f l e e t i n g a e s t h e t i c

design and play 

Charles and Ray 

brand love 

We Compost re-brand.

Design company Droog creates and curates cutting-edge products and events around the world. They have a branch in Hong Kong but their Amsterdam base is the main event. Hotel Droog combines a designer concept store, cafe, gallery, garden and one room where guests can be immersed into the Droog lifestyle.

I have wanted to visit Hotel Droog for years, so on my recent trip to Amsterdam I headed straight there. Amsterdam is full of beautiful design shops and cute cafes but Droog has an edge, you can see that their carefully curated shop focussed on playful yet functional design objects which aim to challenge the way we think about design. The cafe was peaceful when we went, which was a contrast to most tiny, busy places in Amsterdam.

The building is so spacious, you feel able to explore, around every corner is another room filled with interesting objects. The cafe is a great place to relax, with a simple yet stylish menu and a bookshelf filled with interesting reads. My new favourite place in Amsterdam, Droog is a place to spend a while, indulging in design, exploring the garden and enjoying a peaceful drink. 

Fluid forms and unexpected materiality continue to inspire me. These functional objects d’art are by Stokholm based designer Erik Olovsson.

I've been so busy these past six months so I’ve only just found the time to check out the highlights of October’s Dutch Design Week! I would have been there again if I could’ve, I will definitely aim to make it to Eindhoven this year. 

As always the Design Academy Eindhoven’s graduate show was a highlight, particularly Martijn Van Strien’s Post Couture Collective. This capsule collection has been making waves due to Van Strien’s innovative idea for a post-internet fashion industry model. 

Her designs take form via downloadable patterns which can be purchased cheaply and lazer-cut at your nearest Maker-Space. The fabric Van Strien recommends using is a 3D knitted spacer foam, constructed from recycled PET bottles. The look is typically minimal and Dutch with utilitarian slotting tabs. The construction of the garments reminds me of a more developed version of my graduate collection. 

I like Van Strien’s ideas and her website is beautifully made www.postcouture.cc, however considering the small quantity of Maker Spaces with big enough lazer-cutters (There’s one round the corner from me in Brighton- but it’s a rarity) it may be a long time before we’re all wearing open-source garments. 

The atmosphere plus creative buzz from Falmouth's arts University has inspired a new generation of young creatives. They’re setting up their own studios, forging a modern Cornish aesthetic which is becoming recognised as craft and quality focused. Here are a few which stand out...

Francli Falmouth - Outdoor accessories and craft aprons  http://francli.co.uk/ 

Tom Raffield - Steam bent wood furniture http://www.tomraffield.com/

Toro Studio Falmouth - Indoor plants and gardening accessories http://www.toro-studio.com/

Plates and mugs by ClayKat Ceramics. Her use of colour is outstanding, I love the hand-finished feel of this collection, the liquidity of the glaze is beautiful and with names like ‘seafoam’ and ‘blush’ they’re pretty hard to resist. 

Collaborative consumption expert Rachel Botsman predicted in her recent Ted Talk that: “We will soon be living in a world where reputation will be your most valuable asset”

Currently our reputations can help us in the collaborative economy - whether we sell old clothes on Depop, host dinners with EatWith or want to make some extra money running errands with Task Rabbit, our feedback from past ‘collaborators’ is what keeps us afloat. The number of websites exploring collaborative economy is growing at a frenetic rate, we will soon be able to buy everything we need from groceries to services and spaces from these platforms. With this in mind, our online reputations will become a new kind of currency which we will defend with as much urgency as our bank details.

Botsman envisions a future where we can google a person and view a realtime stream of who has trusted them, when, where and why. This would be a kind of‘reputation dashboard’ which would paint a picture of your reputation capital and enable people to decide how to trust you and what value you hold to them. This collaborative revolution is transforming our consumer system, new trust networks and the alternative capital they generate could disrupt the way we think of wealth, power and personal connections.

Outdoors inside.