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LDF 2011: Designersblock Part 1

Designersblock was the highlight of London Design Festival for me, so given that this is my last series of posts covering LDF11 for Design Milk… I have saved the best for last. There was so much to share, so I’ve broken it up into Part 1 and Part 2.

The design, the curation and the space itself were inspirational and exciting; creating a real “festival” atmosphere. Not bad considering it was my third show on the eighth day of the festival. The space was the Farmiloe Building on St John Street, home to lead and glass merchants George Familoe & Sons until April 1999.

The curation went beyond pairing the right designers with the right spaces — which was done very well — to idea-led exhibitions, like the auction room in which everything from the chairs to the hammer was for sale to the highest bidder… no monetary bids allowed.

And the design, well judge for yourself – here are my favorites…

Ornella Stocco’s furniture made from porcelain plumbing elbows connecting wooden sticks.

The JAILmake’s Plantable previewed here on Design Milk before the festival started.

Sujin Park, Yougeun Choi and Soojung Lee, all Furniture Design majors at Sangmyung University in Korea, collaborated on this modern take on the ancient art of seal engraving. In exchange for a donation to Unicef, you could carve your own name and add it to the blooming apricot tree screen.

Lukas Dahlén’s tripod, part of his graduation project, “The Fifth Element.”

Olle Gustafsson’s Fine chair.

This Spring Collection table, by Karl-Johan Hjerling, Karin Widmark and Susanne von Ajkay, responds elegantly to its construction.

David Ericsson’s tactile locker is entitled “Carl Malmsten Made Me Do It.” Known for the quote “a hand that creates makes a brain that thinks;” in this case, he’s right.

Stay tuned for Part 2, coming tomorrow!

Katie Treggiden is covering the London Design Festival for Design Milk. Katie writes confessions of a design geek, winner of mydeco’s “Best Interior Design Blog in Great Britain” and has just released her first book Interviews, a collection of 18 interviews with designers.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.