London Design Festival is, predictably, awash with product launches – and standing out is, predictably, the name of the game. On Friday we showcased watch brand Uniform Wares’ gallery-esque take on the product launch, and up today is Studio Toogood‘s decidedly high-brow celebration of their new collection BATCH. Accompanied by the equally high-brow food design of Francesca Sarti’s Arabeschi di Latte, Faye Toogood’s studio unveiled their product launch cum pop-up café; The Back Room.
Post-industrial utilitarian austere was the menu of the day – well, strictly speaking, Arabeschi di Latte’s fabulously conceptual The M25 Luncheon was – with the studio’s edgy aesthetic making for a delightfully uncompromising space. Ingredients for the modernist ploughman’s lunch were, as the name suggests, gathered from within the M25 (and washed down with a mug of locally brewed beer) – the food designers’ bold, contemporary plating a far cry from à la mode dainty restaurant trends.
Café? Showroom? Restaurant? Installation? Who cares, Studio Toogood pulled off a multi-sensory spectacle that carried the one hallmark that truly matters; putting convention in its place, and giving conformity a good slap around the chops. Bravo.
Photography, Rory van Millingen
