Heal's Discovers

One of my favourite previews on the design calendar is the Heal’s Autumn Collection presented in its London flagship on Tottenham Court Road. As one of the leading furniture emporiums in the country for more than two centuries, the brand continues to provide high quality, accessible design for the contemporary home. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Heal’s Discovers programme continues to work with emerging talent, promoting innovative design from the drawing table to the shop floor.

Heal's Discovers 2014: Ester Comunello, Tom Parfitt, Josh South and Sam Lloyd

Ahead of its official launch at the London Design Festival in September, I previewed this year’s Heal’s Discovers designers who are all alumni from traditional furniture making and product design universities from across the country. Kirsty Whyte, Heal’s Product & Design Manager, explained to me the importance of design ethos that had been considered in choosing both the university and its subsequent graduate for the programme. Craftsmanship and material are at the core of the designers’ varied practices and this is reflected in the British-made values that Heal’s maintains for its in-house collections. Kirsty and her team mentored each designer through the stages of concept to viable product and worked closely with specialist British manufacturers for their production.

Ester Comunello introduces her Turn Collection – comprising of a coffee table, floor lamp and mirror – as a response to society’s detached relationship with product design. The Brazilian designer and graduate from Bucks New University based her concept around dexterity and craft when designing the range, which requires easy hands-on assembly without the nuts and bolts of flat pack counterparts. 

Turn Collection by Ester Comunello

The screw mechanism and ridges allow owners to engage directly with the piece using their hands; defining its shape and form, even offering the ability to clamp onto existing pieces of furniture or architecture. The result is a highly dynamic range that is made in Norwich using beech wood.

details: Turn coffee table (above) and Turn mirror (below)

Modernist architecture was the principal inspiration behind Tom Parfitt’s Maya side table. The Rycotewood-graduate hails from a wealth of industry experience at British furniture brand Benchmark before developing new skills and methods while studying for his degree. The side table - manufactured in Cheltenham - boasts the impressive credential of being made from over 90% recycled material. Equally impressive is its finish and physicality – smooth polished concrete and minimal lines. The solid form features triangular voids that make for just enough decorative intrigue as well as functional storage.

Maya side table by Tom Parfitt

Aluminium and oak come together for the Sand Cast range by Kingston University-graduate Sam Lloyd. A bar stool and low stool are presented in an angular style with an aluminium seat - manufactured after its namesake - upon three legs available in natural or fumed oak. A variety of manufacturing techniques are involved in its production that include aluminium casting from South East London to the hand-turned timber from Whitstable.

Sand Cast stools by Sam Lloyd

Design duo Luscombe and South met at Northumbria University where they established their collaborative studio. Philip Luscombe and Josh South introduce their first fully realised project together in the multi-functional Rickard Stool. After a series of prototypes – a making process favoured by the designers rather than sketching - the stool evolved to be suitable for sitting and standing as well as for display as a side-table. The natural and fumed oak components of the two-tiered stool are highlighted with contrasting dowels along its curved surface.

Rickard Stool by Philip Luscombe and Josh South

Alongside the debut designs of the emerging designers, the 2014 Autumn Collection looks to six new ranges by established designers and studios that include ‘Future Craft’ and ‘Modern British’ takes on minimal Nordic and Japanese aesthetics through to reinterpreted silhouettes of classic lines respectively. 

Perfectly (Imperfect) Stool by Galvin Brothers

The Perfectly (Imperfect) Stool by the Galvin Brothers with its misshaped turned leg in white oiled English ash and William Warren’s asymmetrical Deconstructed Windsor collection in dark wood were notable highlights that embraced design details underneath the surface top, pleasing the eye from head to toe.

Deconstructed Windsor Collection by William Warren

The Heal’s Discovers 2014 range from all five designers will launch on 13th September 2014 at the London Design Festival and at 100% Design between 17th and 20th September 2014. 
For more information about the range and collections featured in this post visit heals.co.uk or view in-store at 196 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7LQ and nationwide from next month.

Follow @JMVELARDI on Twitter for more Art, Design and Lifestyle  

Images courtesy of Heal's 

London Design Festival

There was a different energy about this year’s London Design Festival that spanned across all quarters of the capital. From the large-scale public installation Endless Stair on the Southbank to the celebrated talks and satellite fairs that were held in some of the city’s landmark locations from East to West, the annual event had a presence like never before, sharing the limelight with fashionistas during London Fashion Week. 

Last Wednesday I attended Heal’s equally fashionable party at its flagship on Tottenham Court Road to officially celebrate the store’s redesign in the company of both established and emerging designers that make up the new direction for the brand’s Autumn collection. Having previewed the collection last month (Heal’s Discovers, August 2013) it was a pleasure to see the designers who had been selected for the Discovers programme and competition again as well as meet with the international studios who were involved with grand installations for the store’s dynamic transformation.

Fold by Alexander Mueller

Congratulations to Alexander Mueller who won the Discovers Cass Furniture Competition with his limited edition coffee table in walnut, individually crafted by the designer. Fold will be available at Heal’s in the coming weeks and will no doubt be a hit with customers looking for contemporary elegance.

Heal’s Discovers is a brilliant platform for emerging talent and Alexander with his fellow finalists  - Mika Ogarca, Douglas Montgomery and Michael Randall - are all future design stars to follow.

The remodelled Lighting Department on the ground floor is a wonderfully curated space of design classics and new contemporary interpretations. The Utrem Lux series by West London-based studio DeGrossDesign is one such innovator bridging the sustainable with sophisticated style - it was a pleasure to catch up with Sabrina Gross and congratulate her on the amount of press that the studio’s products have deservedly received since the press preview in August.

DeGross Design & Innovation

The Heal’s experience at its flagship is that of focus and detail – the collections across all departments are finely curated to offer a host of national and international brands and manufacturers, affirming its status as a destination emporium in the heart of the capital. No more so is this celebrated than with a specially commissioned custom chandelier that cascades down the Cecil Brewer staircase located appropriately to the rear of the store in the Lighting Department.

Bocci

Designed by all in-house studio Bocci the commission is a triumph in organic aesthetics and innovative minimalism. The magnificent sixty-five arm chandelier originates from Vancouver and its elements in all their grandeur transfer effortlessly to the versatile collection that is available at Heal’s. Standard or bespoke lighting options are available and range from single glass pendants to larger compositions made to order in an endless array of hues and installation construction to taste. The same boundless and electric language of Bocci is reflected in what is a new chapter for the Heal’s brand – an energy that design enthusiasts will look forward in seasons to come.

Visit Heal's at: 

196 Tottenham Court Road

London

W1T 7LQ

Images courtesy of Heal's

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