Looking Back on Clerkenwell 2018

Now the dust has settled on Clerkenwell we decided to blow it right back off again and share with you what was hot, hot, hot from our manufacturers in this little London district. But first, for those of you who have never heard of Clerkenwell and are probably pronouncing it wrong (a winner of the festivals #YourToteCounts competition helped us with the pronunciation of Clah-Ken-Well) I’ll give you a quick summary of the famous CDW and what it consists of.

Clerkenwell Design Week, abbreviated to CDW, is the UK’s leading independent festival which takes place each year in the month of May. Why Clerkenwell you ask? Well this district in the big city of London houses the largest amount of furniture showrooms and architecture and design studios so I guess they are the perfect area to hold their own design week right?

During the festival there are exhibitions and parties which take place in old Victorian buildings that are dripping in character and history as well as stunning street installations you can’t help but post on the gram. If you see yourself as a design buff you should definitely get yourself down. Next years CDW will be the 10th Celebratory Edition so I’m pretty sure they’ll be pulling something special out the bag.

Modulyss

Modulyss are one of my favourite modular flooring brands purely because the products they develop quite literally ooze imagination and creativity. Their main focus in this years CDW was to promote their new collection which was launching a couple of weeks later, this collection is called Delight.

Modulyss Delight Collection comprises of 5 design-led tiles that have been made in response to the current metallics trend. They range from the plainer tiles like Blaze, Gleam and Spark (If I can use the P word without being assassinated by the special agents down at modulyss) to the highly patterned, and I must say beautiful, tiles like Dawn and Dusk. Most of these products have also been made with either part or 100% ECONYL® yarns which is an innovative, recyclable material that you will be hearing a lot more of in the upcoming years.

Forbo

Pattern is back and it’s back on a much bigger scale.”

Forbo was absolutely flocking mad at this year’s CDW with their show ‘The Art of Flocking’ which centred around their Flotex flooring products. For those of you who are slightly confused about what flocking and Flotex actually mean, because I’ll admit I certainly was, I’ll give you a brief jazzed down description. Then if you still don’t understand then I’ve put in a little video of Forbo representatives discussing the product. And if you still don’t understand, well then there’s no helping you and you should just skip to the next part!

So, Flotex is a hybrid flocked floor covering. It combines the warmth, acoustic properties and underfoot comfort of a textile with the durability and cleaning properties of a resilient flooring. The definition of flocked is ‘a velvetlike pattern produced on wallpaper or cloth’. Make sense? The unique construction of this flooring type offers both style and functionality benefits and will retain its high standard look for many years to come.

Fancy a look at some Forbo Flotex carpet planks? Click here!

Interface

During CDW Interface mainly focused on wellbeing, health and their absolutely favourite word they could not function as a company without, Biophilic design, and their products that relate to each of these topics. Their new mission, Climate Take Back, was another key principle discussed at the design week.

Mission Zero was a scheme that aimed to make Interface a company that had no negative impact on the environment by 2020. As that goal is in sight they have now started thinking ahead. Climate Take Back is a project that is centred around ways the company can actually have a positive impact on the environment and intentionally change the world in a better way.

Human Connections is a collection that is centred around health and wellbeing through the use of biophilic design. It looks to bring people together through a single common ground (quite literally) the floor they share.