The Studio Toogood Open house gave an insight into their daily creative process, working across furniture, clothing, art and interiors, all a constant work in progress and home for experimentation.

“Materials are a playground. Assembling, collaging, clashing them. A huge part of my work has been focused on creating “wow” out of ubiquitous, simple, basic materials,” said founder Faye Toogood

The studio presented a new collection of GUMMY designs, the first upholstered furniture from Toogood – sculptural and soft seating built with bold and generous proportions.

The Material Matters show is one of our favourite highlights every year and this year was no exception! A few of our top exhibitors included Hydra, For Everyday.Life and Shinjae Kim.

Hydra is the world’s first industrial scale aluminium made entirely from recycled post consumer scrap. We loved these futuristic, shiny shapes. Our 3D designer Robson found it to be the most beautiful section of the exhibition!

For Everyday.Life is a design studio that presented a re-housing neighbourhood providing affordable, permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness.

Lastly, Studio Arp exhibited a wonderful glowing lampshade made from orange peel – we love a bit of zero waste upcycling!

These super cute forms demonstrated how the architecture of the Barbie dreamhouse is inspired by the midcentury modernism of Greater Palm Springs.

An iconic butterfly sloping roof was mirrored on the underside bringing joy and curiosity – clearly Barbie is a selfie queen. You’re then transported to a real life Californian landscape with a dreamy little infinity garden.

The open spaces and mirroring create a sense of limitlessness. It begs the question, can we design our houses to encourage play and imagination?

Wandering around the Shoreditch Triangle there are so many great makers and creators exhibiting during the London Design Festival. Our favourite spots this year included the Yinka Ilori Objects Pop-up Shop at The Hoxton, which showcased his latest vibrant collection inspired by West African architecture. Our 2D designer Claire particularly loved the bold use of colour and pattern in this truly joyful retail environment

2LG partnered with Hart Shoreditch to create a sensory immersive exhibition, Spectrum. The soothing animation explores colour and connection. It was such a calming space that was paired with a relaxing soundscape, the perfect hideaway from the busy streets of London.

Celebrating their 20th anniversary, ‘Past Forward’ was an immersive show that looked at the moments and ideas that defined Rapha. The zoetrope-like structure echoed the motion of a turning bike wheel, giving the feeling of movement whilst standing still in the dark space.

The Global Forum series at the V&A offered an insightful talk exploring more sustainable and considered design approaches, unpacking the real world impact of creativity and design and how this can be quantified, valued and enhanced.

Key speakers had this to say:

Marjan van Aubel, solar energy designer: In nature there is no waste, in indigenous communities there is no waste, I hope we can create solar cells in the same way. Solar panels are the asbestos of the 21st century as a roof of the current solar cells is non-compostable waste that can’t be taken apart. Luckily, a lot of research is going into how we can make circular solar cells made of organic materials.

Angela Ford, Founder, Studio Raw Origins: I think in general when we think of materials, we look at them as one thing, but they’re actually many things. A tree is not just a piece of wood, it does so many things, it’s a plant that regenerates the soil. So we need to open it up and see the aspects of what each plant/material does and how they could help other areas of our designs or how we can recycle them.