events for you.

Present-day furniture

The New Modernists
The biggest British agent for the leading top European furniture producers, Viaduct, will be celebrating its 20th anniversary at London Design Festival. I don’t even know where to beging, since there’s so many designers involved. To name a few: Maarten Van Severen, Bertjan Pot, Studio Job, Stefan Diez, Arik Levy and so many others. For those into current furniture, this is undoubtedly one of the best places to study. I would go as far as saying that it’s my personal favourite.

Molteni & C
Molteni & C have joined forces with Foster + Partners to create exceptional quality furniture with attention to design and engineering, materialized especially in the Arc Table. Additionally, Molteni & C will launch Sofa Chats on 24th September to celebrate and debate the influence of Italian design.

Exclusive furniture

Armani/Casa
The counter the modernists, Armani/Casa have produced a wide choice of luxurious pieces, A new collection of fabrics will also be introduced by Armani/Casa in cooperation with Rubelli. If top market interiors are your things, this will be surely the place for you to attend.

Natuzzi
Designers from the Apennine peninsula are the world leaders in prestigious furniture, as proven by another exhibition of Italian craftsmen, Natuzzi. This year’s choice is leather, but don’t expect leather sofas only. Celebrating 50 years in business this year, Natuzzi are proud to present a diverse range of products using leather in sculpture and photography.

National furniture design trends

Eyes On Spanish Design
The creations of nine designers from Spain will be presented to display current attitudes to future and decorative trends. Contrast of various combinations of (non)traditional materials, simple shapes and manufacturing innovations (with the stress on sustainability) are their key elements.

100% Norway
Looking North to Norwegian designers, this exhibition should chill you out with their cool designs and innovative products which have been organised with the help of the Royal Norwegian Embassy and other Norwegian institutions. You can see both prototypes and commercial products from the foremost northern manufacturers.

Experimental furniture

Grassworks
Jair Straschnow will be presenting a unique range of Grassworks furniture and perhaps you should consider spending some of your time here. This will be a very interesting display! Simple, self-assembly furniture is made of bamboo shoots, using a minimum of glue and screws. Nice and relaxing after the previous orgies of shapes and materials.

Working On Time
Lamm (hosted by Sagal Group) launches a new collection of innovative furniture. ‘On Time’ is represented by folding chairs, which are able to provide comfort together with high flexibility (let’s hope that one day they will replace the horrible chairs we know from our universities). ‘Working’ will be represented by a totally new concept of a table that is designed to ‘fold-n-store’, there-by creating a working environment that is very flexible.

Installations

White Light
Good interior designers are pretty useless if they cannot be seen at their best. Therefore, lighting is one of the most important factors when staging a property (using professionals). The best way to blend lighting, film and furniture is by installing white light. Slamp, AVMazzega, Varaschin and Fratelli Boffi have joined forces to present the best.

Colour Creativity and Verner Panton
Peter Lassen produced a system called ‘Montana’ which is probably the best storage system in the world and has thousands of combinations. With the help of Verner Panton’s lighting, he is going to display the juicy color palette of his system. For more details about all the events, please visit the London Design Festival’s official website.

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