Creative businesses boom during Clerkenwell Design Week 2019

The tenth edition of Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW) was a fitting tribute to celebrate a festival founded to promote and celebrate design in all its aspects. CDW delivered huge benefit to London’s creative hub with 68,104 new business leads generated during the three-day festival – a 4% increase on 2018. With more than 200 brands exhibiting across the 7 venues and 100+ showrooms, CDW brought life to the area from 21 -23 May and further cemented the festival as a key event on the international design calendar.

Daren Newton, Managing Director of Clerkenwell Design Week, commented “The 10th edition of Clerkenwell Design Week (CDW) was the celebration of a decade spent in EC1 and has been the most successful edition yet. The excitement around CDW’s 10th birthday created an increase in visitor numbers as well as more A&D attendees than ever before, highlighting the festival’s importance on the global design scene. The various projects and street spectacles as part of CDW Presents demonstrated CDW’s flourishing growth over the past 10 years, working in synergy with the natural expansion of Clerkenwell as an area full of creativity. Following this important milestone I am personally very excited about what the future holds for both the festival and the area as London's creative heart.”

This year’s festival focused around its 10 year celebration and the history of Clerkenwell with striking installations Once Upon A Time and Decade. Turning Clerkenwell pink for the three days, the wayfinding refined the visitor experience and helped with access to the extensive combination of exhibitions, showrooms, fringe partners, installations and live events.

Visitors observed sustainability driven installations including BottleHouse™, sustainable shelters made from discarded plastic bottles washed up from the shore, creating a new circular economy. The Conversations at Clerkenwell series, staged in the Moth Pavilion designed by studio DA with Atelier One included a host of design thinkers and influencers including Neisha Crosland, Benjamin Hubert, Erwan Bouroullec and many more.

The 10th edition also welcomed 25 fringe partners and 26 food and drink partners. From tours of Clerkenwell’s colourful history on a Temple bicycle, to screen printing workshops using the world’s largest letterpress and an immersive installation by Jesticowhiles and Porcelanosa, the Fringe gave visitors a chance to explore the rich creativity within the area. The showrooms once again partnered with CDW and provided an array of stimulating events, talks and workshops. From collaborations and talks with Tom Dixon at Ege Carpets to new designs by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Established & Sons within an interactive workspace at Fora, visitors experienced a host of exciting events and new product launches at CDW.