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June 7, 2015

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Designer embraces technology and nature

WHO is Brodie Neill?

Brodie Neill is a furniture designer from Tasmania, Australia. Neill’s life in the design world started when he began building furniture as a teenager. He later went on to study furniture design at University of Tasmania and then the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design.

After completing his studies, Neill worked for several high-profile brands in New York before setting up his eponymous studio in London. The natural beauty of his home country continues to inspire his works, which are now realized with the aid of advanced digital and industrial techniques.

The studio’s projects include decorative items, lighting, furniture and installations. It has worked with a wide range of clients, including international brands such as Kundalini, Riva 1920, Alexander McQueen and Swarovksi Crystal Palace.

In 2013, Brodie Neill founded his own furniture and lighting brand, Made in Ratio.

 

Tell us about some of your designs; which are you most proud of?

The E-turn was my breakthrough piece at the 2007 Salone del Mobile in Milan — it was recognized for being bold and critically acclaimed for its form, concept and creation — it launched me onto the international stage very quickly alongside the best in the world at only age 26.

The Remix marked my arrival as a designer of limited edition designs in 2008. It was not only visually striking with its bold display of color but also technically challenging, simultaneously tackling issues of material usage, waste, process and luxury. The Remix is still much sought-after by collectors across the globe.

The Cowrie Collection of chair and rocker for Made in Ratio takes traditional bent-plywood manufacturing and brings it fully into the 21st century through the aid of 3D digital processes. Built on the foundations laid by the pioneering designers of the 1940s and 1950s, the Cowrie pieces push the process further using the latest developments in the technology. The forms are new, expressive and contemporary but maintain the warmth of bent laminated plywood.

The Clover Light for Kundalini is one of our more recognized pieces. It is elegantly simple and seemingly floats in the air, emitting light from its core, which softly resonates out through its upturned petals.

 

Are you currently involved with any projects?

Having just launched the Alpha chair at Salone del Mobile in Milan last month, we are now focused on taking the prototype into production.

We are working on the Portal in Hobart, Australia, which is an 8-meter tall sculptural meeting-point-bench-seat in cast bronze and will act as a gateway into the city.

We are also developing a new table with Riva 1920 based on the concept of minimal surfaces and the strength of a curve. Other projects include private commissions, lighting designs, domestic objects and of course furniture pieces, so the studio is very busy!

 

Describe you design style.

Inspired by nature, reflected through material. The forms of all my pieces are sculpted by digital design and industrial processes yet reflect the purity of the natural world. I firmly believe that my products capture the balance between form and function, and material and design.

 

What will be the next design trend?

Hopefully the next design trend will be a fascination with “making” so we don’t lose the skills of craftsmanship and manufacturing forever. Whilst I am a firm supporter of 3D printing and digital processes, I believe we should celebrate the handmade.

The quality that can only be achieved through working a material, often the result of many generations of knowledge passed down from one to the next, is irreplaceable.

In order to ensure many of these processes remain relevant I choose to merge them with state-of-the-art processes to help breathe new life into more forgotten ways of making things.




 

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