Recently, I hosted a panel discussion as part of London Design Week entitled ‘Why Design Matters’. It’s a statement and a subject that I think about constantly, but to be debating with my peers around what creative endeavours mean here and now, as well as the state of our industry and the impact that it has on our careers and daily lives, was fascinating and gave me new insights to ponder.
What is clear to me is that design is everything and often so much more than people realise. Take waking up every morning. In those first bleary moments of consciousness, we are already interacting with literally thousands of elements in which some form of ‘design’ has had a part: the bed we’re lying in, the linen covering us, the phone we reach for to turn off a blaring alarm, the speaker we listen to the news bulletin on, the coffee machine and cups we drink from, the shower gel’s packaging, the rooms that we move through and so it goes, on and on…
Design is not just objects and stuff, as is deftly pointed out by designer and disruptive tastemaker Harry Nuriev in our feature on design disruptors. These days, it’s increasingly about community, behaviour and dialogue. Perhaps surprisingly in a world in the grips of
war and all-consuming technology, it’s about human interaction, coming together with those around us in new and exciting ways.
With Milan’s ever influential design week and the central Salone del Mobile on the near horizon, I wanted to examine the myriad ways that design matters. We’ve spoken to Nuriev and four other key opinion leaders on how the scene is changing and how the industry communicates both internally and externally; their answers are as interesting as they are exciting, giving me great hope for the future.
As ever, the ELLE Decoration team have worked their super-stylish socks off to pull together an issue packed to the rafters with everything you could want as we head into the positive months of spring. There’s a newfound obsession with creative freedom inspired by Surrealism, the latest outdoor-furniture launches, a showstopping fabric shoot, as well as new wallpapers and paints and a slew of the most inspiring interiors from the weird and wonderful to the calmer and more considered. We also speak to British design titans Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby and welcome a new columnist, the esteemed architect Richard Parr, who gives us his extremely knowledgeable take on the world he inhabits.
Last, but by no means least, we’ve included our annual (and, in my opinion, best-ever) ELLE Decoration Kitchens magazine: 47 pages dedicated to the area of the home where the pillars of functionality and finesse exist in abundance. A daily reminder of why design matters.
