Designer Alison in finals of premier business awards

Windermere’s Alison Tordoff who runs Fidget Design has reached the finals of the Enterprise Vision Awards, the North West’s premier women’s business awards.

Alison was nominated in the Creative Category, and will now be interviewed by a panel of judges prior to the winners being announced at a red carpet dinner in Blackpool in September. She was chosen as a finalist from hundreds of entries across the region.

Alison’s company is well known locally, nationally and internationally and she has won awards for her designs including Windermere’s Cedar Manor Hotel, the best small hotel in Cumbria 2014 and recently highly commended in the Visit England excellence awards. She writes a monthly column for Lancashire Life magazine, and she was Cumbria Businesswoman of the Year in 2003.

Alison recently launched a new range of home décor products under the Love District label, all of them paying tribute to the history, landscape and heritage of the Lake District. It includes a distinctive “Lakeland books” wallpaper which is a feature of the new welcome lounge at the Cedar Manor.

Married with two children, Alison says that juggling deadlines, contractors and family is “just part of life”.

The EVA awards, now in their fifth year, aim to help women celebrate their achievements and contemplate future business development. Finalists are linked to the EVA website and winners are featured prominently, allowing extensive promotional opportunities.

Alison said: “This is a really exciting opportunity and I am thrilled to have reached the finals. There are many inspirational women in business and it is great to see their achievements rewarded.”

 One of Alison’s designs, the Coach House suite bathroom at the Cedar Manor Hotel

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Love-ly gift for TV presenters from award winning designer

 

North West Tonight presenters Annabel Tiffin and Roger Johnson were presented with rather special mugs on World Book Day.

The china mugs, created by award-winning designer Alison Tordoff for her new Love District range, featured two favourite books chosen by the news anchor team.

Annabel had picked a family favourite from when her children were younger,  If you give a pig a pancake, while Roger had chosen The case of the missing masterpiece. Both titles were incorporated into a wraparound design of bookends featuring Alison’s fantasy news and weather related books.

They were handed over in the North West Tonight studio at the BBC Media City HQ. “I thought it would be a fun thing to do on World Book Day,” said Alison, whose design company is Fidget Design. “I wanted to stress the importance of reading, particularly for young people. They need to be encouraged to read books.”

A range of china mugs featuring Lake District spoof titles was also launched on World Book Day. The same titles can be found on a wallpaper design in the Love District range, and on tea towels and aprons. The wallpaper was made originally as a prototype for Windermere’s Cedar Manor Hotel, which has won awards for design excellence.

The Love District is a new label from Fidget Design which celebrates the history, culture and landscape of the Cumbrian fells and lakes.

The  range also includes hand-made cushions decorated with outlines of the Lakeland fells, including Catbells, Haystacks, and the mountains at the head of Wastwater, voted Britain’s favourite landscape view. “The ideas for this new label were inspired by Cumbria and the Lakes,” said Alison, who has won awards for her hotel designs.

“I am passionate about the Lake District and its rich culture of art, history and literature, as well as the landscape.”

Based in Windermere, Fidget Design has won national and international awards including best hotel interior in the International Hotel Awards. Items from the Love District range can be bought from the website, www.thelovedistrict.com. The range will eventually include design-led gifts and home accessories including fine china mugs.

A percentage of the initial sales of the new range will go to the charity Lupus UK, which is researching causes and possible cures of the complex auto-immune disease.

 

 

The Love District: the new way to love the Lakes

Valentine’s weekend sees the launch of a new designer range for home decor for those who love the Lake District.

The Love District is a new label from award-winning Fidget Design in Windermere which celebrates the history, culture and landscape of the Cumbrian fells and lakes.

It includes a distinctive “Lakeland bookends” wallpaper, with matching aprons and tea towels, along with cushions and other home décor fabrics.

The designs were created by Fidget’s Alison Tordoff who came up with all the quirky and tongue-in-cheek Lakes-related book titles and authors. The wallpaper was made originally as a prototype for Windermere’s Cedar Manor Hotel, which has won awards for design excellence.

The book titles depicted include Windermere Char Char, Fifty Shades of Grey Wool, The Secret Life of a Dry Stone Waller, Skinny Dipping for Beginners by Dawn Plunger,  and Wordsworth and the Railways by Bill Halt. Cushions are decorated with outlines of the Lakeland fells.

“The ideas for this new label were inspired by Cumbria and the Lakes,” said Alison, who has won international awards for her hotel designs, and is a former Cumbrian Businesswoman of the Year.

“I am passionate about the Lake District and its rich culture of art, history and literature, as well as the landscape.”

Items from the Love District range can be bought from the website, http://www.thelovedistrict.com. The range will eventually include design-led gifts and home accessories including fine china mugs.