News: design trade show Tent London has launched an online shop dedicated to products created by current and previous exhibitors, which it claims is the first of its kind.
Tent London takes place at the Old Truman Brewery in east London each September during the London Design Festival and presents interiors products by a curated collection of designers and brands alongside installations, talks and seminars.
Responding to the difficulty that many of the independent designers who exhibit at the annual event have attracting customers to their personal e-commerce sites, Shop Tent uses the established Tent London brand to attract visitors to browse work by its exhibitors.
"All too often, visitors see designers at Tent London, then they disappear for the rest of the year," said Tent London founder Jimmy MacDonald. "Shop Tent enables us to establish a strong community, connecting designers with design lovers and a platform on which our designers can build their businesses."
The show's organisers were keen to avoid creating an online shop that bombards visitors with sales talk. "We wanted instead to create a bona fide site exclusively for our exhibitors and we are the only show to offer this," MacDonald added.
Products are presented in straightforward catalogue-style format, categorised by typology and then listed alphabetically by designer.
Content provided by the sellers will be refreshed regularly and curated by Tent London to maintain visual consistency and ease of navigation.
The shop's graphic identity employs the same visual language as the Tent London site, with a geometric logo and simple menus.
The organisers plan to develop a responsive version of Shop Tent for mobile devices that could be used by exhibitors to complete sales during the event, while those exhibiting as part of a collective will be able to create a dedicated area on the site.
Shop Tent officially launches tomorrow and the next edition of Tent London will be held from 18 to 21 September 2014 during the London Design Festival.
