London Design Week - Best of the West

Last year it was Prince Carl Philip and the Swedish Ambassador who invited Design Trawler around to take a look at some fine Scandinavian design. Not to be outdone, this year the honour fell to Finland to issue an invitation to it's ambassadorial residence [on the world's most expensive street, Kensington Palace Gardens], to Design Trawler and Finnish designer Klaus Haapaniemi; to present a selection of intricate folklore inspired lighting silks and ceramics... and kimono clad friends.

And the best of London Design Festival's high-end contemporary design didn't stop there. Exhibitions that included Illona Gaynor's neon coat of arms at the Design Museum, through to Sonya Winner's bold and lustrous rugs, Mallett's dizzying commissions and Tom Dixon's rich use of brass and velvet would be suitably at home in many a drawing room of the £122m houses on this Billionaires Row. Norway, the challenge has been set for 2015. As for the matter of Ferrero Rocher's presented in little towers, find out what was on the menu at the Residence of the Finnish Ambassador on Facebook...

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The Fine Art Postcard - Bird in Space

It was in 2003 that I visited the seminal Art Deco exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert museum. I visited for the streamline race cars and polished steel toasters, but stood for a lifetime when I first saw Bird in Space. A golden stroke of such purity and form, I stood and gazed at the marvel by Constantin Brancusi for perhaps 10 minutes, but it might as well have been ten years.

Never before had I been transfixed by something in such a way; and still am! Clearly I head good taste - Not only did Bird in Space set legal precedent what what can rightfully be called art, but also set the record for the most expensive sculpture in history at the time [$27.5m in case you'd like to make an anonymous donation to the Design Trawler Brancusi fund] .

Sadly, my chances of owning Constantin's masterpiece anytime soon don't look too likely. While I've often considered commissioning a robbery replica, for now, I have decided to frame a simple gift-shop postcard of the masterpiece from the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice. It's not the original sculpture, but it is an authorised and official likeness. The framed 'Fine Art Postcard' series henceforth begins.

Hipsters, Handlebars, and Heineken

Contrary to popular belief, London Design Week isn't all Krug and canapes. Well, in the West-end it probably is, but ever the intrepid explorer, Design Trawler also headed out East during this year's Festival. Lured by the promise of container bars, the ever popular Tent and Superbrands exhibitions, a special Tokyo Design Week show-within-a-show and, of course a veritable petting zoo of hipster beards, handlebar moustaches and inflatable animals; Design Trawler documented it all.

Heineken kicked things off with it's pop up City Lounge project. A specially designed container bar with futuristic seating pods and specially designed barware. With a long history of limited edition bottles [because Design Trawler loves a limited edition bottle #1 #2 #3] and a TV campaign based on Design Trawler himself, full marks go to the Dutch brewer for keeping the bar high when the Veuve runs dry. Check out photos from London's East-end below or on Facebook.

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