The Surface Design Show was held at the Business Design Centre, London, 7th – 9th February 2023
Chris Fordham reports:
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The Surface Design Show was back in Islington at the Business Design Centre this February, and I was curious to find out if it was something that would interest the likes of our readership, whether the trip to London at this cold and grey time of year was frankly worth the train ticket.
Often you will find that lighting is a late addition to many shows, something sparkly to bring in the punters, so to speak. This year’s theme was ‘Shaping Communities’, a theme broad (and nebulous) enough to mean anything you want I guess, including perhaps lighting? The topic allowed and encouraged exhibitors to show their ‘social value and sustainable practice’. And that’s something well suited to our industry – you would think.
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All well and good so far, only thing missing were the lighting companies! Not exactly ideal for a lighting design article but, weirdly, the show had all the ingredients to make a decent lighting stew, chocked full of architects and designers and with a plethora of surfaces just crying out for some good light-grazing, highlighting and colour accuracy discussions ( and what salesperson doesn’t like a good natter !).
So, I hear you ask, what is it holding the manufacturers back? Is it all in the name, or is something else going on? Speaking to our editor in his days involved with the Lux show, a common complaint was that there was never a broad enough church among the congregation at a dedicated lighting event, so – you might think – with that in mind The Surface Design show Should be perfect.
It’s an interesting question that I put to Managing Director of Montgomery Design & Build, Nickie West (responsible for this show and many others).
“Lighting is an integral part of surface design, which was highlighted by the substantial number of entries in the Surface Design Awards for the light and surface category for 2023. At Surface Design Show 2024 we will be actively seeking to involve the best manufacturers and designers of lighting as we know that this is an important sector for the architecture and design community” .
Feedback from one of the lighting companies with a permanent showroom at the BDC was really positive, as Kevin Humphreys (Director of Cantelo lighting) told me –
‘Our showroom received more visitors to that event than any other show over the previous 8 months, including Light22.The interest generated at SDS was a very pleasant surprise indeed, and I would encourage anyone visiting Surface Design Show to come with an open mind, as there are many resident companies present at the venue that complement those being exhibited’.
Information shared exclusively with The Light Review’ from Cora Kemp, (Director of Informare, PR content + communication) showed that ‘Over 5000 people registered their interest in lighting at the show, which was the second highest area of interest’, in addition nearly 6000 architects, designers and specifiers visited over the 2 ½ days.
So, manufacturers, I know these events are expensive, but maybe the time has come to think smaller and more local? We know the costs of mega shows such as Frankfurt LIght+Building can cost an arm and a leg, and with the massive sustainability argument to boot, a decision to have smaller local shows is a compelling one. From the lighting designer’s perspective, unless the number of lighting exhibiters increases, you would be better off attending one of the many other shows available in the first quarter of this year. But, if you’re a manufacturer – with this number of potential clients all in one place you have to say, it’s just crying out for more lighting companies to show how you really can make these surfaces ping !
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Midton, is a cast acrylic foundry with a focus on sustainability.
If you are after a company that can produce bespoke plastic lighting products, often out of recycled material, they can cater for your needs. The company has some form, having worked with Haberdashery, Nulty, Dan Heap Lighting and Mike Stoane to name but a few, and in the words of ‘Communications Executive’ Mark Charlton:
‘We are here showcasing how acrylic can be reformed, recycled and re imagined. The company is a cast acrylic foundry, and through our day-to-day business we were generating a great deal of plastic waste, offcuts etc with no idea where it was going afterwards. That didn’t sit well with us, so we converted a large space and bought a huge chipping machine which we use to reduce the plastic to a granular size, allowing us to re-introduce the plastic into our casting process. The material that comes out we call ‘remade’, which consists of anything from 10-70% reclaimed waste. Focussing on the circular economy the product at its end of life can be returned to Midton, where we can break it down and use it again in other lights, or simply refurbish the creations. ’
I am not a massive fan of plastics given the current state of our environment, but this reclaimed chipped material has a place I believe in the whole circular economy. In addition, the reclaimed material actually makes the decorative product quite aesthectically appealing, with sttruiations of light formed through the shade. The products they produce tend to be decorative; and as they are cast can be engineered as a batch to be identical or as individual pieces.
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We last spoke to Appelec lighting at Design London 22. Here they were exhibiting Auragami LED sheet, which interested me as it was wrappable, IP65-rated and offered great flexibility when trimming. As ‘Head of Architectural Lighting’ Terrie Hampson-Powell explained –
The sheets are energy efficient with 100 lumens per watt and run on 24v. Each LED is 0.26w, and is RoHS, UL, CE & IP65 certified. It comes with a 5-year warranty and has a lifespan of 50,000+ hours. One of the great things about this product is that it can be bent to 90degree’s, which means we are often asked to supply it on applications such as bar tops, fronts, and shelves. Another interesting element is that as its fully flexible, it can be wrapped around columns (with a minimum radius of approx 50mm) and cut to fit awkward shapes. The cuttability of the sheet even allows for just a single diode to be cut, (Following the cut lines of the sheet)‘
Mechanical fixings are not required as it comes with a 3M adhesive backing, however there are dedicated areas on the Auragami face for mechanical fixings if extra support is needed. ( i.e. for ceiling installations RHS).
The LEDs boast an impressive 120degree beam angle which provides a homogenous light over a large surface area, and 8 sheets can be connected to one PIK (Power input kit) which can be powered by one transformer.
Auragami sheets are compatible with majority of dimming systems.
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