A 13th-century church at Clerkenwell Design Week

The brief was to introduce Kohler to London's interior design community, on the fringes of Clerkenwell Design Week — and to land one specific idea while doing it: rooted in heritage, inspired by nature.

A brand line like that is easy to put on a slide and hard to make anyone feel. So the work started with the venue rather than the programme, and the venue did half the argument on its own: a 13th-century church in central London. Heritage was not a claim there, it was the building.

What we did

The space was ascetic and barely lit, which is exactly why it worked. The creative team brought it up with flowers, greenery and candlelight rather than fighting the architecture — nature growing into stone, which is the other half of the line.

The entertainment programme carried the same shape: it opened on classical music and moved into contemporary dance, so the evening travelled from the heritage of the room to something alive and present, without ever announcing the transition.

The result

Eighty guests were invited. Kohler closed four or more deals with designers on the spot, that same night.