The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
DESIGN FOR LIFE
Jon Christie devoted much of his adult life to dealing in furniture before he turned to creating his own pieces. He tells Nora McElhone he has now won a coveted award
Based on the banks of the River Tay, Jon Christie’s home enjoys stunning views to the Tay Bridge and beyond through huge picture windows. The perfect spot for contemplation or inspiration, the house is filled with beautiful pieces of mid-century furniture that nod to the designer’s former career, buying and selling vintage pieces. Having left school with no formal qualifications, Jon met his now wife while he was working as a hospital porter at Ninewells in Dundee. The cardiac nurse not only stole Jon’s heart but, through her Danish heritage, helped him to fall in love with Scandinavian design.
“I discovered names such as Poul Henningsen, Borge Mogensen and Hans Wegner then I came back and jumped on eBay to see if I could find those designs in the UK. There wasn’t much interest so I thought it was a relatively open market,” he explains.
As interest in design from that era peaked, Jon was in the right place to use his expertise to make the mid-century furniture trade his full-time job. When he reached the age of 40, however, he started to hanker after some further training. “I decided I had to have a go at designing something myself,” he recalls. “I sat next to a lecturer from Dundee College at one of my children’s school sports day and she told me that I would be qualified to start a 3D design course at Dundee College. I was amazed that something like that would be open to me but I got on to the course.” That led to a degree course at Duncan of Jordanstone. “I didn’t want to leave university! I really enjoyed the work and the community. We had access to 3D printers, a metal workshop...I miss them hugely.”
Jon went on to take an MSC in product design before finally conceding that it was time to leave university behind. He wasted no time in getting stuck into his own design projects, however, and just a few years on he is the designer behind the Your Move table, and the very proud recipient of a Design Guild Mark 2022, of which he says: “There is no higher furniture award in the UK.”
The beautiful wooden table was inspired by Nathaniel Cooke, the man behind the Howard
Staunton chess set which is widely viewed as a British design classic. Each of the tables, which have been created in the form of a giant chess piece, is handmade in Britain.
The tables are hand turned for more than nine hours in dark walnut and the lighter maple wood to echo the black and white chess pieces. “The design itself sits outside of fashion and trends,” explains Jon.
It took a long time to find craftsmen who were able to produce the table to the
designer’s exacting standards – to make the solid piece of furniture that Jon hopes will be cherished by its new owners and their families for many years to come.
The weighty table won’t wobble or topple and features a lip so that objects can’t roll off. “It has the stiff upper lip – it’s a very British side table,” he quips.
The Your Move table is just one of several designs that are either in production or heading in that direction, including stools and stunning chairs. Any one of the designs will sit happily alongside the most iconic of mid-century pieces.
“All my adult life I have had beautiful things around me to inspire me,” says the designer, “I don’t have much here that I don’t love
and I think that if you have something in your home that doesn’t make you happy it shouldn’t be there!”
Initially, Jon says his own design inspiration was very much influenced by mid-century modern but now, “I am influenced by everything: all the art and design I didn’t use to know and especially modern designers from Europe, Brazil and Japan. I get a lot of inspiration from things that are being designed now.
“I combine new technologies with traditional values to achieve great quality pieces,” he explains. “A chair should outlive you and become more and beautiful and even more valuable as it ages.”
He points to his two Eames lounge chairs as a case in point: “Look at the wood, they have been used for years and years and will sell for
more than I paid for them.”