2011: what a year

As we turn the corner into Olympic year we wanted to reflect a little on what’s happened here at CONRAN in 2011: it really was quite a year.

We began working with Marks & Spencer, for whom we designed our beautiful branded collection of home products which launched this Autumn. Our new Spring Collection hits the shops any day now! Watch out for fabulous wicker lamp shades , elegant bedroom essentials and an Alfresco collection which will make waiting for summer even more painful…!

Everyone's favourite...the segment clock

Our range instore...

Terence celebrated the auspicious occasion of his 80^th birthday  celebrated in part by a wonderful Terence Conran retrospective exhibition at the Design Museum – which runs until the 4^th March and was designed by our graphic & interior design teams.  Did you know Time Out also voted Terence as one of their ‘people of 2011’ ?

The Telegraph liked him quite a lot too….

The Conran Shop have been doing all number of gorgeous and interesting things including some fab seasonal window displays and – of course – developing new ranges of product like the Barton & Pavilion furniture ranges, designed by Terence, manufactured by Ercol.

Conran Contracts worked on one of the most exciting new developments of the year at Westfield, Stratford (more about that next week)

We also launched new collaborative designs with Alessi and original BTC lighting and our brand new beautiful Bath & Body range designed by Conran Studio.

Architects Conran & Partners have been busy planning the development of a huge eco housing estate in Ealing and the redevelopment of the Astoria Cinema in Brighton and London landmark Walthamstow Stadium…and that’s just here in the UK!

2011 also saw the launch of Conran Singh, our interactive agency dealing with all things digital who have already completed exciting projects for community organisation Your Square Mile and luxury mobile phone brand Vertu. More to come from them with a Q&A with founder Daljit Singh next week.

 And that’s just off the top of our heads….

We predict 2012 will be even more action packed!

Conran: Terence’s perfect weekend

Ever wonderered what Terence does when he’s not ‘working’? Actually, as we see from this article on his perfect weekend in The FT How To Spend It, a perfect weekend can mean quite a bit of working too…

Still, we are glad to see he seems to allow a fair amount of time for entertaining, ‘sitting outside in the garden’, building rills, perusing junk shops and buying delicious, locally sourced food to cook as well as spending Sunday with his children and grandchildren. What indeed could be more perfect….

Click here to read the full article…

Conran: Content by Conran mixes it up for Spring

Spring is in the air!

Keep an eye out for Content by Conran‘s new range including these bright and colourful ‘hybrid’ upholstered pieces finished in fresh, graphic prints in limes and yellows. This Matador love seat is definitely a favourite.

Find out more at Content by Conran.

Coming up in the next few weeks, we will be taking a behind the scenes look at how we develop our new upholstery designs and just what it takes to put our beautiful new brochure together from choosing fabrics to propping photo shoots.

Conran: Sneak peek at new designs from Content by Conran

It’s all go at our furniture line  Content by Conran at the moment…

January is a very busy month for buyers with various tradeshows to visit to headhunt fab new product for next year. And with both Maison Objet in full swing across the channel and the vast Interiors show at the NEC there is plenty to keep both professionals and keen amateurs inspired.

Interiors is one of the largest furniture shows in Europe – and Content by Conran are always there to showcase their newest offerings to retailers from all around the globe.

The team from Conran & Company – who work on all our Conran branded products – are involved right from the beginning of the process, helping the Content team develop new product, producing marketing materials, planning the stand and of course – bracing the arctic temperatures inside the big exhibition hall – helping to set up and style the stand ready for retailers to flock.

Holly-Anne Rolfe has been doing the show for the past 3 years….

The new products we have developed this year are looking great! We are really trying to promote our bespoke fabric option so we have had some fun with some of our iconic bestsellers – like upholstering the back of this Matador love seat in gorgeous fabric from Sanderson and swapping plain cushions on our Aspen chair for some covered in this Romo print– we love the yellow! Plus I’m really pleased with the vintage lights we’ve hired from Reclaimed Enjoyment – they work really well in the space…

..stand in progress

..almost done

It was Jess Corteen’s first year at the show but she seemed to be taking it all in her stride….

It all seems to be going pretty smoothly, apart from the fact we turned up and the floor hadn’t been painted yet! It’s fine though, we seem to be getting on really well now – everything looks great. I’ve got to paint the legs on one of our sofas bright purple now!

A definite favourite has to be our new high-sided Clifton sofa designed in a beautiful tonal palette.

Gorgeous!

Watch this space for more news….and follow the progress of the new pieces at the photoshoot for this year’s new catalogue…it’s looking good….

Conran: If you go down to the woods today…

As we saw a couple of days ago our furniture lines pop up all over the place but a group of treehouses is possibly one of the more unusual locations…

The stylish Alphason by Conran media cabinet has been selected by Center Parcs, the leading UK provider of family short break holidays, for their new luxury Treehouses.

The two-storey Treehouses are located in the 400-acre woodland site at Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire and feature 4 en-suite bedrooms with private balconies, an open plan kitchen, dining and living area, a separate games den and a private hot tub.

Daniel Ward of Shipway, the project mangers for the Treehouse project said:

“We particularly liked the clean stylish lines of the Alphason by Conran media cabinet and the way that the specially designed fold-away doors didn’t intrude on the living space. Also, it is very capacious and provides a very neat AV equipment storage solution in the Games Den area of the Treehouses.”

Conran: Content by Conran spotting…

When you know a range of furniture so well it’s always great to see it in people’s homes and offices, in the press and even on the small screen.

Here’s a selection of our Content by Conran furniture collection – gone famous….

A red Aspen armchair appears behind Cheryl Cole’s flowing locks in a L’Oreal ad (we’ll resist mentionning that famous tag line…), the new Freeview ads feature our multi-tasking Balance coffee table as an AV unit and Phil and Kirstie even sat on a Berkshire sofa in their pre-Christmas domestic spectacular Phil & Kirstie’s Perfect Christmas…

Plus here’s a favourite shot of our iconic Glove chairs nestling in the window of the very hip Red Bull Academy on Tooley Street just around the corner from Conran HQ.

Check out the full range here. Let us know if you spot any!

Terence on The Beeb

A few weeks ago Terence was on BBC’s ‘Inside John Lewis’ programme having a look at some of our product in their new Cardiff store.

Terence likes this Glove chair by Content by Conran so much he had to have a sit down.

He’s not the only one who likes it. Here’s The Telegraph on why you should invest in this statement pieces of furniture and others like it.

Content is Piping Hot

Last year Living etc described contrast piping as ‘having a moment’. Well, our old friends weren’t wrong. Terence had already had the germ of an idea in the back of his mind for some time and was busy hatching a plan for 2010 – adding more hot new product to his furniture range.

The new Piping Hot range from Content by Conran sees all the piped models in the entire range newly available in your choice of fabulous contrast colour combinations, each personally chosen and compiled by Terence himself. A true designer look for your living room.