Heimtextil 2011
Campaign was commissioned by leading trend forecasting agency The Future Laboratory to create an installation at Heimtextil, the biggest international trade fair for home and contract textiles.
The brief for the installation was Reconnect, The Future Laboratory’s survey of the emerging trends, attitudes and inspirations that will influence the designer and consumer in 2011-12.
Reconnect identifies four prevailing attitudes: Utility, Wilderness, Mix-Mash and Sobriety, which informs the installation creating four distinct and contrasting enclosures to walk through, encouraging exploration and interaction.
Campaign’s installation features a dramatic ‘forest’ of suspended lengths of rope, each 8 metres long, acting as a unifying landscape in which to discover each enclosure and focus the visitor’s experience.
The journey is suggested but not prescribed; Utility is the gateway enclosure leading onto Wilderness, which is discovered in the forest. Wilderness is followed by Mix-Mash embedded deep in the forest. Finally visitors exit the rope forest through the restrained Sobriety space.
Utility: Expressing a backlash against consumer society and a readiness to swap the glossy and over-marketed for the more rough-hewn and essential, Utility showcases simple, authentic and honest materials such as rope and neutral fabric. Taking inspiration from standardised industrial and commercial fixtures, the enclosure is constructed from scaffolding to form a basic structure encased by a wire fence with a simple suspended bare light.
Wilderness: Prompted by a desire for self-reliance and a super-sustainable lifestyle, this trend is characterized by the raw and primitive and is about a reconnection with nature and the basic state of humanity. The Wilderness enclosure features an unkempt blackened wood hut nestled in the woods reflecting a return to organic sustainable materials.
Mix-Mash: Against a backdrop of optimism and experimental attitudes, this vibrant aesthetic direction is fuelled by a wild mix of cultural and semiotic references and takes inspiration from exuberant mark-making and indigenous craft. Mix-Mash features brightly painted timber interlocking geometric structures with multi-coloured and patterned material suspended from bright ropes to embody energy and dynamism
Sobriety: ‘Fewer but better’ is the defining concept for the Sobriety enclosure. Ordered and well proportioned, it has a restrained aesthetic that incorporates high quality materials. In a stark contrast to the abundance seen in the Mix-Mash enclosure, neutral hues and a minimalist and functional approach are the key features here.