Colour goes bold with a shift to primaries, while spontaneous surfaces feature mark-making and illustration.

With exhibitors from 40 countries, London Design Fair 2019 was a key destination for global directions in colour and surface design. 

 

 

Bicolour

Colour felt chaotic, but in a spectacular way in Floor Story’s Optick's collaboration with artist Kitty Joseph. The hand tufted rugs followed a bicolour palette and simultaneous contrast in vibrant pink and orange, aqua and ochre and an acidic yellow combination.

 

 

Disruptive colour

Unit 3 and their resourceful furniture made from offcuts from previous projects followed suit with a dissonant colour pairing of electric blue and hot pink in bold and blocky cocktail chairs.

 

 

Head to toe black

The resurgence of black is noted in diverse graphic line and shape in collections from One We Made Earlier and Custhom. It was Collection Mezcalienne, designed by Constance Guisset for Maison Marcoux Mexico that caught our eye with a family of vessels head to toe in black.

 

 

Stand-out primaries

The art school movement discussed in our SS 2020 story Parade could be felt in  colour choices and surface directions across the fair. Primary colours were on display as single stand-out shades for ceramics and furniture. Of note Moïo Studio presented Modern Ancestors, an electric grouping of cobalt blue glazed ceramic vessels.

 

 

Red alert

Italian designer, Vito Nesta and his Milan inspired love seat dominated in primary red, as did the limited edition UU Chair, coated in a natural linseed oil and crushed red pigment by Mette Schelde as part of Crossovers by Adorno.

 

 

Uncontrolled print 

Free-hand and fluid illustration gave print design a spur of the moment feel. Stoff Studios adopted an expressive style with a collection of fabrics featuring gestural mark-making and mono printing techniques as a form of imagery.

 

 

Colour merge

Mottled surfaces and curdled colour finishes were also of note, in particular Flensted and Mouritzen’s Revolve collection for Crossovers by Adorno. Rooted in their interest in old stucco materials and moulding techniques, the design duo created dynamic sculptures where colours merged into one another.

 

Our four page LDF focus will be published in MIX Magazine issue 58.

London Design Fair

Image credits from top:

Floor Story John Booth | Adorno Crossovers Gwendoline Porte | Floor Story Kitty Joseph | Unit 3 Jim Stephenson | Maison Marcoux Mexico | Moïo Studio | Adorno Crossovers Vito Nesta | Stoff Studios | Adorno Crossovers Troels Flenstead & Ragna Mouritzen