As 100% Design (now Design London) migrates from London Design Competition to Clerkenwell Design Week, former LDF deputy director William Knight displays on whether or not LDF will nonetheless have the ability to appeal to guests from abroad.
So, farewell 100% Design. The truthful, re-badged as Design London in 2021 by homeowners Media 10, as soon as outlined up to date UK design and formed London’s inventive repute after its debut in September 1995. Now the present has been folded into Clerkenwell Design Week 2023 (CDW), the London Design Competition (LDF) won’t have a cornerstone commerce occasion for the primary time in its twenty years. Having run each the LDF as deputy director and, for 5 years, 100% Design as present director, I see this as a pivotal second for design commerce promotion within the capital.
This newest cancellation follows a development; the LDF has misplaced a number of commerce occasions over current years; Designersblock, as soon as the edgy counterbalance to the extra brand-led 100% Design, floundered on the contraction of generosity and meanwhile-use following the 2008 monetary disaster. The truthful that shone brightest within the 2010s, Designjunction, has but to be seen once more following patchy pre-pandemic appearances beneath the possession of mega-organiser UBM/Informa. Even the long-running and well-attended Decorex moved out of the pageant interval a while in the past. The London Design Honest (beforehand Tent London, and earlier than that 100% East) returns to the pageant this 12 months after a three-year hiatus however, we’re advised, in scaled-down type.
As an alternative of committing to LDF in September, Media 10 is including the identify Design London to its well-established three-day Could occasion on the Metropolis fringe, CDW (which I additionally ran for 3 years). By scraping its as soon as flagship present and boosting its deal with securing the eyeballs of architects and specifiers in Could, the CDW workforce can now legitimately declare to be working the capital’s most important design commerce occasion.
Clerkenwell “doesn’t have the worldwide viewers”
The issue for London, because it seeks a brand new place in a Brexited world, is Clerkenwell Design Week doesn’t have the worldwide viewers that LDF does: simply Google “London design tales” or something just like witness the Competition’s domination of protection and subsequently the notion of when worldwide audiences needs to be in London searching for the newest in what designers right here and the UK are pondering, doing and making.
The capital’s hard-won repute as a worldwide hub for design has relied on the broad brush strokes of developments meets tradition meets concepts. Nonetheless, commerce and gala’s that appeal to architects and designers have helped maintain it. As advised now by the LDF, London’s design narrative has diverted to the plethora of neighbourhoods and communities that every try to have their very own inventive identities (the rise and rise of design districts). Paradoxically, Clerkenwell has at all times been one of the difficult areas to activate in September, regardless of the overwhelming variety of ‘design’ showrooms in EC1.
The LDF is in fine condition, unfold throughout town, accessing areas and locations others can’t and persevering with to benefit from the assist of the Mayor’s Workplace as a part of the capital’s cultural season – alongside Frieze, London Vogue Week and the Movie Competition. However a brand new commerce promotion technique must be included. These different occasions within the autumn have programmed identifiable worldwide enterprise alternatives at their core. For this, they’re valued by the industries they mirror – and town’s economists for contributions to turnover and repute.
Over the twenty-plus years of the Mayor’s coordinated strategy to supporting inventive industries, the capital has executed a a lot better job of selling this prized asset. Nonetheless, exhibition organisers within the capital need assistance with underlying challenges such because the shortage and value of venues, the necessity for a shopping for/ordering tradition at UK commerce gala’s and a free-entry tradition for commerce guests.
“There may be urge for food for business occasions in September”
Having launched the Materials Issues truthful ultimately 12 months’s London Design Competition, I’m satisfied there’s nonetheless a big urge for food for business occasions in September. Nonetheless, they have to be adaptable, related to a variety of pursuits and dedicated to exploring new pondering that displays business points, issues and alternatives. In distinction to the primary version in 2003, LDF now has a big decerning, plugged-in and well-travelled viewers base. The important thing to future success is returning worldwide guests and that is made harder and not using a ‘massive commerce truthful’ go to to justify bills.
We should always mourn the lack of what was 100% Design; it solid a brand new sense of the brilliance and potential of UK design and offered a launchpad for luminaries resembling Tom Dixon, Inflate, Michael Younger and Ella Doran, to say only a few. But additionally as a result of its demise is a loss to our design promotion infrastructure. Characteristically, I’m certain London will re-invent its worldwide commerce providing for design. For now, we’ve a polarised panorama; a strengthened home providing in a single postcode for the business world in Could and a subtle culture-led providing for wider audiences in September. Let’s hope we will come again collectively once more.
William Knight is co-founder of Materials Issues and director of The Renew Consultancy.
