Designing is a strange thing, sometimes a design will simply arrive in your mind fully formed (or very nearly) and all you need to do is sketch it out and make it. The Plane Chair was something like that. That’s not to say it was easy to make, it’s a complex piece and I’ve made small changes along the way to improve its strength and proportions, but the overall design is the same as the first sketch I drew. Other designs, however, take work.
The latest piece in the Temper collection is one such example. It began with less than an idea, with a notion, with that little sensation you get when you see something you like but you don’t yet know what it is. The combination of rough form-cast concrete and delicately finished timber gives a little buzz that’s difficult to describe, it’s evocative. It makes me think of architecture – of buildings and bridges. I want my furniture feel like that, like mini architecture. I’ve been designing with wood and concrete for some time now and I think the Beam Desk managed to achieve that sense of architecture. It is strong, clean and quiet, but how to design a chair to compliment it. That has been a challenge that has taken months to overcome – trial after error after trial – but the result has proven the work worthwhile.
Here are a few work-in-progress photos
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