15th December 2020

Whatever next? Design stories for 2021

Our newsletters provide an advanced look at what is on the horizon from Zetteler and our clients. If you'd like to hear about exciting new product launches, cutting edge projects and the people shaking up present day debates, you might want to subscribe.

Here's what's on our radar for early 2021...

GIF visualising perspectives on possible and preferable futures by Takram.

One for your radar: Takram, the design studio shaping the future.

A lot of studios design what people need right now; Takram, by contrast, designs what we’re going to need next. Takram works around the world to research and map probable futures, and to design the products, services and brands best suited to thrive. With bases in Tokyo, New York and London, Takram has nodes and networks across the globe, enabling it to tap into the local while bringing an international perspective to every project they embark on. And it’s seriously fascinating stuff – check out their ideas on: transformative creativities in the age of crisis; how to use AR to bring the effects of climate change vividly to life; and why leaner data could be better for our health.

You can also read the latest op-ed from the founder of the London studio, creative technologist Yosuke Ushigome, on researching, anxiety and trends shaping our future with Covid.

Images from Norwegian manufacturers known for sustainable practices.

Norwegian Presence presents… DOGA shakes things up with new digital conference series.

Our favourite showcase of forward-thinking sustainable design is back for 2021 with a bold new format. Hosted by DOGA, three unmissable half-day virtual events in February, March and April will address the key design themes of our time – from the need for a circular economy to the changing aesthetics of interior space. We can’t give away any more right now – all v hush-hush – but we can tell you that DOGA are working on some seriously cool digital production and programming techniques, Bielke&Yang are all over the identity, and here at Zetteler we’re busy building the global aspects to make sure it’s the event for all design lovers, across retail, architecture, education, interiors, production, manufacturing – all the way to your everyday design devotee.

Will you be joining us?

CGI of the Design District Canteen; one of many social spaces in the new complex.

Spring awakening: Design District offers new financial lifeline to London’s creative sector.

The countdown begins! Design District’s long-awaited opening is just months away, and the first tenants (see below) will soon be moving into their homes in London’s new neighbourhood, designed especially for the creative industries. After taking a kicking from corona and being largely overlooked by the Treasury’s Band-Aid box, the creative sector is desperately in need of a lifeline, and Design District most definitely has one to offer.

Supported by the Creative Industries Federation and the Greater London Authority, Design District has just announced a 12-month across-the-board rent reduction to just £5 per square foot for every creative business taking up tenancy in any of its 16 purpose-designed buildings. With the pressure taken off making rent, businesses will be free to invest money in salaries, supporting freelancers, marketing, production and any of the other essential activities that have been cut back under lockdown. By incentivising the creative sector in this way, Design District is taking the lead in getting London’s economy back on track – be sure to get in touch if you’d like to find out more about this initiative.

Note kindly produced this original drawing for us – offering a sneak peek on their new project.

Note Design Studio x Allard x Lammhults: The trio set to storm Stockholm in February.

As part of Stockholm Design Week, in lieu of the postponed fair, Sweden’s designers, brands and residents are still committed to celebrating their creative innovation, energy and ideas. We’re thrilled to kind-of announce (it’s still pretty secret tbh, so you didn’t hear it here) that Note Design Studio, icon of the Swedish design scene Gunilla Allard, and the legendary Lammhults are joining forces for a new collaboration launching in February. Given Lammhults have a reputation for working only with their core pool of loyal designers, the fact they’re opening the fold for Note is a Rather Big Deal – we’ll officially tell you more about it as soon as we can!

TAKT’s embrace of flatpack means parts are replaceable and more sustainable to transport.

Saving the world through flatpack: TAKT on track to become the most sustainable interiors brand.

The scales have tilted. For brands, environmental credentials are no longer just a nice-to-have, they’re total deal-breakers, and manufacturers around the world are scrambling to reverse-engineer eco into their business model. TAKT, however, don’t need to – the Danish furniture disruptor has been ahead of the sustainability curve since it launched, and is well on the way to becoming the most environmentally sound interiors brand in the world.

As well as a naturally lower-carbon direct-to-consumer flatpack production and distribution model, across the board CO2 offsetting AND the EU Flower Ecolabel on every product (we think this might be a world first – we’ll get back to you on that), TAKT has also recently secured B-Corp status. So not only does TAKT make beautiful furniture (with the help of leading design talent like Pearson Lloyd and Cecilie Manz), it’s also a model of how a modern design company can balance profit and purpose to make a positive mark on the world. Look out for exciting new collaborations coming in 2021…

Render of the new Ravensbourne campus by Brinkworth.

Design District’s first tenant: Ravensbourne University opens new Institute for Creativity and Technology.

Aptly enough, the first tenant of London’s new dedicated creative-sector district will be our city’s most vocational creative-education institution: Ravensbourne University London which will officially open its new Institute for Creativity and Technology at Design District this spring.

Renowned for its unparalleled track record in turning aspiring creatives into successful professional practitioners, Ravensbourne is launching the Institute to give students at the intersection of creativity and technology a dedicated, state-of-the-art facility to develop their practices – with the career-boosting bonus that they’ll be working and learning right in the heart of Design District’s diverse community of creatives. At a time when creative-sector employment is dropping fast, and future prospects are uncertain, Ravensbourne’s announcement is a welcome ray of light – and the interiors by Brinkworth in this brand new Barozzi Veiga building are going to be amazing.

Illustration from a recent feature on Flatpack Democracy in the Guardian.

2021: the year we take over — #Flatpack2021 campaign designs roadmap to community control.

This coming May, a huge backlog of Covid-postponed local-council elections will take place, giving communities up and down the country a fantastic opportunity to get together, get organised and get themselves in power. The experience of lockdown showed, on an unprecedented scale, how communities can organise themselves and get things done without party politics getting in the way. This is a chance to take that energy and make it a permanent part of local government.

Flatpack 2021, a campaign designed by the people behind grassroots-power evangelists Flatpack Democracy, provides aspiring independent groups all the toolkit they need to fight – and win – local elections, and to successfully run local areas as a collective afterwards. Their approach is tried, tested and proven successful, so if you’re fed up with the national parties messing up your local area, get on board and fight the power.

Oh, and…

We’re thrilled to champion Arthouse Jersey, an exciting arts organisation outside of London working on an extraordinary island. Their 2021 programme is one to watch.

In February, the travel arm of ISHKAR is launching a new adventure with acclaimed travel photographer Michael Christopher Brown – camping on top of a 3,000m volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

If you’re trying to work out how to make your next large-scale sculpture/installation work, you have to talk to Mark Thompson, the engineer behind Lateral Design – and some of the most complex and ambitious public artworks around the world.

With a gift for transforming abstract – sometimes downright improbable – concepts into concrete reality, Studio Alt Shift channels the curiosity and creativity of its founders into bespoke furniture, lighting and interior spaces. We’ll have plenty to share with you about them in the coming months.

Like many artists, Camille Walala has had a quiet year, but a quiet year for Camille is a bloody rollercoaster for the rest of us. Fresh from delivering several HUGE public projects across the length of London, and reinventing Oxford Street, she’s barreling into 2021 with big plans on the calendar. More to come…

Speaking of improving the world, the creative collective Glimpse will be empowering local communities around the UK next year as their – now Lottery-funded – People’s Podium project kicks off again on a new mission to amplify the voices of the unheard.

Following the success of their Kersley Road project, Russian For Fish are set to unveil a fistful of exciting new homes.