In May, Dawn and Craig attended Clerkenwell Design Week – a vibrant display of all the best that UK and European design has to offer. From the exhibitions, displays, meetings, learning sessions, and networking events – Dawn and Craig brought home a whole load of inspiration and key takeaways. All of which we’ll bring into our future work. In the meantime, here are the highlights…

Top moments

While it’s hard to pinpoint the best moments of the event, there were definitely plenty of stand out elements…

First of all, we were amazed by the diversity of suppliers, and not just from the UK, but from across Europe. We met and spoke to so many different producers, many of whom were offering products we had never seen before, and so many of them using recycled and sustainable materials in their manufacturing. There’s so much innovation taking place – and the variety of products like tiles and fabrics on offer was staggering. Key suppliers we’d like to mention are:

• Chelsom who had their spectacular new range on display –the extended range of finishes that will now be available will be particularly interesting to the commercial sector. We attending their launch event, maybe mention this and the brands anniversary? Chelsom are renowed in the industry and we regularly use them for our projects – their standard products and bespoke. It was great to see their new innovative ranges.

• Smile Plastics who are making beautiful supersized panels from waste materials, and almost every single one is different. We loved this product. Every piece was completely unique and beautiful and created from a waste product which is amazing!

• Panaz was showcasing its new collaboration with Scotland-born, luxury fabric designer, Timorous Beasties. Panaz is a go to brand for commercial fabrics which we specify a lot. It is great to see them collaborating with another established brand to create something new and exciting.

• Solus Ceramics – the selection on offer is going to bring so much more choice to commercial clients. We are loving the number of options on colour, texture and design on offer at the moment. All allow us to make each project completely unique.

• EGE Carpets who can recreate almost any design we can think of in carpet form.

• Domus Tiles who had an ecclectic array of tiles drawing inspiration from nature and sunlight

  
  

We were also delighted to see so many young designers featured throughout the exhibitions. Fostering young talent is something that we take seriously at Bell & Swift, and it’s great to see that the wider design community do too!

Our final favourite part of Clerkenwell Design Week was the overarching opportunity for the whole design community to come together. The event is so well attended, you get speaking to so many different people and like-minded individuals – it’s such a learning opportunity. We were also over the moon to see old colleagues, suppliers, and partners who we’ve worked with over the years.

The BIG takeaways

• Products made from sustainable materials can be aesthetically spectacular – and the price point of these products is becoming more suitable for commercial budgets.

• Before, many sustainable products and materials weren’t manufactured on a scale suitable for commercial projects, but this is changing! The likes of plant-based faux leathers are now available at quantities required for bigger projects.

• The hotel industry is definitely pushing for more sustainable options – and it’s clear that now we can make sustainable choices without being limited. The diversity of products on offer and new products coming to market gives us so much more opportunity to design unique interiors for our clients.

All of the above is going to bring more selection, choice, and higher quality finishes to commercial projects that fit in with overarching budget and functionality constraints. It’s exciting, it’s an opportunity – and one that the Bell & Swift team will be grabbing with both hands!