This week’s Friday Tip comes from Orla, one of Conran Studio‘s brand design team.
You may have heard of Secret Cinema, the themed pop-up cinema experience which involves a lot of dressing up and just as much fun. Last December, the team behind Secret Cinema opened a pop-up restaurant along similar lines, ingeniously titled Secret Restaurant.
Filed under Friday Tip, STUDIO CONRAN
Are kitchens the purely functional places they once were? Jared Mankelow doesn’t think so.
Rather, as our formal rules of dining have broken down, kitchens have become social hubs, folding in the dining room and living room, too.
To that end, Conran Studio‘s Senior Product Designer has written the following piece on the evolving role of the kitchen – and what that means for kitchen design.
Filed under STUDIO CONRAN, THE CONRAN SHOP
Bad design is an inevitability, and and in one way designers should be thankful for it: for good design to be recognised as such, we need bad design.
But, for those of us who believe well-designed things make the world a slightly better place, encountering bad design can be painful.
What’s worse is when bad designs come back to haunt us. For example: weren’t NHS spectacles bad enough the first time?
Pinterest has been adding a healthy dose of pretty to our office lives for a while now. We love its clean, simple interface and great use of portmanteau.
So far we’ve been quiet observers, but today we’d like to introduce Conran on Pinterest. We have experts in branding, products, interactive and digital, architecture, interior and retail, and our boards are curated by all of them.
Conran Studio are hunting out their favourite brands, and Conran & Company their favourite products. Conran Singh and Conran & Partners are picking the best from the worlds of digital design and architecture.
At the moment, Vicki Conran is at Chelsea Flower Show (read more about her Artisan Retreat here), and she is kindly sending through her Chelsea highlights.
More to come soon – including a board of Terence’s personal picks…
Emma Booty is the Creative Director of Conran Studio, our product and brand design team, and resident brand-building expert.
Last month, she spoke at the Interior Motives China conference in Beijing – a major gathering for the Chinese domestic car design industry.
Cutting through the petrol fumes with typical panache, Emma regaled a 350-strong audience with a story about coffee.
Bear with her…
“…un piccolo momento di piacere” – in drab English, a small moment of pleasure.
As designers, we’re interested in transforming items of necessity into such moments.
But how?
Britons, on average, spend £3 a day on takeaway coffee.
£3 a day makes a £5 billion business, and a greater household expense than the gas bill.
Until 1994, the coffee shop market was relatively immature – the baristas wore baseball caps, and served lacklustre pints of weak, sweet, American-style coffee. Did you know that the French call American coffee jus des chausetttes – literally, ‘sock juice’?
Then something changed. There was an infusion of Antipodean personality into the British (and especially the London) coffee scene. An infusion of social ease. The emphasis was no longer on the utility of a caffeine fix, but the luxury of a moment of pleasure.
Coffee shops started to say something about us: bright, confident, sexy, energetic. The market diversified – not just Italian-American, but Australian, British and Scandinavian. There was a new confidence in national personality.
With it came a natural increase in quality.
The American stalwarts took note of this shift – and tried to inject a little personality of their own.
What does this mean for the Chinese car market?
“…un piccolo momento di piacere” – a move away from necessity.
Cars are more than appliances, more than status symbols. They represent a way of living.
As the Chinese car market matures, cars will evolve from necessity to lifestyle choice.
How will China influence the rest of the world?
By infusing design with Chinese personality – with themes of economy, family values and respect.
Just as Australian social ease was an authentic fit for coffee shop culture, so these Chinese values fit plumb into the new, leaner automotive industry.
“Mesdames, messieurs…” welcome to the 82nd Geneva motor show, the circus has come to town. Conran Studio were there too to view the spectacle.
Enormous show halls are filled with automotive beasts corralled into brand paddocks, each of these stands are themselves magnificent pavilions of grand architecture. The lights, noise and static crackle and we dehydrate to a crisp on entry.
Serious men with pink feather dusters tickle the final specks of dust from their show pieces. Hired women with skinny curves stroke their tamed metal brutes.
Despite the elephant in the room, a herd of them in fact – the finite oil supply, planning of car-less mega cities, markets emerging in unpredictable ways and a general global skint-ness – the first impression was of business as usual. All the biggies – Audi, Toyota, Peugeot, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, Volvo – have voluptuous spaces for photogenic concept launches. There are plenty of both cars, ideas and determination to delight.
Colour is everything this year. The recent, subversive resurgence of matt charcoal blacks for exterior finishes have become Prada-fied, via the sweet shop: silky caramels, powdery, matt hint of strawberry, fresh pale, pearly mints. Sophisticated, modern and with a (stroppy) edge. Graphic flicks and accents are bold and executed with flair, look at the red-eye of the Audi A1.
The red eye of the Audi A1
Form. The tribal nature of car brands cause a powerful kinship for consumers, the silhouettes of these cars are a masterclass in creating emotional connection through design. The sinews, scoops and flex of these muscled creatures look particularly good when you lie on the floor; so look up next time you’re being run over. The language is still diluted for the newer brands such as India based Tata, but they’re gaining momentum and confidence and an evolved language is sure to follow.
Lighting. Developments in technology and manufacturing techniques have allowed for softer and more controllable lighting in interiors. (Remember when it was a slide plastic thing that rarely worked and god-forbid if you turned it on whist Dad was driving?). On the outside, lights are swept back, arched, looming, scowling… every brand has a different twinkle to its eye, the eyes being the door to this soul.
Interiors. The knobs and dials are interactive jewels, causing an intimate dialogue between the drivers’ eyes and hands. The new Peugeot 208 exemplifies this more direct experience, for example the teeny steering wheel and a clever composition means you see the instruments above the wheel rather than peering through. The references to a broader design world are clear to see: bespoke tailoring and expert pattern cutting, combinations of textures and fabrics and stitched seam details, precision craft of cabinetry and the intersection of materials. A crossover with other trades for design and materials is nothing new (the partnership Ferrari, Poltrona Frau and balsamic vinegar, anyone?) but making these designer cues blatant to the consumer eye is evident for many manufacturers.
Interior of the Peugeot 208
One extraordinary sight was of the new Bentley EXP 9F. With wheels the height of thighs, a bullion of rock star alchemy, pleated leather tail gate and Lalique picnic set, surely this is the mark that the SUV set has finally turned the curve and will hopefully meet with steady demise?
The Bentley's tailgate complete with picnic set
Yet futurism is here. Subtle, transcending and important shifts start to show the way ahead. Starting with the back seat; the influence, particularly from China, is that the important people sit here. It could be that the head of the house is driven by their son or chauffeur or simply the car as a symbol of status where there’s no detail to compromise. For many generations it was a mostly wipe-clean area then came the nodding dogs and head rests. Now the focus is to be more comfortable and more interactive, brought to bear through lighting, ergonomics, layout and combinations of materials, your space personalised as you sit in the global traffic jam.
Epiphany for me? Electric cars look – for the first time – both attractive and relevant.
Mia Electric
EDAG 2 light car
Filed under STUDIO CONRAN
In the first post of a new column here on the Conran blog looking at where we find design inspiration, Will Unwin, a product designer from Studio Conran, tells us more about the mysterious and beautiful place he finds his…
In the creative industry it is only a matter of time before we experience what I like to call ‘a dry spell’. Of course I am talking about those little ideas that eventually end up allowing good design to be exactly that: good design!
This begs the question, where can we get design inspiration? Some people may get it by looking at that object in their home from a different angle, some people might get it from talking to their friends, or maybe it just hits you while you’re on the tube. Whatever your method, can I suggest a new one?
Before returning to work at Conran in August this year, I spent the previous 5 months exploring South America. Since then I have come to the conclusion that my inspiration cannot be found on the underground, but instead lies in a far away land. The land I am talking about in particular is Antarctica.
After making the biggest impulse reaction of my life, I blew the majority of my hard earned savings on a boat trip across the Drake Passage to the unknown continent at the bottom of our planet. I was not prepared for what I saw.
I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that provides you with such a diverse range of ideas and inspiration. It’s a place that puts you in the perfect mindset for work. Hopefully some of the below images will help you understand what I mean.
I saw icebergs in shapes I did not know were physically possible; I saw colours I was not aware even existed; I saw combinations of forms that I didn’t think would complement one another- all of which can be used to influence design directly. If any of you budding architects out there are looking for a new form to compete with the soon-to-be-complete London Shard, Antarctica is your place
The landscape is simply stunning. It does things to you like nothing else can. It can relax you or it can energise you. It can calm you as easily as it can excite you. The effects too are long lasting; it’s easy for me to slip away into my memories and when I return I feel somewhat enlightened, ready to attack another design problem.
Speaking of design problems, I think I’ve worked out a design for next winter’s coat collection…
Where do you find your design inspiration?
Filed under STUDIO CONRAN, Where do you find design inspiration?
We’ve been developing our brand new Conran Bath & Body range of toiletries with industry-leading partners Kokomo for around 18 months now.
That may sound like a long time but when you consider every aspect of the bottles and jars has been meticulously specified, detailed and designed by Studio Conran and developed by Conran & Company– from the custom-made pumps, to the clean, contemporary graphics, not to mention the fragrances and all-important formulations – it’s a process that’s well worth the wait. And we have not been disappointed by the end result!
We’d seen visuals, mock ups and countless renderings of the bottles from the initial range of 14 products before, but last week, when we saw the first production samples, we were bowled over; the bottles are beautifully smooth, satisfyingly heavy and generous in size and, after testing and developing the two fragrances for good part of 12 months you would think we might be bored of them by now, but no – they smelled fresher and more beautiful than ever. We can’t wait to get them in the bathroom!
We’ve just finished doing the photoshoot too so some gorgeous new imagery on it’s way!
More about this product when it launches in around 6 weeks time…
Filed under Conran & Company, STUDIO CONRAN
Studio Conran have just designed some fab new in-store graphics for The Conran Shop sale….no horrible standard SALE signs for us….
Graphic Designer Orla McAvinue explains…
What was the inspiration behind the designs?
The inspiration for the campaign takes cues from Russian Constructivism. Our aim was to create an eye-catching, bold campaign for the stores that would really stand out, be owned by Conran, and differentiate the in store experience from our competitors. From a practical point of view, Continue reading
Filed under Conran and London, STUDIO CONRAN, THE CONRAN SHOP
You might have read in our last post about the fabulous event we had here at our Head Office – well, in Terence’s apartment to be exact -last week; a chance for the great and good from the design bloggers community to come and meet us all to see what we do.
Check out what some of these lovely people had to say about it! Thanks All!
Also, a great way to see more photos of our beautiful building (and staff…!)
Keep a look out for ‘meet-up no.2′!
Read about it and see more pictures on…
Fabric of my life (more coming soon!)
