Design gurus head south

GLASGOW'S design community is heading south early next week to take part in this year's 100% Design Show in London and appropriately, seeing themselves as a step above the rest, the Glasgow contingency is calling itself 101% Glasgow.

For the first time, the 10 furniture, textile and domestic product design companies will exhibit from the same stand - the biggest at the show.

Glasgow Development Agency is behind the project, providing financial support for the participants, with additional funding from Glasgow City Council.

The design companies are houseware recycling designers One Foot Taller, office creators Gullfaks Design, product design company Submarine, Squigee, a textile design company, and LWD which has produced a unique flat pack folding metal furniture range,

Jan Milne Textile Design, Nice House contemporary furnishing house, the VK&C Design Partnership, Timorous Beasties, Allan Gallacher Accessories and Arkitype Design Partnership.

''To date Glasgow designers have achieved success on an individual level'' commented Adrian Searle, design executive with Glasgow Development Agency.

''However, for that momentum to be built up and carried on, it is vital that the design companies present a collective face to the outside world which demonstrates the creativity, diversity and quality of the design work here.''

Creativity, diversity and quality typify the 'oritetsu' range of folding metal furniture being produced by lwd which was set up a year ago this month by Sam Booth who was joined by Mark Hale.

As late attendants at art school, they consider themselves to be the 'old new kids on the block'. While Sam Booth studied interior design at Glasgow School of Art, Mark Hale attended art school in Edinburgh, studying furniture and textile design.

Before going to art school, both had worked in industry as furniture makers and eventually found themselves teaching in the product design engineering department of Glasgow School of Art. Sam currently teaches part time in the interior design department at Glasgow School of Art. A third member of the team, Kerry Gallagher, is a qualified architect and interior designer.

Mark's decision to go to art school stemmed from a desire to study painting and drawing, and from an interest in design which eventually fuelled the need to 'have a grasp of the whole thing, how it is all generated and conceptualised'.

The present company evolved from Savage & Booth which Sam ran with his partner Maggie for 10 years before she gave up work to look after their children. Sam had the idea for the 'oritetsu' furniture range for many years and he started to promote it when they set up the new company.

''The order book is growing,'' explained Mark Hale. ''We have just finished a job in The Arches Theatre, making the bar gantry and a gigantic mobile bar, and we have been building relationships with Scottish manufacturers which have resulted in about six potential orders.''

The folding metal furniture is unique and its prototype was first exhibited at 100% Design last year. They took the range to New York in May, to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair which is considered to be the most prestigious show of its kind in the US.

They have also exhibited in Amsterdam and are running a touring exhibition in the Pacific Rim under the auspices of the British Council.

''We are becoming better known and that has resulted in a large number of inquiries, but taking a piece of furniture from its initial prototype stage to when it is actually ready to enter the marketplace is quite different,'' explained Mark Hale.

''At the moment we are at the stage when we have almost resolved the packaging and graphics and this will be done before we take it down to London to 101 % Glasgow because the agents who came to last year's exhibition will be there again.

''We have been in regular contact with many of them who want to know about cost, quantity, colours and delivery, and we have an agent in Holland with 290 retail outlets operating throughout the Benelux countries.

''Holland will be our entry market to mainland Europe because English is popular there, the furniture is well suited to the products of their market, and they have shown sufficient interest in it and will pay immediately on delivery.''

LWD is not a manufacturing company but is interested rather in developing partnerships with industry, looking at processes, at the materials and developing ideas

As a consequence of that they have a relationship with a company in England called Gemflex, based in Derbyshire, a one-stop shop company which sources the material, cuts it, punches holes in it, coats it, puts it in the packaging which LWD supplies, pallets it, wraps it and freight-forwards it.

They would like to use local companies but have found that the companies in Scotland do not have technology that is advanced enough.

''The machines used at Gemflex are Japanese and the tooling is American. Gemflex is part of a large group which operates in a large marketplace where demand is much greater,'' explained Mark Hale. ''We have used companies here in the past but the machinery is a bit slower so the price goes up.''

Creating something unique is always a gamble but this product-design company considers it a risk worth taking.

''We are hoping the furniture will take off and sell,'' he added. ''We have a patent application worldwide at the moment which gives us cover for up to a year.

''After that we will know which markets are going to be good for us and then we can take out full patents in them so that we can enter a few markets, sell well and bring money into the company.

''We are developing communications with various companies and will be using their processes and materials to develop products for the interior market as well as doing our interior design. We have become a multi-disciplinary company and that will allow us to keep ourselves flexible.''

For further information about 101% Glasgow and 100% Design exhibition, contact Sarah Gaventa, Glasgow 1999 on tel: 0141 248 6994 or Adrian Searle, Glasgow Development Agency at 0141 204 1111.