This article was published 10 years I met husband and wife team Studio Haran on my travels during confessions of a design geek’s Cornish Design Season at the end of last year. Falmouth University graduates Joel and Helena design and make sustainable furniture and lighting from their farm courtyard workshop. They…
Category: cornish design season
Confessions of a Design Geek
Max Lamb slices up 187-year-old tree to make 130 functional objects.
This article was published 11 years Max Lamb, who grew up in Cornwall’s St Austell and is now based in London, felled a 187-year-old tree on his Grandfather’s Yorkshire farm and sliced it into 130 useable objects to save it from being used as firewood. The slices were displayed in…
Confessions of a Design Geek
Venn Creative wins Media Innovation Award for Cedar Juice branding
This article was published 11 years Cornish graphic design agency Venn Creative has won the coveted award for their brand identity for the Canadian cold pressed juice. Working closely with another Cornish company, content studio Stranger Collective, Venn Creative created the brand identity, which included logo, packaging and e-commerce website, around…
Confessions of a Design Geek
Kai Venus makes knives from reclaimed carpenters’ saws and chopping board off-cuts
This article was published 11 years Cornish designer Kai Venus makes his Upcycled Kitchen Knives by mounting blades from used carpenter’s saws onto leftover hardwood from his own range of chopping boards. “The high carbon spring steel used in saw blades provides a razor sharp edge, which it holds for…
Confessions of a Design Geek
interview :: stranger collective
This article was published 11 years I have long been inspired by the work of ‘creative content studio’ Stranger Collective, headed up by my very talented sister Clare Howdle and her business partner Helen Gilchrist. Having worked with them on a few projects, I have frequently been impressed by…
Confessions of a Design Geek
Helen Round launches ‘Coastal Collection’ inspired by Cornish luggers
This article was published 11 years Millbrook-based textiles designer Helen Round has launched a new collection of hand-printed linen home ware inspired by traditional Cornish sailing boats. The collection, which includes lampshades, cushions, tea towels, wash bags, aprons, napkins and placemats, depicts traditional Cornish ‘luggers’ – a traditional Cornish sailing…
Confessions of a Design Geek
St Ives garden shows Barbara Hepworth sculptures as the artist intended
This article was published 11 years Barbara Hepworth, Two Forms (Divided Circle) 1969 , Bronze, 237.5 x 233.7 x 54 cm, Tate, ©Bowness, Photo: ©Tate, Marcus Leith If you missed the Barbara Hepworth retrospective at the Tate Britain, maybe it’s time to head South West and check out her Sculpture…
Confessions of a Design Geek
interview :: jack mcguiness
This article was published 11 years What’s the most important thing to know about you? I’m all about trees, trees and all the interdependent ecosystem that surrounds them. I’m not sure if that’s the most important thing about me, but it’s certainly up there. Why does social, environmental and…
Confessions of a Design Geek
confessions of a design geek launches Design Book Club
This article was published 11 years I am a member of a book club, a fairly geeky literary fiction book club, and one of the things I love about it is that it makes me read more regularly – it also makes me read books I almost certainly wouldn’t have read…
Confessions of a Design Geek
Boex turns Porthleven bike shop into take-away café
This article was published 11 years Cornish interior design firm Boex worked with ‘Nauti But Ice’ to turn the bike shop next door to their Porthleven ice-cream parlour into ‘Go Nauti,’ a take-away café. The 60-square-metre reclaimed timber-clad space features breakfast bars, shared tables and both high and low seating…
Confessions of a Design Geek
Tom Raffield’s Scots Light is made from 80 steam-bent ‘leaves’
This article was published 11 years Cornwall-based design Tom Raffield has launched a new wooden lampshade hand made from approximately 80 individually cut and steam-bent leaves of ash. Inspired by a pinecone, the Scots Light is built around a laser-cut birch wood frame, to which the ash leaves are attached….
Confessions of a Design Geek
interview :: amy isles freeman
This article was published 11 years Cornish artist and designer Amy Isles Freeman has taken a male-dominated part of the design industry and turned it on his head with her hand-painted hand-turned wooden bowls that celebrate femininity. We talked art school, feminism, and kindly neighbours… How did you get into…
Confessions of a Design Geek
Carl Austin’s furniture is made using traditional boat-building skills
This article was published 11 years Having moved to Falmouth from Leicester 11 years ago to pursue a lifelong dream of working with wooden boats, three years ago Carl Austin changed careers again, this time putting his boat-building skills to good use in designing and making outdoor furniture. His oak…
Confessions of a Design Geek
Anna Hart Design creates first London outpost for Cornish coffee company
This article was published 11 years Penryn-based Anna Hart Design has created the interior for Origin Coffee‘s flagship store – a combined training space for the baristas that use their coffee all over the capital and further afield, and coffee shop for locals. The 60-square-metre coffee shop on Charlotte Street,…
Confessions of a Design Geek
interview :: toro
This article was published 11 years I discovered Toro last time I was in Falmouth. On the surface, it is just a plant shop, but it is a very beautiful plant shop – it somehow feels like my favourite corners of Instagram made real, so I knew I had to…