Dowel Jones

Founded by Adam Lynch and Dale Hardiman, Dowel Jones has over the past six years become a highly collaborative furniture and lighting company underpinned by a playful, progressive character.

This Melbourne studio has become a highly collaborative furniture and lighting brand underpinned by a playful, progressive character.

Creating a strong design duo can be as hard as it is powerful, and doing that long-distance takes the challenge to the next level. But design duo Dale Hardiman and Adam Lynch, co-founders of Dowel Jones, make it look effortless with their combined passion for simple shapes, made to perform. Highly collaborative, keenly attuned to the local, and more transparent than ever before, Dowel Jones is a progressive furniture and lighting studio, unafraid to explore new methods to make progress within the industry, as seen through the engaging work they do.

Having met at university, this driven duo founded their furniture company when they were only 20 and 22 years old. Their playful approach is, in their own words, “anything but ordinary,” bringing a strong sense of community to their work through collaboration and local events. The joy of their designs is realized with a detailed knowledge of manufacturing, allowing them to grow their small furniture studio – that started out furnishing for local cafes – into an international design brand.

The new social media design movement has been key to their success, taking off at the beginning of what Hardiman refers to as “the quick rise of social media and its prevalence in design.”

“Previously a business like Dowel Jones may have not had the broad reach it does today with the small investment in marketing,” says Hardiman. In the first few

“We think of creativity as an incredibly large endeavour. We’re never thinking solely about how we design a chair and present the piece, but how we produce objects that have a broader impact,” says Hardiman.”

years, they were able to create a visible brand internationally, showing at Milan’s Salone del Mobile and delivering pieces to homes and commercial businesses all over the world.

Keeping creative as a business grows can be difficult, particularly as the spreadsheets and analytics start to take up more time than designing. To combat this, the aim of Dowel Jones has been to look outside themselves, creating as many locally produced products as possible, and to continue supporting its expanding network of local manufacturers and suppliers across Australia and beyond. Hardiman and Lynch have learned firsthand that a design decision made some years ago can have a huge impact on a local business. For instance, tens of thousands of their Half Hurdle chairs have been manufactured over the past five years, giving significant business to the local fabricators who make the chair.

Based in two separate cities, Melbourne and Geelong, the co-founders learned to work collaboratively at a distance many years ago. By identifying their individual strengths and weaknesses early on, they were able to hire staff who could fill their overlapping weaknesses. Their different strengths were made apparent very early on. Lynch’s great knowledge of manufacturing and Hardiman’s strength in the digital side of the business proved a great combo that has kept them open to embracing new skill sets within their work.

“We think of creativity as an incredibly large endeavour. We’re never thinking solely about how we design a chair and present the piece, but how we produce objects that have a broader impact,” says Hardiman.

For Dowel Jones, collaboration is also key to their business, and Hardiman and Lynch are always on the search for new and exciting relationships with other designers and makers. “We can’t imagine

Words — Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead Photography — Cricket Studio Photography: Lillie Thompson. Right — Adam Lynch and Dale Hardiman of Dowel Jones.

Above — Mr. Dowel Jones (2013) is a simple flat-pack lamp formed of timber pieces that slot into rubber components, with no need for fixings.

Above — Simon Says (2016) is a solid timber stool that stacks four high. It comes in American ash, American white oak or Tasmanian oak.

Above — In 2017, Dowel Jones launched a new collection of mixed-material stools and chairs with the Michigan-based Grand Rapids Chair Company.

Above — Part of Dowel Jones’ first solid-timber collection, the Tim Ber stool and bench (2016) are made in Geelong, Victoria.

Above — An exploration of silhouettes and intersecting lines, the King Dome light (2015) is formed from spun metal and rod.

Above — Scrawled with notes from visitors to the 2019 Milan Furniture Fair, the Never Grow Up bench now lives at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Above — With its almost anthropomorphized legs and feet, the Sir Burly stool (2017) is typical of Dowel Jones’ playful approach.

Above — The Blossom pendant light and coffee table (2019) are based on a soft, arched shape repeated across six leaves to create a conical form.

Above — A variation on the original Thimble design, 1/5 Thimble (2017) is a visually light, high stool. Photography: Tom Hancocks