Kate Brewer, founder of Look Like Love, profiles a different new designer every week. With the tagline “support, nurture, promote” echoing confessions of a design geek’s own “discover, champion and inspire” and a similar commitment to advocating for emerging talent, the parallels between Look Like Love and confessions of a design geek are clear. Watch out for her features every Thursday afternoon. This week’s designer? The ethically-minded Studio Haran.
For the last three years Look Like Love has invited undiscovered designers to apply to our New Talent Search. The idea took shape in January 2014 at a time when I discovered that a lot of designers were coming out of hibernation after the winter with a strong body of post-graduation work from the previous Summer. Scouting degree shows and talking to new graduates takes up most of my summer months, so the beginning of the year seemed like the perfect time to bring some more fresh faces to the fore. We ran the New Talent Search again this Spring, and the applicants were the strongest yet, making the process of creating a shortlist both exciting and daunting in equal measures.
One of the designers to make the cut, coming soon to Look Like Love, is husband and wife team Joel and Helena Haran. Under the name Studio Haran, they design and craft bespoke furniture, lighting and homewares from their studio in Cornwall, and were recently featured as part of confessions of a design geek’s Cornish Design Season.
A common thread among many new designers is their need to create pieces that are sustainable, and Studio Haran is no exception. Using locally sourced Cornish timbers for the majority of their designs, there is an obvious respect for the materials they use – and that thought process doesn’t end once a design is complete. Each element has been constructed so that it can also be easily de-constructed when it comes to the end of its life, so every component can be recycled.
Studio Haran’s range of furniture follows a simple aesthetic, letting the crafted materials speak for themselves – something that is at the heart of their ethos. Joel and Helena aren’t alone in preferring this approach, as evidenced by the growing number of clients they are working with. A combination of commissions and made-to-order pieces are available from their studio just outside of the county’s capital Truro. Unlike designers who are squeezed in on all sides in a city location, their farm setting gives them the flexibility to expand their workshop when larger projects come in.
As well as tackling furniture, they have also expanded their portfolio with a range of lighting and homeware products, predominately for the kitchen and entertaining. These smaller offerings are a clever addition to the more bespoke and commission-based pieces, allowing them to balance the business on a more commercial level, as well as reducing wastage from the larger items by using the off-cuts in smaller pieces.
Joel and Helena’s thoughtful approach to design and craft is lovely to see. With many new designers flocking to the capital or one of the many bustling cities in the UK to work, they have been quietly building their sustainable and ethical business with great success, where the partnership with countryside is as strong as their own.
A selection of pieces by Studio Haran will be available soon from Look Like Love.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- look like love :: michael carroll
- look like love :: eva radulova
- look like love :: kate colin
- look like love :: rowenna mason
