The London Design Festival 2015

On Sunday 27th September, I visited the V&A for the final day of the London Design Festival 2015. I love this annual celebration of creativity throughout London. The V&A Museum was a Festival Hub and there was so much going on: as well as the Design Festival, the V&A was also hosting a Digital Design Weekend.

Looking down into the Cloakroom by Faye Toogood
Photo by Emma Vining

The first Design Festival encounter was in the V&A's main entrance. The 18 metre tall "Zotem" by London based Norwegian designer, Kim Thome was created in collaboration with Swarovski. Looking up from the entrance hall or down from the Ceramics Gallery was equally impressive!

Zotem by Kim Thome

Zotem by Kim Thome

Zotem by Kim Thome

One of the huge Swarovski Crystals in Zotem by Kim Thome

The 6 metre high "Tower of Babel" by Barnaby Barford was made up of 3000 individual unique bone china shops. Each one depicts a real London Shop front, from the empty and derelict shops at the base, through to the high end retailers at the top. As each one is now for sale through the V&A Shop, you can see them close up here.

The Tower of Babel by Barnaby Barford

The Tower of Babel by Barnaby Barford

Faye Toogood created a museum-wide installation that began in her "Cloakroom". Visitors could borrow a coat and follow a map to find all the museum-inspired Coat sculptures. I loved the maquettes that were on display and it was fantastic discovering each sculpture in it's special setting.

Visitors wearing coats from the Cloakroom by Faye Toogood

Maquettes for Coat sculptures by Faye Toogood

Coat sculpture by Faye Toogood

Coat Sculpture by faye Toogood

Close up of tile on Coat Sculture by Faye Toogood

The "Ogham Wall" in the V&A's Tapestry Gallery was a stunning installation by Grafton Architects and concrete experts Graphic Relief. These huge concrete blocks, inspired by the 4th Century Ogham Alphabet, were incredibly beautiful to look at and the embedded texture was fabulous to touch (yes, visitors were encouraged to touch this installation!).

The Ogham Wall

Close up of texture on the Ogham Wall

Close up of texture on the Ogham Wall

Close up of texture on the Ogham Wall

"Mise-en-abyme" was created by designers Laetitia de Allegri and Matteo Fogale in collaboration with Johnson Tiles and was an exploration of perspective. I walked through this several times to appreciate the subtle colouration of the tiles and the use of semi-transparent screens.

Mise-en-abyme at the V&A

Mise-en-abyme at the V&A

Several of these outstanding design installations are still in place in the V&A and can still be viewed over the next few weeks. You can check displays at the V&A here.