Marc Richard
An ambitious and driven entrepreneur, he swapped a job in the City for one in the Furniture industy, and can be found currently exhibiting at 100% Design.
Website - Roger Lewis
If they were to make a toy action figure of you, what would your accessory be?
What a great question! I love the idea of a Buzz Lightyear style voice but having no other functionality at all. “To infinity and beyond!” All mouth and no trousers. Maybe one rotating arm that can point at the stars.
To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life within the design world has taken?
After leaving a job in Finance I knew absolutely nothing about the design world but for right or wrong, it was my decision. However the drive to create a successful company proud of its design ethos has been very much down to the decisions we have made. The vision of the business we are creating becomes clearer and clearer. Despite the competition and a volatile the economy, the path to this vision seems easier and more in our control.
What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
We give a shit. Everything is personal to us. We want to be proud of every product, every client, every client experience and interaction and I’m not convinced everyone else does.
What product or event inspired you to be a designer/work in the design industry?
I was ignorant about design before I started in the industry but when I started seeing the effect beautiful proportion, subtlety and detailing had on other people I began to understand it and fall for it. I am now deeply passionate about what I consider ‘good design’ and more and more the space and the architecture of the buildings that our furniture goes in becomes more and more important to me. I can’t walk past a building or a piece of upholstery now with judging its design and quality.
If you could become the designer of any existing item, what would you choose?
I don’t have the artistic ability so unfortunately I’ll never be a designer(!), however we have the Hay About A Chair chairs in our kitchen at home and I absolutely love the design. I never get tired of looking at its form & proportions. The wooden base appears simple but its detailing and shape is beautiful.
If you could go back in time and speak to your adolescent self, what advice would you give them about the design world?
I would tell myself that you need to create things that you believe in. They must be a reflection of you and your values and that you have passion for. Creating products that are uninspiring, lacking in direction and originality, purely because that what you think the mass market wants, are difficult to be proud of and therefore difficult to convince others to be interested in. Creating products that you are proud of feel like part of yourself. Not everyone has to like them but the people who do become passionate about them for the same reason you are.
