My visit to Clerkenwell Design Week

By Marta Bator-Purska

As an interior designer, Clerkenwell Design Week is a date to have in the diary. From the launch of new products, attending workshops with other designers to being the first to hear about new trends, it’s a must!

As well as visiting a plethora of show rooms, I got the chance to meet up with some current and new suppliers.

One of the highlights of my time at Clerkenwell, was participating in a talk with Tarkett Desso where we heard about their last survey which investigated what people actually want in their workplaces.

Something highlighted was stereotypes about expectations and what people expect nowadays.  The guest speakers were incredibly interesting and included Evelien Reich (Editor, Elle Decor NL), Catherine van der Heide (Senior Associate, HASSELL Studio), Marc Richard (Managing Director, Roger Lewis).

Another inspiring talk I attended was with Orangebox. The topic discussed was ‘How iGen’s education experience will impact the workspace’, mainly what our office will look like in 30 years. With the online world already taking over a lot of our everyday life, from shopping to courses and work, we discussed how this may impact office design in the future.

The SketchUp workshop was particularly beneficial because this is a tool I use on a daily basis! Who knew there was so many great features to SketchUp (at no additional cost!).

The workshop took us through both LayOut and the animation feature, something I can now use more confidently. I’m particularly looking forwarding to using the animation tool more, which allows the client to ‘walk through’ our design giving them a feel for the space – something they love.

I made it my mission to visit as many showrooms as possible! With over 100 to get through this was going to be no mean feat. It was great to see new products and trends coming out of showrooms such as THINKWORKS, SOLUS, MILLIKEN, HAVWOODS, CONNECTION, BOSS, OPTELMA and SPACESTORE (<– a personal highlight for me!).

A truly inspiring experience – roll on Clerkenwell Design Week 2020!