LDG editor Max Fraser has a real issue with bad service, so much so that he felt compelled to write about it in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2012-2013 edition. Read about his ‘Just Say Hello’ campaign below and contribute your thoughts via Twitter, using the hashtag #JustSayHello.

LONDON DESIGN GUIDE extract: Just Say Hello campaign by Max Fraser, page 10

“At the tender age of 17 I worked in the designer menswear departments at Harrods every Saturday. On training day we watched the induction video featuring owner Mohamed Al Fayed, who announced something that has always stuck with me: “You are the ambassadors to my business.”

That remark has repeatedly echoed in my mind while putting together this publication. I’ve been subjected to various degrees of unacceptable service – even at the city’s most influential boutiques. After I started noticing it, I was amazed how many places failed at the basic courtesies. Surely good service is one of the crucial components of successful retail. Incensed, I’d often return to the office and recount my stories, exclaiming: ‘How difficult is it to JUST SAY HELLO?!’ And so this public plea to join my Just Say Hello campaign was born.

It’s pretty straightforward: all I’m looking for when I enter a retail establishment is a handful of basics: a hello, eye contact and, ideally, a smile. Yes, it’s as simple as that. It’s probably going too far to ask me how I am. Yes, I know you’ll be there if I need your help. And, no, I don’t want to be referred to as your ‘mate’.

You’d be amazed at how many assistants I found affixed to their computer screens, too engrossed to look up. Others chatted amongst themselves, oblivious to the fact that they were recounting their weekend escapades to the entire store. A classic is for staff to look you up and down and make an immediate judgment. Big mistake. At Harrods I learned quickly that the people you wouldn’t expect to spend often spend the most.

Retailers must wake up to their lacklustre staff and realise it’s not enough to carry a product that sells; you need to keep customers coming back. So many places seem to sell the same stuff anyway that great service is likely to be the deal-breaker. And if shoppers feel they’ve been treated better than they expected, there’s a higher chance they’ll return.

This is particularly crucial today as the retail environment struggles under a weak economy and competition becomes ever more rife. The ingredients that make up customer loyalty are fickle and transferable; they need to be nurtured and massaged wherever possible. In fact, succeeding at customer service takes more than simply saying, ‘Hello.’ But that’s certainly a good start.”

Join our campaign to stamp out bad and encourage good service. Whichever you encounter, share it on Twitter using the hashtag #JustSayHello

You can follow LONDON DESIGN GUIDE on Twitter: @L_D_G

To purchase a copy of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2012-2013 edition, click here.

It’s official! The new edition of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2012-2013 is now available, featuring totally new content and plenty of great features. Order your copy now for only £12 and we will dispatch it to you wherever you are in the world.

LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2012-2013 gives a fresh insight into the city’s contemporary and vintage retailers, as well as design galleries, museums and bookshops. All 140 new and established hotspots are compiled and reviewed by design commentator Max Fraser.

Shops are categorised by neighbourhood and accompanied by detailed maps – plus walking tours written by local tastemakers including Sheridan Coakley, Tom Dixon and Kit Kemp – to help navigate the best that the city has to offer.

You’ll find restaurant, bar and cafe recommendations, selected as much for their design credentials as for the quality of food and service.

And we’ve commissioned 10 short essays by local experts including Naomi Cleaver, Hugh Pearman, Benjamin Hubert and Libby Sellers, each discussing an aspect of the industry, be it designing, producing, selling, communicating, collecting, even discarding design.

The 2012-2013 edition also introduces 4×4, a new 16-page supplement featuring the top furniture, lighting and accessories designs available in London design stores. The survey does your homework for you, evaluating the designs based on quality and longevity.

The 208-page LONDON DESIGN GUIDE is a snapshot of the design scene today, a celebration of creativity and a practical tool for Londoners and tourists alike. There’s no better incentive for exploring the wealth of design in the capital.

It’s “a must-read” according to the New York Times.

Publisher: Spotlight Press

Editor: Max Fraser

Book designer: Richard Ardagh Studio

Cover designer: Peter Crawley 

LDG editor Max Fraser is hosting bike tours around Clerkenwell during Clerkenwell Design Week. The leisurely tours take in the best design events of the festival and are conducted on elegant Pashley bikes supplied by Tally Ho! Cycle Tours.

Each day we will be stopping off at the most interesting design shops and exhibitions taking place as part of Clerkenwell Design Week. Tour-goers will be not be informed of the itinerary in advance, adding an element of surprise to the route.

Tours start at 1:30pm and run until 3pm, finishing with tea and cakes at The Farmiloe Building – the CDW hub for the week.

BOOK YOUR PLACE ON A TOUR! Places are strictly limited so don’t delay.

Tickets cost £12.50 each. You are provided with a bike and helmet.

We look forward to welcoming you on a tour!

Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft is an exhibition exploring the use of digital technologies in craft practice. The exhibition, curated by LDG editor Max Fraser, is showing at Arts Depot gallery in London as part of its 18-month tour of the UK.

LAB CRAFT, 6th May-26th June 2011

ARTS DEPOT

5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, London N12 0GA (020 8369 5454)

Lab Craft features 26 makers who combine the hand, mind and eye, technical mastery of tools and materials and aesthetic sensibility, with digital technologies such as rapid prototyping, laser cutting, laser scanning and digital printing. It explores the use of technology as an extension to the capabilities of the human hand.

Lab Craft includes work by some of the most experimental names in craft and design including; Tord Boontje, Michael Eden, Gareth Neal, Timorous Beasties and Nina Tolstrup, with many showing new work.

It features textiles, ceramics, furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and much more. Two commissioned films accompany the exhibition; one exploring process, showing footage of work being produced using a range of the new technologies and the other showing a series of interviews with the exhibited makers and key figures in the field of digital making.

Fraser says “Today we live in a Digital Age; a time when technological advancements are presenting craft practitioners with liberating opportunities. A new visual language is emerging. A language which involves manipulating, distorting and exploiting the parameters of digital software and fabrication tools. These tools enable the production of objects that move beyond the limitations of the hand.”

“Imagine objects three-dimensionally printed from a bed of nylon powder; shapes appearing to seamlessly morph and merge with each other; materials etched and cut by computer-controlled lasers and milling machines; movements and sound waves captured and translated into physical objects by sensors and scanners; and new forms randomly self-generated by computer software. Lab Craft presents the imagined as real objects.”

“As the human touch is considered a pivotal anchor in the definition of craft, is this made redundant amid the adoption of digital tools? Does digital perfection allow space for the great charm of mistakes? Far be it from spelling the end of craft as we know it, Lab Craft presents an exciting extension to the maker’s toolbox by showcasing a variety of items that utilise digital technologies, wholly or in part, in pursuit of pioneering new outcomes.”

The exhibition is curated by Max Fraser, in partnership with the Crafts Council, and designed by maker Tomoko Azumi.

Images, from top: ‘Information Ate My Table’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom; ‘Babel’ vessel by Michael Eden; ‘Shine’ candelabra by Geoffrey Mann; Chair upholstered with ‘White Moth All Over’ by Timorous Beasties; ‘Bubble’ neckpiece by Lynne MacLachlan; ‘Assa Table Loop Light’ by Assa Ashuach; ‘Matrix bracelet 2′ by Justin Marshall; ‘Digital Shibori’ by Melanie Bowles; ‘Woven Wood’ by Gary Allson and Ismini Samanidou.

Online video magazine – Crane TV – has made a short film about the Joy of Living charity exhibition, which is being organised by LDG editor Max Fraser. See interviews with Max, as well as designers Hannah Martin, Tom Dixon and Giles Miller.

Watch the video by clicking on the image below:

Video supplied courtesy of Crane TV.

Joy of Living aims to raise £50,000 for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. To buy an artwork online, visit the dedicated Joy of Living website (artworks released online on 15th March 2011). To make a donation to Maggie’s, click on this JustGiving link.

Thank you.

JOY OF LIVING is a charity project that unites over 100 leading lights in the design community to galvanise support for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. LONDON DESIGN GUIDE editor, Max Fraser, has set the challenge to new and established UK designers to create a desirable artwork that expresses the joy of living - all starting from a simple sheet of A4 graph paper. BUY YOUR FAVOURITE ARTWORK ONLINE or visit the exhibition.

JOY OF LIVING, 15th-21st March 2011

SOMERSET HOUSE

Great Arch lobby, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA (entrance via Embankment)

The signed works are exhibited and on sale in London’s Somerset House. The project aims to raise £50,000 for Maggie’s, a charity that helps people to build a life beyond cancer, helping to manage the impact of a diagnosis of cancer and to live with hope and determination.

Max Fraser explains, “After a very personal, emotional journey as I supported my mother through her 6-year battle with cancer, I vowed to contribute in some way to mankind’s fight against this disease. Maggie’s recognises that building an atmosphere of calm and celebrating a good quality of life are immensely beneficial to patients, and I know that my mother would have benefited so positively from its services.”

Charity founder Maggie Keswick Jencks once said, “Above all what matters is not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying,” and this statement has inspired the design challenge and the Joy of Living project.

A stellar list of UK design talent including Terence Conran, Tom Dixon, Barber Osgerby, Sebastian Bergne, John Pawson, Tomoko Azumi, Daniel Eatock, Fredrikson Stallard, Moritz Waldemeyer, Rob Ryan, Stuart Haygarth, Michael Marriott, Hannah Martin and Troika have contributed unique artworks that embody the Joy of Living theme.

Because democratic values are at the core of Maggie’s philosophy, each artwork is priced at £250, whether by a household name or a rising star. What’s more, the name of the designer will not be revealed until the piece is purchased, making sure that supporters buy a piece to which they have a true emotional response.

If you would like to donate to this project to raise vital money for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres, please visit the project’s secure online donation page on the Just Giving website: http://www.justgiving.com/joyofliving

LONDON DESIGN GUIDE will be giving a £1000 award to the designer who best responds to the Joy of Living title in their artwork, as chosen by an esteemed jury. The winner will be announced on 15th March 2011 on this website.

There is also a £500 award chosen by the public, so be sure to visit the exhibition to have an input!

It’s Christmas time and here LDG editor Max Fraser brings you his selection of gifts for the holiday season. As always, we would encourage you to buy well made items with lasting appeal to try to reduce the waste that comes with the merriment and excess. Enjoy!

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Every year in my family, someone buys a new Christmas tree decoration to add to a mish-mash of existing baubles and figurines, each one bringing back memories of a specific year. I find most baubles to be tacky and over-decorated, so I was delighted to discover this mouth-blown and hand engraved glass creation, which somehow encapsulates 2010: fragile and transparent.

Glass baubles by Judith Seng and Alex Valder. £41 from placesandspaces, Clapham (page 154 in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE)

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Candles help add to the atmosphere of Christmas day. These slender glass candlesticks will add an elegant glint to your dining table as you tuck into a feast. A stemware collection by the same designer is also available if you want the entire look.

Tilo range by Anna Torfs. Starting from £130 from Vessel, Notting Hill (page 33 in LDG)

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If, like some members of my family, you are prone to breaking glass then perhaps this etched brass candle holder might be a good option. The detailed pattern unleashes a mass of intricate shadows when lit. There is a similar pendant lampshade version also available.

Etch candle holder by Tom Dixon. £30 from Tom Dixon, Ladbroke Grove (page 32 in LDG)

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OK, back to glass. Well, chunky Quartz crystal actually. These glasses are part of a series designed by Max Lamb for historic crystal company J. & L. Lobmeyr. Lamb wanted to explore the optical effect of faceted crystal, creating a series of 23 cylindrical glasses cut with an increasing number of facets, from 3 to 34. The versions shown above were cut with 6 facets to create thick-walled crystal glassware.

Quartz Series by Max Lamb. £130 (small); £155 (medium); £188 (tall) from Projectory at Phillips de Pury & Company (Saatchi Gallery location)

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If you enjoy a dash of lemon juice with your smoked salmon, try out this futuristic-looking new citrus squeezer. This creation is produced by Alessi, the same company that makes the iconic Juicy Salif lemon squeezer by Philippe Starck (which doesn’t function very well!). Thankfully, and by Starck’s own admission, this one works extremely well!

mysqueeze citrus juicer by Roland Kreiter. £33, available exclusively online from mydeco.com or from Alessi, Mayfair (page 52 in LDG)

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Add some colour to the table with this selection of cheerful steel bowls (gloss on the inside, matt on the outside), originally designed in 1953 by Danish civil engineer, Herbert Krenchel. Excitingly, the iconic design has been reissued in 2010 by Danish brand Normann Copenhagen.

Selection of Krenit bowls by Herbert Krenchel. £12-97 (depending on size) from Skandium, Brompton & Marylebone (pages 20 & 42 in LDG). If you’re searching for a highly-collectible vintage original, visit Rocket Gallery, Shoreditch (page 135 in LDG)

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Of course, Christmas is the time to crack open just about anything that is wet and alcoholic. Here’s a bottle opener that will endure such heavy use, made from cast iron by skilled Japanese craftsmen.

Large bottle opener by Nobuho Miya. £13 from twentytwentyone, Islington (page 119 in LDG)

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A Christmas meal isn’t complete without the crack of some crackers. That said, most of them conceal a useless gift destined for landfill. Not so with these crackers from leading online stationery store, Present & Correct, which are made from graph paper in Devon and contain a few little treasures that you will likely want to keep!

Christmas crackers by Present & Correct. £10 from Present & Correct Pop-In Shop, Clerkenwell or from Present & Correct online shop.

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Over the Christmas period, it is more than likely you’ll get a surprise visit from friends or relatives. So, pull up one of these finely-crafted British-made stools which can double up as a wee side table/drinks perch when not being sat upon.

Stool One (oak) by Another Country. £145 from Another Country or The Temporium, Brompton (9-19th December 2010). Additionally, a limited-edition of 100 solid ash stools has been produced in collaboration with Monocle for £175.

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Of course, if anyone outstays their welcome, show them the door… and these simple coat hooks which they probably failed to notice on arrival!

Ceramic and cork knobs by Jasper Morrison. £9, £14, £21 for ceramic and £8, £10, £12 for cork from Jasper Morrison Shop (page 131 in LDG). Also can be used as handles on furniture. The shop is also open on Saturdays in December.

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During any Christmas down-time, while most people can be found reading a good novel, I’m guilty of using the time to scrub up on my design knowledge. Yeah, cool man. So here is a beast of a book delving into the nuts and bolts of the Eames Office, written and designed over 13 years by ex-employee Marilyn Neuhart and husband John. After this weighty accomplishment, we’ll finally be able to draw a line under the Eames legacy.

The Story of Eames Furniture by Marilyn & John Neuhart. £140 from The Lollipop Shoppe, Spitalfields or directly from the publisher, Gestalten. If you have a spare 16 minutes, be sure to watch this fantastic video about the book.

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Before you sit down to read, it’s important that you have a good light. Here’s a beauty – an architect lamp designed in 1921 by Bernard-Albin Gras and recently reissued. The construction of the lamp, hand made in France, is free from screws or welded joints. There are various versions available but this one is my favourite.

Lampe Gras 207 by Bernard-Albin Gras. £380 from SCP, Shoreditch and Westbourne Grove (pages 136 and 31 in LDG)

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For those of you with children, you probably have to tolerate heaps of ugly plastic toys in your home. Well, American designer David Weeks has designed a series of wooden animals that happily fall into the ‘kidult’ category. Beautifully hand made, each limb is fully flexible and simply held together with elastic. My favourite is Hanno the gorilla.

Hanno the Gorilla by David Weeks. £59 from Aram Store, Covent Garden (page 76 in LDG)

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And on to the New Year. I like to start each year with a fresh new notebook to jot down ideas and future plans. You never know when you will have a lightbulb moment, so it’s best to invest in a good looking book for any public appearances. Crucially, this one has unlined pages (that’s just how I like it), with a Japanese screen printed cover and red linen spine.

Large hand bound notebook. £26 from Darkroom, Bloomsbury. Other colours and sizes are available.

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Finally, a little note to jolt your conscience. A staggering amount of landfill waste is generated each year from excessive packaging as well as unwanted Christmas gifts. We would encourage you to carefully consider the person you are buying for (so that they receive what they actually want), avoid unnecessary packaging, and make a concerted effort to buy into quality items that will last. There, we said it.

Check out GOOD magazine’s ‘10 favourite innovations for reducing plastic consumer waste.’

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tent London is regarded as the must-see event of the London Design Festival with over 200 emerging and established designers and companies presenting the very latest in furniture, lighting, digital and interior products.

TENT LONDON

23rd – 26th September 2010

Truman Brewery, Brick Lane London E1 6QL (020 7739 5561)

On display are a large collection of contract exhibitors, including Ercol, Bolon, iGuzzini, Mathmos and Inflate among many others. Furthermore, new domestic products are offered from companies such as Areaware and Miller Goodman.

There are many sections to be explored at Tent. One of them is SHOWHOW which introduces the latest trends in Danish design with a particular focus on sustainability.

In the venue’s outdoor courtyard space is a celebration of gardens by The Modern Garden Company, featuring an urban garden installation with the latest outdoor designs. In addition to the industrial outdoors, there’s also a chance to drop by design agency Vonsung‘s pop up Café-Bar, a structural pavilion that is open for the duration of the event.

For a glimpse of the future, head to the Tent Digital section of the show, which covers over 800 square metres of digital installations, supported by UK Trade & Investment.

A particular highlight of Tent this year is the ‘Lab Craft‘ exhibition, curated by LDG editor Max Fraser (OK, we’re a bit biased!). The exhibition looks at the growing influence of digital technologies on the craft sector and celebrates work in this field, with displays of some of the UK’s finest examples.

The exhibition is part of the Crafts Council‘s touring exhibition programme and will debut at Tent before traveling across the UK for 18 months.

We’re delighted that LONDON DESIGN GUIDE has been included in Design Week‘s annual round-up of the “people making a difference in design,” which was released today (28th January 2010).

In a section dedicated to Self-Publishing, LDG editor and publisher Max Fraser is credited alongside other newly-formed publishers.

Thank you Design Week! Others included in the supplement are BBC; Yves Behar; D&AD; Design Council; Design Museum; Rodney Fitch; Antony Gormley; Anish Kapoor; HRH The Duke of Edinburgh; Jamie Oliver; Dieter Rams; Penguin Books; Selfridges; V&A etc etc…

Its January 2010 and the start of a new decade. It seems only right that at this milestone, we all consider what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong. In this LDG extract, editor Max Fraser confronts our insatiable appetite to consume and calls for change.

THE STATE OF STUFF

In today’s materialist culture we have become addicted to the constant allure of the ‘new.’ Max Fraser argues that now is the time to change our game.

Over the past decade or so we have lived well beyond our means, propped up by easy access to credit and an attitude that we can have what we want, when we want it. Today we wallow in a culture of uncontested consumerism. As Richard Girling wrote in his book Greed: ‘We acquire, accumulate, and consume so far in excess of “need” that the word itself has fudged its meaning.’*

Girling has a point. We belong to a generation that has never had to go without, and along the way we have created an invisible monster  that feeds off our over-indulgence and wastefulness. It looms on the horizon of Western consciousness, yet we live with the belief that we are somehow immune to the problems it conceals.

The current recession has brought some designers to the consensus that now is the time to address our culture of aimless consumption in the hope of restoring a marketplace with a healthier and more sustainable outlook than before.

As it stands the design industry seems to blindly produce more ‘stuff’, clambering at every opportunity to capture our attention amid a sea of homogeneous and derivative products. It is by no means the only industry that simultaneously creates desire and fuels disposability; in general, the vast majority of ‘stuff’ is only adequately designed and manufactured and capitalises on its own planned obsolescence. We recognise this – the burden on the planet is discussed endlessly – yet until it smacks us in the face, calls for change are likely to go unheard. In the main, we are hypocrites; we know we need to reduce but we feel doubtful that as individuals we can make any difference.

Could we ever move away from consumption altogether? I hear you ask: Why would he, the editor and publisher of an annual guide that ultimately encourages consumption, suggest such a thing?

True, this thinking is naive and short sighted. Trade is engrained in our culture. Our finely tuned production cycle should be credited for providing us with an ever-important source of income – which, in turn, helps keep society’s wheels in motion. Production should not be considered a 21st-century scourge; innovation and technology offer infinite possibilities to a forward-thinking society.

It is also important to recognise that human nature is at its finest when creating. It gives us a sense of purpose. Throughout history our country has spawned pioneers we can thank for everything we value as great. These innovators deserve kudos, not the imitators who follow in their wake. However, as Richard Girling rightfully warns: ‘We salute excellence, but excellence is seldom born of modesty, and still less of moderation.’**

More than ever before, society needs to embrace moderation and readdress the reality of our ‘needs’. But only when we seriously question why we have mountains of stuff cluttering our shelves (as well as our minds and, ultimately, the rubbish tips) will we be able to start changing our consumption patterns. It is time to move away from the concept of disposability and promote quality and longevity, repair and reuse. Consumption is fine, as long as we buy better quality products less often and place value on emotional resonance. The future should be seen as rich with opportunity, but conditional on a move away from today’s self-destructive trajectory. Along the way we need to excite and empower one another and sidestep those who hesitate.

As things stand today, I get the feeling we are just treading water, waiting for others to make the first move. An army of creative entrepreneurs is eager to advance, but seems held back by risk-averse corporations and government. As our history tells it, however, it is during the hard times that human beings have best responded to new challenges. There is every reason why now is the time for change.

* Richard Girling, Greed. Why We Can’t Help Ourselves (2009), p.64

** Richard Girling, Greed. Why We Can’t Help Ourselves (2009), p.83

This extract was taken from pages 158+159 of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2010.