But what is it that ignites other artists to take up a similar mantle? In Throw Those Curtains Wide Leigh explores the diversity of approaches to landscape painting by bringing together the work of over ten of his contemporaries. The invitation to viewers, as suggested by the exhibition title, is to experience multiple times over a window onto a new world.

Straying no further than a couple of miles radius from her home, Olha Pryymak takes an en plein air approach to London’s urban scenery, inevitably sharing her slice of the view with fellow Londoners and the odd dog. At the other end of the extreme, Craig Askew’s Cornish coastal scenes are doused in weather, tempting viewers to take in a bracing breath of sea air.

For Olivier Tafforin, throwing the curtains wide means opening a window not onto the outside world, but onto landscapes belonging to memory and the imagination.  Little Window is suggestive of a cinematic scene where an unknown event has either just been, or is about to be, staged. Mysterious and intriguing, Olivier simultaneously uses landscape both as scene and subject.

By likening the picture frame to the window frame, Throw Those Curtains Wide provides a welcome invitation to explore paintings as you might a scene from an open window. When you take your time to watch, or stare even, what is it that you see?

This article 'Throw Those Curtains Wide' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

I’m en route to Rocket Espresso, a small-scale, specialist espresso machine producer, which is the contemporary iteration of the once iconic ECM (Espresso Company Milano) founded in the 1970s to make domestic espresso machines with commercial grade components. Coffeesmiths has been selling Rocket Espresso machines for the better part of 12 months, but this is my first visit to their production facility in the outskirts of Milan.

An Antipodean / Italian Connection

I’ve met Andrew Meo, the 40-something, New Zealand-born (as the son of an Italian immigrant), and co-owner of Rocket Espresso several times before and we are regularly in contact. His journey from a Wellington restauranteur to being in partnership with the son of ECM’s founder, is a great personal journey that we should unpack sometime. But today’s meeting is about understanding Rocket Espresso’s values, capabilities and constructing a clearer message for the UK market.

With commercial grade components, Rocket Espresso makes one of the few domestic machines that allow you to make coffee shop quality espresso at home. If you’re at all remotely connected with us and what we do, you’ll know by now that espresso is largely about controlling temperature and pressure to optimise the extraction for the best flavour. When we started selling Rocket Espresso machines, I made my team each a shot on a Rocket Espresso Evoluzione and on our shop La Marzocco FB80 are asked me to tell me which was which. About 50 per cent got it right – in other words, they were largely guessing.

After some business meetings in the morning, the fun starts. I pull apart key components of their Evoluzione and R58 models with chief engineer – and ECM’s founder - Friedrich Berenbruch. He’s been involved with espresso machine manufacturing for more years than I’ve been alive so it’s only minutes before he begins sharing facts and stories I didn’t know. For example,  the 4.5 Kg E61 group head, which is used on all of Rocket’s espresso machines, and was developed by Faema in 1961, and was prefixed ‘E’ because of the solar eclipse that occurred that year.

As Friedrich explains the mechanics of the new boiler system, I get more and more to grips with how their worldview profoundly shapes their machines. I’ve long seen that their love of espresso, espresso machines and industry shines through in their highly polished product; but the internal components are handled like precious jewels and are, in my humble opinion, almost as beautiful. Good espresso machines are not cheap, but as soon as you open a Rocket you understand why. The vast majority of the bespoke components are made from copper and brass, the machines are assembled by hand and the build quality is tight and the machines are fundamentally designed to last. They are a far cry from the plastic, tricksy machines that dominate so much of the market.

A Family Affair

There are 16 in the team and the business largely remains a family affair. There are so many spouses and blood relatives that I’m having trouble keeping up as I’m introduced to people in the offices and production line. Each one of them politely introduces themselves, explains what they do and teaches me a little. They are obviously proud of their work and patient to explain the intricacies of what they are doing; but there is no way that they are going to let my work remain unchecked on the production line. Everything I touch is politely disassembled ready to for the team to commence work again.

Rocket Espresso in the United Kingdom

There is a lot of work to be done in the UK with Rocket Espresso. Very few people know about the brand and we make up a tiny fraction of their global sales. However, over the past year we’ve introduced a wide variety of people to the machines and it’s fair to say that they’ve become fans. We accept that the thought of making quality espresso at home can be daunting; it requires the culmination of equipment, expertise, skills and ingredients. However, all of these facets are completely attainable for the enthusiast and we continue to look at ways to make this part of the coffee journey more accessible. As always, your thoughts on this are welcome.

This article 'We Prepare for Blast off with a Visit to Rocket Espresso' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

The last two and a bit years have been a riot. We’ve done a lot: we’ve tried a variety of things, had successes, had failures, refined our ideas and forged new ones. We’ve come a long way from that day we first opened Department of Coffee and Social Affairs one cold December morning. We recognise that our successes have largely been because we have wonderful customers. We’re very grateful that so many of you like what we do and that you turn up to buy our coffee, food and coffee-making equipment. But even more than that, you turn up and make a contribution to the life and culture of our shops. It’s a privilege to see you form friendships, do business, dream up ideas to make our world a bit better in the spaces that we’ve created, while eating and drinking items we’ve made. We hope that we invigorate you, inspire you, provide a place for you to get things done and to be your better self – as well as serving you world-class coffee.

Thank you for coming. We are very grateful for your custom.

In the future we’d like to get more right

Over the past two years we’ve a) learnt a lot, b) learnt how to better realise some of our original ideas, and c) got some new ideas for the future. At the start of 2012, we went back to the drawing board and started to dream it up all over again. I quickly recognised that I had more questions than answers. Over the past 12 months there have been countless discussions – with the teams, creatives, people in the coffee industry, businesses in other sectors – all of which have shaped our thinking on what we’d like to do in the future. We’ve combined all these things together to build Coffeesmiths 2.0.

Coffeesmiths 2.0 is a work in progress

I need to stress that Coffeesmiths 2.0 is a work in progress; it’s nowhere near finished. The main thrust of our work has to been to build a foundation on which we can better combine our existing activities and have space for our future endeavours.

Firstly, there’s been a massive undertaking to transfer existing activities and resources and present them in a more straight-forward and comprehensive manner. For example, we continue to be amazed that so many of our customers don’t know that we have one of the leading Coffee School programmes. We’ve refined and developed the classes themselves, but we’ve also worked to give them more visibility, to make it much easier to identify upcoming class, to understand which class is best for you.  This is just one example of one activity; we’ve applied these types of changes to dozens of activities and we hope that it makes a difference for you.

Secondly, we’ve buckled down and worked towards completing a number of projects that have been hanging around for a while. We’re very pleased, for example, to be launching our first Local Guides. These are a series of guides to the neighbourhoods in which we have shops. We are very lucky that our shops are at the centre of communities and these guides grew out of the steady stream of requests we receive for local recommendations. Many of you may know at least some of the businesses and places listed. These guides are reflections of our preferences and personal relationships. In many cases we’ve collaborated with them in the past, have projects underway or have plans for the future. Furthermore, they’re our friends: you’ll often find these business owners or operators in our shops and us in their establishments when we’re not drinking coffee. We think London is the best city in the world. We want to continue to contribute to these neighbourhoods and celebrate the quality of the local offering. We’d love to hear of any local favourites we might have missed.

We’ve also started drawing up our Coffee-Making Guides. These have been around in various formats for years. We use their methods and language in Coffee School and team training, share these methods and techniques with customers in the shops and have even posted some of them on our previous website. However, to codify them and communicate technical craft in a written document has been a challenge. We hope the use of these guides will dramatically lift your coffee quality at home. And again we’d love to hear your feedback on both the method and communication. They remain on our ongoing project list and we’ll continue to refine and develop them.

Finally, Coffeesmiths has become one of the key coffee-making equipment retailers. However – bluntly put – our online retail experience was awful. So we’ve built a new online shop from scratch. We hope our new shop is much easier to use. We heard in our Home Barista survey that you were confused about the number and selection of products that we stocked and we hope that you find the new structure and format provides greater clarity. The shop also has greater functionality that allows us to better present and communicate information about the products and it’s easier for you to manage your orders. We can now offer a product you’ve been requesting for years: gift vouchers. And finally we’ve also improved our warehousing, supply chain, logistics partners and backend operations to deliver a better service. We’ve gone to a lot of effort and I really hope it makes a difference for you.

Clarifying The Coffeesmiths Collective

Part of the Coffeesmiths 2.0 project was clarifying the purposes of Coffeesmiths and The Coffeesmiths Collective. I think it’s fair to say that for the past two years no-one but us understood the division of labour. We completely accept that it was a reasonably artificial distinction that made limited sense when we had one coffee shop. However, now times have changed and we have four (soon to be five!) of the leading coffee shops in London. Simply put: Coffeesmiths is our HQ and all about coffee and coffee-making, it currently covers our Coffee School and Barista Bar activities as well as the online shop. The Coffeesmiths Collective is our network of quality coffee shops. This has long made sense to us and we hope that it now starts to make sense to you.

New Services

The combination of a network of shops and a common operational backend has allowed us to develop some new services. A key one is the introduction of our new Coffee Cards. These cards carry credit which can be used on any item in any of the shops in The Coffeesmiths Collective. Once you’ve registered for your card online, simply top up your card in any of the shops. It’s a faster and easier way to pay for your coffee – and you automatically get every 10th coffee free. It’s a little gift from us to you in gratitude of your custom.

The Future

We’re now working towards fully realising Coffeesmiths 2.0 and even dreaming up 3.0. At the front of our minds are the values that we started out with. We wrote in our original plan:

We have a set of values that shape all of our decisions. They are:

• We make quality coffee
• Every person is to be valued
• Every coffee shop is a public place
• Our communities and relationships give us significance
• We give our customers a better quality of life

These are lofty ideals and we’re the first to point out that sometimes we fall short of them. However, we’re really excited that these developments and changes aren’t shifts away from these values, but rather allow us to more fully realise them. After two years, we remain more committed to these values than ever before and more certain that they are the key factors that set us apart.

Coffeesmiths 2.0 will be a journey. We’re very grateful for your support over the past two years and we’d be honoured to walk the next phase with you. Please join us.

Tim
Coffeesmiths co-founder
On behalf of the Coffeesmiths team

This article 'Coffeesmiths 2.0' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

This exhibition goes behind the scenes a meet the showmen themselves, including Zoah, the first showman to attend Cambridge University; Flo, who ran away with the fair when she was 14 and is now in her 101^st year; and Joby (below), whose family has been running funfairs since 1775. At the heart of their world lies a self-reliance, entrepreneurship and organisational skill wedded to a warmth and joy of life.

In an age when people search long and hard to find their roots, looking back in order to understand their present, the travelling showmen offer an example of a community that never lost touch with their past and, consequently, have the confidence to look to the future.

Photographs © Kit Fordham.

Find out more about contemporary photography

Visit The Photographer’s Gallery, grab a copy of Foam Magazine or watch this discussion at Unseen Photo Fair, Amsterdam, on the future of photography.

This article 'Take me to the funfair' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Using psychogeography as a spring board, Benjamin’s solo exhibition Three of a Perfect Pair is an invitation to journey into a neon-tinted vision of oft overlooked terrains. Drawings and paintings derived from studies of high voltage pylons – the ultimate symbol of industry overtaking the hinterland – encapsulate the totemic properties of these electrified ziggurats, and introduce elements that allude to symbolism without ever revealing their true meaning.

In Emerald Tablet Benjamin uses the pylon to create an almost alchemical arrangement of triangles. This strict geometry contrasts beautifully with the work’s explicitly painterly surface, and draws attention to the dominant subject matter: painting itself.

Benjamin’s perspective on the world may at first appear strange, but it reveals itself through his paintings like a lucid dream or hyperreality – and in the process forces us to question the meaning we take from supposedly concrete experiences.

Photographs © Benjamin Jamie

Find out more about contemporary painting

Hear British painter Peter Doig talk about his work at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt. Sign up to Art Review’s newsletter to keep up to date with the latest painting exhibitions or hop on the First Thursdays free art bus for a tour of London’s east end art galleries.

This article 'Overlooked terrains in contemporary painting' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

This article 'Show Your Good Taste' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Nest Gallery’s latest exhibition The Great Outdoors reveals the diversity of what is currently referred to as “contemporary applied arts”. Taking the exhibition title as their umbrella theme, Nest Gallery’s group show features artworks in a variety of media including ceramics, embroidery, drawing, printmaking and installation art.

In her series of embroidered illustrations Reena Makwana marries an ancient sewing technique with candid observations of street culture more commonly associated with the likes of documentary photographer Martin Parr. Makwana’s intricate pieces, which can take more 30 hours to complete, immortalise aspects of Deptford’s bustling street life in coloured thread, from visits to the corner shop to mobility scootering.

Similarly inspired by observations of urban living, Alison Mure presents Wiff Waff, a pair of slip-cast ping pong bats featuring pencil drawings of players mid-swing. Mure’s work is a quirky and deftly crafted homage to the unexpected social interactions around London’s outdoor ping pong tables.

Exhibiting artists include Alison Mure, Rosie Walder, Chloe Bonfield, Rhea Evers, BAM by Amber James, Reena Makwana and Anna Lincoln.

Photographs: Heygate Ladies © Reena Makwana (TOP), and Dale Beckwith (BOTTOM).

Find out more about the art vs craft debate

Watch contemporary artist Grayson Perry discuss craft and art in this interview at the V&A Museum. Read Larry Shiner’s article for Aesthetics Online.

This article 'Documentary embroidery and social ceramics: the art vs craft debate' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Called Chancery Coffee, the shop features extensive use of copper including the counter top and front and these mid-century pendants sourced through Førest London.

The shop’s brand features a creature of each of the four Inns of Court that comprise London’s Barrister community and surround Chancery Lane.

We’ll be updating our site with more information about the shop shortly, but in the interim check out chancerycoffee.co.uk

This article 'Chancery Coffee is now in session' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

As well as being Sarah Bonsor’s choice for a ‘knock-out’ coffee, we couldn’t agree more with their endorsement of Juliet’s Banana Loaf.

The issue was compiled by 10 aspiring editors, who won the opportunity to go behind the scenes at Elle earlier in the year, with the support and guidance of the Elle team. We think Elle deserves a big thumbs up for the initiative and well done to the interns for the breadth of their selection. With talent like that, we’re sure they’ll be the editors of tomorrow.

This article 'Elle Editors Speak Easily' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Augustus and Friends by Claudia Boldt and Irrational Rashers by Eleanor Meredith

Their long list of projects also includes the curation of an exhibition of Risographs by some of the most exciting illustrators and graphic artists at work today. Mastermind showcases the work of 22 artists, both rising and established in their fields, including Rose Blake, Melvin Galapon, William Goldsmith, David Hughes and Harriet Russell.

Risograph prints are a cross between a screen print and a photocopy and have their own unique aesthetic. Unlike a photocopier, a Risograph printer uses real ink which you can see on the paper. Artists can choose from a myriad of specific ink colours which are printed layer by layer. Printing with multiple colours opens up the opportunity for colour layers that are slightly off-register, which is all part of the Risograph appeal.

Photographs: portrait © Samson Yee (TOP); photographs of artworks © Boldt Editions.

Find out more about the risograph revolution

Watch Creative Review’s interview with Hugh Frost from Landfill Editions who gives a demonstration of three-colour Risograph printing. Browse the stalls at this year’s Pick Me Up graphic arts festival at Somerset House or see what printed treasures you can find at Nobrow.

This article 'Bolt Editions and the risograph revolution' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

This article 'Flagships and Villages' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Mantis’ mural, paper collages, screen prints and oil paintings form a new body of work that uses symbolism and metaphor to explore the creative urge. “The leviathan acts as a metaphor for creativity”, Mantis says. “The creative drive is a haunting prospect, a need that is embedded deep within; an innate desire to make sense of the world by the act of creation. Like the mythical unattainable beast that always travels just ahead, the fulfilment of creativity can seem perpetually out of reach. This drive has the ability to completely overcome; a dance of beauty and vibrancy, but also a drive that treads a fine line with destruction, always edging you on to pick fights it may not be possible to win.”

Michael Mantis in the studio photographed by Hookedblog

Inspired by Herman Melville’s classic novel which follows the tortured fervour of the protagonist, Captain Ahab, whose driving ambition is to conquer his mythical foe Moby Dick, leviathan is the perfect metaphor for the creative urge that seeks to build, make, play, and satisfy this deeply entrenched thirst.

Photographs by Ben Sherman (TOP), and Hookedblog (BOTTOM).

Find out more about experiences of creativity

Read snippets from this interview with American painter Chuck Close and Tolstoy‘s definition of art and the creative act: “Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that others are infected by these feelings and also experience them.”

This article 'Street art meets history painting' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

To celebrate the rise of Leather Lane as a food and drink destination, Department of Coffee and Social Affairs, Bleeding Heart Bistro, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and The Craft Beer Co. are running a consecutive series of tastings on Saturday 28 July 2012.

You are welcome to join us for some, or all, of the events:

11.30 onwards
Brunch – Free glass of Trinity Hill wine with brunch
Bleeding Heart Bistro, Bleeding Heart Yard
Reservations advised: bleedingheart.co.uk/bistro

Bleeding Heart Bistro is tucked away in Bleeding Heart yard, just off Greville St. and is a modern French Bistro with an extensive wine list.

14.30
Coffee Tasting – Free
Department of Coffee and Social Affairs, 14 – 16 Leather Lane
All welcome. Please RSVP so we can have a view on numbers facebook.com/DepartmentOfCoffee/events

Department of Coffee and Social Affairs has two Feature Coffees each week (plus a Feature Espresso) profiling a wide variety of estates and roasters. At the tasting we’ll be providing samples for four or five single estates from at least three roasters.

16.00
Beer Tasting – Free
The Craft Beer Co., 82 Leather Lane

The Craft Beer Co. stocks a regularly changing line up of over 250 craft beers from around the world. We’re fortunate to have this leading UK pub as our Leather Lane local.

17.30
Whisky Tasting – Free
Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Bleeding Heart Yard
All welcome. So the Scotch Malt Whisky Society can have a view on numbers, please RSVP facebook.com/events/476536255691365

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has an ever changing range of over 250 single malt whiskies – and is our favourite place to drink whisky in London.

19.00 onwards

Tasting Options
-   Pie Tasting at Pieminister: 91 Leather Lane, London, EC1N 7TS  www.pieminister.co.uk

Dinner Options
-  Bleeding Heart Bistro – bleedingheart.co.uk/bistro (reservations recommended)

This article 'A Taste of Leather Lane' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

This article 'Carnaby Cup: An Introduction to Speakeasy Espresso & Brew Bar' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

We were delighted to see our new shop The Liberty of Norton Folgate be featured alongside international brands such as Nespresso and Starbucks. The shop’s striking caffeine molecule inspired lights have been a big talking point for our customers and we have had lots of positive feedback on the shop’s immediate relationship with the street and building – as well as of course the quality of the coffee.

Stiff + Trevillion, the architects behind Costa’s new concept note, that there is an anti-corporate, anti-big brand mood and that shops High St. chain coffee shops need to reflect this sentiment. We find it fascinating to watch the brands update their formats to mimic aspects of ‘independent’ coffee shops, especially the use of ‘rustic’ materials.

We think that the focus on shop design for the large part masks the fundamental trend shaping coffee: cup quality. We have immensely enjoyed seeing people being introduced and then exploring the world of quality coffee. We are, of course, continuing our work to lift cup quality and to create spaces for people to enjoy coffee and each other’s company. That is, after all, what quality coffee shops are all about.

This article 'A Focus on Coffee' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

“I grew up on a large farm that was settled by my Scandinavian great-grand parents in Aotearoa, The Land of the Long White Cloud: New Zealand. An isolated island where, before humans arrived, no mammal lived - birds reigned. Birds who, left to evolve over millions of years without mammal predators, grew into unique species of all sizes and imaginings, many of them flightless, ground-nesting and fearless.

Among them were giants that stood 12 feet high and the world’s largest raptor to have ever lived. In 1770, European explorers were forced to anchor their ship eight miles off the coast of this island, so the deafening sound of the birdsong didn’t keep them awake. The naturalist on this ship wrote that ‘Their voices were certainly the [most] melodious wild musick I have ever heard, almost imitating small bells but with the most tuneable silver sound imaginable.’ Since mammals stepped foot onto this magical land, 42 per cent of its terrestrial birds have been lost to extinction.”[1]

Jacobsen’s deft pencil and ink illustrations demonstrate not only the enduring power of fairy tales but also the richness that exists in picturing the past, which at times involves imagining the unimaginable. Rather than just acting out a role these newly-born avian ancestors are the embodiment of their assigned human narratives. The Tui, one of New Zealand’s most strikingly beautiful birds whose song is distinct and varied for having two voice boxes, flourishes in her role as Siren to a flightless Kiwi Ulysses.

Jacoben’s humourous and insightful visions make all the more pertinent the devastation and loss of a sentient bird society.

[1] Taken from Joseph Banks’ diary, noted 6 February 1770, aboard Captain Cook’s ship the Endeavour.

Find out more about artists with avian visions

Read about Max Ernst’s collage novel Une semaine de bonté. Take a look at Joanna Braithwaite’s paintings. Read Jonathan Safran Foer’s tribute to artist Joseph Cornell’s bird boxes.

This article 'Re-imagining the classics in an avian wonderland' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Over the past year and a bit, we’ve taught hundreds of people how to make better coffee at home at Coffee School and supplied many of you home coffee-making kit. So we were delighted to take the team at Stylist through a range of home coffee-making options for their recent coffee feature.

If you want to make better coffee at home, enrol in Coffee School or talk to us about the best equipment for you at home.

You can read the article at: www.stylist.co.uk/life/recipes/how-to-create-the-perfect-cup-of-coffee

This article 'A Coffee Revolution is Underway. It’s Starting at Home.' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

And yes, it was thirsty work. We headed straight off to the pub.

This article 'Coffee Is Always In Style' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

On Tuesday 10 April, join us on London’s Southbank and go without shoes for a day.

Coffeesmiths will be serving coffee from midday, and turn up not wearing shoes and buy a coffee, and we’ll give you another coffee for a friend. Simple as that: one for one.

You can find out more about A Day Without Shoes at: www.toms.co.uk/onedaywithoutshoes

This article 'One Day Without Shoes' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Today pretty much all traces of the past have gone. So our Liberty of Norton Folgate is not dominated by the site’s history, but rather but the pecularities of the space – a thin sliver of retail at the bottom of the striking and contemporary 201 Bishopsgate.

At 24m long, 8.5m high, but just 2.6m deep the space is like no other. So the Liberty of Norton Folgate had to be a coffee shop unlike anything we’d seen before. Spanning four bays, we’ve broken out the shop into take out and eat in spaces. At the southern end your can call by for take out coffee and food. In the northern end there’s ample, sun-drenched seating and great views of the streetscape. In the middle, the team work their magic crafting quality coffees, teas as well as food and cold drinks.

Tying the space together are our floating light structures. Each is structure is unique, about  4m long and provides light and  a sense of proportion to the otherwise vertigo-inducing ceiling height.

We also think the site will look great in the evenings.

Truth be told we opened up the site on Friday last week for testing. We’ve already had plenty of great feedback from locals, but would – as always – welcome yours.

For more information and visiting information, check out libertyofnortonfolgate.co.uk and stay in touch at Follow @LoNF201 and .

We genuinely hope to create a space for the people that work and live in the area, to put Norton Folgate back on the map, and to get on with making some quality coffee. We look forward to seeing you there.

This article 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

We’re also more than a bit pleased on two other fronts.

Firstly, well done to the teams at both Department of Coffee and Social Affairs and Speakeasy Espresso & Brew Bar for being credited as two of the best places in London to drink coffee. We work really hard to make things work on a daily basis and it’s rewarding for us all when our efforts are publicly recognised. (However, it’s still, of course, our customers’ feedback that really makes us glow.)

Secondly, it’s our firm belief that accessibility doesn’t have to undermine quality – and, in fact, can enhance it. We’ve deliberately been trying to make coffee more accessible through our culture, attitudes, coffee-making processes and shop fit outs. From the feedback we get, we understand that it’s something that you really appreciate about us and so it is again rewarding to see that aspects of who we are picked up on.

We think the future is really bright for quality coffee. We’re currently working on further innovations to make our coffee even better, to make quality coffees more accessible and to help more people to be able to prepare quality coffee. If coffee is your hot beverage of choice, then it’s going to be a great journey.

This article 'The Times They Are a-Changin’' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

The annual survey takes member of the public to coffee shops and collates their feedback.

John and the team are doing an amazing job and the shop deserves more critical praise to match the popular acclaim.

The shop has been welcomed to the West End coffee scene as it is taking quality coffee to a larger (and often new) audience, has been a champion of single estate coffees, is setting new standards for service, and – the most important measure – has built a loyal and local customer base.

Many coffee drinkers enjoy being able to make single estate Pour Over coffee themselves, under the watchful eye of the Speakeasy team.

As well as coffees and other beverages, Speakeasy serves a freshly-made range of breakfast, lunch and baking items.

We’re really happy to have opened our second coffee shop in Carnaby and are glad to be making a recognised contribution to the workers, residents and visitors to the area.

This article 'Speaking Easily: Speakeasy in London’s Top 30 Coffee Shops' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

This article 'Coffee Tasting for London’s Whisky Crew' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Home Baker, Juliet Baptise-Kelly, made us this Red Velvet birthday cake. It was amazing.

It’s also been a time for us to take stock and reflect on what’s going well and what we want to improve. Thanks so much to all that filled in our survey. We learnt a lot about how you see us and the shop. We’ll be reviewing the findings over the Christmas period with a view to implementing your best ideas in 2012.

In the meantime, we invite you to turn up whenever you can to our other events. The best way to stay informed in on our Twitter and Facebook profiles.

Thanks again for all your support this year and we’re now working away to ensure that we have plenty to celebrate next year!

This article 'Department of Coffee and Social Affairs Turns One' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

In the past four years over £1.4 million has been donated by Thirsty Planet to fund the building and maintenance of thousands of pumps, giving millions of people access to more than 300 billion litres of clean water.

We think that it’s important work and are pleased to play a little part. You can buy Thirsty Planet water in the shops.

This article 'Everyday Essentials' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

We were totally impressed with the outfits, the generosity and sense of community on display and the calibre of their blogs. Check out Grazia’s report on the event: 20 Reasons Why Grazia Daily’s First Ever Fashion Bloggers’ Event ROCKED.

The bold and the beautiful of the fashion blogging scene descended on Speakeasy Espresso & Brew Bar for Grazia Daily’s first ever Fashion Bloggers event.

It was a great night and we learnt a lot about fashion blogging, blogging in general and had a great time meeting so many lovely people. The team at Speakeasy were – as always – great hosts. Well done.

This short film from Grazia Daily, filmed at the event, highlights their passion, drive and talent.

The hosts of the Shopping Party, Carnaby London, also called by and made this short film of the evening featuring the event. Nice one.

A big thumbs up to Angela Buttolph from Grazia Daily for dreaming up the event and for wearing the outfit of the evening.

Find out more about the bloggers and their blogs at http://www.graziadaily.co.uk/fashion/archive/2011/11/22/grazia-dailys-first-ever-fashion-bloggers-event.htm

This article 'The Fresh Face of Fashion' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Working with 3200 ISO film, which is eight times more sensitive to light than regular film, Laamanen purposely ‘pulls’ the negatives to make the fine grain in the film’s texture more noticeable. Standard practise would have been to avoid a grainy effect since it can be an indication of a photograph being enlarged too far. Laamanen, however, cherishes it: “The grain in black-and-white film clearly shows that it is a photograph rather than a straight window into the world.”

Photography’s ability, or inability, to represent reality is a preoccupation in Laamanen’s work. Her latest series of photographs, Façades, raises doubts over an image’s ability to represent a city, in this case London.  A two-and-a-half year project, Laamanen started work on Façades when it was pointed out that she photographed everywhere (she’s photographed Buenos Aires, Helsinki, Istanbul, Paris and the remote North of Norway) but the city in which she lived. Accepting this as a challenge, Laamanen set out to confront London and with it, photography itself.

The atmosphere in Laamanen’s photographs is palpable. Citing among her artistic influences Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographic Seascapes and Caspar David Freidrich’s painting Monk at Sea, Laamanen manages to capture equally sublime landscapes within London’s city grid. A jumbo jet is suspended alone amid Laamanen’s immense and silent London sky.  Adjacent city tower blocks take on the depth and awe of a rocky ravine.

Laamanen’s view is strikingly different to that of London’s commonly perceived image. L’effet papillon, which beautifully describes the potential power and fragility of a butterfly’s wings, Laamanen successfully ascribes to a vast steel and glass railway station hall. A series of familiar stone steps on Southbank become anonymous, surrounded by intrigue and silence. Laamanen’s skill is not so much in deconstructing well-known images of London, nor in capturing what is ‘truly’ there, but in using the city’s facades to reflect her personal experience.

“Despite its name the city is anonymous, for its identity is nothing but a sum of its benefactors’ amplified words … What is a city but a human construction? It is filled with buildings like it is filled with people and therefore despite its concrete grid it is human through and through. Without its inhabitants the city is a ghost and with them it is an array of their façades.”

Laamanen commits to no particular view of London and instead presents us with a deeply personal and beautifully poetic depiction of the city and its elusive façades.

Find out more about photography and its influence on our lives

Read Susan Sontag’s seminal book On Photography. Hear contemporary thinkers and practioners Peter Galassi, Blake Stimson, Joel Snyder, Douglas Nickel, Vince Aletti, Corey Keller, and Philip-Lorca diCorcia discuss Is Photography Over? at SFMOMA.

This article 'Photographing the sublime' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

We’re delighted to announce the opening of Speakeasy Espresso & Brew Bar in the heart of the West End.

Split over ground floor and basement, Speakeasy is two coffee bars in one: we run an espresso bar upstairs and a Brew Bar downstairs. So whether you drink a Flat White, Macchiato or Filter; need to have your coffee on the run, or like to linger a while; we’d like to think we’ve made a great West End spot for you.

Speakeasy Espresso & Brew Bar is located at 3 Lowndes Court, Carnaby, London, W1F 7HD.

You can find out more at www.speakeasycoffee.co.uk,  www.facebook.com/speakeasycoffee and http://twitter.com/_speakeasy_.

This article 'Speakeasy Espresso & Brew Bar – Now Open!' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

But it’s not just Catrina’s ideas that are inventive. Her conceptual drawings for The London Farmhouse Tower are artworks in themselves, having something of David Hockney’s L.A., Daniel Buren’s Naples and Aldo Rossi’s Teatro del Mondo about them. However, unlike self-professed artists, drawings such as Catrina’s are seldom seen on gallery walls. Which is where Adam Dainow comes in.  An architect himself, Adam is the founder of Dainow&Dainow and the curator of Imagined Cities, a London Design Festival exhibtion which showcases some of London’s most exciting architectural art.

Cultivating Faith Structural Study Model, Rapid Prototype by Tom Greenall

“Catrina Stewart’s works are some of the most original and strikingly beautiful drawings I have seen”, Adam says. “By exhibiting the work of both recent graduates and established practitioners, we hope that the best of current architectural design and thinking might be communicated to a broader audience so that people might be better equipped to engage with the design decisions that are shaping their everyday lives.”

The exhibition highlights some of the diverse challenges facing highly urbanised, metropolitan cities today and includes the work of Charlotte Baker, Lukas Barry, Charlie Caswell, Nathan Freise,  Tom Greenall, Claire Jamieson, Sebastian Kite, Will Laslett, Tom Lea, Pete McMahon, Jenny Melville, Tom Noonan, Alastair Parvin, Tom Reynolds, Ostap Rudakevych, Patrick Skingley, Catrina Stewart, Robert Taylor and Colin Wharry.

Aqualta TimesSq Night NYC by Ostap Rudakevych

Film directed by Miles Langley, music by The Dannywolves

Find out more about city planning

Take a look at Le Corbusier’s ideas for a future city and his realised plans for Chandigarh, India. Read Kevin Lynch’s The Image of the City.

This article 'The future city is looking bright' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Gathering is a temporary pop-up installation at the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs which takes inspiration from the social and professional networks that have historically existed in London’s coffee shops. Taking its form from a series of interlocking prismatic rings Gathering represents how coffee shops can be incubators for ideas and innovation; an opportunity for people to connect and collaborate.

Painstakingly constructed by hand, each unique ring is constructed from laser-cut Perspex, transparent rods and discarded optical lenses, which gently manipulate light to fantastic effect. These rings are carefully backed with coloured films that capture the strong afternoon light that streams through the windows of Department of Coffee and Social Affairs. The result is a vibrant and transformative piece of work whose various permutations reflect the daily life of the coffee shop.

Find out more about artists working with light

Watch Alastair Sooke’s Modern Masters documentary featuring Henri Matisse’s windows for Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France. Visit Light Show at Hayward Gallery in London.

This article 'Running rings around light' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Please sponsor us up five steps, 10 steps, or even 20, 50 or 100 steps. All money raised will be donated to the New Zealand Government’s Earthquake Appeal.

To find out more and donate, visit: www.departmentofcoffee.co.uk.

This article 'Gherkin Challenge' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

We’re big fans of our Globe Live 1 bike. With a carry tray on the front, it’s perfect for picking up fresh food from the market or coffee from the roasters. The guys and gals from Globe and Bobbin came by for a shoot and made this rather lovely short film. Department of Coffee and Social Affairs forms the backdrop at around 1 minute. Enjoy.

This article 'The Shop Bike' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

“I was scared about painting sunsets,” Glover admits, “but I remember hearing David Hockney speak on Radio 4. He said, ‘The trouble with sunsets in painting is that people think they are cliché, but real sunsets are never cliché.’ When I read a poem that strikes a chord with me, I feel that buzz of realising I have a shared experience with the poet. I want to recall that experience, even if the subject matter itself risks seeming cliché.”

Detail from Head in the Clouds by Leigh Glover

Setting his viewfinder amongst the clouds, Glover brings to earth the dramatic scenery we forget is high above us in the air. Recalling J.M.W. Turner’s experience of being tied to the mast of a ship in stormy weather, Glover marvels at what Turner might have produced had he been able to experience flight, and savours the seat he finds himself in.

“It is a surreal experience when our day to day reference systems cannot measure what we are seeing. These pictures are what I imagine landing on the moon must be like, expressing the experience of being unable to calculate and understand your surroundings. At 33,000 feet human senses have no scale, no relationship with the new experience. This is in part why we will never cease to find the perspective, the shapes, the colours, and the brightness of light above the clouds amazing.”

Find out more about the history of British landscape painting

Read Michael Prodger’s article for The Guardian about the rise of British landscape painters. Visit the world’s largest collection of J.M.W. Turner’s paintings at Tate Britain.

This article 'A refreshing perspective on landscape painting' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

“Returning to the town of my childhood and watching it adapt, I wonder how long it will retain its traditions and individuality. The butcher is struggling, the wet fish shop closed last year, and the brewery doesn’t deliver rounds by horse and cart anymore. The idea of the ‘local’ and the sense of community it creates seem somewhat under fire.”

Zoë’s work expresses the awkwardness she feels at seeing a hyper-convenient, homogenously-branded shopping experience grafted onto a traditional market town. However, rather than indulging in nostalgia for a bygone era, she finds humour in the incongruity and absurdity of the situation. Snipping figures out of her family album, Zoë superimposes alternate values onto the village tea party, the local rugby match and Margery and Bill from up the lane. The result is a set of reminiscent, but highly comic, works that make us consider what we might be missing out on living in the fluorescent glare of 24-hour convenience.

This article 'I’m lovin’ it?' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Named to capture your attention (Hindu Holiday anyone?), the range features both faithful interpretations of traditional blends as well as unique creations inspired by their tea-sourcing travels.

This article 'Bellocq featured in Wallpaper* Design Awards' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Seamlessly merged but contradictory, Jamie’s reconstructed terrains often take on a haunting quality, revealing a dystopian interpretation of the world around us. Charming images of the natural environment are neatly and lucidly disturbed by urban detritus; Jamie harnesses the connotations associated with each, allowing the viewer an alternative experience of the scenery we know.

This article 'Foxgloves and television sets' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Things are coming together nicely for the opening of Department of Coffee and Social Affairs. We’ll be announcing an opening date shortly. In the meantime here’s some time lapse footage of the crew painting the site at the weekend. A big thanks to all those that helped out.

This article 'Department of Coffee and Social Affairs takes shape' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

A renovated and remodelled hardware store, the site is a collaboration of coffee professionals, designers and artists who aspire to build a coffee-focused, social hub for the residents and office workers in the Farringdon area. We hope that you’ll come and visit.

This article 'Department of Coffee and Social Affairs' was first published on Coffeesmiths.

Filmed at Ted July 2010 Steven Johnson shows how the idea of an individual’s “Eureka!” moment is misleading and takes us on a fascinating tour from the “liquid networks” of London’s coffee houses to Charles Darwin’s long, slow hunch to today’s high-velocity web.

This article 'Where do Good Ideas Come From?' was first published on Coffeesmiths.