Tent London also lend their business acumen and creativity to other businesses. These companies benefit from the expertise of Ian Rudge, who in founding 100% Design effectively created London Design Week, and Jimmy MacDonald, whose eye for innovation constantly reinvigorates the industry.
The services offered range from helping designers at the beginning of their careers to establish themselves through to injecting new energy into international businesses. We have previously worked on successful collaborations with clients such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, Nokia, Renault, LG, SunCorp and DuPont.
Detailed below are two projects which illustrate how Tent Consultancy’s substantial understanding of the particular qualities of materials, allied to their knowledge of design, brought about the creation of a new product. These ventures introduced the manufacturers to new markets and captured the public imagination.
Link Give Away - September 2007
Tent London was the vital link in bringing an exciting new product to the office furniture contract market which enables people to shape their workspace in a creative way.
Link is a new modular system made from ARPRO®, an expanded polypropylene material which is light, strong, and durable. The elements are building blocks which can be interlocked to form partitions, walls and even whole rooms. Visitors to Tent London on the Sunday afternoon had the chance to grab their own free piece of design from Britain’s hottest design duo PearsonLloyd. Over 1000 Links were taken away. Subsequent to its launch at Tent London, Link is now on a tour of design shows around the world.
Tent London conceived the project and was responsible for hooking the material manufacturer JSP with the appropriate design agency. PearsonLloyd’s work focuses on design for manufacture and strategic research in the fields of furniture, transport design and the public realm. Recent projects include the design for Virgin Atlantic Airway’s new Upper Class Suite, as well as for Fritz Hansen, Artemide and Walter Knoll. Founded by Tom Lloyd and Luke Pearson in 1997, the studio has won numerous awards and they were voted the FX Designers of the Year in 2002.
The Great Chair Grab - September 2006
In 2006, Tent conceived and initiated a project on behalf of their client the EPS Packaging Group to create a high volume, low cost chair to highlight the flexibility of EPS (Expanded Polystyrene), a material normally used as a packaging material.
The resulting product went on to be the most memorable icon of the 2006 London Design Festival, featuring in the famous and much publicised 'The Great Chair Grab'. 500 chairs were given away for free in under 7 minutes in Trafalgar Square, neatly fulfilling the remit to introduce as many Londoners as possible to design.
Tent came up with the concept, negotiated the production of the mould and introduced Tom Dixon as the designer. Tom Dixon is an internationally renowned designer. His S-chair, launched by Cappellini in 1989, quickly reached iconic status and now has a permanent place in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Formerly the Creative Director of Habitat, Dixon was awarded the OBE for services to British Design in 2000.
