British designers keeping it in the family
Some of today’s hippest British design studios are fuelled by relatives’ inspiration and collaboration, reports Talib Choudhry
Most us prefer to keep our professional and private lives separate, with even the thought of working alongside family members raising our blood pressure and cortisol levels. But a raft of young design studios are resurrecting the family firm with siblings, spouses and extended family members coming together to produce products which stylishly demonstrate that mixing business and pleasure can be beneficial.
Galvin Brothers
Mark Galvin, a Royal College of Art graduate, and his brother Andrew, a carpenter, design and make contemporary handcrafted furniture from their workshops in Beverley, East Yorkshire. Launched in 2012, the studio’s designs use traditional joinery Structure and Globe desk lamp, £467, atelierareti.com techniques to make “functional objects with a twist” from English oak and American walnut.
The brothers take inspiration for their simple-yet-elegant designs from great British furniture brands such as Ercol, and also their father, who was a joiner and cabinet-maker for 61 years.
“It’s surprising how much of what our dad did as a tradesman has sunk in,” says Mark Galvin. “We always had a workshop in our garden when we were growing up and developed an affinity with wood, without even knowing it. Our dad sadly passed away last year – he was amazingly talented and a real grafter, so we miss him a lot in the business. It is massively important for us to keep that tradition going.”
Galvin Brothers has truly become a family business with the duo’s cousin joining Andrew in the workshop and their mum running their shop.
“Working together is hard sometimes, but we make a
good team,” adds Mark. galvinbrothers. co.uk Sunny and Emma Todd
RCA-trained textile designer Sunny Todd works from a studio in Herefordshire alongside his wife Emma to produce lively graphic patterns for interiors and fashion. Every shape is drawn and cut by hand and computers are not used at any stage of the design process – a working method that makes the prints charmingly irregular and full of movement. The feeling of dynamism is added to by the zingy colour combinations (think hot pink with fire engine red) and their signature offset white “shadow”, which makes the shapes look three-dimensional.
“Once we have an idea we will cut out the shapes from black paper and lay them out over white paper on the table in our studio,” says Sunny, who got his big break when Topman commissioned him to design wallpaper and fabrics for their stores. “Over the following days, we will move them around and Right: the Toddstool by Sunny Todd even chop into them to explore composition and scale until we are completely happy with the pattern.”
The selection of colours is similarly well considered: Emma mixes the pigment inks by eye and creates a range of swatches to explore how the tones work together. They then experiment with the colour combinations for each pattern before deciding how they fit together as a collection.
“We can be very productive in a short period of time when we work together because we develop concepts faster,” says Emma. “Having someone who you trust and know really well to bounce ideas off is brilliant.”
The studio was established in late 2013 and has racked up an impressive number of stockists, including Liberty, Heal’s and Paris department store Le Bon Marché. Last year, the duo designed rugs for Floor Story and a range of textiles and upholstered furniture for Flock, including a modern take on the footstool, aptly named the Toddstool (£280, flock.org. uk). They also unveiled their first fabric book during the London Design Festival in September, featuring 10 of their favourite patterns reworked in four eye-catching colourways.
Both work four days a week in education – Emma teaches maths at a local school, Sunny design at Herefordshire College of Art – and have two young children, which leaves Fridays and coffee-fuelled evenings to work on the designs. Weekends have strictly been designated as family time. “We basically run the business when the children are asleep, putting in a 9pm-to-1am shift in the studio on weeknights,” says Emma. “Just when we’re completely exhausted, something really amazing happens – a great collaboration opportunity comes along or another stockist. That’s what keeps us going.” sunnytoddprints.co.uk
Atelier Areti
“We grew up among antique carved trunks from Afghanistan, African sculptures and Impressionist paintings,” says Gwendolyn Kerschbaumer of her childhood home in Innsbruck, Austria. “Our mother was not trained in art or design, but clearly had an eye for beauty and it is a great pity that she didn’t pursue it professionally.”
Thanks to Frau Kerschbaumer’s enthusiasm, both of her daughters did; Gwendolyn studied architecture at Harvard, and her younger sister Guillane studied history of art at the Sorbonne in Paris and, later, product design at Central St Martins. The sisters have gained international acclaim for their sculptural lighting, designed under the moniker of Atelier Areti (Greek for excellence). Ranging from simple drop pendants to large statement lights that are akin to art installations, their work has been a hit with high-end decorators.
This is undoubtedly down to the fact that the sisters have an innate understanding of how their products will be used, gained through practical experience: Guillane worked for an interior designer in London after graduating and Gwendolyn gained experience in an architectural practice in New York and several in Europe.
The sisters also found time to pool their skills to bring their lighting designs to life in 2008. Guillane now works solely on Atelier Areti from her London base and Gwyndolyn lives in France, working part time as a researcher at the Federal Technical University of Lausanne. Both regularly visit the craftsmen who produce their lights in Germany and Sweden. “Our aspiration is to make designs that are useful and beautiful in the classical sense and thus will remain appealing over time,” explains Gwendolyn. “Ideally a piece of furniture or a light should live for up to 100 years. Certain qualities will always be appealing because they speak to essential needs and desires that we all share.” atelierareti.com