Three Six Five - Fifteen

Closing out the year No Seven Days post this week because we've been reviewing the last year and trying to distill it down to some key...

Closing out the year

No Seven Days post this week because we've been reviewing the last year and trying to distill it down to some key images, thoughts and experiences. We'll follow this up with a teaser for next year for which we have some exciting plans from wine chillers to local artisan interviews, Indian balcony doors to creating space from nowhere.

12 of 2015

We pulled 12 images, one per month, from our collection of images associated with portfolio and customer work. What's clear (we hope) is a consistent theme of detail, craftsmanship and a willingness to make, re-use and re-purpose. The astute will notice that 12 is really 13 and whilst we'll call that 13th image out later we're sure you'll agree that no mention of the past year can ignore the events on one night in Paris.

Baker's Dozen of 2015

A Dozen of Elle Decoration

Pictured below are the last 12 months of the front covers of Elle Decoration - why include them here? There are many magazines out there claiming to be the last word in interior design, we subscribe to many of them but Elle Decoration shows it's true class in the quality of the editorial, photography and their global viewpoint. They also produce Elle Decoration Country twice a year which focuses on more rural, rustic, in country projects and is a must buy if you're searching for a modern take on country style.

Solid editorial, excellent production values with exemplary photography

Our Favourite Project

We narrowed our selection down to the exposed ductwork, gaol cell door and the giant Holophane light. In the end we chose the Holophane light because it combined making and re-purposing, was a challenge from concept through to installation and it lead to one of our most memorable images this year.

Holophane comes to life

We loved the technical and machining challenge of the bracket work for the exposed ducting and bringing the gaol cell door back from the brink of a destruction in a remote Welsh hillside farm. There were many other projects this year, not all of which we covered, which we were also very pleased with; reclaimed barn siding used for wall cladding with copper nail accents, textured aluminiun and Wenge plinths and the culmination of the two heads are better than one project.

One of 3 bespoke adjustable brackets for exposed ventilation ductwork

Positive

We're positive about our foray into the world of blogging, social networking and generally making inroads into the digital space which, these days, is such a necessity for any business. We've been particularly pleased with the automatic Google photos syncing (though not happy about them removing some processing features), Autodesk's Fusion360 and PIXLR products and fiverr which put us in contact with Smork who really helped nail our branding.

Into the Cloud! - bokoshoko embraced the digital world in 2015

We've had a great year from a project delivery standpoint and our decision to exhibit our work in the long term portfolio project has proved sensible allowing us to protect the privacy of our customers and still show what we do. Expect to see more portfolio work next year.

Negative

To maintain balance we have too address our positives with a negative;
No one can fail to position the events of November the 13th in Paris as the lowest point of the year. It is a sad fact that terrorist attacks have bookended 2015 for Parisians with the shootings at Charlie Hebdo in January and the events of November 13th. How we as a civilization respond to these attacks will be seen character defining and we need to rise above the temptation of biblical style retribution.

7th January - 13th November

Don't look back in anger...

Let us close out this mini-review thing by ending on a positive, uplifting note. 2015 has been a great year for bokoshoko and for design in general.

We've seen a genre defining home win the RIBA award, Sky Arts brought us both Landscape Artist of the Year (gz to Nerrine McIntyre) and showcased Christian Hook as he painted 3 stunning portraits, Grand Designs continued to be hosted by someone more than just a talking head write, BBC 6 music continued to show that eclectic music tastes can (and should) be catered to, Elle Decoration maintained their high production standards, The Landmark Trust opened their doors to Channel 4 and showed themselves to be forward thinking and pragmatic about our architectural heritage, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith said "hey Sheridan we've got an idea" and thus was created perhaps the most perfect piece of TV ever seen, in amongst cynical film franchises someone said yes to The Danish Girl and Carol, Tim Peake learnt Russian and travelled to the ISS on Soyuz (he's not the first British astronaut - hello Helen Sharman), despite all the political rhetoric it only took a show about cake making to really show what a multi-cultural society the UK is.

Finally keep an eye out for an article talking about 2016 which we'll publish in the period between Christmas and New Year

For the broader context of 2015 visit the Wikipedia page