London Design Festival September 2024

By Katie Jones, Planner

I was on the hunt for inspiration at this year’s London Design Festival and it did not disappoint, with some thought-provoking retail spaces and exhibitions including Astrid & Miyu's 'Future Retail Space', The Bank of England Museum's 'Currency of the Future' Exhibition' and the 'Well Made' exhibition curated by Pearson Lloyd.

Well Made: What it means today (Curated by Pearson Lloyd)

This exhibition brought together an array of ‘well made’ objects, from various people and practices, in a way that shapes perception of design and quality with a sustainability lens.

What struck me, in this high-brow Shoreditch art studio, was the appeal to simple form and function (with form emerging from function). Simple but effective design that lasts is beautiful. The objects are selected and displayed in a way that imbues simple everyday things with reverence and awe. The curation seems to reveal a desire for simpler times, married with a celebration of technological advancement and innovation.

It’s a sign of the times – in the era of over-consumption, in-built obsolescence and over stimulation, true quality is not represented by the elaborate or flashy, but in that which is smart, simple and stands the test of time. It feels part of a bigger sentiment around the way luxury is going too – the new language of luxury and cultural capital is centred around the natural, the sustainable, the raw, the long-lasting, importantly those things ‘well made’…

House of Astrid & Miyu; Future Retail Experiences

At HOAM, you can explore welding bars, a piercing and tattoo studio, and a kiosk and café hosted by local partners, artists, and communities. The space felt more akin to a collaborative workspace than a shop. It’s not the first store to swap shelves for a café, but the conceptual approach to the multi-faceted shop exemplifies how design carries and connects the total brand experience. From piercing and tattoo rooms named after star signs - ‘Earth Studio’, ‘Air Studio’ etc, to the ‘Ear-cyclopedias’, the pleasingly sleek pink Matcha bar, and soft, supple welding lounge – in this concept jewellery store exploration, play, relaxation is the route to purchase.

Currency of the Future at the Bank of England Museum

This exhibition invited artists, photographers, illustrators and designers to imagine what money should become in the future from their personal perspective. A common theme was the value of time. This feels hardly surprising as a recent study from Ford found that 60% of millennials would agree to a 20% pay cut if it meant living at a slower pace with more time to focus on self-care and personal enjoyments.

To me, it hints at the importance of rooting products in wider experience and time vs product benefits, whether that be a Pimm’s for sunny afternoons with friends or a face-mask for the self-care me moment. Also, separately, it got me thinking about the perceived vs actual value of products –Rory Sutherland talks interestingly about this in relation to wine and champagne https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeETULmV/