We are excited to announce that Hotel Cafe Royal will be our Hotel Partner for London Craft Week 2017.
Sleep easy with 10% off room bookings* at Hotel Café Royal, for all LCW visitors, between 3-7 May 2017.
Just click here to book your room with a special LCW discount.
*Subject to availability
As support to the LCW team, you will be first point of contact, and integral to the success of our small team. Working across various aspects of the company, including office management, event management, programming, marketing and communications and commercial, this role will give you an opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the planning of LCW 2017. You will also provide support to the COO and Chairman, responsible for scheduling external meetings with influencers and VIPs, taking notes, producing correspondence, and setting up travel itineraries.
The job is full on and requires excellent people skills, superb attention to detail to ensure that the administration support is first class, excellent phone manner and command of English and grammar for report and correspondence production.
Please supply a CV of no more than two pages and a covering letter explaining in no more than 500 words how your skills and experience match the requirements of this role. Electronic applications should be sent to Marieke Syed Marieke@londoncraftweek.com with both documents in one file named with your full name.
Start date ASAP. Closing date for applications 25Â October 2016. Interviews on 27 October. Only applicants successful for interview will be contacted.
We are looking for a dynamic and confident Communications Manager with relevant experience to lead in the delivery of all aspects of the LCW PR and Marketing campaign.
Communications Manager-LCW- Job Spec.pdf
Please supply a CV of no more than two pages and a covering letter explaining in no more than 500 words how your skills and experience match the requirements of this role. Electronic applications should be sent to Marieke@londoncraftweek.com with both documents in one file named with your full name.
Closing date for applications 30 September 2016.
Interviews will be held on Wednesday 5th October, only succesful candidates for interview will be notified.
Second interviews will be held the following week.
This year we are welcoming proposals from brands and independant makers who would like to be part of London Craft Week. We aim to showcase the most outstanding and innovative contemporary making to affluent collectors and consumers alongside examples of exceptional creativity and craftsmanship from other areas of interest to this target group, such as fashion, design and architecture. Our editorial board meets every two weeks to consider initial ideas. Please send a paragraph outlining your proposed activity, details about your career and previous work plus 2 images to info@londoncraftweek.com. The deadline for programme applications is August 30th. We’ll respond to all applications by September 15th. See below for details of our fees.
Growing sophistication rather than raw wealth is becoming the main driver of how people consume, shifting luxury spending to craft or brands with craft credentials, argues Guy Salter.
Over the last twenty years Iâve learnt to my cost that there are two words that have to be used with extreme caution. The first, âluxury,â evokes wide-ranging responses from blue-blooded brands, indignantly disputing the right of others to use it, to lobbyists urging alternatives such as âhigh-end industriesâ to avoid offending the egalitarian sensitivities of European politicians. In a similar way, claims on âcraftâ and its positive associations are raising the blood pressure of artisans who feel it is being over-used or misappropriated. For others, it smacks too much of the happy amateur.
All this semantic skirmishing came to a head for me last year when I launched London Craft Week (LCW). There was much heated discussion about whether it was better to avoid the craft word altogether and substitute âmĂ©tiers dâart,âqualify it as âartistic craftâ or even bring the two tricky words together, as in âLuxury Craft Week.â  Other debates rage about whether craft is art. And should contemporary craft matter more than heritage craft? Is there a craft movement? And if so, how far has it moved and where is it moving to? Can 3D printing be called âmaking,â and much more besides.
While all this angst is a bit silly, whatâs driving it isnât. There is something significant at stake. There is a real desire to defend, describe and promote genuine quality and celebrate that most magical but elusive of attributes, creativity.
And while its the brand owners, makers and artists who are most passionate and vociferous, the group for whom it should matter most, those who buy and collect, are pretty sanguine about what things are called. They are, however, deeply interested in what makes something the best and, as consumers, are ever more knowledgeable and questioning. Gone are the days when a distinctive logo, the shop-as-retail temple or well-connected gallerists was enough.
The well-travelled consumer sees the same famous names in similar shopping streets and has a growing interest in the local and non-branded.
In 2005, I christened this phenomenon the âdiscernment curve,â suggesting that growing sophistication rather than raw wealth would become the main driver of how people spend and on what. This has largely come to pass, even in faster-growing markets, driven by access to information and opinion online.
The well informed and travelled consumer is feeling a creeping ennui, seeing the same famous names in similar smart shopping streets and has a growing interest in the local, independent and non-branded.
It was with this person in mind that I founded LCW. The demand is there, but thereâs no clear road map in this brave new âbeyond luxuryâ world. Just because something is handmade doesnât necessarily mean it is better. Buying from an independent maker or small shop can feel like going dangerously off-piste: whoâs who? Whatâs the process? Is the price fair? And commissioning something from scratch, while very rewarding when it goes well, can seem daunting. As a result, most of us still default to buying something off the shelf.
Consumers need to experience âcraftâ not just as static objects or as brand-led âfashion,â âluxury designâ or âart,â but must also understand the full context in which they were made, why they are special, and meet the creators and see their remarkable skills up close.
It is the customer who matters and they are, as I always hoped they would, now voting with their wallets. Indeed, with homes bursting with stuff, increasingly, we donât spend on things, but special moments with our loved ones. If I had to pick one word to capture this zeitgeist, itâs neither âluxuryâ or âcraft,â but âpatronage.â At its best, this more discerning spending is not only enriching our lives, but also supporting a much wider ecosystem of talent and ensuring endangered skills survive.
Guy Salter is the chairman of London Craft Week.
We are thrilled that London Craft Week Chairman, Guy Salter, has been awarded an OBE in the Queens Birthday Honours.
Did you host or take part in London Craft Week 2016? Remember to fill in your partner survey. The feedback helps us develop the programme for 2017 and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a complimentary lunch for 2 at The Grill at The Dorchester Hotel.
Vanessa Swann, Non-Executive Director, London Craft Week and Chief Executive, Cockpit Arts
I was overjoyed to witness Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of Loewe, present the Award for Outstanding Creativity and Craftsmanship to ceramic artist Alison Britton at the London Craft Week Opening Party last Wednesday. Jonathan said that for him Alison signified the best of craft in this country for creative and poetic expression combined with craft skill. How true. His words reminded me how the designing and making of haute couture is often as visionary as any art form, and that the contemporary craft world has its own visionaries, like Alison, who break new territory and influence others, in both creative and commercial terms. This is the oft forgotten role of the independent makers working in the UK today; the micro craft businesses and skilled craft practitioners who make up the thousands of creative freelancers supporting the growth of the luxury goods, craft, fashion, gift, interior and architectural markets. These are the ultimate heroes of our growing creative economy. So a true highlight for me of London Craft Week 2016 was that Alison won her first ever Award in her long career. She was part of the radical group of RCA graduates in the early 1970s whose work laid the foundations for what became known as âThe New Ceramicsâ. Working from a London studio she also writes and curates. Her work is in numerous private and public collections including the V&A and she is represented by the Marsden Woo Gallery, where you can see her work from 18 May to 11 June. Do go and see what Jonathan was talking about.