MINT: LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2011
Written By Yvonne Courtney

Let’s face it, most of us have enough stuff. Do we really need any more clutter? As the London Design Festival kicks off across town – Mint, one of London’s most pioneering design stores – is resolutely showing a collection of idiosyncratic, yet highly desirable everyday objects.

Owner Lina Kanafani’s unerring eye continues to unveil intriguing new design talent. What’s so compelling with this particular showcase – which explores the influence of fashion on design – is that the pieces don’t visually reveal their material until touched or studied more closely. Fish skin looks like linen, cellulose like concrete and textile as ceramic.

Handcrafted porcelain stationary anyone? The Torn NotePad Page by Helena Seget is actually a sustainable porcelain jotter, designed to be used and enjoyed on a daily basis, with pencil marks removable with an eraser or soapy water. Or how about Maurizio Galante and Tal Lancman’s nifty spherical pouf for Cerruti Baleri, which looks deceptively like marble but is in fact polyurethane with a photographic image printed on its techno-fabric cover.

Holly Barton’s striking red Reindeer Moss Neckpiece aims to challenge our instinctive emotional response, based on wider cultural ideals of beauty… while Hannah Wales’ Silicone Stool is the result of an exploration into how surfaces can physically and visually enhance an object. Her use of silicone gives the delicious illusion of knitted wool, yet is as smooth and tactile as Corian.

Making materials look ‘soft’ but feel like natural building materials is pre-empting the emergence of nano-tech approaches to products.