goldengelltd-blog

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The Power of Light

We recently had the pleasure of speaking to world-renowned lighting designer and engineer, Moritz Waldemeyer, on an exciting potential project. When we learned more about his scope of work, we couldn’t resist writing a post on him and his breathtaking achievements.

The British/German artist completed his Masters degree in engineering in 2001 and shortly after began his career by working for Philipps as a research scientist. During this time, he made his entrance into the design world with his work of interactive LED chandeliers for Swarovski.

He has been designing the most brilliant and innovative lighting installations ever since. Moritz has worked with an impressive range of the world’s top architects, fashion designers, artists, and brands. Just to name a few, award-winning architect Zaha Hadid, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan, artists including Rihanna, Will.I.Am., Ellie Goulding, and brands like Audi and Dom Perignon have all been on his list of collaborations (see pictures in same chronology).

In 2004, Moritz founded “Studio Moritz Waldemeyer” in London, where he currently acts as Head Designer overseeing every project the studio undertakes. Since then he has gone on to make a name for himself as an independent designer, having his work displayed in various venues and galleries around the globe.

Light is one of the most powerful utilities when it comes to visual art (performances, theatre, videos, photography, art installations, etc.). The capability to design technology and form it into beautifully, visually stimulating works is the ability to use the full potential of light’s power and manipulate its influence on the spectator. Moritz is ingenious in doing this. His work is a fusion of technology, art, fashion, and design. Just look at his mesmerizing creations:

“egg55 & egg56″ - experimentation with parametric light objects; inspiration from the original Faberge Imperial eggs.

“Union Jack Project” - inspiration from 20m high flag monument in Moritz’s home town of Halle; made up of 169 stainless cut outs.

“By Royal Appointment” - dialogue between fashion and furniture design; reads the colour of your outfit and projects your own personal aura of light.

There are many more captivating creations in his portfolio. You can check them out on his website www.waldemeyer.com.

We hope to collaborate with this creative and talented mastermind in the near future. Watch this space!

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“At half past three, everything stops for tea”

Don’t worry, we weren’t familiar with this saying either although synonymous with the British tradition of tea-drinking. This week is National Afternoon Tea Week, so we wanted to make sure to have a closer look (and tasting) for this occasion. We were soon to gain a greater respect and understanding for the topic!

In the early nineteenth century, people had only two main meals a day - breakfast and dinner. It was Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, who first complained about “having a sinking feeling” in the late afternoon so she started to have tea accompanied by sandwiches and cakes. It soon became a habit and other social hostesses quickly spread the idea.

Today, afternoon tea still belongs to the British culture, even though it is more an occasional luxury than a daily tradition.

The team here at Gold Engel was invited by the wonderfully talented Executive Pastry Chef Heather Kaniuk to indulge ourselves in one of the best afternoon teas in London at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.

We sat down with Heather in The Rosebery Lounge for a cake date where she walked us through her award-winning afternoon tea.

Heather Kaniuk, originally from New Zealand, became interested in the world of pastries at a very young age. Her grandmother used to be a cake decorator, and as a child she had the opportunity to watch and learn this skilled trade.

She started her career in a male-dominated food industry, working for famous chefs including Gordon Ramsay, and transferred into the patisserie field at a later stage. Currently, she is working as Executive Pastry Chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, a prestigious and luxurious 5-star hotel. Her pastry creations are innovative and beautiful, often containing a mixture of Western and Eastern influences: “I really love middle eastern food, so I really like to play around with saffron, oranges, dates, pine nuts - the flavors you don’t normally use in pastries.” 

Heather received the “Afternoon Tea UK Award 2016″ for Best Contemporary Afternoon Tea. We can tell why:

The menu started with a summery fresh vanilla panna cotta with raspberries and lychees.

A selection of sandwiches and cakes followed, beautifully adorned and placed on luxurious plates, accompanied by some of the most delicious tea we’ve had the pleasure to drink.

A selection of hand-made pastries was the next course, including (from left to right) the vanilla and strawberry millefeuille, an exclusive apricot-lavender pastry, white peach and lemon verbena choux, gooseberry and mascarpone lime tart and the ice-cream “SOLERO” macaron. There were also traditional warm scones with clotted cream and home-made jams, including the delicious rose petal jam. (Don’t ask us how we managed to eat it all.)

Everything you see is lovingly hand-crafted in-house, hence why all the pastries have a strong personal touch. Beautiful adornments with an incomparable flavor and elegant poise. Thank you again, Heather, for a lovely afternoon and an unmistakably British delicacy. 

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Valpiet Taking Off

Fashion and aerospace - a combination overlooked and neglected. Approached from a fresh outlook, Valpiet attempts to build the bridge between the two. A fresh outlook from Valpiet’s creative director Oge Dike shows us how in the Royal Air Force Museum in London. 

When a London-based magazine asked to interview Oge, the Royal Air Force Museum seemed to be the perfect fit. 

Oge’s inspiration for Valpiet’s debut collection, the “Edition I: Pilot” was clear from the outset. Avante-garde apparel and aerospace flagships seem to be a match made in heaven. 

Watch this space for the upcoming interview. Article of the magazine coming soon.

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How can Nanotechnology become glamorous? A Belgian footwear designer has the answer.

Nanotechnology and engineering have never been associated with the glamorous and vibrant world of fashion. As a male dominated field, no one would have really guessed that Nanotechnology could become an integral part of aesthetically pleasing shoe designs. 

Our multi-talented friend Katrin Herdewijn has successfully crossed the bridge between advanced technology and design by integrating Nanotechnology and techniques such as 3D printing into sophisticated high heels.

At the age of four, Katrien developed her passion for shoes by setting up a small imaginary shoe shop selling old shoes in front of her parents’ garage. Despite Katrien’s school not supporting her artistic drive, she didn’t let her talent go unrecognised and continued to drive her insatiable curiosity for the world of shoes. 

Encouraged by her parents and teachers, Katrien developed strong scientific interests in subjects such as Mathematics and Science; eventually leading to a Master’s degree in engineering with a focus on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the age of 23.

Despite her academic career and background in engineering, Katrien never lost her inner calling to fulfill her dream of creating unique shoes. During her PhD research, Katrien took a few footwear design and fashion business courses in London, Antwerp, and Florence.

Katrien’s knowledge in Nanotechnology led her to integrate this fascinating yet complex technology into her footwear designs. In 2014, the designer launched her outstanding and revolutionary footwear brand Elegnano. Each of her designs is currently being produced by artisans in Le Marche in Italy, one of the world’s leading centres for high-end footwear production.

The technology behind Elegnano shoes is being constantly developed with leading research laboratories in Belgium to ensure each pair provides the highest comfort and the shoes stay dirt and water repellant. Elegnano’s unique combination of outstanding quality and appealing designs has quickly gained widespread public interest spreading as far as Belgian royalty.  

Elegnano has launched its first collection in 2015 and has received and been nominated for several prestigious awards, including the ‘Start-up of the year award’ for most promising new business in Belgium.

Gold Engel are excited to follow the ambitious and exciting journey of Elegnano and its inspiring founder.

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Vigics- Visual Gymnastics

Our wonderful friends at Vigics create such amazing work- we just had to write a blog post about them.

Vigics (short for Visual Gymnastics) is a video production agency based in Amsterdam with offices in London. They are a team of young, creative and extremely talented individuals that come together to produce some of the best, honestly best, promotional videos we’ve seen. And no, we’re not just being biased. Brands like Nike, T-Mobile, ING, Google and artists such as Jess Glynne have chosen Vigics to produce their brand promotional videos.

Our friend Dwight Groot started Vigics in 2008 as a freelance filmmaker. With only a laptop and camera, Dwight set out with two friends to Suriname, a small country on the Northeastern coast of South America, where they shot and produced HD images and videos for the local TV stations. Because their work was of such high-quality, Dwight and his friends began to get calls from people all over the country. They stayed for a year and a half in Suriname producing music videos and commercials, before Dwight headed back to Amsterdam to really take off with Vigics. They began working with local agencies, professional crews and post-production facilities in the Netherlands and it’s been all up hill from there!

So why are we singing their praises? Because Vigics has produced beautiful, cinematic videos for our clients and the results have been nothing short of spectacular. Vigics produced the promo video for our client Valpiet’s fashion collection debut. It portrayed everything the brand represents in a visually stunning way. Click here to see it. 

Vigics has also recently produced a video for another one of our clients within the healthcare sector (video coming soon). This is one of the many reasons that we love Vigics so much- because of their ability to produce the highest-quality videos for a variety of brands in different markets. 

No matter what industry they produce for- they completely capture all audiences and help catapult brands into the spotlight. Check out their website for a look into their exquisite work:  http://vigics.com/.

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Jeff Koons Exhibit at Newport Street Gallery, London

Holding the world record for most expensive art sold by a living artist, Jeff Koons’ creations draw in spectators from all over the world. 

The Newport Street Gallery in London is exhibiting Jeff Koons’ ‘Now’ collection from May 18th - October 16th which features over 30 paintings and sculptures. The exhibit includes one of his famous gigantic balloon animals- Balloon Monkey (Blue) so we had to go see it for ourselves. 

Using stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces to create gargantuan-sized balloon animals, Koons’ work is truly made to be gawked at. Perhaps that’s why his gigantic Balloon Dog (Orange) sold for $58.4 million in 2013. 

There’s also a part of the gallery which is not suited for everyone’s eyes. Guess you’ll just have to go check it out yourself!

We decided we needed a little pick me up after all of the mind blowing art we saw, so we popped in to the gallery’s cafe where they prescribed us coffee and cake. 

We absolutely loved the Koons exhibition and would recommend it to any Londoners or visitors looking for a brief escape from reality. 

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Clerkenwell Design Week 2016

Gold Engel was invited to attend the Clerkenwell Design Week kick off press breakfast and private tour of London’s famous contemporary design show. 

The tour started at Hix Restaurant in Crowcross Street where journalists, editors, and art critics gathered and chatted about this year’s exhibitions before heading off to see the sites themselves.

Our first stop was the HakFolly installation, a 4.5m-high temple of timber located within the historic St. John’s Gate. FleaFolly Architects collaborated with Dutch wood-flooring manufacturer Hakwood to create the structure. 

Up ahead was the Museum of Making by White Arketekter and EQUITONE which hosts daily workshops during CDW. 

When you look at the Museum of Making from the other end, the colors change!

Next up was the Future of Design Pavilion which was designed and built by GCSE students with the aim to inspire more young people to take up careers in in the creative industries. 

As we walked along the tour, we passed some amazing abstract installations called the Billboards. Giles Miller Studio teamed up with British Ceramic Tile to create large-scale, signature square glass sculptures that aim to help visitors find their way around the festival by inspiring movement.

The tour ended with the Renault exhibition located at the CDW Spa Fields where visitors are able to explore the innovative emissions-reducing technologies of the EOLAB concept car and can even test drive a 100% electric Renault ZOE.

We continued the journey into the Design Fields Exhibition center where international design brands showcased their newest collections.

On the way back, we walked past an office that was glowing with an iridescent purple light. We couldn't resist!

The team at Altro showroom immediately greeted us with an elderberry flower fizzy drink. Delicious.

We were then guided downstairs to the interactive showroom where visitors can create their own abstract art collages using samples of Altro’s hygienic wall cladding while simultaneously satisfying their sweet tooths. 

The first day of Clerkenwell Design Week was a success. Two more days remain to check out the rest of the awe-inspiring showrooms and exhibitions!

UPDATE: May 26th, Day 3 of CDW 2016

There were a couple of exhibitions that we didn't get the chance to see during our fist day at CDW. So we decided to go back again today, and are very glad we did.

We went into the St. James church where they exhibited the British Collection.

Next stop was underground at Platform, in the old House of Detention- Clerkenwell’s haunted prison...

These bulbs created by Claire Potter Design are made from marine litter recycled from Brighton Beach, UK. The concept is to raise awareness toward the shocking reality that 8 million pieces of litter enter the world’s oceans every single day.

Amazing, color changing light fixtures from Rubertelli Design London.

We met some truly inspirational artists, designers and editors. Clerkenwell Design Week was a success.

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A look into the world of Valpiet

Gold Engel is very excited to be working with new luxury fashion label, Valpiet.

Valpiet’s Creative Director and Designer, Oge Dike, was inspired to develop a brand that combined his two great passions in life- aerospace engineering and haute couture, to create a high-end, avant-garde men’s and women’s fashion line that accentuates a quirky undertone.

Valpiet was created with the idea of elegance grounded in modern reality. The debut collection, the Pilot Edition, showcases strong avant-garde sensibilities with elegant designs. 

The designs balance functional aesthetics with quirky elements to create pieces that are truly one-of-a-kind.

Valpiet designs are produced by master ateliers in England, using some of the finest materials including Marino wool and silk.

Quality was of the utmost importance in Valet designs- it’s evident by just looking at the detailing.

We love Valpiet for blending quality with creativity and never sacrificing one for the other.

For a closer look into the Valpietian world, check out their website www.valpiet.com and follow them on Instagram: @Valpiet_ 

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PR’s Reputation Problem

Gold Engel’s Imola Tuzson teamed up with Rupp PR founder Natascha Rupp to try and tackle PR’s big image issue. The two discussed how PR is (wrongly) perceived around the world and how younger generation PR pro’s can fix this.

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Summer in Ibiza. A friend and I, both educated PR professionals, queue at a famous club for our night out. The guy behind us asks what we do for a living. I smile as I hear my friend respond “I work in PR“. And within a second my smile turns into a frown and internal rage when the the guy asks, “PR for a restaurant or club?“ 

Yes, because that is what PR professionals do: promote clubs and hand out 2 for 1 pizza vouchers. That is what I went through five years of higher education for. That is why I hold a BA in Public Relations and an MSc in Corporate Communications. But the PR stereotypes don’t just exist amongst party-goers in Ibiza. It seems to be a global issue. 

In the US, PR is perceived as a job for shallow, materialistic girls who think they’re special and that what they do is “so important”. A few months ago I came across an article on Elite Daily called “33 Things Every Basic B*tch Likes”. Number 28 on the list was “Working in PR”. Yep- this pretty much sums up how American’s feel about women working in PR.

Well, the American stereotype got one thing right: PR is so important. In today’s world analyzing your clients’ market, developing strategic campaigns to reach their target audience, developing social media campaigns to build their digital presence, communicating with stakeholders to create new business opportunities, monitoring all media and news stories, consulting your client on brand development and handling crisis communications are just a few of the PR activities we deal with.

And this is partially the problem. When done correctly, PR is an integrated part of business, yet defining the wide scope of work to someone who does not work in the field is difficult.

There are theoretical definitions of PR, yet these do not make sense to a six-year-old trying to explain to a friend what their mom or dad does for a living. A simplified definition alone won’t solve the issue though. PR has the existing stereotypes because there are more than enough people out there claiming to be PR professionals without the slightest understanding of how companies function.

Millennials are now growing into the profession and have to set a benchmark and make people understand that PR is not tweeting product photos; that is a tactic, which is part of a greater strategy.

Millennials are the link between the old and the new. They appreciate and still use classic forms of PR, but also know how to implement new methods. And unlike in other parts of the world, young PR professionals in London are respected for this. People of all ages are open-minded and welcome new ideas. When I tell a business owner in his late 40s that I work in PR, I get an approving nod. People take me seriously and are always interested to learn how PR can help their business.

In Germany, the start up scene has slowly started pushing diversity, yet most companies, especially the established ones believe experience comes with age and young PR professionals often struggle to prove their value.

Simply put, PR is necessary for the success of any brand or company. Business owners know that. If the public knew that then I’m sure PR professionals around the world would be held in the same utmost respect as they are in London.

I’m hoping that young PR professionals can make a difference. And when my future kids are asked what their mom does someday, everyone will know what they mean when they say, “she works in public relations“. Similary the way everyone understands what a pastrey chef or lawyer does.

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Natascha Rupp founded and manages Rupp Public Relations GmbH in Munich, Germany. She aims to make potential clients understand that PR is a long-term investment that needs to run transparently alongside all other business activities.

Imola Tuzson is the Director of Communications at Gold Engel Ltd in London, UK.   She aims to help people understand the importance of PR by showing businesses how they can profit through use of PR initiatives.

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Nina Naustdal Fashion Show - Ghost, Chelsea

Gold Engel’s Kurt Salih attended and covered the Nina Naustdal fashion show at Ghost, Chelsea on Tuesday evening, February 23rd. 

Photographers lined up outside to capture friends and family as they made their way into the luxury fashion house, Ghost, through the red carpet.

Upon entering, hosts greeted guests with an array of mouth watering canapés and champagne. 

The evening commenced with models showing off Nina Naustdal’s elegant Spring/Summer 2016 luxury couture and ready-to-wear pieces. 

The collection debuted a range of gorgeous bridal gowns, skirts, tops, children’s wear and accessories that dazzled the audience. 

The unique and ultra-stylish pieces reflect designer Nina Naustdal’s sophisticated taste for the glamorous lifestyle.

After the show, the night continued at the famous Dstrkt nightclub where guests celebrated their beloved Nina Naustdal’s triumphant new collection.

For more on Nina Naustdal designs, visit her website: http://nina-naustdal.com