DE S IGN CENTRE
LEFT: Bridlepath is a holiday let that provides respite for recovering cancer patients, designed by TP Caring Spaces, set up by Bunny Turner and Emma Pocock of Turner Pocock. TP Caring Spaces is the charity partner of WOW!house in 2023 BELOW LEFT: Scion’s Designs in Mind collection (available at Sanderson) saw the fabric and wallpaper brand team up with a Shropshire art studio that works with people with mental health challenges BELOW RIGHT: United in Design apprentices Christine Omorere and Roshu Shrestha collaborated with de Le Cuona to create a Living Room for WOW!house in 2022; several of the Design Centre’s showrooms are working with United in Design to provide paid placements for apprentices
with Yodomo, which redistributes carpet samples and offcuts to art and craft makers. It’s impossible to have been a part of the interior
design world and not come across United in Design over the last couple of years. Founded by designers Sophie Ashby and Alexandria Dauley to address the lack of diversity in the industry, it has a thriving graduate apprentice scheme that grants a one-year paid placement across four London-based companies, with partners including the Design Centre’s Julian Chichester, Porta Romana, The Romo Group, Vaughan and Eggersmann Design. And while the idea of mentoring is not new, it’s when programmes become more formalised, like this, that they can gain momentum. “Mentoring is becoming more common as people become aware of its benefits, but you need to have an infrastructure for it,” says interior designer and career consultant Simon Hamilton, who gives his time voluntarily to run United in Design’s Resource Hub. “Those supporting partners are what is going to deliver longevity.” While the benefits to those being mentored are
obvious – a way into a job that was previously closed off, a chance to learn design skills as well as the softer skills needed to make your way in the world, from communications to confidence – it works both ways. “It’s important for the design industry to understand that mentors can gain as much from being in a programme as mentees,” says Hamilton. “Mentors say how they didn’t realise there was so much talent out there – they had previously been looking in a very limited pool, and it’s broadened their horizons. It's helped grow their business because people who have a different background, or a different skill set and approach, can be extremely useful to them.”
using their
There are further examples of interior designers skills
for good, co-opting the help of
showrooms and brands as they go. The Design Centre’s WOW!house initiative returns in 2023 with charity partner TP Caring Spaces, set up by Turner Pocock to “fill charitable spaces with good design,” from hospital staffrooms to overnight rooms for carers at mental- health facilities. Rest Nest is Taylor Howes’ answer to the same sort of problem: it refurbishes down-at-heel nurses’ rest rooms, with a second scheme unveiled at Charing Cross Hospital recently and six more in the pipeline for 2023. People tend to refer business to people they trust, and by giving back, successful firms are letting the world
know that they care, all aiding growth and success. There’s one final example of a business that gives back within the Design Centre, but it’s not a showroom: Design Restaurant by Social Pantry. Recently awarded Best Ethical Restaurant in the Lux Life magazine Leaders in Luxury Awards, not only does the restaurant have a seasonal, low-waste ethos when it comes to food, but many of the suppliers it works with – including ‘carbon neutral plus’ wine supplier Liberty Wines and Redemption Roasters, run by prisoners at HMP The Mount
in Hertfordshire – have higher aims. Social
Pantry’s ethos was a big part of the reason it was chosen to become a part of the Design Centre family – proof that an ethical mindset wins business.
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