Design PROFILE
The couple behind the award-winning design studio on pared-back style and their love of craftsmanship
The awardwinning duo behind pinch reveal their understated style and love of craftsmanship
with their renowned eye for simple and beautifully crafted furniture, it’s fitting that Russell Pinch and Oona Bannon, the creative forces behind Pinch, launched their business 15 years ago from around their kitchen table.
Today, Pinch is celebrated for its pared-back pieces – from tables and chairs to sideboards and lighting – that ooze understated elegance and showcase the pair’s passion for craft. The studio now has stockists from Sydney to San Francisco, an exclusive collaboration with Heal’s and its own store, opened two years ago, near London’s smart Pimlico Road design destination. Here, Russell and Oona discuss their inspirations and creating furniture that will stand the test of time...
What drew you to working in design?
R: I worked as Sir Terence Conran’s design assistant after graduating from Ravensbourne College of Design. It was a baptism of fire, learning to transform sketches into final pieces. O: I’d worked in TV production before joining The Nest, a brand design agency Russell co-founded in 1999, before we decided to launch on our own.
How did Pinch come about?
R: I wanted to return to designing furniture, so we sat down and mapped out how we could balance work and home life so both felt fulfilled, happy and meaningful. We wanted to be our own boss and work with people whose skills we respected. O: After launching, our home became a workshop, studio and showroom. We were designing for ourselves according to how we wanted to live.
Explain the Pinch ethos…
O: Each piece must meet three criteria: to be a simple but strong, definable shape; have a beautiful materiality; and be expertly made. We want each piece to feel poised and elegant but comfortable and effortless to use.
What is your design process?
R: I design everything with my hands first, sculpting and fashioning pieces out of balsa wood into miniature models, before we work with the makers on refining it back just enough to allow for our handwriting but without it feeling too sleek. O: With no money when we first started to mass produce, each piece was made to order by great craftspeople. It formed the way we still work today.
What are your greatest inspirations?
R: The pared-back, architectural rigour in our designs echoes the clean, simple lines of American Shaker and Scandi modernism, a Britishness in proportion and quiet timelessness, a warmth and humanity inspired by Arts and Crafts and a colour palette inspired by the changing seasons.
Why is handcraftsmanship so important to you?
O: It gives each piece a sense of the designer’s eye and the maker’s hand – we love working with people who are nuts about what they do and invest that emotional connection into what they make. R: It’s how we’ve ended up working with the tree surgeon who makes our Twig side tables and the milliner who makes our Anders pendant light (its shape is inspired by a 1950s Lanvin dress).
Do you have a favourite material?
O: Wood is core – favourites include oak, walnut, Douglas fir and cherry. We also love beautifully textured velvet, soft leather and ceramics, like our Flare bone-china collection for 1882 Ltd. R: Our Nim coffee table, first sculpted in clay, is cast from Jesmonite; recently we also produced it coated in bronze.
What makes a great piece of furniture?
O: Something made to last – something you, and hopefully your children, will have all your lives –
but even though it’s a classic piece, it can be finished in something fun like a raspberry gloss.
What makes a Pinch piece special?
O: We’ve coined our collection ‘concrete to country’ because each piece changes personality depending on its use. For example, one of our wooden cabinets might help a Bauhaus-style apartment feel warmer, or the fine lines of our Avery table and chairs work as easily in a modern space as a Tudor cottage.
Do you have a favourite colour palette?
O: We’re inspired by compound colours of nature, like ochres, burnt oranges and tobacco browns. We mixed ‘Puddleduck’, one of our painted finishes, to be neither a purple, brown or grey. It’s all three.
How has the collection evolved?
R: We’re currently working on a new house in Devon, where I’ve been experimenting with furniture as architecture – for example, the back of a Joyce cabinet has become the balustrade separating the staircase and kitchen.
O: We only add pieces we’ve tried, tested and love.
What’s new?
R: New pieces include the Elan armoire and Moreau bed. We’re also collaborating on a scented candle with Perfumer H’s Lyn Harris, and another bed, a table lamp, side tables, a round dining table, a new stool and an upholstered bench for the end of a bed are all in the pipeline.