THE DESIGNER’S MIND Pip Mccormac sheds light on the genius of Kit Kemp
Kit Kemp sheds some light on her creative process, with an introduction by acting editorial director Pip Mccormac
“A SPACE HAS TO FULFIL ALL THE SENSES, AND I AM ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT HOW SOMEONE MIGHT FEEL WITHIN A SPACE”
KIT KEMP
Kit Kemp is a powerhouse of design ideas. Her day job may be as creative director of Firmdale Hotels, overseeing the look and style of 10 hotels, but her vision extends well beyond the ostentatious bedheads she is famous for. As an author, public speaker and blogger, she fills her audience with a belief that they, too, can throw out the rulebook and pair seemingly mismatched patterns (don’t be fooled, however, there is plenty of method to what she does), and that they can bring a bit of colour and verve to their lives. It’s this sense of fun and abandonment that has seen so many other brands lining up to work with her, hoping to harness her talents for themselves. As we discovered when working together on this issue, she is a dream collaborator, able to see the whole and the micro, delighting in new ideas.
From her vast, playful murals of rustic scenes for Andrew Martin to merfolk swimming across her Wedgwood plates and the star-shaped, cut-out floor lights in her bathroom for CP Hart, there are always several elements in each creation that feel totally new. The pendant light she has designed for Porta Romana is a case in point: a modern ovular shape elevated by the quirky addition of a bird perching on the arm, made as a response to gloominess in the cafe she has just renovated at Bergdorf Goodman.
Kit tackles each project by thinking about its individual needs. Here she shares an insight into the process, and having glimpsed it as we worked on this issue, all I can say is that she’s a genius.
Whenever I’m approaching a new design, I’m always looking at what’s happening and who’s doing what, but I don’t like to be too trendy because it dates so quickly. If you’re out of fashion then there’s a chance you might come into fashion at some point, but if you’re right on trend then you’re definitely going to go out.
Function goes before form. Of course, very often, I might want to use a certain fabric or I’ve got an idea in my mind and I’m desperate to make it work, but you have to always ensure something is fit for purpose. Often I will make my idea fit the function, but that’s just the way I work.
Recently, I was asked to design and decorate a cafe for Bergdorf Goodman, the department store in
New York, and I wanted to create a hanging light that would have a floating effect, almost like a mobile. Climbing up the walls of this restaurant we had chosen a hand-painted wallpaper called ‘Tall Trees’, and so I went to Porta Romana to design a light which had porcelain eggs and a little bird sitting on a branch, to tie in with the organic feel of the rest of the space.
Lighting is always a big consideration of mine. A space has to fulfil all the senses, and I am always thinking about how someone may feel within a space. I'll confess, when I went into the cafe the first thing that struck me before anything else was, ‘Gosh, the lighting is bad’. The light changes in there from day to night, so I needed all of the areas to be considered.
With this particular project, I knew that I wanted to use porcelain because I wanted to achieve a soft glow coming through. I don’t really like lights where they are solid and they give minimal illumination, and I would have this in my home in a heartbeat! I would choose to hang it over my coffee table because it would be nice for it to come lower than it probably should do, swaying in the wind as a mobile.
It’s always very difficult to get the initial grasp of a brand-new project and can be nerve-racking when you’re thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’. Once I’m up and running I find I often go back to basics, to the things I love – especially the textures.
I think if you are commissioning someone, or working with someone, their input is so important and so you should not be too fixed on how exactly any project should look – it should take shape organically. I’m not one of those designers who says, ‘It has to look like this’ because I love the element of surprise.
“WHENEVER I’M APPROACHING A NEW DESIGN I DON’T LIKE TO BE TOO TRENDY BECAUSE IT DATES SO QUICKLY”
KIT KEMP