Heal's Discovers

For over two hundred years Heal’s has offered homegrown craftsmanship on the British high street and has championed the best of young design talent in the country. Last month I was invited to the furniture emporium’s London flagship on Tottenham Court Road to preview their 2013 Autumn Collection with a host of exciting collaborations and emerging talent on display in the press showroom.

‘Old icons meet future classics’ is the order of the season for the collection, which sees the reissue of iconic pieces by Ernest Race to the debuts works from young designers Ian Archer, Sebastian Cox and Matthew Elton, who feature under the annual Heal’s Discovers programme. Working around the themes of sustainability and contemporary craftsmanship, each designer presents an individual collection with an eye for heritage and quality that is certain to attract admirers across all tastes. Lee Broom, a Discovers alumnus himself from 2010, now features as a fully-fledged collaborator. After growing national and international success as a product designer, Broom has been commissioned to create a suite of upholstered furniture that will contribute to the Heal’s Designer Collaboration range.

Such an aspiring journey will undoubtedly be on the minds of the four third-year students at London's Art, Architecture and Design Faculty, The Cass who are all in reaching distance of the winner’s prize that is the next up-and-coming design star who will have their product manufactured by Heal’s and showcased this year at the London Design Festival.

Heal’s Head of Furniture, Tim Ely selected four finalists from twenty-two applicants in the competition and it was a pleasure to have had the opportunity to meet the emerging quartert that were Alexander Mueller, Mika Ogarca, Douglas Montgomery and Michael Randall, to discuss both their practices and their Discovers experience to date.

Heal's Discovers 2013: Alexander Mueller, Mika Ogarca, Douglas Montgomery and Michael Randall

Riding high on recent accolades from John Lewis’s very own Award for Design Excellence and Innovation, Mika described her personal experience to be far from the competitive atmosphere that most contests take, but as an invaluable opportunity to participate with her fellow Cass-alumni and be recognised by a British institution of interior design. Her laser-cut Twist lampshade in birch plywood is a wonderfully organic and practical product that places the customer at the centre of its construction by way of its flat-pack design.

Twist by Mika Ogarca

Alexander and Douglas present their unique takes on a coffee table, sourcing Japanese origami and bygone manufacturing methods as inspiration, respectively. Alexander’s limited edition Fold coffee table in walnut, exudes craftsmanship in the details that cannot be seen – the fit of the tongue and groove joints seamlessly blend to create a stunning product in form and utility. 

Fold by Alexander Mueller

The tactile result of Douglas’s Cog coffee table is taken from the cross-section of a classical column, balanced on three legs that highlight recent shifts in taste, away from the decorative and fussy styles such as barley twisting and fluting. Its reeded pins will positively command the affectionate caress of craft connoisseurs over many a brew. 

Cog by Douglas Montgomery

Last, but by no means least, Michael’s quest to identify a product that was overlooked in the home lead him to the humble coat stand. After describing The Cass’s liberal approach to design, au fait with contemporary art school teaching, as well as the group’s involvement at the Salone del Mobile in Milan earlier this year, his submission to the competition is the most conceptual in nature, sighting Native American totem poles as inspiration for his Totem coat stand. Moveable pegs may be slotted into a variety of holes available along the stand’s body in English ash. With a family as his customer in mind, Michael sees users adapting the coat stand to tell their own personal tales – a charming sentiment as the pegs follow a child’s growth. 

Totem by Michael Randall

The finalists' involvement with the Heal's Discovers collection will be determined by the public – hear the designers speak about their concepts in their own words in the video below. Votes may be cast for your favourite product online and the winner will be announced in-store at Heal’s Tottenham Court Road next month on 18th September in time for the London Design Festival.

The beautiful works of West London-based studio, DeGross Design & Innovation caught my eye and I very much enjoyed speaking with co-founder Sabrina Gross, who introduced me to the studio’s Utrem Lux series of upcycled lamps made from discarded glass bottles in warm hues of brown and mustard. 

Utrem Lux table lamp by DeGross Design & Innovation

The bottles’ body, with its delightful handle detail, are elegantly constructed into adjustable wall, ceiling and base fixtures, which are produced by hand and finished off with on-trend, colourful power cords. The Utrem Lux series will be available at Heal’s newly remodelled Lighting Department at Tottenham Court Road.

Also being showcased this Autumn are charitable social enterprise Out of the Dark. Followers of my blog will remember my visit to their High Wycombe showroom and studio earlier this year (Interior Confidence, March 2013) - it was brilliant to see founders Jay and Jade again, in front of their seductive wall of furniture all restored and revamped by their young apprentices and sitting proudly under the roof of the institution that is Heal's. 

Working with names that would have been sold at the store during the Fifties and Sixties, pieces by G-Plan, Ercol and Parker Knoll will be given the Out of the Dark touch of bold, colour blocking and will be showcased in the flagship’s street-level window display along Tottenham Court Road.

Out of the Dark's furniture will be on sale from 5th August to 22nd September and the team will run a series of weekend workshops for upcycle enthusiasts as well as a children's toy-painting session. They will join the Discovers collection to form part of Heal’s central showcase for the London Design Festival between 14th and 22nd September 2013.

For more information about the Heal’s Discovers range and associated events this Autumn visit heals.co.uk - click here for details about this year’s London Design Festival.

Best of luck to all four finalists competing to win the Heal’s Discovers competition - visit the voting page here to cast your vote - and follow @JMVELARDI for the latest news, updates and winner to be announced next month.  

Visit Heal's at: 

196 Tottenham Court Road

London

W1T 7LQ

Discovers product images courtesy of Heal's

Interior Confidence

Winter may have decided to overstay its welcome, however in a corner of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, a furniture showroom is in full bloom, bursting with kaleidoscopic colour. Last weekend I travelled to the market town that was once the chair making capital of the world and epicentre of British furniture making throughout the nineteenth-century to visit Out of the Dark, a charitable social enterprise that recycles, restores and redecorates salvaged furniture.

Founded by Jay and Jade Blades in 2010 as an extension to their already successful charitable programme Street Dreams, Out of the Dark is a practical resource for disadvantaged and disengaged young people in the local community to engage with skills training and business within a creative environment. I had discovered the enterprise on Twitter last year and after following their work online I was very excited to finally see it with my own eyes. 

Few traces of High Wycombe’s furniture past exist today with only a handful of workshops still in production on the Abercromby Works industrial estate where Out of the Dark is based. In contrast to their dark wood counterparts, the bright white showroom at Out of the Dark HQ stages a euphoric collection of mid-century pieces - from Avalon, Mackintosh and Bucks-based firms Ercol, G-Plan and Parker Knoll – that have been either donated or salvaged. 

 

Colour-comrades will be in their element amongst the colour blocking aesthetic the enterprise has adopted in a zany Georgian palette of duck egg blue and arsenic green paired with canary yellow and fuchsia that accent as well as readdress the craft of forgotten furniture in an unashamed era of finite flat packs. For one-off warriors, the only duplicates you will find here are furniture sets and even then, legs of chairs or tables will be given their individual stroke of colour. My personal favourites were candelabras made from wooden lamp stands, ideal for eco-friendly romantics, and when clustered together make quite the grand statement.

In the equally colourful workshop below, Jay kindly gave me a tour of the different workstations where his young apprentices learn and master a range of skills from wood planing to Danish cord weaving and even caning; the lost art of rattan vine decoration which is currently being taught by a ninety-one-year-old local caner. Dashing from wall to wall to show me the library of books and how-to manuals it was clear to see from Jay’s own enthusiasm why the current group of young people, aged between fourteen to eighteen-years-old, are so actively involved in something which they do in their free time between school or being out on the streets. He continued to explain why colour blocking was favoured above more on-trend styles such as vintage or shabby chic; the latter being easily achieved with a lick of paint and a lacklustre sand down, while the former demands commitment and crisp execution – sanding, stripping then multiple coats of paint followed by several layers of varnish – to produce the smooth finish of concentrated colour. 
On a psychological level this process encourages confidence and commands respect; the respect the piece of furniture as commodity deserves by the apprentice as well as the respect earned by the apprentice through achievement. Working on three to four pieces at a time, they will see each piece through from beginning to end and witness its journey upstairs in the showroom to when it is bought and taken away to a new home. I don’t know any better feeling of satisfaction than that.  

Emily, one of the more experienced young people, was not alien to satisfaction. The G-Plan chest of drawers she was currently working on was one in a long line of memorable achievements she modestly described. Having worked at Out of the Dark since she was fourteen-years-old, Emily explained how she had known nothing about furniture before and now finds herself giving once-overs to friends’ living rooms. Considering a career as a tattoo artist, Emily is a testament to Out of the Dark’s disciplinary formula that subsequently fosters new directions for the enterprise to explore. She recently launched an initiative to incorporate hand-drawn elements inspired by her interest in tattoo art on the furniture and invited other female graffiti artists to work on panels on larger pieces to create both unique and functional works of art.

It was a pleasure meeting Emily, Jay, Jade and everyone at Out of the Dark over the weekend. Exploring the workshop brought me back to my art school days and the invincibility of knowing when you have a good thing going - only, I was much less confident with colour. Riding the waves of upcycling and sustainability as well as the resurgence of personal expression in the home that was documented by celebrated British artist Grayson Perry last year (The Grayson Perry Effect, July 2012), Out of the Dark not only appeals to young design-conscious customers but also to those who remember these classic pieces from conception. A group from the Women’s Institute in Bourne End who preceded my visit exemplified this very concept of nostalgic clientele who have not lost their desire for personality in their home amid a commercial market that offers very little to discerning seniors other than mahogany and magnolia. 

While it may not be to the taste of design purists, with several private commissions in the workshop awaiting only restoration, makeovers are not the only thing the enterprise is about. In as much as Jay and Jade nurture the inner and outer confidence of young people who don an overall with growing pride and give new life to design classics, Out of the Dark entices customers to rediscover their confidence and potential for minor or major doses of eccentricity within the four walls of their own home through colour, style or a spruce up, and all for a great cause. 
Ever in demand from exhibiting fairs nationwide to the pages of The Financial Times How To Spend It luxury supplement magazine, it seems this kind of confidence is contagious.

Londoners can find the Out of the Dark team running a workshop during Fabrications London later this month and in the West County, at the exhibition Furniture as Art in Bath between 25th April - 4th May.

The showroom is open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays 10am - 5pm or by appointment – visit Out of the Dark for contact details and pricing.

Out of the Dark

Abercromby Works

Oakridge Road

High Wycombe

Buckinghamshire

HP11 2PF