| When the recession first began to bite last year it | | | | kitchen designs, and a realisation that people |
| was as if people thought the world was about to | | | | actually want to live in their kitchens. We are |
| stop. They were caught like rabbits in the | | | | starting to see a move away from the architect |
| headlights of the abyss. As it has turned out the | | | | designed spaces look like science laboratories (or |
| world did not stop turning, the stars did not go | | | | mortuaries?) to kitchens that are spaces to live in |
| out, and not everyone went out of business. | | | | - somewhere that is the heart of the home - |
| Instead, since then there have been subtle shifts | | | | with warmth and comfort, a place to spend time, |
| and changes, more emotional than physical, whose | | | | rather than money. |
| waves have resonated and rippled through all | | | | They are trying to find things for their home that |
| areas of our lives, including that of design. | | | | are of real value and have real integrity. They do |
| Affecting consumers, manufacturers and | | | | not want to be smothered by the spreading |
| designers. | | | | wings of global companies - they want to get in |
| Until this moment the phenomenal popularity of | | | | touch with the story behind the products and the |
| makeover shows and the focus on celebrity | | | | narrative of the brands they are investing in. It is |
| lifestyles managed to produce an anxiety in | | | | as much an emotional investment as much as a |
| people who thought their existence would be | | | | financial one, and consumers are looking for |
| validated if they bought the right "stuff". | | | | something new, some less tangible value than |
| Magazines encouraged people to "get the look for | | | | pounds shillings and pence, their desires are for |
| less", and this all fed in to people's insecurity. They | | | | items of beauty and intrigue, pieces made with |
| hoovered up anything that glittered, and the trend | | | | love, passion and care. Purchasing for the home |
| became that people were happy to pay | | | | has gone beyond being a purely commercial |
| £500 for a "classic design" copy which had | | | | transaction. |
| no intrinsic value, rather than spend £1,000 | | | | And the idea of "Buying British" (or UK) is |
| on an original which might actually be worth | | | | suddenly something that is chiming with the spirit |
| £1,000. Manufacturers were ready to feed | | | | of the times. Consumers are feeling they can "do |
| this appetite by rushing to China and the Far East | | | | their bit" for the wider economy by investing in |
| where they could churn out the numbers and | | | | local. "Made in England" has not had so much |
| maximise their margins, without a thought for the | | | | marketing clout (in England) since 1974. |
| more emotional/cerebral part of the consumer | | | | A definite trend we noticed early on in the |
| experience. It was money for old rope, leaving | | | | recession was not an increase in sales of our less |
| the consumers with possessions that were often | | | | expensive pieces, but more an increase in sales of |
| of no real value - without any originality, or | | | | bespoke pieces or a rise in people asking for |
| integrity in either design or manufacturing. | | | | modifications on existing pieces, special finishes, |
| But since the new dawn of the recession we | | | | and different materials. |
| have started to enter an era of what one might | | | | With the growing consumer self confidence, |
| call "considered consumption". One where people | | | | designers are going to have to come up with |
| are not rushing out to buy the latest this or that | | | | more exuberant, more colourful, less conservative |
| because they have read about it or because | | | | offerings. Consumer confidence in their own |
| someone else has got it. They are looking | | | | judgement is making them more discerning, and |
| inwardly and discovering the confidence to buy | | | | therefore more demanding. Designers and |
| what they want for themselves, and to live the | | | | manufacturers will have to keep up and interior |
| life that they want to live rather than the life they | | | | designers will have to watch out. |
| should live. This is evidenced by the new trend for | | | | |