Harlequin London

Harlequin London at Decorex 2015

Held during the London Design Festival, Decorex is internationally regarded as THE annual showcase for the latest and greatest luxury design and interior products. Among the 400 hand-picked exhibitors at the 2015 event, staged in Syon Park, was long-time Warren Creative client Harlequin London. Based in Chelsea – where else? – Harlequin London provides bespoke design services for interior designers, specifically for tableware, interior accessories and decorative lighting.

Managing Director Jamie Horton and PR & Marketing Manager Sophie Burns came up with a broad concept for their stand, based around a 70s retro theme, but created using contemporary production techniques. Many of their ideas were inspired, some possible-but-tricky, a good few were frankly bonkers. Our first job was to sort through them and produce a workable brief. Then, we helped the Harlequin team establish a fluid creative process that was fun, but always had an eye on the one thing that was non-negotiable: the deadline.

Projects like this are a truly enjoyable aspect of our work. Helping to create a theme, then coming up with little touches of magic (our set of 3D space-invader prints, for instance) is always rewarding. Having everything come together beautifully is wonderful: when, as in this case, it happens just in the nick of time, it’s truly exhilarating (if a bit nerve-racking).

The flip-side, of course, is that all too often, the audience doesn’t see or appreciate the depth of thought, energy and emotion that lies behind creative work: the ideas that never made it, the elements that had to be left out, the last-minute revisions and game-changing flashes of genius. So, we also produced a brochure entitled ‘The Making of Luxury’. In it, we gave visitors to the stand a greater insight into what they were seeing, from the condiment set shaped like magic mushrooms to the one-tonne molten metal table. In a sense, it was also a manifesto for our own approach to creating luxury brands: the creativity, the materials, the scale and the processes we work with every day to produce something truly unique.