Nick Garrett

Category: furniture design architectural ceramics products product for hoem retail design

  • London, September reigns design supreme!

    Article posted and thanks to John Rice: http://www.minimalhome.com Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/John_Rice_

    Outside The V&A Museum – Timber Wave by Amanda Levete Architects

    This month is the most exciting in the London Design Calendar, there are so many great events taking place and we thought that we would bring you our favourite recommendations for great architecure and design. You have a little time now to plan your diary and make sure you don’t miss out on the best. I recommend you check out the websites below and pre book any events that may be over subscribed, most are free events. Naturally any really exciting new designers we find will be showcased on minimalhome.com soon after the event.

    The 9th London Design Festival, which will be held from 17-25 September, will be the largest yet with over 180 partners and more than 250 events over 8 days. As part of the festival, there will be commissioned landmark design installations all over London. One of these include an installation called Timber Wave that transforms the grand entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum (the V&A) by Amanda Levete Architects.

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  • A designer who Lives it – Classics and Quality

    For a designer having quality furniture in your own life means constant reference to the real deal and continual reference to detail.  Designers and quality controllers need to not only have grown through a driving career based on technical experience, but they need to have the rub off from historical richness and detail: The best retail design practitioners (and I’m thinking of Rob Scarlett for example) seem to breathe it; it’s a given and they have it in their DNA from birth.


    To find the right quality in a designer look at not only a good CV but peer into his world, where he or she lives and how they seek out their daily inspiration.  It is so important to have the right fundamental appreciation framework.  It keeps your ideas intact when working under the daily design production process. Fundamentals which recur and manifest through to the surface even under pressure or jet lag.

    With the right fundamentals the client/designer relationship shares the common ground: a love of quality and classics could be enough to carry forward long term partnerships.

    Casa Parma lounge restored 17th century chest and fire surround
    In our family home we are lucky enough to be surrounded by 17th century Italian classics.  It is an inspiration and a place where ones centre, or core interests, become honed.

    If I need to check a Louise cabriole leg proportion I go into the dining room.

    Beyond that if one were to strip back the ornamentation of these fair pieces one would have a stunning modern sku!… ready for lacquer and glass top… and shooting next day for a web launch for example.

    You can do that alongside the real article in a way that strikes more powerful chord … out of what is known and measurable. The result should resonate, become easily ranged and simply sell well because of its genuine pedigree.

    Fundamentals in classics, I believe are the crucial building blocks of success in retail design today.

    Wild Italian cabriole gilded tavolino with faux Sienna marble top 17th century
    Nick Garrett
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