This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see more of my work.

Last week, Conran & Partners commissioned me to head over to the Design Museum to document the exhibition they have on at the moment marking the life and work of Terence Conran. From the Design Museum’s website… “The Design Museum marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday with a major exhibition that explores his unique impact on contemporary life in Britain. Through his own design work, and also through his entrepreneurial flair, Conran has transformed the British way of life. The Way We Live Now explores Conran’s impact and legacy, whilst also showing his design approach and inspirations. The exhibition traces his career from post-war austerity through to the new sensibility of the Festival of Britain in the 1950s, the birth of the Independent Group and the Pop Culture of the 1960s, to the design boom of the 1980s and on to the present day”

There’s still a bit of time left to see the exhibition as it runs through until 12th April. For all the info click here. Happy (slightly belated) birthday, Sir Conran!

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see more of my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

Back in March I shot the new Small Batch Coffee Shop in Hove for Chalk Architecture. Since opening the shop has been a huge success, both in terms of the amount of people enjoying their coffee and for the design awards it’s been nominated for (including a WAN Interiors and Design Award). It’s also lead to another shop opening, this time in central Brighton underneath MyHotel in Jubliee Square. When I first moved to Brighton this area was a wasteland and it’s remarkable to see how it’s changed so much, largely due to the Stirling shortlisted new library.

Anyways, Chalk called and asked if I could head over and shoot the new shop. Big thanks to the staff who provided me with free coffee all day (I’m learning to like coffee) and to fellow photographer Harry Watts, Dan and Vic from Conran & Partners, Andrew White, and Kirstin Stride and Lynne Davies from Handmade Brighton for popping in to be my ‘part-time coffee models’.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Small Batch has really become a modern Brighton institution – worth popping in if you’re in town.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

After spending a few days in Norfolk, photographing 1960’s housing for the Festival of Architecture, Norwich & Norfolk (FANNXI) I dropped by Clerkenwell Design Week on my way through London, back to Brighton. I only had a couple of hours, but I had my kit on me so I thought I’d take a few snaps whilst there.

After checking out the House of Detention (a former Victorian prison being used as an exhibition space for designers and artists), I headed to London Fieldwork’s Spontaneous City. “A poetic and eccentric experiment for birds in urban green spaces”…

After that, I wandered round to Clerkenwell Road to stop by the Step Inside Bar by Chetwoods Architects for the World Festival of Interiors. Chetwoods converted a former petrol station into a pop-up bar…

Finally, I stopped by the Farmiloe Building, a Victorian former commerical building, to say hello to a couple of clients and friends exhibiting there.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

I’ve always wanted to get into drinking coffee, if not just to give me something I can rely on in the morning to give me a kick start. Unfortunately I just don’t like it, as much as I try. I don’t really even drink tea so my mornings take a while to get going because all I have is Shreddies, cold showers and orange juice to get me started. Anyways, those of my friends who do enjoy coffee tell me that Brighton based, Small Batch Coffee are great. They recently opened their new Coffee Shop on Wilbury Avenue in Hove and they got Chalk Architecture in to design the new space in a former flooring showroom (if memory serves me correctly?).

A lot of the building work was done by friends of Small Batch and a large proportion of the materials are seconds from other larger projects Chalk have worked on. You see this quite a lot on small projects like this with mixed results and it’s a great credit to Chalk and Small Batch that it looks so good here. The finishing and detailing is great, helped by some good design choices and some very high quality materials (the wood paneling is beautiful). The golden gnome stools are a cracking touch to…

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. Please head to my website at www.clickclickjim.com if you’d like to see my work.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. To view my portfolio, please head to my website.

A while back I photographed the Rodhus Studio spaces in Brighton for owner Richard Ainsworth. Furniture designer Sean Dare of Dare Studios saw the images, gave me a call and commissioned me to photograph his new range of furniture. Sean is going to be showing some of his work in the spaces once they open and I’ve long been a fan of his work, so we got together the next day and spent a some time shifting his pieces around the bright, white former factory space.

You can see more of Dare Studio’s work on their website. This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

I’m a big fan of Manchester. I don’t think I’ve ever been there and not had a blast. Conveniently (and I’m not really sure how or why) I get a great deal of commissions up there, which gives me a chance to visit friends, take in the sights, eat some food and buy lots of magazines at Magma. My first commission there in 2010 was for the Bulb Cafe, interiors by Conran and Partners in a building by developers Stonehurst Estates. I’d already photographed the building, and was asked to pop up and to the cafe to.It’s a really nice place, as it happens. The space can be divided up by full height metal mesh curtains and the somber colour palette is offset nicely with the brightly coloured casual seating.

We got in early, before they opened as the manager was concerned the sight of me running around with a camera would put the customers off their food. The staff were very helupful and sorted me out with free cups of tea while I got the shots. Good friends Thom and Ben swung by to see what was going on and once finished we headed to the pub for a good catchup over lunch, which turned into dinner, which turned into a great night out.

This is the photography blog of clickclickjim, Jim Stephenson Architectural Photographer. As always, plenty o’ pics on my website.

Back in January, Float Glass Design asked me to head up Navigant’s offices in London to photograph a new installation they had created for their reception area. Float Glass design and manufacture some pretty incredible things from glass – a lot of their work defies what I previously thought possible with the material! Their based in Brighton and Michael and I met through my work the the South Coast Design Forum.

As many photographers will say, glass is pretty difficult to photograph. Couple that with florescent lighting and a busy London HQ, and you’ve got yourself a challenge.

As always, more images on my website.