The Liquidesign time have been hard at work again building our new online shopping website which we finally launched just before Christmas. You can browse and buy all of Liqui’s products including the new Splice Collection which we launched at the end of 2011. There is up to 50% off at the moment on some of our products for our January sale! Don’t miss out on some of our amazing deals

Anyway, here is the link to our new website http://liquishop.com/

Don’t forget to check out the cool moving banner at the top !!

Whiling away the dark nights in the Rwensori mountains of Uganda, there is not much else to do but talk. That’s what Edwin and Magda did. Spending endless evenings dreaming and talking they planned their next move for their return to England.

After spending a year in Uganda assisting local communities to set up trade and learn skills, Magda and Edwin thought they might like to try their hand at something new.

It took 8 months for the couple to find the perfect location for what would become their newest enterprise, Artisan, an independent café specialising in the on thing so many others can’t seem to get right, coffee. A space in Putney fit the bill and was far enough away from the coffee franchises that litter the high street, the places they were trying to avoid in every sense.

In fact, Edwin and Magda were so serious about differentiating their café from the cookie-cutter versions Londoner’s have grown so accustomed to, that they spent many months researching coffee beans and invested in the Cadillac of all coffee machines, the La Marzocco. Their cherry-red mean machine takes pride of place in Artisan and comes all the way from Florence.

The rich red of the sexy machine has been picked up in the ceiling and complements the bespoke design concept supplied by Brighton design company Liqui Designs.  Liqui Design’s Splice chair was the main source of inspiration for the café’s look.

Reclaimed scaffolding  planks, ex-building site lanterns and some pretty funky lighting come together to form a kind of industrial-inspired café landscape.  Cool without being cold, retro without being kitsch.

After months of research, Magda and Edwin felt Allpress Espresso was the best coffee for their business. A nice, strong blend made with baristas who actually know what they’re doing means that you’ll get an excellent coffee every time you order at Artisan.

Even though they want the coffee to be the star of the show, Edwin and Magda realise that people also like to eat when they go to a café, so they’ve teamed up with a local food supplier to provide them with freshly baked cakes, biscuits, soups and various other tasty treats. I had my eye on the flourless chocolate cake sitting on the counter but when they told me about their popular lemon, rosemary and olive oil cake, I made a mental note to return when they had some in stock.

But don’t ask for eggs, they don’t sell eggs. The couple wanted to draw the line at eggs, not wanting to turn into just another place where you can grab a bacon and egg roll on the run. No, these guys mean business. They sell coffee, very good coffee and the locals are happy. Putney’s been waiting for this for a very long time.

Edwin and Magda are having a launch party on Thursday night (24th November) so why not show your support for these enteprising locals and pop in for a coffee and a mince pie.

Today we had a chance to catch up with Cameron Fry, co-founder and one of three designers at Liquidesign. Cameron has been designing since a child, but in 2007 he started Liquidesign to realise his own designs and bring them to market.

You may already have seen LiquiDesign’s striking, unique style as they were used to decorate the set of Channel 4′s Alan Carr’s Chatty Man Show. Look out for the Curva Console and the Bag-a-Lights 

Liqui is fast becoming a brand reputed for innovative, stylish furniture and lighting which is made with care and a respect for the environment – using local suppliers for our materials wherever possible. Keep reading to hear about Cameron’s experience as a designer, his inspiration, and what he wishes he had more time for.

How did you get into designing? Why did you decide to go into furniture design?

I started designing from a very young age making cardboard models for my action figures to attack or defend, which was great fun but the older I got the more realistic they became. I remember when I was about seven my dad and I built a cardboard castle which was about a meter high we used cardboard and texturised paint which made it look like concrete and stone. It was far more advanced than anything my friends were making and when I took it into school they displayed it for a week in reception, which is a pretty big deal when you are seven. After that I was hooked.

Where do you draw inspiration from? What has been inspiring you at the moment?

I draw my inspiration from many different things it can be my surroundings at the time or a specific material I really want to use (normally with eco-credentials). It all depends really, I think that’s what makes the design industry is so interesting – you don’t just think of some crazy idea and make it, it has to work at a certain price and be suitable for production. It’s the restrictions in designing products and furniture that drive me forward. I’ve never been one to take the easy option, don’t ask me why because sometimes I wish that I did.

What was your favorite collection to work on?

It’s a toss up between the Curva collection and the Bagalight. The Curva collection because it was the first piece we produced for a professional design company.

And the Bagalight because it was the first time I’d designed and produced a product with commerce being one of the main criteria.

With Bagalight, it needed to be sold at an attainable price while still being produced in the UK. Also we wanted something with our brand name on it that most people could afford. Unfortunately not all of our product can come into this bracket due to high production costs in the UK, it was challenging but incredibly satisfying after we sold our first 1000.

Can you describe your design process – how do you take an idea and turn it in to a piece?

It all really depends on the brief but normally it starts off with some really scrappy sketches in a A3 layup pad the sort of sketches you would expect from a four to five-year-old. I find it just helps get the ideas down on paper, it was one of my tutors at university that taught me this technique.

After this I move on to prototyping in our workshop. I don’t think you can beat having a physical piece made up in front of you within a space allowing you to walk around it, pick it up, put it down and just generally be in the same room as it. No 3-D computer program has managed to produce a render that allows me to have the same insight to what the end product will look like.

I love your “because things can be different…” slogan, how did your green ethos develop? How does this green ethos manifest in your work?

Design can be quite an indulgent profession, which I found quite hard to deal with. I’ve always had a real love for nature and the environment so it seemed like an obvious way of trying to change the way people perceived environmentally friendly products, they don’t necessarily need to look rough and ready, they can be highly finished.

It’s not just about our eco-credentials, however it’s also about the quirky nature of the products we produce. I specialized in commercial furniture at university, which I loved but I found that a lot of design companies were producing almost the same products as each other with slight variations, the only distinguishing feature between each was the brand. I felt that this wasn’t really me so we created the “Because things can be different” slogan more for ourselves than anyone else it stops us from taking the easy route and reminds us that we are here to create something new and exciting not just “another product”.

What do you wish you had more time for?

Material research and development… I love using unusual materials it makes your job as a designer more interesting. And if you can use the material, that is not the norm within the furniture or lighting industry, it automatically makes the end piece stand out from the crowd…which is increasingly hard thing to do in this industry.

Almost there now...

So, with yet another busy week coming to an end Liquidesign are very pleased with all the progress they have been making on the Splice Furniture. We have been working long and hard to finish of the chairs, stools and tables and it all seems to be coming together now. We were up in London yesterday making sure all the small details were in place and generally overseeing how things were going together. Here are a few pictures to keep you guys going – don’t worry, you can see more soon as the cafe is due to open next week..

Ceiling without light shades..Almost there now...

Unfortunately Cameron couldn’t make it to the showing so they decided to replace him with people they thought he looked like.. (just so you know, he’s neither black nor 50) here is our chair…

After placing the desks in the office Liquidesign took a few minutes to admire their ingenious creation before hopping back into the trusty Liquivan and heading back to Shoreham. The KeepCup office is now well on the way. We know you all want to see what we’ve been up to, so here are some pictures Cameron took on his phone…