During what seems like an endless January there was a lovely space created last week for a virtual show by all the great people at Top Drawer. I was lucky enough to attend a good portion of the talks from my desk. Though covid times of course appeared in many conversations there were lots of take aways of positivity and things to look forward to in the coming year.
In Bryony Sheridan's (Liberty) talk with Fiona McCarthy (Vogue Living) we looked at how we are exploring new ways of expressing ourselves. Things that can inspire and spruce up our homes have been big on the agenda. Original art is happily very popular at the moment with artists such as Poppy Ellis and Chiara Pinaro being in high demand. Gifting is also of key interest, "Christmas has shown that we didn't shy away from sending presents
despite the sombre mood". Ideas repeated across the talks move on from trend focussed thoughts to movements such as: sustainability, consistency, slow design, wabi sabi, timelessness, integrity and a circular economy.
I especially enjoyed the Design in Packaging piece with Vincent Villiager & GFSmith. Lots of great tips with using dye proof paper, sustainable boards like Extract and the new GFSmith website for small business. I appreciated Vincent's thoughts on how the development stage is an important part of the creative process - "there is a tremendous amount of craftmanship between a great idea and the end product". Coming from a family of artists and craftpersons I relate to this, it's something I look to when working on collections such as the new range Amelia with Cinnamon Aitch. In the collaboration a great deal of thought goes into the print processes, colours, hand finishing elements, board weight and such. Had all gone to plan Amelia would have launched at Top Drawer, though we didn't get to see it on the walls I'm looking forward to sharing this lovely project with you all in the coming weeks. Watch this space!
 |
| VIRTUAL TOP DRAWER SS21 | EMILY HAUCK KARIKA NOVA |
Clockwise from the top left: a pic of my desk mid talks, top drawer on demand - the new way to view all the newness, a first pic of new range amelia created for cinnamon aitch - more on that soon, retail fest talk titles, the lovely gfsmith, some of the people behind all the great content including those mentioned earlier and giles kine of country life - mike fisher studio indigo - nichola keenan and nichola lindsell of boxx creative - trend expert louise healy adonis sharon crowson - design archives, top drawer on demand, slide from the talk on packaging design.
No comments:
Post a Comment