Milliken’s corporate philosophy combines science with design and insight to helps clients to meet the challenges associated with contemporary workplace design and management. Our team of researchers and designers continually explore new and creative ways of enhancing our working lives and making the world around us more sustainable and more beautiful. For the sixth consecutive year Milliken & Company has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. 

This year's Clerkenwell Design Week includes a series of outstanding events from Milliken featuring some of the UK's most innovative design thinkers and practitioners. 

TUESDAY 22nd MAY

12.30pm and 6pm: ALAN KITCHING – A Private View

A chance to get a glimpse into the private collection of typographer, designer and letterpress practitioner, Alan Kitching. See his latest work, a print created exclusively for Milliken to celebrate our 10th Anniversary in Clerkenwell, and listen to Alan’s thoughts on traditional craftsmanship and life in Clerkenwell.

1.30pm and 3.30pm

LETTERPRESS PRINTING WORKSHOPS by Turnbull Grey

Creative, hands-on workshops run by Clerkenwell based graphic designers, Turnbull Grey 

WEDNESDAY 23rd MAY

12.30pm: THE CRAFT OF DESIGN with Grant Gibson

Grant Gibson, commentator and editor of Craft Magazine, will host a panel discussion on the thriving British contemporary craft scene. After years of being considered deeply unfashionable, craft has suddenly become all the rage. The panel will unpick the reasons for its resurgence, its relationship with design, why we are all becoming more interested in how and where things are made and finally, whether compromises have to be made if you want to get a product to the mass market. 

6.00pm: DESIGN CRIMES DEBATE with Max Fraser and Steve Price

Max Fraser (Deputy Director of the London Design Festival) and Steve Price (Founder Plan-B Studio) will lead a panel of experts, from the world of design, in a lively session of strong opinions and forthright debate. The group will engage in a tongue-in-cheek critique of those designs from the past that should never have been revived and would have been better left where they belonged: in the past! 

THURSDAY 24th MAY 

12.30pm: Paper Sculpting Workshop - A hands-on session led by Su Blackwell

6pm: Vintage, second-hand, retro, up-cycling: Which of these does Wayne Hemingway love and which does he abhor?

Is Vintage, fad or is it a permanent part of the design vocabulary. Is it a term that allows us to celebrate timeless design or just another word for second-hand and for looking back when we should be looking forward? 

ALL WEEK

For the second year running Milliken’s dedicated team of style spotters will hit the streets of Clerkenwell. This year the focus is on ‘vintage’. Vintage choices selected by the team will be posted on the wall of Milliken’s Studio and on the www.millikenstylespotter.com blog. There’ll also be regular tweets and Facebook updates throughout the event.  

URBAN COLLECTIVE

Milliken will also be using Clerkenwell Design Week to present its latest range - Urban Collective which is the first range to pull together different Milliken technologies into one collection. It makes the best use of the company’s proprietary Millitron pattern technology but also uses its new solution dyed nylon tufting capability. The range includes five designs  - Fifty Percent Grey, OnBloc, Fringe, Citizen and Dissident The designs have a highly textural and dimensional aesthetic incorporating the fractured elements and broken structure of a dilapidated cityscape.