British designer Tom Dixon has change into a world mega-brand. Having began his model 20 years in the past, he’s well-known for creating interiors for personal members golf equipment like Shoreditch Home, and accommodations like Sea Containers, and for making a raft of recent basic merchandise just like the Copper Ball pendant mild.
He started his profession as considerably of a punk of the fashionable inside design world, creating items in a studio alongside the now-world-renowned architect Thomas Heatherwick. His work obtained put into manufacturing by Cappellini, after which he grew to become the Inventive Director of the much-loved British model Habitat. Extra lately, he opened a flagship retailer and restaurant because the jewel of the crown in London’s Coal Drops Yard, and as is credited with placing King’s Cross on the design map.
Each time I communicate to Tom, I am struck by how a lot thought he places into each piece, each room, that he creates. He’s regularly involved with whether or not his creations will reply particular issues we face at the moment. Final week, I visited his newest present at Salone del Cell, and was met with a reinvention of some his basic merchandise, now in sustainable supplies, in a palazzo as grand as his mild fittings.
(Picture credit score: Tom Dixon)
As a substitute of utilizing wallpaper for an announcement wall as within the 90s, use mild to create a wash as a substitute
Tom Dixon
The proper shapes for residence working
Pip Wealthy: I at all times really feel like your designs have been made for a social world – rooms to have enjoyable and collect in, after which Coal Drops Yard is actually a spot to get collectively at. How are you feeling concerning the function of design proper now?
Tom Dixon: King’s Cross is a novel place. It’s nice to see life coming again once more and other people eager to exit once more.The factor I’m stunned about is how few individuals – particularly youthful ones – who don’t wish to return to an workplace. Working from house is right here to remain.
PR: And is that change in expectation for residence workplaces informing the way you’re designing?
TD: Sure. I’m busy making a chaise longue prototype of the Wingback chair we did for Shoreditch Home, which shall be upgraded with some features for the fashionable world. We created that chair initially to cocoon you as you drank your nighttime cocktail, however then wifi arrived and out of the blue it was a spot to cover the telephone you weren’t meant to be utilizing in any of the Soho Homes on the time. So now I’m making it extra enclosed, extra snug, extra space for each you and your laptop computer.
New sustainable supplies
The newly revamped Mirror Ball pendant mild by Tom Dixon
(Picture credit score: Tom Dixon)
PR: Is residence working what you’re eager about in your cycle rides across the metropolis? You’ve informed me earlier than that is while you ponder design’s nice questions.
TD: I’ve lately purchased a greenhouse studio on an orchid farm in Sussex, and so now I’m considering whereas driving up and down between London and there. Everybody appears to be eager that we have a good time the twentieth anniversary of Tom Dixon, however I’m extra to look forward. I’m impressed by the noble attitudes of a whole lot of the Sixties designers – Pierre Paulin, Ettore Sottsass, individuals who lived by means of warfare and had an idealistic view of what design can do. I wish to improve a few of our greatest sellers and have a look at extra sustainable supplies and practices.
PR: Is that this what you’ll be exhibiting in Salone del Cell in Milan this month? I’ve seen a sneak peek of the Soften mild in its new blue shade.
TD: Our Mirror Ball mild is now an vintage product – I’ve truly seen it in an antiques retailer – so that’s having an invisible makeover with 100% recycled plastic. We’re attempting the S chair in latex, which is foraged plastic from the rubber tree, and I’m doing a cousin to the Fats chair, referred to as the Slim chair, which is lowering the quantity of supplies we have to use.
The key to mild washing
PR: Have you ever observed a change in the way in which individuals wish to enhance, and what colors and kinds they’re being drawn to?
TD: The colors we like are very cyclical. Proper now, my selection is lavender, which may be very calming. I’d use it matte, with a little bit of pink, a little bit of inexperienced.
PR: You’re the third designer this yr to inform me they’re into lavender. Robert Stilin, Brigette Romanek, now you. I’m calling it – the shock new development that’s going to be in every single place. The brand new impartial!
TD: It’s fairly laborious to make use of although. Maybe maintain it to textiles.
PR: I don’t know – I’m drawn to its softness. Should you get the proper shade it shimmers within the mild. Talking of, because the grasp of recent lighting, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you the way you’re utilizing it proper now.
TD: We’re celebrating the LED, the revolution of which has opened up an enormous array of potentialities. Our lighting system offers the choice of various color temperatures, and makes use of about an eighth of the ability of normal bulbs. What I’d recommend is bringing mild to totally different spots within the room – there’s a theatricality if you happen to illuminate totally different areas. Look behind furnishings, mild behind a settee to make a wash on the wall – as a substitute of utilizing wallpaper for an announcement wall as within the 90s, use mild as a substitute. Sticky tape LEDs are superb, spreading the sunshine and avoiding a flood of prime lighting. Clearly you want considered one of my assertion pendants, however recessed spots may be so unflattering, so as a substitute, take into consideration which surfaces you wish to mild, and go from there.
