Last Tuesday I was invited to the AD Design summit (How to Live/ Sustainable elegance) in the Alte Kongresshalle here in Munich where I joined presentations and panel discussions about sustainable living. It’s a topic that is very dear to me and I liked the fact that the talks and discussions gave me something to think and wonder about. Sustainability was addressed from a design perspective, which I think makes so much sense. The speakers highlighted the power a designer has in terms of the entire lifecycle of a product, which was a very interesting angle. I was invited to the Summit by LG SIGNATURE, who exhibited their 4 LG SIGNATURE products that follow the principle of careful design and craftsmanship. Their timeless products stay true to the essence and offer meaningful innovation, creating a sense of uniqueness and exclusiveness.
Maria Speake, founder of Retrouvius talked about how they repurpose and reintroduce old building materials into modern interior projects and the preciousness of good materials and well-made things. They carried out some amazing projects where they designed spaces around the old building materials available, which are very impressive. I loved the panel discussion that followed with Maria Speake, Tyler Brulé (founder of Monocle) and Munich based designer Stefan Diez about timeless design. To me personally, this is the most practical and actionable form of sustainability because if you choose wisely, consider your purchase and can have a piece for years to come, it is just so much more powerful than a trendy and replaceable gadget that is thrown away after very little time.
Outside of the summit, LG SIGNATURE exhibited their TWINWash™ washing machine, which has very clean lines and is very simple in its design and operation. Its angled front panel makes for easy loading and unloading and the machine has a very minimal look. I love the big black glass on the white enamel surface of the machine, which includes the control panel as well. What stood out to me the most about its functionality, is that it has a drawer with an extra smaller washing machine which can do an entire separate washing cycle (we all know the one white shirt in our laundry basket among all the dark clothes, don’t we?) with a different temperature, at the same time. This also means it can use the same water flow, how genius is this?
Next to the TWINWash™ washing machine, Berlin based designer Sebastian Scherer exhibited his ISOM side tables that are based on a 2D drawing of a dice. Just like the LG SIGNATURE products, the craftsmanship and accuracy involved in the production of these tables is tremendous. The tables are constructed out of four plates of glass that need to be so accurately cut in the perfect angle so that they can be glued together. Sebastian mentioned that many people don’t see the dice at first when looking at the table, but they are invited to take a close look and explore, which is similar to the design of the control panel of the TWINWash™, which is only visible up close and after touching.
On the other side of the exhibition there was the InstaView Door-in-Door™ fridge, which is entirely made out of stainless steel, both outside and inside. The stainless steel is brushed in a way that makes this design look very precious and only 20 of these well crafted fridges are produced in a day. The InstaView Door-in-Door™ fridge has a glass panelled door which you can knock on and it will light up the contents of the fridge so you can see what’s inside without even opening it. To open the door entirely, you just have to place your foot in front of the fridge.
Even though the TWINWash™ washing machine and the InstaView Door-in-Door™ fridge are the products of the LG SIGNATURE collection that resonated most with me personally, I was also very much impressed by the OLED Z9 8K TV which was exhibited upstairs in the speakers lounge. It’s the first 88 inch 8K OLED TV in the world, and even though I tried to capture it on my pictures as good as possible, the quality of the image can only be experienced in real life. There was an image of skyscrapers and if you came up close you could even see the people moving inside the offices ! This TV just changes the entire experience and I would have loved to have the chance to watch an entire movie there.
I had such an inspiring few hours at the event and I love that it made me think about sustainability in a different way. I was very impressed with the impeccable design of the LG SIGNATURE products and at the end I had the chance to talk with Stefan Diez personally, who mentioned there should be a shift as to how a consumer values a product measured by the time that is spent designing it. The well thought trough design is exactly what shines in these four LG SIGNATURE products and contributes vastly to the value of the line. LG spends so much time to design every little detail of their products and this definitely shows in the finished products and in the features I was able to test out at the Summit.
This blogpost was created in collaboration with LG SIGNATURE, however all opinions are my own of course. If you would like to know more about the brand and their carefully designed product line, have a look on their website.
