I went down to the big smoke on Friday to check out the Design Festival. As usual it was a very eclectic mix of design, which was scattered throughout London.

First off I went to the Kemistry Gallery to check out the exhibition celebrating Typographica magazine, if your not familiar it was first published in 1949 and founded by Herbert Spencer. It was a nice little collection of the journals and background of Typographica.

Then it was off to the SORT pop-up letterpress studio, these guys are fantastic. Just the two of them run their own studio and they both specialise in letterpress printing. The machinery they had was all reclaimed/sourced/bought and rebuilt with their own fair hands. I had a quick crash course in the basics, it has been something I have always had an interest in and will definitely be looking at getting myself a little Adana press. The little pop-up studio was great.

From there it was on to Brick Lane to Tent London, this was mainly a gathering of up and coming designers ranging in various disciplines, with the majority being product designers. It was worth a look about, if only for inspiration.

Then I made the trip over the Thames to the Design Museum which was celebrating its 20th birthday, a host of designers were there showing their support even Airsides Fred Deakin was on the turntables keeping everyone entertained via the silent disco. The main reason I was there was to see the great Neville Brody talk, he was inspirational (also turned up late) with his talk mainly centered around his Studios work, Research Studios and his work ethic, his style is still very unique and cutting edge.

I will definitely be making the journey same time next year, it was well worth the trip. The highlight for me being the Letterpress workshop. The only downside is how scattered the events and exhibitions are, you need a full day or two to get around what you want to see.