After months of hard work making the confessions of a design geek bursary happen, it was really lovely to step back, leave the shortlisted designers to man their stand and take a stroll around Home London. Now in its third year, it seems to have grown-up. It was much bigger this year, but the selection of exhibitors was still well edited, the investment in new designers is still evident in the Homegrown section and this year, new show Craft was onsite alongside Top Drawer.
I’ve seen a lot of “best of Home London” type posts on other blogs already (thanks so much to everybody who’s included the bursary shortlisted designers in their top picks), so hopefully, I managed to spot a few things that you haven’t seen elsewhere. Here are my top picks…
- I loved Bold & Noble‘s graphic prints and tea towels – very strong, contemporary design, with a bit of wit and charm
- Zoe Atwell was launching at Home London, so definitely one to watch
- I love this new pilchard tin design from screen-printers extraordinaire Thornback & Peel
- It’s good to see Scottish design brand Yoke going strong and showing new designs.
- Jo Ham was of course the stand design mentor for the bursary and you can see why – a really striking stand design that’s perfectly on brand and lets her products take centre stage.
- I loved these plant holders from Pigmillion in new show Craft.
- This was Justine Ellis‘ first trade show too, so another one to watch – she was in the Spotted section of Top Drawer, curated by Charlotte Abrahams.
- I hadn’t come across Pattern Booth before – I love the bold graphics and strong primary colour palette.
- I love these coasters from Ella Doran – a perfect gift for the vinyl nerd in your life!
- Another brand representing Scotland was Orwell and Goode – it was really lovely to meet the team and see some fab new products.
- I love this simple new range from Mr Wingate inspired by some cross hatching in one of his prints – genius!
- I’ve been a fan of Sian Elin‘s ever since she launched at Tent London in 2012, so it was great to see more of her work here.
- Bursary product design mentors Mini Moderns are always a favourite at Home London. They were launching loads of new products – their ability to continually up their game never ceases to inspire me. Their peggy wallpaper is incredible – based on photographed peg board, Keith hand drew twenty different hole designs to make it.
- Fern Living is a Danish interiors brand I wasn’t familiar with before the show – they had lots of fab products on the stand, but I particularly liked this monochrome tea set.
- I love Cornish brand Green and Blue, and this little bee house designed to be used either as a sculptural form in your garden, or as an industrial building brick, so we can build habitats for bees back into the places we’re taking them out of, is a stroke of genius.
- It was a pleasure to meet Danish designer Kristina Dam – I love her architectural prints. Watch this space for an interview with Kristina soon!
- And, finally, I have resisted sharing yet more pictures of the bursary shortlist stand, but I couldn’t resist including bursary winner Fanny Shorter in my round-up. Everything about her presence at Home London made you think she’d been doing this for years. Both her product range and stand design were incredibly professional and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
Home London is a really nice start to the trade show calendar. Next? Maison et Objet starts on Friday in Paris – watch this space for my top picks!
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- out and about :: a christmas wreath
- out and about :: happy hygge
- out and about :: design exquis
- out and about :: cornwall
