Famille Summerbelle

Château de Breteuil

Yesterday, 1st May was a bank holiday here in France. While thousands of people were marching the streets of Paris (Sarkozy was in the Trocadero, Le Pen at the Place de l'Opéra and the left unions were marching on the Boulevard Saint Michel), we decided to have a quite day at the Château de Breteuil. The Château is located in the Parc de la Chevreuse (just 40mn drive from the centre of Paris heading South West). We had the whole ground for ourselves and the children had an amazing time cycling around the beautiful gardens.

Raw Color

Daniera ter Haar and Christoph Brach are the designers behind the design studio Raw Color based in Eindhoven (Netherlands). They are both graduates from the Design Academy. The work of Raw Color reflects a sophisticated treatment of material and colour by mixing the fields of graphic design and photography. This is embodied through research and experiments, building their visual language. This is a selection of their work:

Flow.

Colour Stills.

On Strike.

Raw Textile.

Raw Color 3. Examination on the visual structure of the vegetables.

Paper shades.

A touch of yellow

Work in progress paper cut garlands.

Kaleido trays by Hay.

Hand dyed fringes necklaces made by my sister Coralie.

My sister's necklace hanging from a pig's head in my bedroom.

Seen on By Fry.

Birds from the Animalerie Quai de la Mégisserie, Paris.

Ducks from the village fête in Cahors (South West of France).

Latest books from Paumes

Last week we had the visit from our dear friends Coco and Hisashi from Edition Paumes. They very kindly offered us a selection their latest books: Lovely Tea Time in Paris, Finland Children's room and Tokyo Home Ateliers. From now on I have decided to carry in my handbag the Lovely Tea Time book every time I am in Paris. I no longer want to have a coffee in a random café. It should be served with a delicious cake like in La Pâtisserie des Rêves

Finland Children's room

Lovely Tea Time in Paris

Tokyo Home Ateliers

A creative week

Oh yes! and it has been a pretty good one last week as well. I am very much enjoying working with a couple of creative people who are doing a project on Famille Summerbelle. Can't say much for now, but I will keep you informed before the Summer.

This is a photo of the mood board in my studio. I am really into bright colours at the moment. It must be thanks to the sun shinning outside.

La brocante de Chatou

Chatou is a place to the west of Paris where the Impressionists used to come and paint on the charming banks of the river Seine. Twice a year (March and September) a huge flea market La Foire à La Brocante et aux Jambons is set on the Ile des Impressionnistes. I recommend to have lunch at the nearby Maison Fournaise (where Renoir painted the famous painting Déjeuner des Canotiers). Sellers comes from all over France with exquisite (and often rather expensive) antique treasures. Mix with all the happy odds and ends you can have a little break at the many stands selling smoked hams and a selection of wine. As Chatou is very near to where we live I always try to go as I love flea markets and this one is quite exceptional. Unfortunately I often leave empty handed as it is so expensive but I feel so happy to have seen so many nice and inspiring things!
Have a nice weekend...

Detail from a large embroidery map of France.

Pantone cakes

This will change the way I look at my Pantone book...yummy! Merci Emilie from Griottes! If you like creative food then check her blog, you are going to be very impressed.

Kirra Jamison

Her paintings caught my eyes when I saw them hanging on the wall of the Design Files Open House. Kirra Jamisson is an Australian artist who grew up in Byron Bay and is now based in Melbourne. Oh! I'm in love with the colours...

Have a nice and sunny weekend les amis.

A fork in the lake

Hello les amis, we're back home and fully rested from this horrible flu that has knocked us all down for 10 days during the children's holidays (not the best timing to be ill!). We decided that it was not going to entirely ruin our break so we drove down to the Alps (with Simon and I popping lots of paracetamol). My mum was waiting there to look after us and the children...it was a real treat! The two of us escaped for a couple of days to Lake Geneva (Lac Léman). It was so relaxing to walk along the calm waters of the lake under a beautiful sun and see the snowy mountains in the background. We drove from Chamonix up to the Col de la Forclaz. The scenery is breathtaking as you drive down to Martigny in Switzerland with fields of vineyards hanging on both sides of the mountain.
I took this photo in front of the Musée de l'Alimentation (food museum) in Vevey in Switzerland. Unfortunately the museum was closed when we arrived so instead we went to have a warm hot chocolate in Lutry where our very charming hotel was located. In the evening we ended up in Lausanne in a wine bar... Ah! vive les vacances!

Rainbow toy cars

Artist David T Waller used 2500 toy cars to create this stunning round rainbow. My little Lucien would go crazy in front of all these cars!

via Plenty of colour.

Good times

Yesterday was officially the end of the holidays. Ophelia has gone back to school, Lucien to his nanny and us to our studio.
It's always a little slow to start working again after such a nice Christmas break (I didn't open my computer once for a whole week, yeah!) but I am very excited to begin the year with lots of new exciting projects. The months leading to Christmas have been so hectic that I desperately needed a good break and to spend quality time with the children.

We were in the French Alps near Chamonix and our days were spent eating amazing food, going down the slopes snowboarding and on the sledge afterwards with the children.

Ophelia loved throwing herself backwards in the snow making angel shapes. Lucien was not so sure..

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of you.

2011 was a pretty great vintage for us. We enjoyed a great deal of change: moving office early in the year (Finsbury Park in London) and launching many new products including our new wallpaper Un Dimanche a Paris, a new map of San Francisco plus a brand new range of tea towels. We also launched a brand new website in both English and French and perhaps the highlight of our year was Priscilla agreeing to join us full time as studio manager. Famille Summerbelle is a growing family and we have a lot of exciting plans for 2012.

We have many new product ideas and innovations to share. We'll continue to develop our small business across the world. Of course we'll do a couple of new city maps (still getting lots of wonderful requests!) and we'll look at ways to personalise some of our existing products.

A huge THANK YOU to all of you who have encouraged us, bought from us, spread the word or even just hung out a little with us on this blog. We're having so much fun and it's largely thanks to you.

We wish you well for this coming year. 366 days to learn a little, share a little and grow a little.

La Famille Summerbelle.

Merry Christmas

We're tucked away in the heart of the French Alps with the precise cover of snow to make the most festive atmosphere. We just returned from the centre of town where we enjoyed a little vin chaud in front of the church. Perfect!

Christmas here in France is already under way as the main celebration is on the 24th December. The children are set to burst with the imminent arrival of 'Papa Nöel'!

We really do wish you the best of times whoever you're with and however you choose to enjoy your holiday.

La Famille Summerbelle

fun!

I came back last night from a very short 48h trip to London (we live in Paris). Simon and I were there together for the first time in ages to have the first Famille Summerbelle Christmas lunch. (usually one of us stays home to look after the children, this time we got help from my parents).
In December in the UK, most companies has a Christmas lunch to celebrate the end of the year. It's a big tradition here that I really like.
Since we started Famille Summerbelle nearly 4 years ago, I was pretty much alone running the business so it never felt right to go for lunch on my own! Since September, Simon has joined me to work full time on the business and for nearly a year Priscilla has also been part of the team (Priscilla is our studio manager).
To celebrate our new team and successful year we went to a lovely gastro pub called The Princess of Shoreditch near Old Street, East London. We had delicious English food (yes, the food in London can even be better than in Paris!), a nice bottle of red and a very very nice time.
So between lunch and a day trip to Bath to visit a screenprinter, I took the time to go to one of East London favourite shop: SCP. They had a great selection of quirky Christmas gifts (Donna Wilson products, funky tea towels and a great selection of books).
Then I went to visit the Home department of Liberty and Selfridges. These two stores are a must see at Christmas time. Regent Street and Oxford Street Christmas lighting was very impressive: huge glittery snowflakes, umbrellas and stars. Magical.

Colourful dots from SCP.

Stunning peacock hand painted by Kerry Lemon on a door in the beauty department of Liberty.

Cute Japanese accessories from the Artbox concession in Selfridges. Perfect for Christmas stockings!

Enjoy your weekend!

San Francisco map!

Aahhh the City by the Bay! It was just three years ago (almost to the day!) that we finished our three month voyage in this beautiful city. We really fell in love with the place and if we had to choose another place to live it would surely be here.

My brother and his family live just outside of the city and we receive photos regularly, documenting their wonderful balance of city, country and seaside living. With such a cosmopolitan community it feels so vibrant.

So we couldn't resist making a Famille Summerbelle map:

It's worth sharing that before I start drawing and cutting our maps I spend a lot of time gathering visuals and information about the place. This time around, I thought it'd be fun to ask our readers here to give me a hand!

The comments were all so helpful and made the project much more fun! You made me discover things and places I had no idea existed: for the example the buffalos and weekly Lindy Hop in Golden Gate Park!

I hope you like it. We're just in the process of finishing a short film which shows how the map was made. I'll post here as soon as it's ready!

We'll be back in San Francisco early next year, so thanks again to all of our contributors who have given me a wonderful long list of things to do whilst we're there!

Sneak peak: Famille Summerbelle at The Collection

Cointreau, cranberry juice and Prosecco was the drink of the night; the opening night of our month long residence at The Collection boutique in Le Marais, Paris.
This is the first time that we have had the opportunity to feature our entire collection in a single shop, and this is not just any shop!
The Collection is a reference in Paris for high quality wallpaper and interior products (think wallpaper designed by Aurelie Mathigot, Deborah Bowness, Studio Ditte and Custhom, furniture designed by Mint, lighting by Matthieu Challières and Petite Friture...).
The shop itself has so much character: beautiful wooden flooring, exposed beams and original stone walls.

The Collection will be selling products including the new City maps laser cuts, our screen printed cushions, wallpaper, tea towels and prints exclusively during the month of November.

Merci à Allison, Pia and Guyonne!

ps the Prosecco cocktail was divine - a recipe courtesy of Nigella Lawson!

Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show

This year Isle Crawford is the curator of the Graduation Show of the prestigious Design Academy in Eindhoven. The projects are displayed in the large open studios on the different levels of the school. The bachelor projects are divided into 7 themes:
Human, Nurture, Delight, Useful, Conscious, City and Nature.

One the left, Wait Here project by Philip Luschen.
On the right, Forgotten Memory by Jetske Visser.

Toon radio by Kyra Meilink.

On the left, Peeling Paradise by Rianne Koens.
On the right, Ceremony on a Tea Trolley by Femke Roefs.

CMYK Lamp by Dennis Parren.

Sound of The City by Akko GoldenBeld.

Shoe Shelf by Sebastian Goldschimdtboing.

Naturally Supported Shelves by Joep
Huisinga.

Branch Box- Reconfigurable Branches For Books by Rob Willems.

Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven

The Tenth Dutch Design Week was held in Eindhoven from 22nd October until today. The event presents the work of more than 1500 designers, from industrial design, spatial design, and graphic design to textiles, sustainable design and design management & trends.
There are 65 different locations housing more than 300 events and most of them are located in huge disused or converted Phillips factories.
The scale of the event is pretty impressive and overwhelming.
I wished we had more than one day to visit the events as there is a lot to see between the Eindhoven Design School Graduation Show, Piet Hein Eek Factory and the DDW exhbitions. Next year I'll make sure we stay longer!

Endless Chair

Instead of sending old refrigerators to a scrapyard, Dutch artist Dirk van der Kooij ingeniously recycles and reuses the materials to create a chair made of one ‘endless’ piece of plastic string.

The ‘Endless’ chair is crafted by a robot that Van der Kooij has specially created for this purpose. The process begins with old refrigerators, which are ground then melted and processed by the robot. Since each fridge used is a different colour, every resulting chair is totally unique.

Van der Kooij says he had always struggled with small, complicated moulds, so he wanted to find a production process that could allow him to adapt and change designs without moulds.
‘I adopted a retired robot,’ he says. ‘With this robot I can build a chair out of one plastic string and refine it endlessly. The colors can be determined by adding different pigments.’
He says the robot took about a year to rebuilt and serve its new function – building a chair of one interrupted line of string.

Watch the making of the chair film on Frame Mag.

Dutch Design Week: Piet Hein Eek Factory

In Eindhoven the designer Piet Hein Eek has converted an enormous former Phillips factory into a stunning design space. It includes his workshop, a showroom for his recycled wooden furniture, a restaurant, a shop, art gallery and studios for young designers from the Design Academy.

He opened the space last year during the Dutch Design Week events. I had a little chat with him, and found him to be a very genuine and down to earth guy. He was telling me that last year he was completely exhausted from the overwhelming effort - the scale of the project is phenomenal! He has converted 10,000 square metres of completely run down building into a huge white space divided by glass walls. The walls and floors were recycled from another of Phillips' enormous warehouse buildings.

He loves to reuse materials like wood and give them a new life: large tables, a high chair for children, benches, stools...

I was so impressed by this building and the concept behind it. It's a real design hub full of inspiring people and projects.

His shop sells a mix of products: vintage glasses, Aesop beauty products, his own collection of furniture, bikes and a mix of products by Dutch and International designers.

On the left lampshade by . On the right Tent Lamp by Lotty Lindeman (seen in the studio shared by Lotty Lindeman and Wouter Scheublin) wire lamps in tie silk hanging in the restaurant, designed by Piet Hein Eek.

An impressive wooden sink part of a bio kitchen and metal rusty chair installation.

Piet Hein Eek children's furniture designs.

A collection of vintage green bottles and on the right view of the cafe at the top of the building.

Cars and boats by Floris Hovers.

Old lampshade lamps Chandelier in the restaurant.

Lunch served on wooden plates.