With this years Prima being my first, I didn’t know quite what to expect. I hoped the exhibition would resemble a TV studio that specialised in office based programs, imagining all these different sets in one place, with furniture and purposefully positioned stationary all arranged with the intention of putting their product in context inside the vast space of the Business Design Centre. I wasn’t disappointed.

Other than this, the thing I liked most about the show was the honesty and humble way in which the companies presented their products and their brand, perhaps this was because the show was primarily business to business so none of that frilly fancy PR free stuff was deemed necessary, but perhaps more likely it was due to credit crunch cutbacks. Either way, I would like to think it was because the majority of these exhibitors are trusted and respected traders within the industry, whose name and product speaks for itself.

One stand that particularly caught my attention was that of Guy-Raymond, a family run business who have specialised in the design, manufacture and supply of castor wheels since 1948. Minimal is certainly a word I would use to describe the space, with a simple mid height shelf running around the walls, two glass display cabinets and a central table with 4 chairs. I particularly liked the signage which was attached using masking tape, wonderfully temporary looking.

The product was the focus, and when the product looks as good as this, why should it ever be anything else. The shelves were lined with carefully located collections of castor wheels and castor wheel paraphernalia, with all the available sizes in each range ordered to create a gradient from smallest to largest to smallest, perfectly symmetrical.

Removing these objects from their functional context, on the bottom of office chairs, meant I saw them in a new light with a new appreciation for the design and manufacturing quality of each one. The materials and colours helped to remove them further, with chrome and 24 carat gold inlays, brushed or polished, turning these humble castor wheels into objects of desire. I wanted a set, and I think Kanye West would too.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 26th, 2009 at 1:06 am and is filed under 007, Prima Design 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.