Our favourite products from London Design Festival 2025
In the wake of last week's London Design Festival, the Dezeen team has selected their seven favourite products on show at the city-wide event, including a patchwork timber rocking chair and a lampshade made from old sandpaper.
Gem Set chair by Britney Lee
chosen by Jennifer Hahn, design and environment editor
"Figured woods with striking, irregular grain patterns are often the rarest and most expensive.
"In her Gem Set chair, Royal College of Art graduate Britney Lee achieves the same look using rather more humble means – fallen timber from London's plane trees.
"The disparate pieces of wood are wrapped in sheets of aluminium, employing the same technique used in jewellery making to set gemstones.
"The result is a beautifully packaged metaphor positing that, in this era of rampant deforestation, wood should be seen as equally 'unique, finite and precious as a diamond'."
Act I: The Bed by Studio Charlotte Taylor
chosen by Jane Englefield, design and interiors reporter
"Charlotte Taylor has an undeniable eye for curating enviable objects. This couldn't have been clearer at Soft World, Sharp Edges, her debut LDF show that made me want everything on display, from jeweller Gala Colivet Dennison's tiny silver ashtray on stilts to the first bed created by Taylor's eponymous studio.
"Made from a duo of mild, rolled stainless steel platforms, the monumental bed features a slit on its side that a removable mirror, television, lamp or side table can slot into.
"Despite their generous weight, the platforms can be stacked to transform the furniture into a daybed. As Clara Finnigan, our social editor, pointed out, the bed's steel surface could also come in handy on London's ever-hotter summer nights when your toes need to cool down."
Cupsan by Blast Studio
chosen by Rima Sabina Aouf, contributing editor
"Board-like biomaterials made from waste can seem like they're a dime a dozen these days, but Blast Studio's Cupsan – made from London's discarded coffee cups – stands out for its beauty, which near-hypnotised me at Material Matters.
"There are a few different finishes, but they are universally matte, tactile and richly textured, and manage to make me think of stone, terrazzo, clay, earth and the covers of composition books all at once.
"Blast Studio has built a solid reputation over years of bespoke commissions and experimental projects, and you can see that expertise reflected in their first product."
Cut-Out chair by Marcel Breuer
chosen by Max Fraser, editorial director
"Created in 1936, this chair is clearly not a new design. However, it never made it into production, having idled in the archive of British furniture manufacturer Isokon. Almost ninety years on, they have finally brought it to the market during LDF.
"Originally designed for its efficient use of sheet plywood, the resulting chair is made up of strong vertical side panels which support a moulded veneer seat and backrest.
"The experimental chair possesses child-like qualities brought about by its thin curving backrest, which adds a playful yet slightly awkward visual quirk. One gets the impression that Breuer had fun with this piece."
Chair by Lewis Kemmenoe
chosen by Cajsa Carlson, deputy editor
"I always enjoy it when places that are usually closed to the public open up for the London Design Festival, and this year, an old fire station in Clerkenwell formed one of its more playful and unusual venues.
"In the large space, divided by fire-engine-red pillars, collectible design platform Max Radford Gallery had teamed up with furniture manufacturer Ercol to showcase the Grain Pile exhibition.
"Designer Lewis Kemmenoe's contribution took his signature patchwork style and applied it to perhaps one of the most traditional furniture pieces: the rocking chair. The resulting seat, made from oak and ash, has a beautifully pared-back geometric shape and might be single-handedly making rocking chairs cool again."
Grit Shade 002: Yellow by Marf Summers
chosen by Jennifer Hahn, design and environment editor
"Turning used-up sandpaper into a lampshade this beautiful takes real skill – something that London architect Marf Summers (previously of Herzog & de Meuron) clearly has in spades.
"Each sheet was carefully placed to create a well-balanced patchwork, considering not just the marks and abrasions on the front of the paper but also its printed backing, which is revealed under light.
"The final lampshade, on show as part of 2LG Studio's Green Carnation exhibition, is a love letter to the everyday tools of a designer, even when they have supposedly outlived their usefulness."
2025 collection by Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay for Lightmass
chosen by Max Fraser, editorial director
"One year ago, design duo Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay launched Lightmass with lighting pieces that are 'large in volume but minimal in weight'.
"Using additive technology, mesh surface patterns are printed digitally into sheets that are then shaped into voluminous 3D forms through which light is beamed.
"This year, they integrated an LED beam into the lightweight structures, causing each filament of the mesh to glow. At their presentation in Shoreditch's Wax Building, they clustered many of the elegant structures together and programmed the LEDs to constantly change colour. The effect was mesmerising."
London Design Festival took place from 13 to 21 September. See our London Design Festival 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that took place during the week.
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