Prepare to parse more peppery parlance than that chap Peter did when he picked a peck of pickled ones. The versatile spice is one of the most widely used in world cookery, as well as causing sneezes in old cartoons of course, but it was pepper’s aromatic applications that were of chief interest to DesignMarketo at this year’s London Design Festival. Their exhibition/event Perfume, Sir? began by squirting a bit of Poivre 23 – a fragrance from Le Labo and Nathalie Lorson I’m reliably informed – on a raft of designers who used it as an inspirational springboard to create multi-sensory objects.

For four days at the festival people pored over pepper, exploring its every aspect through dinners, workshops, performances and installations. The guest designers were Arlette Ess, Chiara Onida & AUT, Lex Pott, Odd Matter, Peter Marigold, Pia Wustenberg and Zaven, and the pepper-centric products that resulted are now available in limited numbers from the DesignMarketo shop.

@designmarketo

Chiara Onida & AUT
Photo © Amandine Alessandra for DesignMarketo
Stylist, Cody Hsian Jung Chen
Assistant, Chantal Chya Hsu

Zaven
Photo © Amandine Alessandra for DesignMarketo
Stylist, Cody Hsian Jung Chen
Assistant, Chantal Chya Hsu

Lex Pott
Photo © Amandine Alessandra for DesignMarketo
Stylist, Cody Hsian Jung Chen
Assistant, Chantal Chya Hsu

Peter Marigold
Photo © Amandine Alessandra for DesignMarketo
Stylist, Cody Hsian Jung Chen
Assistant, Chantal Chya Hsu

Arlette Ess
Photo © Amandine Alessandra for DesignMarketo
Stylist, Cody Hsian Jung Chen
Assistant, Chantal Chya Hsu

Installation photography,
© Amandine Alessandra for Designmarketo