BEST BETH: Wood stands outside her studio in August, a few weeks before winning the Emerging Talent medal during London Design Festival.
LAURA PANNACK FOR NEWSWEEK
THE FIRST THING I ask the designer Bethan Laura Wood is if she can describe London, the city where she now lives and works, in three colors. Why? Because the 33-year-old has created furniture, jewelry, ceramics and lighting for clients across Europe, and it is color that draws people to that portfolio.
Wood first made her name in Italy—a nation that embraces flamboyant design—when she exhibited at the influential and always bold Nilufar Gallery in Milan. This was in 2011, just two years after she graduated from the Royal College of Art. Today, she teaches at L’Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland, and has worked for French house Hermès and Italian brand Bitossi Ceramiche. But this month will be something of a homecoming for Wood. During the annual London Design Festival, her pottery collection for Bitossi will take over the windows at the Design Museum’s store at its new site in Kensington before going on sale on its website. She will also have pieces at the “Electro Craft” lighting exhibition in Shoreditch and will be taking part in “Dyslexic Design”—a show dedicated to the many designers who, like Wood, grew up with dyslexia. Finally, on September 20, Wood receives the Swarovski Emerging Talent medal, with her pieces on display at the British Land Celebration of Design awards exhibition in Broadgate.