Last week saw the close of this years London Design Festival (LDF). The Trend Bible team were busy visiting a range of exciting exhibitions, pop-up shops and trade shows. Our Home Trends Editor Anri Hamilton stopped by Design Junction, and TENT London reporting on the design, colour, material and shape trend directions on display. Below we share three emerging trends spotted at the show.

Dimpled

Above left, Orlando Gatica Studio; above right, Sit London

Pinched, pressed and dimpled surfaces have predominantly been evident in ceramics but this can now be seen crossing over onto furniture and glassware. Chilean design studio Orlando Gatica created their ‘Satélite’ side table with a subtle recessed dimple in the centre of the table top surface. Sit London showcased  simple bowls in opaque glass with a deep dimple to act as decoration whilst still being functional as a bowl. We begin to see more evidence of a focus on form and material, and these elements being used as design decoration in place of print or surface pattern. As published in our trend predictions for 2014 a more restrained, pared-back approach to decoration becomes important.

Turned Wood

Above left, Furniture Magpies; above right, Alghalia Interiors

Traditional turned wood legs are reinvented as designers experiment using this age old process to create new and exciting design ideas for furniture. Furniture Magpies studio offers an alternative to mass-produced furniture with pieced together discarded turned wooden legs re-purposed into a coffee table. Slicing and layering the pieces reveals a decorative yet functional surface.

Alghalia Interiors embellished a very minimal table design, with one side of the table completely made up of turned pieces lined up and painted in gloss white to highlight this design detail. These products again demonstrate a trend for surface decoration becoming more about material and colour experimentation and surface texture being used as decoration.

Offset Circles

Above left, Kangan Arora; above right, tiles by Lindsey Lang

We loved this update on a simple commercial dot repeat. Circle patterns are overprinted using translucent inks and materials creating interesting offset shapes and patterns on textiles and tiles.

Kangan Arora produces hand screen printed textiles using graphic patterns. A simple circle stripe repeat is overprinted using three colours creating a blurred effect. Lindsey Lang‘s ‘Elipse’ tiles are made from a blend of pigmented cement mix and marble aggregates using traditional processes. Larger scale circle shapes have a transparent quality subtly revealing overlapped shapes beneath. The tiles piece together to create striking yet hardwearing interior and exterior wall and floor treatments. Experimentation with simple geometric shapes reveal a cleaner design direction for prints and surface pattern.

To find out more about our trends for 2014 and how they can impact your business email us at enquiries@trendbible.com  for further information.