LLUSTRE Design Events Are Launching Soon
Inspiration from the best in European and global design for your home
A daily mix of exclusive sales events from the most exciting designers
Access to limited edition pieces and unmissable offers at up to 70% off retail
A designer is a planner
with an aesthetic sense Bruno Munari
If you can laugh together
you can work together Robert Orben
A pleasure doing business
What is Llustre?
Here at LLUSTRE we give our members the opportunity to discover the most exciting designs for the home via our online design events. Each event will feature a mix of carefully curated products, including limited edition pieces, LLUSTRE exclusives and beautifully crafted designs at members-only prices. We will help our members to discover their new favourite things and design a home that is as unique as they are.
LLUSTRE seeks to support the world's most talented designers. We will spread the word about great designers, large and small, and bring brilliant, well made, enduring design into our members’ homes...
“We believe a few original objects can make a home extraordinary. ”
LLUSTRE.com
A HOME YOU LOVE TO LIVE IN
How We Began
LLUSTRE was born of a combination of Tracy’s passion for design, Vivienne’s love of great web products and their shared frustration with the e-commerce offerings available for discovering and buying great, uniquely designed homeware and furniture. Nothing provided the level of curation or quality of editorial content they were looking for and - in a day and age where almost everything is easier to do online - the design vertical remained fragmented and hard to navigate.
Friends from Oxford University, where Vivienne studied psychology and Tracy mathematics, they have brought together their experience in strategy, venture capital, web and gaming products. They searched far and wide to find Martin Ritchie, technology genius at large, to make the magic come alive and together they crafted a team of expert curators and creative thinkers to build the best ecommerce has to offer.
In December 2011 they took investment from a group of entrepreneurs and experienced angel investors including Oleg Tscheltzoff, Hussein Kanji, Rob Kniaz, Tom Hulme, Kirill Makharinsky, John Earner and Sir Peter Bazalgette.
IT'S ALL IN THE NAME...
After an exhausting day of brainstorming, a large bottle of red and a long stint with a dictionary we landed on a word that brings shine to a plain room and is lovely to look at: LLUSTRE - a stylised play on LUSTRE.
- a gentle sheen or soft glow; glory or distinction “a beauiful new task lamp to add LLUSTRE to the LLUSTRE.COM office; that lovely gift will be sure to add LLUSTRE to her reputation”
- thin coating containing unoxidized metal which gives an iridescent glaze to ceramics: to create lustreware (sometimes we can all be magpies)
- a fabric or yarn with a sheen or gloss: to create lustre yarn (one can never have too many throws)
- a prismatic glass pendant on a chandelier or other ornament
Meet the team
Tracy Dorée, CEO/Co-Founder
Ex-venture capitalist with MMC Ventures, ex-investment banker with NM Rothschild. Always a mathematics lover (honed at Balliol, Oxford) and yogi in training (find her at Frame, Shoreditch).
Vivienne Bearman, CPO/Co-Founder
Ex-game producer and product lead at Playfish and ex-strat consultant with OC&C.; Obsessive about gorgeous web products (honed at onefinestay), psychology (learnt a bit from St Johns, Oxford and a lot more from Sims Social, Playfish) and hosting in her brand new kitchen.
Martin Ritchie, CTO
Technologist, taking the best in scalable robust technology from social gaming, finance and open-source development and applying it to LLUSTRE.com. At Playfish he was one of three server leads on Sims Social, peaking at over 10 million daily users. At JPMorgan and The Apache Software Foundation he developed a cutting edge open source messaging standard (AMQP) and product (Apache Qpid).
Megan Charnley, Communications Manager
Studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and the RCA and worked for practices in London and Barcelona before joining LLUSTRE to take charge of all things LLUSTRE says (outside the office). Keen cyclist (Land’s End to John O’ Groats this summer) and amateur mechanic (never ending project to get a 1977 Triumph Spitfire back on the road!).
Jenny Voyce, Head Buyer
Has had a love affair with design since her degree in the History of Design and the Visual Arts. Always worked in Buying & Merchandising (Hobbs, Debenhams, Liberty, Southbank Centre). Had a flirt with Trend Forecasting before returning back to Buying. A lazy blogger and twitter addict.
Rita Paiva, Developer
Previously a Java software developer at Novabase Solutions SA on web based management systems. Moved from Portugal to London in February to take the next step in her career. Is loving London and even more working with all the friendly people from LLUSTRE.com.
Phoebe Luckhurst, Communications Exec
Fresh out of university where she read English (St Catharine's College, Cambridge) and helped to set up the university's first online newspaper. Spends too much time plugged into laptops and social media, including generating lots of content for our lovely Journal and trying to make friends on Twitter (@LLUSTREdesign).
Fresh faced, Jersey born, front-ender with a passion for great UX; spent the last year and a half working for Acrede Payroll developing an enterprise HR & payroll application. Recently moved back to London for an exciting new start with LLUSTRE.com. Has an unhealthy obsession with Thai Green curry.
A Yorkshire lass who loves to go bouldering! First job was at a photography studio in Leeds, then moved on to work at an online retailer's web HQ, specialising in despatch and brand acquisition. Moved down to 'The Big Smoke' in 2011 working as a digital creative consultant for ad agencies, before joining the LLUSTRE team on their great adventure.
Katie Marcus, Design Director
Having spent 5 years at top London agencies including Poke London, now LLUSTRE's resident design director and a freelance digital designer with a passion for beautifully functional sites. Self-confessed blogging and social media addict with interests in food, photography and travel. Slowly doing up her first home.
Our Ethos
We are your trusted guide to discovering good design...
...and a platform for the most talented designers to showcase their designs.
Life’s nothing without a good story, and there’s a good story behind every great piece of design
Great design lasts a lifetime - not just until you move house again
You just can’t beat an original authentic design - imitators need not apply
We will share design that genuinely inspires us every day - but we’ll never tell you what to like
We’ll showcase a diverse mix of products from design talent around the world, especially emerging new designers
We will provide a great service, with quality, honesty and communication at its core
Loyalty should be rewarded - and we hope you’ll love to share us with your friends
Shopping online should be effortless and troublefree
Corporate Info
LLUSTRE is the trading name of LLUSTRE Design Ltd, UK company number 07809452
Registered address:
5th Floor
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (Europe) LLP
107 Cheapside
EC2V 6DN
Trading address:
2nd Floor
29 - 31 Saffron Hill
London
EC1N 8SW
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