Anyway, after battling my way through crowds at Kings Cross and on the Tube, I popped up from the station to find myself in the middle of a busy Covent Garden around lunch time on Monday. I easily found my way to the hotel the Design Council had recommended for my week’s stay. The Fielding Hotel is a quaint, boutique hotel, in the middle of Convent Garden, but being located within a cobbled court, it’s away from the crowds and much quieter.
The location is also brilliant because it is just around the corner from the Design Council office. As promised, I quite enjoyed my stay there in Room 35 on the top floor with views overlooking a courtyard.
My London week was to be about two things, firstly working at the Design Council to get to know them better, and secondly, touching base with London-based design firms for my research. The week before I had filled my schedule with lots of meetings and social activities which included seeing friends from home who had relocated to London (as you do if you are a 20-something Sydney-sider these days).
So first up, Monday afternoon, was an induction to the office, my desk and internal Design Council people. Things happen so efficiently around the Design Council, it took me no time to get stuck into work, setting up (more) meetings and planning the week. As part of this trip I would also deliver a presentation to the Design Council on my research thus far and a download of my week in London.
Over the next 3 days (and nights) I met up with 5 London-based design firms- live|work, radarstation, engine, Uscreates and ThinkPublic.
They were all wonderful in giving me their time, some of them even making an effort to see me after-work hours as it was a week of pressing deadlines. They are all mainly Service Design firms ie. Design firms who are focused on designing services, not products which has been traditional to the discipline of Design for a long time. With over 70% of the UK economy made up of service businesses today, the five firms I saw are among a pioneering group of designers that are moving with changing times.
During my week I also met up with 3 old UTS Vis Com friends who had moved to London. I had lunch with Vincci on Tuesday. She had arrived in London recently and was still travelling around the UK and Europe. We started off in Vis Com together and after 2 years she transferred to Business (International Studies) at UTS. I remember at the time of her transfer, she sparked my own interest to take up Business too. But my decision to make the move came a year later, and by that time (with only one year left of Vis Com) I thought I’d better stick it out (and lucky I did!).
Karen and Ada both graduated with me in 2002. I had dinner with Karen on a previous trip, and both of us had only found out Ada had moved to London via (the one and only) Facebook! So the three of us planned to meet up on Thursday night.
By that time I had just delivered my presentation to the Design Council (which was very well received), seen five design firms and also had several meetings with internal Design Council people. So while I was feeling pretty tired, I was excited to be in the middle of London with some old friends.
We also met up with Serena, an old childhood friend of Karen’s, who was the newest import having stepped off a plane from Sydney just 7 days ago! Serena and I discovered that we’d met once before earlier this year at Mel and Richy’s engagement party. While home seems so far away most days, sometimes it’s like I never left!
The four of us squeezed our way through the crowds at the Covent Garden Market, which happens every Thursday night over summer.
The food looked fantastic! Well, that is if you could get to it over the masses of people. We grabbed some burgers and ate them away from the crowds before finding a seat at a nearby restaurant for dessert, coffees and a quieter place to catch up.
On Friday morning, I could feel the tiredness settling in. I checked out of the hotel and headed to the Design Council office to pack up my things. My train back to Newcastle was leaving after lunch, so I took up my one and only opportunity that week to have lunch at the Design Council café, a fabulous place and space to grab some fresh and healthy food. As timing had it, I ended up having lunch with the Chief Executive of the Design Council and we had a great chat about the genesis and inauguration of the Dott07 idea. That was quite an end to the week and stepping off the train at Newcastle, I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend!
