Media Coverage

We were really pleased to be featured in the Metro, in a great article on collectors and their collections, entitled 'Stickers, Stamps and Star Wars... What do you like collecting?' The Metro is aimed at a truly wide and diverse audience, just as Obsessionsitas is (OK, maybe in a 'slightly' smaller way!). Every weekday morning some 1.3 million copies are distributed across the UK making Metro the world’s largest free newspaper and the third biggest newspaper in the UK.

The article is also featured in the online digital Metro too, which itself receives around 8.2m million unique visitors (of which 4.2m are from the UK), who visit the website each month.

So, a BIG thanks to Ross McGuiness for getting in touch and putting it together!

If you missed the print version then you can read the article online Here

Redesign

You may have noticed a few changes on Obsessionistas recently, which might explain why we've been 'seemingly quiet' too!

Along with a significant redesign we've been having a bit of a spring clean as well. Our aim was for a cleaner and easier to navigate site whilst still retaining all the key elements of what makes Obsessionistas special... the vast wealth of featured collectors and the unique stories behind their collections.

We are really happy with the final results and hope you like the new look too (do let us know what you think). We'd also like to say thanks to Stuart Hobday for all his help with the new layouts and functions.

Other news... we are currently embarking on a new secret project that we're rather excited about, but if we told you what it was, we'd have to... (you know the rest).

So back to it then.

Graham & Helen

Collectionism

Whilst visiting this year’s ‘Postgraduate Work in Progress’ show earlier this week, at Central Saint Martins’ new Granary Building in London, we were particularly drawn to Songyi Lee’s Collectionism display.

Songyi, an MA Textile Futures student, explains her experimental project as:

How can Collectionism inform a new approach to material sourcing and design?

“Collectionism is the tendency to acquire and retain objects, even when they are not of immediate usage. Within the context of our throwaway society, my project hopes to celebrate ‘collectionism’ behavior, aiming to facilitate a more meaningful relationship between objects and people, while finding new design solutions for ‘defunct’ technological components.”

She had very carefully deconstructed old mobile phones and cassette tapes, clustering the common components together to create new textile samples and/or tools to mould textures from, with interesting results. As it was a work in progress show, then we’re looking forward to seeing what Songyi produces next… to be revealed at the CSM degree show in June no doubt.

More information about the Work in Progress show is available here

Contact Songyi at eesongii@gmail.com

Egg cups (in early plastics)

...our latest collection at Obsessionistas HQ. Early plastics have their own charm and with names such as Parkesine, Casein, Bakelite and Celluloid they have their own devotees too. Egg cups, being both small and single component products, are great little time capsules of an emerging industry that our modern world of consumer products is now so dependent on. We spotted these 'characters' at a local antiques centre, and so it seems that early plastic egg cups have now established themselves as our latest 'little' obsession and as such are now firmly on our collections radar. That's collecting for you... once you start you just can't stop! Another bonus of course is that they are relatively cheap to buy, oh and not forgetttng that they make your boiled eggs looks rather special too... but who needs excuses anyway?

London Design Festival

Collections and collectibles were much in evidence at this year's London Design Festival. Whether they be specifically curated displays or mid century modern pieces, this annual event is one of the best places to discover a wide variety of design, design people and of course design parties.

Now in its tenth official year, although some events such as DesignersBlock and 100% Design are older, there was a definite sense of maturity coming through this year. Particularly significant was a noticable blurring of boundaries between antiques and mid century collectibles along with pieces from both established and emerging design talent. Venues such as the V&A and DesignJunction were successfully mixing up old and new design pieces to create eclectic displays that offered new ways of thinking about objects.

It also was great to meet up with the guys behind one of our recent featured collections - Peter and Chris from DasProgram, who had just set up their fabulous Braun installation at DesignJunction (above).

Twentieth Century chairs in the RED exhibition at the Conran Shop

Tape collection of Jasper Morrison (images by Nicola Tree via LinMorris)

Hangers (at Design Junction)