The trends of tomorrow: New Designers Week 2

We’re exactly halfway through the extravaganza of creative energy that is New Designers, with Week 2 now open at the Business Design Centre in London’s Islington. While Week 1 was a tribute to grads working in the fields of textiles and contemporary crafts, Week 2 brings illustrators, graphic and furniture designers, digital pioneers and moving image masters into the mix.

Opened by industrial designer and founder of Layer, Benjamin Hubert, this second chance to see the stars of the future features 1500 graduate designers all offering the latest thinking and trends from the next generation of creativity. As well as product, industrial, automotive, furniture and interior design, you’ll also find graphics, illustration, animation, gaming and motion arts – the cream of the crop of UK grads from more than 200 universities from across the UK. It’s a one-stop-shop for new talent, which runs until Saturday 7 July 2018.

Alongside these soon-to-be stars from the whole breadth of the country, New Designers also showcases 100 recently established design businesses and their products as part of programme One Year In. Curated by jewellery designer and Luna & Curious founder Rheanna Lingham, the design entrepreneurs are picked for the originality of their thinking, the quality of their work and the viability of their business. There were a record-breaking number of applications received during the open call this year, meaning the 2018 showcase is one of the strongest ever. 

New Designers is also a place where careers are launched, acting as a vital bridge between design education and professional design success. As well as the chance to connect with buyers, specifiers and those with commissioning potential, the show gives out numerous awards, that have been deliberated by some of the most influential individuals in design. 

As you can imagine with all this talent in one room, New Designers is an unrivalled place for spotting future trends. Here we assembled some of the most exciting we’ve spotted – a sure sign of things to come in the design industry at large.

Health and wellbeing

Many emerging designers are employing design thinking to address public-health challenges or nurture social wellbeing in ingenious new ways.

Qili Chen (Kingston School of Art) has responded to the aridity of the climate in the Hong Kong region of China, where she grew up, with a sculptural ceramic object that hydrates the air – and, thanks to the use of aquachromic ink, changes colour when water levels are low.

Poppy Pippin (Kingston School of Art) has also tackled air quality, with a series of tiles that are designed to promote moss growth and thus remove carbon dioxide.

Jamie Moseley (University of Plymouth) has developed an alternative to existing lighting products designed to alleviate Seasonal Affective Disorder – Mosely’s light rotates throughout the day, changing colour and shifting mood as time passes.

Sabrina Li (Kingston School of Art) is bridging the generation gap with a table designed encourage collective knitting and conversation between young and old.

Sustainable surfaces

Material sustainability is at the heart of a growing number of exhibitors’ practice, and this year’s New Designers presents an abundance of creative approaches to rethinking natural substances, recycling used products and repurposing waste to create intriguing new forms and surface textures.

Sam Lander (One Year In) has converted a washing machine into a centrifuge that transforms waste polystyrene packaging into a structural material that can be coloured and used to construct furniture.

Antonia Packham (University of Brighton) directly addresses the growing environmental problem of plastic with a project exploring the potential uses of ‘plastiglomerate’ – the stone-like material formed when sand, wood and shells meld with molten ocean plastic.

Laura-Jane Atkinson (One Year In) presents the LIO collection from LINO LAB – a project designed to celebrate the lesser-known qualities of real, all-natural and environmentally friendly linoleum and explore its uses as a craft material, not just a floor covering.

Urban Living

As our cities expand, our living spaces contract, and our homes become less permanent.  The next generation of designers is responding to the constraints of increasing urbanisation, finding possibilities for innovation in smaller spaces and more itinerant lifestyles.

FELIX (One Year In) has introduced the Nomad range of furniture to enable users to maximise the use of compact living space by making them easily reconfigurable. Each piece is designed to stay with its owner throughout their life, as they move from place to place.

Adele Marie Sison (Nottingham Trent University) has created Alessia, a modular sofa range that can be quickly and easily transformed from standard sofa to corner sofa, chair footstool, and even a bed – with a mattress fitted into the sofa base and a feather duvet, pillow and mattress topper zipped into the cushions.

Graihagh Watson (Nottingham Trent University) presents Norma, a flat-pack curved-wood clothing rail that can be rapidly assembled by hand, without tools or fixings.

Geometrics

Striking, simple shapes and the patterns of geometry are widely in evidence across the exhibition hall – not only in graphic design, but informing the aesthetics in other disciplines too.

Elliot Beacock (Norwich University of the Arts) expresses his interest in the visual language of shapes and symbols in both publication design and a range of patterned, UV-printed tiles.

Vanessa Stopforth (One Year In), a former New Designers graduate exhibitor, returns to the exhibition with a range of laser-cut boxes and blocks featuring bold geometric shapes.

Politics, ethics and identity 

From the playful and satirical to the urgent and earnest, in a period of considerable political and societal upheaval, it’s no surprise that the designers are engaging with many of the issues and concerns facing their generation through their creative output.

Poppy Booth (Kingston University of Art) challenges consumerist models and the innovation impulse in the design industry itself with a collection of humorous but provocative products – including the Soapbox for Nihilists and Megaphone for Introverts, both a response to the age of protest.

Mac Collins (University of Northumbria) has drawn inspiration from his African cultural heritage to create an Afrofuturist ash-wood chair in vivid ultramarine. With an imposing back and spearlike armrests, the throne-like chair frames and empowers its occupant.

George Goodwin (Plymouth College of Art) has channelled his environmental beliefs and staunch anti-hunting stance into Don’t Shoot The Long-Tailed Tiger, an intricately illustrated kids’ activity book with all-ages appeal.

Isabel Goodman (University of Brighton) has developed a playful but pointed array of products in response to the modern political landscape in the UK, encompassing Brexit, the NHS and Southern Rail strikes.

To make sure you don’t miss Week 2 of New Designers, order your ticket here.