Wednesday 11 December 2013

MAISON&OBJET

From one Design Capital to another… London to Paris… 2014 looks to be an exciting year for Humpties

Following the success of launching Humpties’ first collection in October this year at London’s Best of Britannia exhibition, Humpties will be travelling to another of the world’s leading design capitals, Paris, to exhibit at MAISON&OBJET in January next year - a really exciting way to start 2014 for Humpties!

This brilliant and ever growing trade show brings together all the arts of living. MAISON&OBJET presents a ”cutting edge platform” for interior design, home furnishing and accessories. With over 5400 exhibiting guests travelling from over 64 countries around the world, MAISON&OBJET showcases the latest trends and innovative products for the home. It is known as the show for home fashion showing unique collections and bespoke design and is not to be missed!

Humpties will be showcasing the latest collection with British European Design Group(BEDG) along with other unique British companies and individuals.

Let the preparations begin…

Thursday 1 August 2013


Emma Byres Design is cool Britannia

Emma Byres recently graduated with a first class honours in Textile Design from De Montfort University, Leicester and is the first young designer to win the opportunity to debut her first designer cover as part of a new limited edition range of Humpties to be launched at Best of Britannia in London.

Emma’s inspiration came from her photography of shadows forming on stairs of an Athletics stadium. "The floodlights reflecting onto the stadium created amazing geometric and graphic patterns.  "I focused on the contrast of the different shapes formed from light and dark. I wanted the negative space to be just as important as the positive, looking at all aspects space, line and placement” Emma commented “.  I am passionate about manipulating materials to create interesting and diverse outcomes appropriate to both interiors and fashion accessories.”



In house designer Caryn Gough said: “Emma’s design had an amazing visual effect and answered the brief seamlessly. The design complements the form of this versatile piece of designer furniture and interpreted the playful character of the Humptie. ”


Rachel Zivkovic, head of design and production added “Michael Howells and his associates have approached us for a second order of humpties to go into the Tally Weijl store in Basel.  Tally Weijl is a High Street fashion chain which seems to be bucking the trend and rolling out new stores across Europe.   We would like Emma’s designs to be considered for this commission.” The team have spent the last three months at the end of year graduate shows up and down the country, spotting the young talent of the future and look forward to unveiling the autumn collection at Best of Britannia 2013.

Visit our stand FFM7 at Best of Britannia, London 3rd – 5th October 2013 and see the debuting designers of the future. 

Friday 1 March 2013

humpties go to VIENNA FASHION WEEK...

Our Green and Tribal humpties go to VIENNA FASHION WEEK
The making of a humptie:
1. Cutting out the humptie shapes:





2. Sewing humpties:






3. Inserting the Wool Inserts:









4. Earlier Sample Product:







5. Packaging and Delivering:










Friday 1 February 2013

Humpties Wool...

31st January 2013:

Yesterday humpties went to visit the local company who will be supplying the wool insert for our product. It was extremely interesting to see all the different processes that the wool has to go through before it is ready to be inserted into the humpties. Whilst we were there we got a couple of snap shots of the machinery in action!! 

p.s they had a little workshop dog called Scooby...he is super cute.











Tuesday 29 January 2013

HUMPTIES CALL FOR DESIGN TEMPLATE ON HOW TO ENTER...


CALL FOR DESIGN INFO...


HUMPTIES – CALL FOR DESIGN

We are a small and dynamic upholstery and Furniture Company based in the English Lake District. This year we are launching an exciting new brand and product under the name of ‘humpties’.   Humpties is the creation of Rachel Zivkovic and Stuart Bottomley of Kendal Upholstery and is intended to involve collaboration from new and unknown designers.

A humptie is a functional and flexible item of designer furniture, which can be used as a chair, pouffe, coffee table or footstool. Our idea of a humptie originated from a 1950’s housewife’s help book in which they are described  “[a humptie] is a great asset to the home, and may encourage the busy housewife to give herself that short break – with her feet up – after the mid-day meal which will enable her to carry on with renewed vigour, and even possibly give her a more hopeful outlook on the tasks which remain to be done.”

Our humpties are made in Cumbria using all natural fibres. The inserts are filled with specially pilled wool.  The fabric covers are printed in Lancaster at Standfast and Barracks who print for all the major fabric houses.  The covers are zipped.  We have carried out prototyping and extensive market research and are now launching humpties onto the UK design market.  We are looking to work with talented textile designers, illustrators and artists to create a unique range of humptie upholstery fabrics.  We are calling for designs to be submitted and made especially for the humptie shape; it is therefore not essential for designs to be made to a repeat.

The Call for Design submission is a confidential process with the designer retaining all copyright throughout all stages. The winning designs will be selected in house and after selection an offer to licence will be made, unsuccessful designs will be returned to the designer.  Successful designs will be made up with the name of the fabric designer incorporated into the final print on each humptie. They will be marketed with the name of each individual designer, and with information about their working process. Humpties will licence chosen designs for a limited period on an exclusive basis. The winning designers will receive a 2.5% royalty of the wholesale fabric print cost, as well as a £200 upfront prize fee.

We ask that students include their signature/hallmark into their final design so that it can be incorporated into the product. Also we suggest that students send in some supporting primary and development work of their design when submitting their final print. Again students will retain all copyright to every aspect of their work.

If you would like to submit an entry, please email stuart@kendalupholstery.co.uk and we will send you an instruction template and an entry form.

We look forward to receiving entries from your students before the 01/04/13 closing date.

Kind Regards


Stuart Bottomley and Rachel Zivkovic
Directors of humpties Company

Thursday 24 January 2013

Humpties went to LIVERPOOL

Back in October 2011 humpties went to the Liverpool Design Show...

Whilst we were there Trendsblog noticed our products and mentioned humpties on their blog!!