DesignLife Videos
Quirke McNamara Consultancy
As a lighting designer as well as an interior Designer on many projects I have been commissioned to design I’ve been surprised how underrated the lighting element is. Clients are willing to spend money on expensive furniture or a beautifully finished kitchen but give very little consideration to the lighting element. The most expensive materials & interiors are never shown to their fullest without a good lighting scheme behind them. Incorporating the lighting as part of the scheme considering how the light works with the materials & finishes & creates different moods within the space is essential to a successful interior. The lighting design should always be considered as early as possible as part of the overall scheme.
Introducing Design Life Sourcing Service
Difficult economic conditions demand different and more creative ways of developing new business.
Design Life Sourcing is a new way of linking suppliers with the right Designers, and Designers with appropriate products.
The Agency provides:
• Bi-monthly Electronic Newsletters sent to the movers and shakers of the Industry
• Customised Press Releases
• Access to Jane Moriarty’s Designer Network
• Promotion within the Design Life Web Portal
• Optional animated showcase of products
If you require more information please click here
To access our archive of Newsletters click here
UK’s leading suppliers of natural stone
Celebrating 20 years, Stone Age is a family-run company, recognised as one of the UK’s leading suppliers of natural stone. Specialists in sourcing the highest quality materials for supply-only projects, the company has also developed a full project management service, including providing the architect, interior designer or consumer with their own project manager.
The Sleep Event
The Sleep Event exhibition and conference were held at The Business Design Centre, Islington, London in early November. Times might be tougher than before, but the event still managed to attract a record 4,000 visitors to the exhibition and nearly 250 delegates to the conference.
Savior Beds
Savoir Beds is the Uk’s top luxury bespoke bed manufacturer. By combining traditional techniques honed over the last one hundred years with the finest natural materials we create beds that give the highest levels of comfort.
Art and design for the home
De Angelis & Garner is a new London based company bringing together art and design for the home. Set up by three partners, the company’s ethos is based on combining artistic integrity, intelligence and rock-star appeal in the creation of their products.
The Hedonist Collection is the first of a series of limited edition art-wallpapers conspired by a collaboration between Kate Garner and Marchella de Angelis. The inspiration stems from Kate’s work as a photographer and her lifelong fascination with identity artists.
Philippa Thorp
Philippa Thorp started her interior design business Thorp Design 25 years ago. Thorp Design is now a company of architects, interior architects and interior designers with associate members for property finding and art collecting. The company is renowned for an uncompromising attitude to quality and workmanship, as well as for a highly innovative approach to solving client’s design challenges. With a refreshing attitude to problem solving, trying wherever possible to accommodate unusual requests, the company frequently succeeds where others might shy away from tackling a client’s objectives.
Selva celebrates 40 years of timeless beauty in London
On Tuesday 23rd September, company CEO Philipp Selva hosted a VIP evening in the UK. Taking place within the Italian Cultural Institute, the evening celebrated the 40th anniversary of the brand and was the ideal opportunity to showcase selected pieces designed by long-term Selva collaborator, the internationally renowned designer Lorenzo Bellini.
One hundred VIP guests, including clients, members of the press and representatives of the Italian Embassy, viewed the fabulous displays of Selva furniture, which included pieces from collections including Solitaire and Bijoux. Philipp Selva presented Counsellor Stefano Stefanile of the Italian Embassy with a beautifully crafted Selva armoire that will remain in place at the Italian Cultural Institute as a reminder of the beauty of Selva’s Italian craftsmanship.
There’s a revolution in kitchens - Quooker
Throw away your kettle! There’s a revolution in kitchens! 100ºC boiling water is now on tap from the unique Quooker. Ultra-convenient, ultrasafe with a built-in childproof safety mechanism and brilliantly energy-efficient, Quooker’s unique compact under-sink tank still leaves ample space for a waste disposal and ancillary storage.
Decorex 2008
Design Life were out and about during the London Design Festival, taking stock of the best-of-the-best in interiors at all the top shows the design capital has to offer. Here we take a look at Decorex International 2008 – the annual interior design show for professionals, now in its 31st year. For more information on Decorex, take a look at the constantly evolving and frequently updated Decorex website.
Harvey Brown bespoke sofas and armchairs
Harvey Brown produce bespoke sofas and armchairs using natural fillings and traditional upholstery methods. At their showroom they have a good selection of antique furniture including sofas and chairs, upholstered in calico.
Lubna Chowdhary's beautiful wall art
Using the traditional methods of tile making and ceramics as a basis for her work, Lubna Chowdhary creates an artistic, highly individual interpretation of wall art. Beginning with a tactile clay surface of a geometric design, she applies a palette of vibrant glazes for meticulously considered compositions. Visually arresting, her work has been specified for architectural, commercial and private commissions.
Parmer & Parmer natural furniture
Carolyn Parmer combined her knowledge as a womenswear designer with her love of travel to start a design resource of beautiful furniture and adornments. The collection is guided by Carolyn’s love of designing with natural materials such as marble, amethyst, malachite, rainbow sandstone and reclaimed wood handcrafted for high quality bowls, furniture, artwork and frames. Many items in the collection are conceived for both interior and exterior use, and can be viewed at their fascinating lifestyle showroom in Hertfordshire.
Sleep 08 - Hotel design, development and architecture
The Sleep Event is Europe’s leading event for all those involved in the creation of new hotels, with a unique format comprising a design-led exhibition, high-level conference and prestigious awards ceremony.
PROOF Consultancy
PROOF Consultancy’s recent work includes the creation of a wide variety of projects: from a bar so quietly exclusive that it’s where the young royals go when they don’t want to be seen, to a new European hotel brand with its original solution for the lone diner marooned in his hotel. David Morris, a director at PROOF, believes that the challenge for hotel designers is to balance customer expectation against a brand’s position, and to ensure it isn’t compromised or confused in a knee-jerk reaction to the year’s latest fad.
The National Design Academy Courses
The National Design Academy, in partnership with Staffordshire University, is offering the UK’s only flexible distance learning Interior Design Foundation Degree course, which leads to a Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) / BA (Hons). The degree is a practical, practice-based interior design course taught by specialist interior design practitioners through Virtual Learning Studios (VLS). Grants for the course are available for some students.
Axor Starck ShowerCollection
All of the elements in the Starck bathroom collection have one essential feature of his design philosophy in common: concentration on the essential; the poetry of reduction; pure minimalism. In other words, the bathroom as a spring, a source of water. This motif underscores Philippe Starck’s relationship with water as an element of life. For him, water is not just some trivial matter; it inspires him, especially as it connects the mythical and mystical to the act of cleansing body and soul.
SaloneSatellite WorldWide Moscow: 8-11 October
Once again, for the fourth consecutive year, the creativity of young designers from Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and the Ukraine will come together with the quality of Italian design manufacturers. Moscow’s Crokus Expo trade fair grounds, Pavilion 2, will be the site of the return of the Salone Satellite WorldWide Moscow, running in synergetic concomitance with the Saloni WorldWide Moscow from October 8-11, dedicated this year – like the most recent Milanese edition – to green design.
Event website www.cosmit.it
The new RIBA bookshop is worth a visit
RIBA’s new website has a section dedicated to Design & Interiors. This site has been specially designed to help professionals browse through the large selection of design-related books and to highlight new, forthcoming and interesting publications. It covers a huge range of titles: from product to graphic design; photography and drawing; and also specific interior design categories such as building types, theory and practice, materials, styles and themes.
Interview with Hugh Jamieson
The award-winning interior design consultancy ‘At Home’ is based in Cambridge, proving that you don’t have to live in London to be a top interior designer. The desirability of this company is testament to its constant innovative approach to practical design. Hugh Jamieson, head of the consultancy and Fellow of the British Interior Design Association (BIDA), talks to Mandie Davis about his current design projects.
JAB Autumn/Winter 2008
After an exciting spring season JAB ANSTOEZ now presents the latest collections and trends for Autumn/Winter 2008. French country style, fabulous paisleys, printed fabrics and designs ranging from minimal through to exotic.
Sé - Sumptuous and technically peerless
Based in London, Sé is the brainchild of Pavlo Schtakleff, whose vision is to marry the best designers with the finest makers in Europe, and to create design that is both sumptuous and technically peerless.
