Well known for discovering and nurturing fresh talent, KE-ZU exclusive supplier Bernhardt Design is no stranger to mentoring gifted designers.  Their latest discovery hails from El Salvador, the Land of Volcanoes, where evidently a hot burgeoning design scene is erupting.

Assisting to bring the creative spirit from the South American country the Bernhardt Design family is assisting El Salvadorian creative collective The Carrot Concept to showcase their fabulously on-trend wares to a worldwide audience.  A worthy initiative bearing fruits of a wonderfully high calibre.

The Carrot Concept is a band of progressive and socially conscious architects, designers and entrepreneurs, a collective celebrating and promoting creative industries in El Salvador and helping to fuel their economic and cultural growth, quite simply at a grass-roots level by creating over 300 jobs in the country.  So eloquently put, they describe their project:

The Carrot Concept promotes new ideas related to design, decoration, art and environment.  The process drives creation and production practices that generate a final product, ready to reach people.  This integral proposal has a clear objective: to turn our profession into a disciplined and systematic method of developing projects.  Consequently, improving the quality, cost and time of production.

They tend to say there’s strength in numbers, and by joining forces and creating a welcoming community for its creative talents, the Concept gains strength as a whole, led solely with the knowledge that each project holds the benefit of a rigorous multi-faceted critique from its diverse members.

Led by Claudia and Harry Washington who have worked with Bernhardt Design for a number of years, designing three collections of furniture (Calibra lounge and sofas, Curio tables and the Ven series (all available at KE-ZU), The Carrot Concept takes a holistic approach to design, The Carrot Concept forms itself as a destination to nurture the evidently gushing creative juices from these South Americans.  Finding themselves with a retail and exhibition space, collaborative work spaces, programs which aim to engage the local community in design, and an organic café providing the fuel for the outstanding creative developments stemming from the resourceful and productive hub.

Recently utilising the immense NYC Design Week platform to launch their first furniture collection, The Carrot Concept displayed shapely pieces with a strong focus on durability, colour and form, many of which adopting a vernacular approach by employing traditional El Salvadorian methods of construction such as weaving and using materials such as leather and clay, merging them with contemporary flavour. Much of the collection is available for outdoor use, an evident acknowledgement of the climate in El Salvador, The Concept noting “the weather is perfect, the people laid back, it’s a way of life”.

With a debut collection this strong, it’s difficult to grasp that this is the first collection from The Carrot Concept!