Welcome to the first instalment of the new Wallpaper* video series, The Stuff That Surrounds. Watch as we're invited into the intriguing and idiosyncratic homes of creatives and makers, catching a glimpse of their interior lives via the objects they surround themselves with, all of which tell a story.
In this episode, Wallpaper* visits creative director and graphic designer Veronica Ditting. Argentine-born, German-raised and London-based, Ditting collaborates with an international roster of fashion houses, artists and cultural institutions, from Hermès, The Row and Louis Vuitton to Pirelli, Somerset House and Het Nieuwe Instituut. She designs campaigns, branding, magazines and exhibitions with a distinctly editorial quality. Ditting wouldn’t necessarily call her work ‘artistic’, she says; it’s more about ‘communication and how something sits on a page’.
The creative director at home
The creative director spent 12 years at The Gentlewoman magazine, overseeing its vision from its 2010 launch through 24 issues. From 2020-2021 she served as guest artistic director of Monde d’Hermès magazine. Her work has received numerous accolades, including from the Design Museum’s Design of the Year, D&AD and the Dutch Design Awards, while in 2024, the Kyoto exhibition ‘Folio Folio Folio: Print by Veronica Ditting’ looked back on her career so far.
Ditting lives on the Barbican Estate, the City of London’s famous (sometimes infamous) brutalist housing development; for her, living here is like ‘stepping into an architectural drawing’. Her flat is a modernist treasure trove. ‘Physicality, tactility and object-like quality’ are a big part of the designer’s work, and you can feel this in the space. Different shapes and textures abound; a bright green Pirelli rubber floor, for instance, is laid throughout – the perfect contrast to the Barbican’s greyscale.
Ditting rarely thinks about her home holistically. Instead, she collects individual objects that, somehow, work together. ‘I was very lucky that there were a lot of shelf systems. I do have a lot of things,’ she confesses. Among her favourite pieces is an odd, self-published book that she found in Milan. A selection of wobbly Juliette Teste vases also speak to her love of ‘imperfection’, as does a blanket embroidered by her grandmother.
Some of Ditting's collected vintage magazines
In one corner is a collection of mis-matched silverware mixed with postcards from a show that Ditting did in Japan, as well as a bunch of Murano glass grapes that snap and crackle satisfyingly when you pick them up. ‘This is something that a lot of people, if they come to my place, gravitate towards,’ she says.
Ditting collects vintage publications, specifically the old art magazine Derriere le Miroir, and loves comparing ‘how they’re printed, how they’re edited, how they’re bound’. She also has stacks of iconic orange Hermès boxes (‘Maybe it’s a bit cliché to have, but they do inspire me’), from which she produces an invitation that she created for the launch of Hermès Beauty in 2020.
Ditting’s studio, on the other side of the Barbican, is a continuation of her home, with shelves bursting with books and boxes. Here, graphic design materials from her Kyoto show, with DDD Gallery, are displayed in a three-dimensional way, mounted on stands to give them height and shape, alongside a miniature magazine she created for the ten-year anniversary of Gentlewoman.
We hope you enjoy getting lost in Veronica Ditting’s rich, vivid and multifarious ephemera as much as we did.
Film credits: Featuring: Veronica Ditting. Director of Photography: Peter Butterworth. Camera assistant: Curtis Blair. Sound design and mix: Indústries Sòniques. Interviewer: Dal Chodha. Head of Video: Sebastian Jordahn
-
Fluid workspaces: is the era of prescriptive office design over?We discuss evolving workspaces and track the shape-shifting interiors of the 21st century. If options are what we’re after in office design, it looks like we’ve got them
-
This collection of slow furniture is a powerful ode to timeA serene exhibition of David Dolcini's 'Time-made' collection has fast-tracked its place into our hearts and homes
-
Is the Pragma P1 the most sustainable watch yet?Geneva-based brand Pragma combines industrial design with real sustainable credentials
-
‘It feels almost alive’: This rare Judy Kensley McKie ‘Leopard Couch’ could be yoursDesigner Judy Kensley McKie’s 1983 ‘Leopard Couch’ will be auctioned at Phillips; one of her first fully realised sculptural furniture designs, it’s a zoomorphic delight
-
First look: Step inside a Tatjana von Stein-designed show apartment at 60 CurzonThe Mayfair development has launched its second show apartment, imagined by interior designer du jour Tatjana von Stein. Wallpaper* gets a first look at the Art Deco-inspired space
-
Find interior design inspiration at Eba’s new Marylebone showroomEba, a specialist in kitchen and living room design, brings its elevated interiors to London’s Marylebone
-
‘London: Lost Interiors’ gathers unseen imagery of some of the capital’s most spectacular homesThis new monograph is a fascinating foray into the interior life of London, charting changing tastes, emerging styles and the shifting social history of grand houses in the heart of a fast-changing city
-
Designer James Shaw’s latest creation is a self-built home in east LondonJames Shaw's east London home is Filled with vintage finds and his trademark extruded plastic furniture, a compact self-built marvel
-
Art’otel Battersea opens with immersive interiors by Jaime HayonAn exclusive tour of Art’otel Battersea, the first UK opening from the group, located opposite the Battersea Power Station and featuring immersive interiors by Jaime Hayon
-
Ælfred: the new east London destination for vintage Scandinavian designÆlfred opens in Hackney Wick, offering democratically priced Scandinavian furniture, lighting, ceramics and glassware
-
Hyperlocal design: these Atelier100 products are made within 100km of LondonAtelier100 launches its retail space and debut locally focused design collection in London’s Hammersmith
