Member Article

Clerkenwell Design Week 2013

Clerkenwell, one of the oldest inhabited areas of London, has a fascinating psycho geography that culminated in the very district becoming known as the capital’s centre for revolution and ultra-non-conformity. As the headquarters of Ve Interactive, this irony is not lost on us. But it’s not just our company that it has attracted. Now trendy and affluent, the area has a large concentration of top-flight design agencies, digital agencies and award-winning architects, housed in the old warehouses and workshops of its industrial and fictional pasts. (Fagin once lurked in these streets).

Whilst today, the radicalism and revolution seem to have simmered down locally, the dynamics of the area are still associated with alternative thinking and creativity, and this is something that is celebrated annually during the anomalous 3-day ‘Clerkenwell Design Week.’ Like Vienna a century ago, contemporary London is one of the world’s most creative cities and if you drill down to our neighbourhood, over sixty showrooms participated in Clerkenwell Design Week 2013.

The yearly event is intended to act as a launch pad for new products, influential designers and brands. Indeed journalists interviewed and filmed the designer-maker Troo Heath Crew of Tree Couture in Ve Interactive’s very own The Clerkenwell Collection - omnichannel concept store. The magnetic pull of the exhibition is impressive too. Last year, talks from leading designers and industry figures, fringe events and the amazing food dished up by the superb eateries that pepper this creative hub, attracted over 30,000 visitors and 239 design brands from around the world.

Clerkenwell Design Week was only founded in 2010, so it is very exciting for us new arrivals to the area, to witness its reputation developing so positively. Call us out for being the (techno) optimists that we are, but based on the quality and popularity of it so far, we don’t think it will be many years before Clerkenwell Design Week will be more accurately living up to its name.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kathy Heslop .