Around 100 guests and sedf members gathered for the Petersfield sedf Showcase evening held at the Gallery at Bedales School, Steep, on Wednesday 28 March.

“The stimulus for the showcase was the Design Council statistics stating that around 50% of businesses in the South don’t believe that design has a place within their business, and the group wanted to show just how false this assertion was”   - Louise Fenwick

Event photography: Michael Focard

“Behind the Craft” Period Living Magazine

The kitchen furniture will be set off by a hand-crafted, three-dimensional frieze splashback created specially by ceramic artist, Alex Zdankowicz. Inspired by organic forms, Zdankowicz’s metallic lustred domes against a background of freeform textured sandstone and pale green swirls are nothing if not eye-catching.

“I wanted to let the work speak to Johnny’s ideas about instinct-based design and at the same time reflect the garden setting,” says Zdankowicz. “Because we’ve collaborated so regularly together, there’s a real connection we can exploit to make something unique that’s also harmonious.”

Detail of the concept splashback by Alex Zdankowicz

Whilst the studio is laid out-wall to-wall at one end with a splash back about to make the short hop to the Mediterranean, the last two weeks have been mainly about watching where you walk and waiting for the warning cries from the nervous designer.

So far, everyone has managed to avoid stepping on the tiles, but few have escaped Alex’s beady eye, even when miles away. As you can imagine, he’s short of company at lunch until the splashback gets its permanent holiday on…we’re not allowed to say where. (It’s an island, that’s all we can say—for now)

The panel is set out on the studio floor prior to being packed and sent to site

Installation in progress