This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Sorry – the page you are looking for has been removed
(2 months later)
Ideas and design may look good in isolation, but bringing them together can provide a fresh burst of inspiration. Designer, cook and author Sophie Conran collaborates with many brands, including Portmeirion and Burgon & Ball, as well as a number of smaller craft-based businesses.
This is because it was advertisement feature content that was published as part of a commercial deal and funded by an advertiser.
By bringing her work together under the umbrella of a new website, she has created a beautiful digital space. As a self-confessed technophobe, Conran thought she’d been “left behind” by technology, but by using its most creative aspects she is finding new ways of working. And this open-minded approach has impacted her latest home project too.
It is Guardian News and Media policy to take down paid-for content at the end of these deals.
Last year was “a busy year”. Conran moved into a new home at the same time as launching sophieconran.com. She’s no stranger to home renovation: her parents bought a disused school in Berkshire when she was eight years old and she “grew up on a building site”. As an adult, she followed suit, buying a crumbling Devon farm to restore. Her latest renovation project is similarly ambitious. “It’s a Regency house near Swindon, built in 1765,” she explains. “It’s absolutely beautiful with incredible architecture, enormous rooms and floor-to-ceiling windows, but it’s dilapidated, a real labour of love.”
Click here for more on our commercial content guidelines.
The property was once owned by the Duke of Wellington, but evidence of his tenure is eroding. “He had an oak leaf motif that is part of the house’s history,” Conran says. “It’s reflected in the cornicing; but in one room the leaves are falling out like teeth. When they hit the ground, they crumble to pieces.”
If you want to contact someone about the page, you can email:
I can use the storyboards I’ve created with the Sprout to bring my ideas to life.
paid-content@theguardian.com
To restore this period feature in a durable way, Conran is using the Sprout by HP, a revolutionary new creative space that combines immersive, multi-touch technology with a fully functioning PC: “I’ve taken a couple of surviving pieces of the cornice and scanned them using the Sprout. Then I used 3D printing to replicate the originals in polymer material. If they ever fall out again, they’ll bounce. The cornice is old, but this new technology brought it back to life.”
To continue reading, please visit the Guardian’s home page.
As well as restoring the cornice, Conran has used the Sprout to create storyboards for the renovation project, illustrating her design vision for the house: “I’ve applied for planning permission to turn the dining room into a kitchen. It’s quite a grand room, and I don’t want to lose that grandeur, but I love cooking, so it’s important that the kitchen is at the centre of the house, rather than in the basement. I can use the storyboards I’ve created with the Sprout to bring my ideas to life. In the same way as rebuilding the cornice, I want to blend the old with the new. I work like that with all my projects: I look at antiques and traditional methods, and reinterpret them for today.
“The beauty of Sprout is that it’s very intuitive and tactile. It feels natural. You use your hands, which I love. The screen is like your cupboard of bits and bobs. You can draw on it and then manipulate your work in real time with your fingers. It’s completely hands-on.”
Once her new kitchen has been created, Conran has already identified another way she can utilise the Sprout. “I write my recipes in a notepad as I’m cooking. From now on, once I’ve written a recipe I’ll scan it and send it to the office so they can type it up and put it on to a recipe card. I could even scan an actual dish and share it on social media.
“I mourned the loss of this way of working when everything was done on CAD. This feels very craft-based and it makes it easy to work on a project with other people, wherever you’re located.
“I like the connectivity of it – and how fun it is. The capabilities really ignite your imagination. It’s great to have in the office too: it’s such a useful tool, and with features including recipes and games galore it’s a fantastic asset for the entire family.
“The Sprout is not only an excellent communication tool but a fantastically visual one too. Using Sprout, you can gather lots of great ideas and put them all together in one space, which is essential when making sure they work beautifully together.”
The ultimate creative space
Create whatever you can imagine thanks to Sprout’s revolutionary, immersive, multi-touch technology and Sprout Workspace, the app for capturing, creating, and sharing your ideas. With the powerful Intel i7 Processor and 1TB of storage, Sprout has everything you need to express yourself and get your work done. Find out more about the Sprout by HP here.
