Recently I was delighted to head to a heap of interiors shows as part of London Design Festival 2012. I went to a few last year and had a great time meeting people, spotting trends and generally enjoying a wealth of interiors inspiration. This year was, for me, even better. It wasn’t that the design was any more exciting, just simply that as well as seeing all the fabulous products I got to meet a lot of fabulous twitter friends in real life too! Here’s Part 1 of a quick round-up of the fun of LDF12, my picks from the shows I went to and then a few snaps from the Decorex trade show tweet up will be posted up later in the week.

LDF 2012 PART ONE

100% Design
This is probably the most business/trade oriented show I attended. It’s interesting to see the broader trends that come out of something like this, but not as much fun as some of the more cutting edge shows, in terms of having a browse around.

My favourite spots from 100% design were:

(Clockwise: A fantastic desk, Flipflops made from rubbish recycled from Brighton beach then stamped with a Brighton map, The Portugal stand, including these beautiful earthenware tiles and the electric entrance)

I also really enjoyed visiting the Yo! House – a whole blog post will follow on this!

Designer’s Block
This is the most cutting edge of the shows I visited and is full of great ideas, prototypes, creativity and a real design buzz. There’s lots of fun things to see and do, including 3 way ping pong this year!

My picks were:

(Left to Right: Flock tree branch lamp base, the Sir Lighting Guard which made everyone smile and lace etched mirrors and furniture)

Design Junction
This included a section from the Mid-Century Modern shows which was really fun to look around, as well as a great deal of furniture, with fewer home accessories than some of the other shows. There seemed to be a natural/ contemporary-classic/ sustainable kind of feel overall to this show.

Highlights included:

(Clockwise: Beautiful Conran chairs in classic materials, Authentics branch coat hangers, a completely circular table by Autoban and Brogue tables by Bethan Gray)

It's great to be able to visit such a high quality design festival in our capital city, and to see a range of design from cutting edge to corporate in the space of a few days.
My next blog post will cover my personal favourite of the shows and the Decorex tweet up where I got to meet some of my favourite twitter folk.

There was so much inspiration in the air and so much to see that I'll also be sharing some thoughts on the Yo! Home and a bit of trend spotting over the next few weeks too!

Thanks for reading, please do share your favourites from these pictures in the comments below. Also, if you went to see any design at LDF2012 what were your favourites?

Becky